Chardon church of Christ

Let The Cross cross Your Mind – Preaching The Cross

Philippians 2:1-11

INTRO: Good Morning Church. This morning we will take a look in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi and in particular the first eleven verses of chapter 2. This is one of the great texts in the New Testament, sometimes called “The Christ hymn”. It spells out in such beauty who Jesus is and what He did.

Philippians 2:1-11 – “1. Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,
2. fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”[ NKJV]

Paul begins chapter 2 with a plea. It’s a poetic plea, punctuated with four uses of the word “if”: “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion...” Paul knows they have these things, so he really means “since.” “Since you have all of these things...” He continues in verse 2, “Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.”

Back in the days of the military draft there was a young private, who had been in the army only a few weeks; He was going through basic training. Everyone noticed his behavior was rather odd—rather strange. Whenever he had a free moment, he would just walk around aimlessly on the base, picking up scraps of paper. He picked up an old Skittles wrapper, looked at it and said, “This isn’t it”. He found an old newspaper, and picked it up, looked at it, and said, “This isn’t it”. Other soldiers became concerned and assumed he must not be right in the head. This certainly was not normal behavior. His sergeant took him to the doctor, the doctor sent him to the base physiatrist. The psychiatrist thought he was becoming unstable. After the staff received the psychiatrist’s and doctor’s reports they decided to discharge him from service on medical grounds. As he was walking out the camp gates holding his discharge papers, he smiled and said, “This is it”…

The point of the story is: who gets to decide what normal thinking is? Consider those people who don’t think in the main stream, those people who don’t go along with what everybody else is thinking; maybe they’re the people that are more normal. Do we ever consider that those people, who consistently seem to go against the grain of the culture and think totally different, are the ones who have their heads on straight?

Now the Bible does not often complement the way men think. The problem with man’s thinking is that our minds are heavily influenced by the world. The Bible says in Romans 1:28 – “Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind.”[para] You might say our thinking in this world is very messed up.

Of course it is. People have depraved minds, so why should we expect them to have their heads on straight? Listen; if we’re going to be pleasing to God, we need to learn a new way to think. We’ve got to think differently. What we’ve got to do is let the cross of Jesus, cross our minds. That’s what I want to talk about this morning—about how we need to think.

Starting with this very important principle: what we believe… affects how we believe. The Bible says so. Look in Proverbs 23:7 - “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he...” Decide what kind of person you want to be and then learn how to think to be that kind of person. Romans 8:5 – “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”

I. This is one important reason why we teach Christian doctrine. I am fully aware some people say, “That doctrine is so boring and they wished the preacher would preach something more practical.” Actually there is nothing more practical then sound doctrine. Teaching explains to us what everything is, how everything works and how it is connected. The Bible tells us, “Only when you’ve got your thinking right, are you going to make the right choices that will help you live right.”

A. That’s why all through the New Testament you find the little word “Therefore”. Whenever a church has a problem, Paul never writes about the problem first. What he always does first is start with doctrine and then after he’s got their thinking right, he says, “Therefore, in light of what is true and how you ought to think, this is how you live.” The Bible says in Colossians 3:2 – “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
B. Is that easy for us? Well, not at the beginning, not until we have matured a little as Christians. The world’s view of life is a powerful force. The next time someone says to you, “That’s not how everybody else thinks, or that’s not how everybody does things.” You tell them, “That’s irrelevant, because the world does not tell us how to think; we get our thinking from another source. Our minds have been renewed by what the Bible says.”
C. Where does that begin? Let me give you the principle that is the primary influence on our ethics. It is our understanding of the cross. The scandal of the cross was central to everything that Paul considered Christian. How we think about the cross will affect our behavior. In other words, do you want to be the right kind of person? Do you want to do the right things? Then you need the cross to cross your mind because when you’re thinking is based on the cross, you’re going to start living right.
D. The reason people have problems in church is simply, “because they are not thinking right about the cross.” For example: Many churches struggle with division because people follow the teachings of men. People will divide over issues that are absolutely ridiculous. Paul says in 1^st Corinthians 1:13 – “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” The reason there are so many fractures, is because they haven’t figured out, they do not understand, the cross.

