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Romans 12:3-8
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members,1 and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,2 with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans 12. For those of you who are new to Redeemer, we've been working our way through Romans, for the past year. We began last April. So we are a year in and we've just entered chapter 12, which is kind of a hinge chapter in this great letter.
Jeffrey Heine:The first 11 chapters are are pretty theologically heavy, a lot of doctrine. And then chapter 12, as we saw last week, things begin to turn and now it's not so much talking about the gospel. It's talking about how to live out the gospel. And that's what we'll be looking at in the weeks ahead as we, hopefully, finish Romans towards the beginning of summer. So Romans chapter 12, if you would begin reading with me verse 3.
Jeffrey Heine:For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we though many are 1 body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith. If service in our serving.
Jeffrey Heine: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 does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Would you pray with me?
Jeffrey Heine:Father, we pray that, as your body is gathered here, lord, that through your spirit you'd blow in our midst and you would give this body life. I pray you would teach us how to love and to serve one another well so that the world might know who you are, Jesus. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. I pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. So I grew up, at the time when the the church was always teaching about spiritual gifts. Perhaps you were in youth group during that time as well, but they were always being preached on. Every Bible study was always on spiritual gifts. People were just consumed with spiritual gifts.
Jeffrey Heine:We were always taking those spiritual gifts, exams, inventory exams. Basically it was the Enneagram before there was an Enneagram. That's just what my generation did. And instead of talking about how, you know, somebody is, an 8 wing 9 or something like that, we would talk about how, yeah, I have the gift of evangelism with a little bit of prophecy. And and and that's how we define one another.
Jeffrey Heine:And so maybe you grew up in that generation, and so you can identify with that. Whenever I took those little spiritual gifts exams, I don't know about you, but I was always hoping for something extraordinary. I was hoping like I would have prophecy or healing or tongues or just, you know, something amazing it would say I would have. Now being, so far, like, removed from that, I really wish I'd gotten a spiritual gift of reading long emails. Because that would have been more useful to me and a lot of our ministry.
Jeffrey Heine:Actually, this is what I got last time when I was taking that exam. It said I had the gift of martyrdom, Which no one's excited about when it's like that's your gifting. And it's, it's like the arcade token, token of gifts, you know, you use once. And so you gotta make it count whenever it comes time to use it. But, but that's what those gifts they told me that I had.
Jeffrey Heine:And, but I always grew up hearing about them. In the verses that we have in front of us, Paul just lists a few of the gifts. I mean I remember those tests. You had like 50, 60 gifts lifted out listed out. The list that Paul gives here certainly is not exhaustive.
Jeffrey Heine:Nowhere in the New Testament do you find an exhaustive list of gifts. If you were to compile all the gifts together that are listed in the New Testament, you have about 22, 23 different gifts. I actually like the way that Peter breaks it down in 1st Peter 4. He just says there's a lot of gifts. Gifts of serving, gifts of speaking.
Jeffrey Heine:He just kinda puts those, those are the ones. And then he walks away, and he doesn't really get into the nuts and bolts of them. Here Paul mentions prophecy, teaching, service, exhortation, generosity, acts of mercy. But one of the things that, you know, before we jump in and briefly look at some of those gifts, I think it is way more important actually to understand the purpose of the gifts than before we try to just dissect the mechanics of those gifts, what they actually are. Really, the purpose matters a lot more.
Jeffrey Heine:Why do we have these gifts? Why does Paul mentioned them here, at this point in his letter? How do these gifts fit in with the overarching story of redemption that we have in scripture? Answering those questions are more important than trying to figure out the very specifics of each of these individual gifts that he happens to list, which once again are not all of the gifts. And so, we're gonna look at that first.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna give the framework as to why we have these gifts and why Paul puts them here at this point in Romans. If you remember, when we were in Romans chapter 8, that that great chapter of the Bible, that's when Paul, he takes us up on top of the mountain, and he allows us to look out at the landscape of scripture. And we get to see all of God's plan before us, the path that He is taking humanity. We get to see where we came from, and we got to see where we are going in that one glorious sweeping view. And He does that in just a few verses.
Jeffrey Heine:Back in the very beginning, Paul tells us, God created this world and created it beautiful. He created it fruitful and perfect, But it wasn't complete in the sense that it was finished. It had potential. He left potential in this world that was to be unleashed through us. God created, humans and put humans, created in His image, and said I've given you dominion over this world.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you rule this world well, the world flourishes. Essentially, the entire world can become a garden Eden of Eden. The entire world can be fruitful, if you rule well. And so, we see that at the very beginning. If if we were to rule in a way that reflected God's character, reflected his goodness, His kindness, reflect Him in in service, and all those things in the way that we ruled, the potential of this world would be unleashed.