II. Let’s consider some problems people have. How about the problem of purity? Why is it that some of us struggle with lust? It’s because we haven’t understood the cross. We were bought with a price, we are not our own. “Therefore”, Paul says in 1^st Corinthians 6:20 - “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.” “Honor God with your body”.

A. How about racism? Those who practice it do not understand the cross. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:15-16 – “… so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” We can’t be a racist and understand the cross of Jesus. We can’t have it that way. No one who is a Christian can be a racist.
B. What about bitterness? How many people do we know that have problems with their brothers and sisters in the Lord? How many are having struggles forgiving somebody? Ephesians 4:32 says; “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” Over and over again when someone brings up something about a problem or behavior Paul is going to say, “Let’s get our thinking back to the cross.”
C. Look at marriage. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” We as Christians must never forget that central event. It sustains us and nourishes us. We must constantly allow the shadow of the cross to renew our minds and reshape our thinking.

III. When Paul was in prison in Rome he received word that the church in Philippi was having some struggles over unity.

A. Two of the women there were at odds and it was affecting the whole congregation. What’s the first thing Paul does? Does he talk about the problem first? No! He talks about the cross. That’s what he does in Philippians 2. He tells them and us; “1. Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2. fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,”
B. Notice he said, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,”, “Your mind should be like that of Christ’”. In other words, “If we’re going to fix the problem, we have got to get our minds right.” Paul continues in Philippians 2:6-11 – “6. who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7. but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
C. Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in His very nature God, took on the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Then being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
D. Paul is saying, “Listen Christians, when tension arises, let the cross of Jesus cross your mind.” Or put it this way, “The cross of Christ controls how we think and act towards each other.” Paul wrote this for a very practical reason. He’s telling us, “Jesus is the supreme example of unselfishness. Jesus is the ultimate model when it comes to dealing with other people”.
E. I wonder why sometimes we can’t see that. One reason may be that we do not understand the cross; another is that the world shouts a different message; and still another… may be pride. There is nothing that keeps people apart like pride. Once we have made a position for ourselves where we think we are right… we forget about the cross and lose site of what it means.

IV. Perhaps another reason we have tensions and fights, whether it’s at church or at a job or at home is because we are by nature “clutchers”. When a baby is first born, you will see them working their hands as if they want to grab something. One word a child will learn quickly is the word “Mine”. A reason we fuss, a reason we fight, is we have a little bit and were going to hold on to it. We’re not going to give up our place, our position. We’re not going to give up our privilege. We’re not going to give up our “rights”, were going to look out for No1… What we get is a world full of competition and strife.

A. What if we tried a Jesus’ kind of thinking? Instead of clutching, what if we let go? Instead of looking out for “me”, what if we looked out for one another? Ohhh there is a concept, isn’t it? What if we tried to think about the cross, when it came to dealing with people?
B. The Bible says in Philippians 2:6, “He did not think that being equal to God, was something to be used for his own benefit.”[para] In other words, He looked out for the interest of others even when they were not looking out for his.
C. Verse 7 is saying, “Of his own free will, he gave up all he had.” That’s a radical way to think, isn’t it? Here is the One who had everything, who had every right to have everything. The One who had done no wrong, and He is looking out for a world full of people, full of envy and hate, those who had a right to nothing. Instead of clutching, He let go—to serve.
D. What if we tried to think like that? What if we thought like Jesus thought? The problem is, we come together, we read verses from the Bible about the cross, and we sing about the cross, some people put crosses on their necks; some put crosses on their church buildings. But then—we walk out the door, leave the building and we go home. We don’t think about the cross again for six days. Someone once said, “All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings, who… more or less,… ignore its meaning”.

V. The apostle Paul tells us, “Those scared hands of Jesus have determined once for all, for us, who we listen to, what we think about, how we live.” We’ve got to let the cross, cross our minds.

A. It’s not easy, and I think God knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Do you know what He said? God said, “To help you out, here’s what I want you to do, Every 7 days, every first day of the week, get together, just to remember the cross, just to keep the cross of Jesus on your mind. Break some bread, drink some fruit of the vine together, and when you do… think about the cross”. We do that don’t we?
B. Remember this too. We are not supposed to come to the Lords table, if we have got problems with one another. God says, “It’s an affront to Him if we do that.” Because we can’t come to the Supper, if we won’t let the cross be on our mind. When Paul wrote these beautiful verses about Christ in Philippians 2, he was trying to change the behavior of the lives of Christians. This is not addressed to those who are not Christians. If any of us sitting here are at odds with brothers or sisters—are we being Christ like? Are we being Christians?

VI. I know that are those who do not understand why we let Jesus control our lives the way we do. Why do we? Why do we give Him the attention that we give Him? Why do we want the cross to cross our minds? Why do we want to think like Jesus thought and try to live like He lived? These verses tell us something about Jesus that I want to be clear about, and one day, hopefully, we will tell it to more people. Whether you name the Name of Jesus or not, I don’t want anyone to stand before God someday and say, “I never understood what Jesus did.”

A. We as people have a problem. That’s why our world needs Jesus. God made a perfect world. He put Adam in it and asked him to take care of it. Very quickly things got messed up.
B. Perhaps some remember those vinyl albums before CDs came along. Not the ones we called 45s but the 78s. I remember when I was a kid I got a drill and drilled a little hole in one of the records, just about a half inch off center and put it on the record player. It would go around and round. It played, but it would make noise that didn’t sound right because it was off center. That’s what’s happened to the world. We have gotten off center; we have left the correct center. The world sort of works but not the way it should. The center is supposed to be God. We were made in the image of God to look up to Him and worship Him.
C. We know what Adam did. He listened to a lie which came from Satan, and he decided he would try to clutch or grasp at being God. Satan came along and said, “…you will be like God…” What did Eve and Adam do? They said, “I’ll be like God, I’ll be my own God.” They passed that attitude down to us today. That’s what people have been trying to do. They’ve all been trying to be their own God… and the world has the wrong center.

VII. I don’t know how many of us know this but sometimes Jesus is referred to as the 2nd Adam in the Bible. Turn with me to 1^st Corinthians 15:45-49 – “45. And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being.'' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

A. The Bible says Jesus did 2 things. “He emptied himself and humbled himself.”
B. First of all He emptied himself, so that He could be a servant. Verse 7 says, “He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
C. Then who was Jesus when He walked the earth? Was He God? Was He man? Who was He? He was both. He was God & man. When the Bible says, “that he emptied himself”, it doesn’t mean He became less than God here on earth, it means He became more in a sense. He was God, but now He was also a man. He didn’t get rid of deity, He emptied deity into humanity. He could never stop being God, God’s His nature. So how do we think about what He did?
D. He relinquished His glory; He concealed it in human flesh. Every now and then we get a glimpse of it. If you remember, one time He was up on a mountain, with 3 disciples and He was transfigured. They saw His glory. Paul saw it on the road to Damascus. John in Revelation 1 in his vision got a glimpse of His glory. Someday we’re going to see the bright, brilliant glory of Jesus, too. When He was on earth as a man, He concealed that glory.
E. Why was that done? So that we can approach him. So that He can come near to us and serve us and meet our needs. So He could heal the sick and wash feet and tell about God’s plan. He humbled himself, or emptied himself in order to serve. That’s not the only reason though He needed flesh.

VIII. Mark 10:45 says, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” As deity there was no flesh to nail to the cross. No blood to shed. Jesus of Nazareth was born to die. He came to subject Himself to the absolute humiliation of a criminal’s death.

A. Why? Because it was the only way you and I could be saved. It’s the only way. The Bible says in Philippians 2:8 – “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Let’s pause there a moment and think about that verse. It says, “God humbled himself”.
B. How does one humble God? I can understand how to humble people. I can humble a little child because I’m more grown up than they are. Perhaps I can humble a homeless person because I’m more affluent. Maybe I can even humble an uneducated man because I’ve been educated.
C. Who is big or rich or strong enough or smart enough to humble God? The only way God is ever humbled is if He humbles himself. The Bible says, “He humbled himself and he became obedient to death”. Just think about that. Nobody here is going to become obedient to death because death is part of our nature already.
D. Death for you and me is a necessity. We’re going to die whether we want to or not. Jesus didn’t have too. Jesus obeyed when He died. He chose it. Why? Because it was the only way, you and I, have a chance. We were down here covered up in our sins believing the lie that if we just did enough good deeds, we would get to heaven. We thought we were going to work off the debt and we could work our way up to heaven, not understanding that our righteousness is but filthy rags to God.
E. The only chance we have to be saved is if we are covered up with a righteousness that was sinless. That’s not me and that’s not you. Jesus Christ came and lived a sinless life and then took the penalty that our sins deserved. He was willing to transfer His righteousness to cover us. Then when God looks at us, He sees sinlessness. 2^nd Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