Jeffrey Heine:It would flourish. But we all know the story. We saw that when we went through both Romans 5 and Romans 8. Instead of listening to God, Adam decided that he didn't want to reflect who God was. He wanted to be who God was.
Jeffrey Heine:He he didn't like having a position in middle management. He wanted to be the CEO of this world. And so he sinned, he disobeyed God, and he ate from the forbidden tree. And we read this in Romans 8:20. After he did this, after he sinned, creation was cursed.
Jeffrey Heine:Adam was kicked out of the garden. Adam and Eve were. And then all of creation was cursed. We read for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. Man sinned, creation was cursed.
Jeffrey Heine:Creation was subjected to futility. And it only made sense that it would be so. Because if man needed to have dominion and to rule well to bring out the world's flourishing, if man fell and sinned, well it wouldn't bring out its flourishing, it would bring out the world's demise. The world was subjected to futility, meaning the world could never reach its potential. The world could never become what God had intended the world to be.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, Paul uses a language how it was put in bondage to corruption. And of course, we see this everywhere. Plants decay. Animals decay. Mountains erode.
Jeffrey Heine:And of course, there's hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, famines. There's disease. There's global pandemics. In addition, humans begin destroying themselves, always trying to dominate the other. The very first story we have, once Adam and Eve were removed from the garden, was their children.
Jeffrey Heine:And how Cain kills his brother Abel. Man became violent towards one another And this story has been replayed over and over throughout our history. All of this happened because humans refused to be the humans God created us to be. Instead of using dominion to reflect God's character and to bring out the potential of the world, we use dominion to destroy it. And our history is one filled with arrogance and violence and destruction.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you remember, as we were going through Romans 8, it says that this is why creation now is on its tiptoes. Remember that creation is anticipation of something. It's on its tiptoes waiting for our redemption. And the reason creation is waiting for our redemption is because when we, as the rulers of this world, when we are finally redeemed, then the world will be redeemed. When we reach our potential, then we will bring out the potential of this world.
Jeffrey Heine:We will finally exercise the the dominion how God wants us to exercise dominion. And so creation is just waiting for that day, waiting for our redemption. Because then we would begin to rule with gentleness, and kindness, and humility. And when we do that, we begin to put the world back together. We bring healing.
Jeffrey Heine:We bring flourishing. Now all of this will ultimately happen when Jesus returns. It'll happen when he returns and when we are given fulfillment. But start living into it now. That's what the rest of Romans is about.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't wait until we have a resurrected body to begin living like that now. We don't have to wait for Christ to return as king in order to now live under his reign. We do it now. We're citizens of heaven now. We begin to live life as true humans and to exercise dominion in a way that reflects God's character now.
Jeffrey Heine:We begin now to rule by loving one another. To do under others as we would have them to do unto us. We begin now serving with gentleness and kindness and humility. And when we do so, we put the world back together. We bring healing.
Jeffrey Heine:We bring flourishing. And what Paul tells us here is, and God has given us spiritual gifts now to help us do this. That's the framework of spiritual gifts. It's the big picture as to why we have been given these. So far we see in Romans, He's already God has given us His spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:He has given us a new heart, and now He has given us spiritual gifts, so we could become the humans whom He has called us to be. And we could bring out the flourishing of one another and of this world. These gifts are tools. They're the tools we need to start putting the world back together again. They're not just form of the Enneagram or a personality test like Myers Briggs.
Jeffrey Heine:They're not just like this add on bonus from being a Christian. You know, like, you're now a Christian. Here's a gift to commemorate that. It's These are tools. Tools we need to help make the world a better place.
Jeffrey Heine:Tools to be the people He's called us to be. And so you need to understand this framework for why we have these gifts before you really try to figure out how your gifts work. Alright. So that's the framework. And now, Paul's gonna give us just a couple instructions as to how we use these gifts.
Jeffrey Heine:Gifts. Now we know the why we have them. Now he's gonna tell us how we use them. And he tells us 2 things. These gifts are to be used in humility, and they're to be used in community.
Jeffrey Heine:These gifts are to be used in humility and in community. Let's look at humility. Verse 3. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Last week, as we looked at chapter 12, verse 2, it says do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Jeffrey Heine:What does the renewing of your mind look like? What does a renewed mind think about? Paul tells us in the very next verse. You want to know what a renew mind thinks about? It thinks this, it doesn't think more highly of itself than it ought.
Jeffrey Heine:That's a renewed mind. A renewed mind is humble. Adam and Eve possessed many gifts that could have been used for the flourishing of the world, but do you know what messed it up? Pride. Once again, they didn't wanna be middle management.
Jeffrey Heine:They wanted to be the CEO. They thought more highly of themselves than they ought. And so they disobeyed God at declaring that they were their own gods. And we know the results. Hear me.
Jeffrey Heine:Gifts that God gives us, they can be used for the flourishing of this world, or they can be used for its destruction. When they're used through pride, they destroy and they do not build up. Great gifts combined with pride is a dangerous dangerous thing. You've seen that, haven't you? You've seen that in churches, haven't you?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, there's an entire podcast series that everybody's listening to, that that's what it deals with. An extraordinarily gifted preacher, but through pride, didn't bring healing, brought destruction to his church. I know that story can be told many times. It could be told of some of my friends who are pastors. The greater you see your gifts, the greater there is a temptation for you to be proud and puffed up.
Jeffrey Heine:And Paul says, do not think more highly of yourself than you should. If you were to go to my office, my office is right up in the balcony, that door right there, and you're welcome to go in there. You'll see a number of, unusual objects. 1, you'll see a giant bison head, that I keep over the couch, you know, where I do counseling, just as a intimidation tactic. So there's a giant bison head, but then there's this other object I keep at all times on my desk, in order to, to remind me of some things.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's an object that I found here at this church in the basement when we first bought this building. And it's this right here. So it's this guy. If you're listening to podcasts, it's a gigantic wrench. It weighs 30 plus pounds.
Jeffrey Heine:This thing is it's heavy. It's enormous. And I saw it and I was like, I want this. It's just so cool. So I I keep this on my desk at all times, to remind me of a few things.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me tell you a couple of them. Or I'll tell you 3. 1st, I keep it there because it's cool. Alright. So But second reason I keep it there is because it's it's my reminder that in the job that God has me, He wants me to work hard.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, doesn't this just scream work hard? I mean, like, you you just that's a manly, manly thing here. Right? You you wanna work hard. And so it reminds me that God wants me to work.
Jeffrey Heine:But that's not the main reason I have it there. The main reason is to remind me of how much I struggle with pride. Pride is a struggle of mine. And when I look at this, like and if you think of spiritual gifts as tools, you're like, oh, I wanna be this. Like, I mean, I I this is this is me.
Jeffrey Heine:Like, you think of yourself think of tools. I'm a tool in a prideful way. Okay? I know some of you are like, yeah, you're a tool. I wanna be like the biggest, baddest tool out there.
Jeffrey Heine:And I and I could think of myself this way. Here's the thing. I have never found what this fits to. I have looked this church all over, and I have never found the bolt to which this fits in. And maybe it's just hidden somewhere and it's like the one bolt that holds together the entire church.
Jeffrey Heine:I I don't know and it just needs to be tightened. But but I have looked everywhere and I have never found a place for this. It's essentially a glorified, paperweight. That's all it is. You know what I have used way more than this?
Jeffrey Heine:Is this right here. Not this wrench, but an Allen wrench. This has by far been the most used tool I think here in this church building, putting together all of our furniture, putting together like everything. This is what we need. But don't you wanna be this?
Jeffrey Heine:Like, I was like, oh, this is me. No. Because I was like, we need you to be this. Yeah. And actually, I I have used this before.
Jeffrey Heine:When we had to, do some renovation upstairs, I used it for demolition. And so I I couldn't find a useful thing for it. But that gift, that tool was used to tear things down. And so keep it as a reminder for me on my desk that if I think too highly of myself, what happens? Well, I'll become useful for destruction, but not for the building up.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. I'm sick of talking about myself like a tool. So, let's go to the next thing that Paul tells us about these gifts. He says these gifts of grace, or these spiritual gifts, they are to be used in community. Look at verses 45.
Jeffrey Heine:For as in one body, we have many members and the members do not have the same function. So we though many are 1 body in Christ, and individual members, one of another. When Paul describes the church, he doesn't describe the church as a club or, a business. He doesn't even say, like, you know, we're a team. He says that we're a body.
Jeffrey Heine:We're a body. And and Paul came up with this metaphor. Hadn't been used before. He says we're not an organization, we're an organism. We're a living breathing body when we come together.
Jeffrey Heine:And every member of us functions like a member of a body. Some of you are hands. Some of you are feet. Some of you are mouths. Some of you are the big toe.