IX. 2^nd Corinthians 8:9 tells us, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

A. We need to be very aware and very clear about this. Jesus of Nazareth was God in the flesh. He did this so that His flesh could be nailed to the cross. He did it so the penalty our sins deserve could be taken away, and the righteousness that we never could have, He could give. That’s what Jesus did.
B. What did God do? The Bible says in Philippians 2:9 – “God also has highly exalted Him”. That word “exalt” means to lift up. In the gospel of John, Jesus says, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” Think of it this way, men lifted up Jesus on a cross, and then God lifted Him up out of a grave, and gave Him a place above everyone and above everything.
C. Then in Ephesians 1:20-21 – we read; “20. which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21. far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” God has put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers and kings, not only in this world, but also in the next. Do we understand what that means?
D. Jesus Christ is above our boss at work. Jesus Christ is above our addiction. He is above our disease. He is above our marriage. He’s above our family, above our leaders, and above our nation. There is not a person or a thing on this earth that has got a claim on us that supersedes the claim of Jesus Christ. He is above it all. That’s one of the reasons why we come here every Sunday and give Him praise. There is only One who deserves our worship. There’s only One who deserves our praise. There’s only One in the highest place, and it’s the God Paul talks about in the Bible.

CONCLUSION:
In Hebrews 2:8 – “In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him, yet at the present we do not see everything subject to him.” Wait… what does that say? That’s true, isn’t it? What we see are a bunch of people playing that record off center. What we see are people not making Jesus highest in their lives. What we see is a world that still seems pretty messed up. We see a world that does not want to give Jesus the place we are saying He deserves.
You and I know: The day is coming when every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess, what we’re saying here right now. God not only gave Him a place that nobody else could claim. God gave him a Name that everybody is going to name—a Name that is above every name.

What is that Name? That name is Lord. Philippi was a Roman colony, and back then you might be tested for loyalty to Caesar. I have been told that if you lived there, a soldier might walk up to you one day and demand you say, “Caesar is Lord.”

Do you know what those early Christians would do? Those early Christians would say Caesar is king, or say Caesar is ruler. But they would not say Caesar is Lord. Some of these Christians would die before they would call anybody else “Lord.”

The day is coming, when every being in heaven and every demon in hell and everyone in between is going to say what that little congregation said every first day of the week when they worshiped. “Jesus Christ is Lord”. Everybody in this room is going to confess it. Everybody outside of this room is going to confess it. The only issue is when.

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Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you never have done that, today would be a good day to come forward and make that great confession, Jesus Christ is Lord. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Adopted from Sermon by: Mike Glover

Faith In The Midst of Life’s Storms

Mark 4

After the church service a little boy walked up to the minister and said, “When I grow up, I’m going to give you some money.”
“Well, thank you,” the minister replied, “but why do you want to do that?”
“Because” said the little boy, “my dad says you’re one of the poorest preachers this church has ever had.”

This morning I would like to focus on a question Jesus asked His disciples as recorded in Mark 4:40, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Why are you frightened? Do you still have no faith?"”

Let us look at the background to this verse. We read in Mark 4:1, “Again Jesus began to teach beside Lake Galilee. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it. The boat was out in the water, and the crowd stood on the shore at the water's edge.”

When Jesus lived on the earth, He spent much of His time teaching, and preaching to the people. Jesus was an excellent teacher. There were many who preceded Jesus, who also taught many things, but the people were not able to understand their teachings. When Jesus taught, the people could comprehend His teachings with ease, and therefore great crowds followed after Him wherever He went.

Jesus taught through parables

We read in Mark 4:34, “He would not speak to them without using parables, but when he was alone with his disciples, he would explain everything to them.”