Jeffrey Heine:You know? We all have different members, different functions, But we all belong together. And only together as a whole, only when we're all attached to one another and we're fully functioning, do we become
Speaker 2:a fully functional person. Are we enabled to do all that God has designed a body to do all that God has designed a body to do all that
Jeffrey Heine:This is a profound, profound image that Paul gives us here when describing the church. He says that we are so united by the spirit of God. We're not just a team, people. We are so united by the Spirit of God. The best image I could tell is like, you are one body.
Jeffrey Heine:You are just you are one person. You are so united together. The implications of this are enormous for us. Let me just go over a few. 1st implication is this, no Christian can live very long apart from being attached to the body.
Jeffrey Heine:No Christian can live for very long detached from the body. If your arm was somehow detached from your body, what would happen to it? I mean, wither up and it die. And it wouldn't matter how strong that arm was. It wouldn't matter how much that arm had ever accomplished.
Jeffrey Heine:Doesn't matter. If it's detached from the body, the arm dies. No Christian can live apart from being plugged into the body for very long. No Christian was meant to live the Christian life alone. And it doesn't matter how strong you are, it doesn't matter how gifted you think you are, if you try to live the life apart from being plugged into the church body, you will die.
Jeffrey Heine:And the reason you will die will be because of your pride. You don't think you need the church body. You think you could pray on your own, study on your own, live out live out the Christian life all on your own. You can't. You're to be attached to this life giving organism.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of you are not thriving in your faith and you're wondering why. Why am I not thriving? It's because you're like a partially attached limb. I mean, you haven't fully removed yourself, but it's kinda gross. You're just kinda partially attached.
Jeffrey Heine:You're not really getting the lifeblood of this church in you. Paul says fully attach yourself. Fully give yourself to being a member. 2nd implication is this. God has designed that the way we care for one another is through the body.
Jeffrey Heine:Your care is dependent upon you being part of a body. Think about this in terms of your physical body. If if your stomach is hungry and it begins growling, can the stomach feed itself? Can the stomach take care of that need? No.
Jeffrey Heine:It needs the other members of the body. It needs the feet to walk over to a fridge, an arm to open it up, eyes identify food, hand to reach out, grab something, mouth to open up, put the food in, all to go down and to satisfy the needs of the stomach. But without those other members, all the stomach could do is just growl. All the time. Just growl.
Jeffrey Heine:God has designed that your needs would be met through the church. That the way that you're going to be cared for is through the church. If if you feel like, oh, gosh. The church isn't caring for me and all are you plugged into the church? Have you given yourself to that community?
Jeffrey Heine:Over the last few months, I have heard so many beautiful and encouraging stories about how you all have cared for one another. I mean, it is it's just gorgeous to see. And and thank you for those of you who've emailed those to me. But we've had some pretty heavy things hitting the church. We've had, some of you have lost your jobs.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of you have lost your parents. Some of you have had miscarriages. Some of you are struggling through severe depression. And the way that you've been cared for, and many of you brought to a place of healing, has come through the church. It's because you were part of a body and all the other members of the body work together to bring about your healing.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's been gorgeous, beautiful to see. I wanna encourage you this. If if you have one of those ways that you wouldn't mind sharing with me, of how the church, God has used the body to minister to you. Would you just email me those? I'd love to read them.
Jeffrey Heine:And maybe sometime in the weeks ahead, I can, read some of those for us as a church because hearing those stories never get old. Those are the e long emails I will read. Okay? Final implication of being part of a body is this. Every member, every member is necessary for us to function the way God has designed us to function.
Jeffrey Heine:An eye is not an ear. An ear is not a hand. A hand is not a foot. We're all different from one another. We all have different functions.
Jeffrey Heine:Every function is necessary for us to be a whole complete person. Every one of them is necessary for us to thrive. You need the church and the church needs you. You are an integral part of the church. You don't ever think of the church as just a building here.
Jeffrey Heine:When I invite people to church, I never invite them to come to church. I invite them to come and meet my church. Come meet my church. Because you're the church. And we're woven together in such a way that we are one body.
Jeffrey Heine:If you are If you're a Christian, not one of you is without a gift. If you're a Christian, not one of you is without a gift. Now, how do you know what your gift is? Music is a gift. It's not listed actually as one of the 22, but it is.
Jeffrey Heine:How? How do you know what your spiritual gift is? Paul lists 6, 7 gifts here, but there's many more. How do you know what yours is? You will only know it in community.
Jeffrey Heine:You will never figure out your gifting apart from community. What does your faith community, what does your church say that you're gifted at? Listen to those voices because you might think you have some other gift. You might think you have the gift of teaching. But if you were to actually listen to people around you, they'd say, you don't have the gift of teaching.
Jeffrey Heine:Or at least I don't have the gift of listening to you. Like, listen to other people. You might think you have the gift of encouragement. But if everybody leaves you, immediately goes and gets a drink, you probably don't have the gift of encouragement. Like, listen to the body.
Jeffrey Heine:They identify what you're gifted in. Not a spiritual gift test, and you don't go by a feeling. If I went off a feeling, can can I tell you honestly, I would not be here preaching. I mean, some of you know this, especially early on, you know, when I first began preaching, over 20 years ago. Man, I struggled.
Jeffrey Heine:I hated preaching. I associated preaching with the taste of bile in my mouth. And some of you were there, like back in the UCF when I was doing that, and and you got to see that struggle a number of times. Gosh. This is embarrassing.
Jeffrey Heine:This this happened more than once. Mid sermon, I couldn't take it anymore. And I would just stop and I'd say I'm sorry and I would walk off. Because I didn't want people to see me throw up there. And so I would just literally leave the church, get in my car, and I'd go home.
Jeffrey Heine:Because I could not do it anymore. I had I didn't feel like preaching. I hated doing it. And then I would come back the next week, and you know what? We grew.
Jeffrey Heine:Why? It wasn't because of my feeling. It's because when I people benefited from the teaching. That's how I actually realized I had that gift, is I saw people benefiting from it. And I realized, like, you can't go by a feeling.
Jeffrey Heine:If, if Timothy went by a feeling, he wouldn't have preached. Have you ever Like, you read through 1st and second Timothy, in both letters, Paul says, Timothy, fan into flame the gift that you have. It's about to die out. Timothy doesn't apparently listen to the first letter, so the second letter, Paul writes the same thing. Hey, Timothy, you gotta keep blowing, fanning into flame your gift, because it's about to die out.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me tell you what, you never have to tell somebody to fan into flame something they actually enjoy doing. It's your gift. Fan it in a flame. I gotta tell you that over the years, as I grew in this gifting, I began to find incredible joy in it. But it was only after I gave myself to doing it.
Jeffrey Heine:You only discover your gift through your brothers and sisters in Christ affirming that gift in you. If you're still unsure what your gift is, I wanna give you just a little bit of advice. Why don't you just look around and see a need in the church and try to meet it? Just look around and see a need in the church and try to meet it meet it. So if you see, hey, there's a need in this church for hospitality, right, because I would come into the church and no one would even talk to me.
Jeffrey Heine:The church needs some people to be hospitable. Why don't you try being that? Maybe you have the gift of hospitality. If you see that this church needs more evangelists, gift of evangelism, try boldly, actively sharing your faith often and getting people to do it with you. If you see that this church needs perhaps more generosity, begin giving.
Jeffrey Heine:If it needs more encouragement, begin encouraging. Find the need, step in and try to do it. And you know what? If you see people being blessed by it, it very well might be your spiritual gift. So find a need and do it.
Jeffrey Heine:Now I've already given you a number of important reasons as to why being plugged into the body of Christ and using your gifts is important. But I wanna give you one final reason and it's the most important reason we have. When you lovingly, humbly use your gifts, you point to the greatest gift there is, Jesus. That's not my words. That's that's Jesus's words.
Jeffrey Heine:In John 17, the night that Jesus was betrayed and He's in that upper room, with His disciples, He prays for them and He prays for us in what we know as the high priestly prayer. And one of the things He prays is Father, would you make them 1? May the way they so love one another and serve one another, and keep in mind He just washed their feet and said do this to one another. The way they love one another and serve one another be just so extraordinary, so interwoven together, the only way I could describe this is they're one. It's the language that Paul's using here.
Jeffrey Heine:And then he says why he's praying for our unity and for our oneness. So that the world might know you sent me. So that the world might know that you gifted me to the world. When we use our gifts in service of one another and we give ourselves to the community of the church, we reflect the greatest gift there is. The world looks at us and wonders and they see Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:So I'll just end by asking, are you using your gifts? Do you know what they are? Are you looking for ways to humbly serve one another? Or are you somewhat detached from the body trying to live the isolated Christian life on your own? Hear me say, we need you and you need us.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the way God's designed it. Pray with me. Jesus, I join with you in praying your prayer. Father, would you make us 1? Would you make our church 1 so that the world might know, Jesus, you came from God.
Jeffrey Heine:So that the world might know who you are, Jesus. Would you make us 1? Lord, I pray that you would, allow the people here for us to understand our gifts, how we can use them, And Lord, I pray that we would serve with humility and gladness and love. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.