Jesus used stories or illustrations from day-to-day life, which were called parables, to help teach the people the deeper spiritual truths, and secrets of the Kingdom of God. The crowds that gathered hears all these parables, but it was only when He was alone with His disciples, did Jesus explain the hidden meanings of these parables to them in great detail.
Let us look at four parables of Jesus as recorded in Mark 4

1. Parable of the sower verses 3–9

In this parable Jesus talks about a man who went out to sow seeds. Being in a culture where agriculture was their major occupation, the crowds could easily understand the parable. Jesus explained how when the farmer sowed seeds, some seeds fell on the wayside, which was basically hard from people constantly walking on it, and these were picked up by the birds as soon as they fell there. There are many whose hearts are hardened because of hardships, grudges, hurts and when the seed which is the word of God falls on it; it does not even stay because the evil one just doesn’t allow it to penetrate inside. Just as a farmer prepares the soil before sowing the seeds, we too must ask the Lord to prepare our hearts to receive His word, and bring transformation in our lives.

Some seeds fell on rocky places, which grew immediately but had no root to sustain the plant. There are those who come to God with zeal, but are not rooted in Him and so fall away quickly. The third set of seeds fell among thorns, which grew but got choked by the thorns. These are those who also receive the word with joy, but get overwhelmed with worries, cares and riches of this world, and so become useless. The fourth set of seeds fell on good soil, which produced bountiful fruit. The seeds which fell on good soil, died initially, but brought forth abundant fruit to bless many.

We too are called to be those who will let our egos die, so that the Lord can take us and use us to be a blessing to many. The Kingdom of God is a fruit bearing Kingdom, which satisfies the hunger of many.

2. Parable of a lamp on a lampstand verses 21–25

Here Jesus talks about a lamp that is lit, and placed on a lampstand. The lamp when lit dispels darkness in a room. We too are called to be those lights that will shine bright for the Lord, and dispel the darkness of sin from this world.

Many people lived in darkness until Jesus came to the earth, and when Jesus the true light shone on them they realized that there were so many areas of darkness that needed to be changed. The Kingdom of God is one that sheds light, and eradicates darkness.

3. Parable of the growing seed 26–29

A man sows the seeds and he just goes about his usual work. The seeds unnoticed to anyone grow and become full grown plants ready for harvest. So also, the Kingdom of God is growing unobtrusively or quietly.

4. Parable of the mustard seed verses 30–32

Though the mustard seed is the tiniest of seeds when sown in the soil, it has the capacity to become a huge plant that can provide shade for the birds of the air. The Kingdom of God is a mighty, powerful and great kingdom.

The disciples encounter a stormy sea verses 35–37

On the evening of that same day Jesus said to His disciples, "Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they left the crowd; the disciples got into the boat in which Jesus was already sitting, and they took him with them. Other boats were there too. Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that it was about to fill with water.

Now that Jesus had taught all these things to the crowds and His disciples, that very same evening He beckoned His disciples that they go over to the other side of the lake. Jesus and His disciples got into the boat to travel to the other side of the lake. As they travelled on, they were abruptly challenged with a fierce and stormy sea.

We can recall a similar situation that the prophet Jonah encountered when he disobeyed God’s call to go to Nineveh and instead headed to Tarshish. Here the storm in the sea was a consequence of his disobedience.

Contrarily, the disciples of Jesus were going out with Jesus in obedience to His word, but they too were now strangely confronted with a fierce storm.

It is therefore a reminder to us that every storm that we encounter in our life is not a result of our sin or disobedience, but God allows certain difficulties so that we can have a deeper understanding of who God is. If we are walking in obedience to God and His word, the storms we face are not to drown us, but to take us to a higher level in our relationship with God.

Some of the disciples of Jesus were seasoned fishermen and were well versed to decipher when a storm was at hand. But this storm they encountered was so sudden that they were taken off guard. The storm was so fierce that it even alarmed the men who were professional fishermen, who feared for their very lives.

There are times when we too are challenged with the most unexpected kinds of stormy trials in our lives. Heedless of how intense the storms are, we have the assurance that the Lord who is with us is able to deliver us from all of it, and there is no need for fear. Many people when faced with hardships question the very existence of God. At those times of severe testing, often our emotions take control of us, and we must be cautious for our emotions are constantly changing.

In those hard moments instead of depending on our emotions, we must learn to trust in the word of God, which is consistent and unchanging. It is not enough for us to hear the word of God, but must be ready to confront the tests that God sends our way, for only then we can be certain that we are growing in our faith and trust in the Lord.

Jesus slept through the storm verse 38

Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping with His head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, "Teacher, don't you care that we are about to die?"

After all that Jesus had taught His disciples, when challenged with a crisis, the only thought that they had was that Jesus did not care, and they were about to die. Jesus was fast asleep with His head on the pillow, while the disciples allowed the storm that was outside to cause tumult in their hearts.

As believers in the Lord Jesus we must remember that when we are His children, as long as the Lord is with us we will never be abandoned, no matter what happens. Like Jesus, we too can sleep through the fiercest of storms; for we are assured that no storm will affect us as long as He is with us. Our house must be built on the solid rock of Christ, and the word of God so strongly embedded in our hearts, that no storm, no matter how fierce can disturb or destroy our faith in the Lord. In spite of the fact that Jesus was there with the disciples on the boat, the storm still came, only so that they could comprehend in a much bigger way as to who Jesus really was.

Biblical examples of those who encountered hardships

• When Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace, the ones who threw them in desired to see them being burnt to ashes. Wistfully, the ones who threw them in were burnt with the intensity of the flames, but to the astonishment of the king the three young men were walking unaffected, unhurt, having along with them the Son of God right beside them.

Only then the king realized that the God whom Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego worshipped was the true and living God.

When we are troubled by people, who desire to seek our hurt and downfall, we must ignore their taunts, not react to them, but rather trust in the Lord to deliver us from their evil plots. The Lord will not put us to shame, and when we overcome every trial that we encounter, it testifies to the world that we are indeed the children of the Most High God.

• Daniel was a man of integrity who led a blameless life. As he rose in his position in the kingdom, there were those who out of envy plotted against him. They even came up with a subtle law to trap Daniel, knowing that he was firm in his faith in God. They threw Daniel into the lion’s den, but Daniel was safe, for the Lord shut the mouth of those hungry lions, that they could not harm him in any way. The king then ordered that the ones who falsely accused Daniel be thrown into the same den, and this time God opened the mouth of the lions so that they devoured all of Daniel’s accusers.

When people are jealous of us, they will do everything possible to get us into trouble. Like in the days of Daniel, people think that the implementation of some laws will destroy our faith in God, which is an erroneous thought. The Lord is able to tie the mouth of the lions, and He’s the one who can open their mouths as well.

• When Paul was travelling as a prisoner, the ship they were in got shipwrecked. As they were stranded in an island where the weather was really cold, they made a bonfire to keep themselves warm. As everyone stood around the fire, a viper driven by the heat came out, and fastened itself to Paul’s hand. As all the people watched in shock, expecting Paul to fall dead, Paul just shook off the Viper into the fire, and sat there composed and unharmed. Initially they thought that Paul was being punished for his wickedness, but later when nothing happened to Paul, the same people changed their minds, and decided that he was god. This situation gave Paul an opportunity to preach the message of the gospel to those who were there.

We must not get carried away by the opinions of people, for the ones who praise us today, can be the ones who will tarnish our name later. Like Paul let us know that the Lord will use all our trials to become testimonies to magnify His name, and never send our way anything that will cause us to be disgraced.

Jesus calmed the storm

We read in Mark 4:39, Jesus stood up and commanded the wind, "Be quiet!" and he said to the waves, "Be still!" The wind died down, and there was a great calm.

As the disciples were terrified and screamed in fear, Jesus stood up and commanded the wind to be quiet, the winds died down and there was a great calm. It was not an ordinary calm, but a great calm that was totally adverse to what they faced.

When the storms are raging in our lives, we too have the certainty that the Lord can bring in an unexplainable calm, and that there will not even be a murmur of the problem that confronted us. The Lord alone can bring perfect calm to our lives’ tempestuous situations.

This is when Jesus asked them this question, which we read in verse 40 of our text: ‘Why are you frightened? Do you still have no faith?’

After the long discourse on faith, and after all the parables that Jesus taught, the disciples were still fearful, only because they were lacking in their faith. It was only after this incident that the disciples understood that Jesus was God, who had authority over nature, and that everything was under His mighty control.

When faith is less fear will overcome us, but when faith increases fears will cease. The storms of life are those little tests that help us realize how weak or strong our faith in God is. After every storm we are assured of total, and complete calm, as long as the Lord is with us.

Paul writing in Romans 8:28 says, “we know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.”

In the midst of life’s storms may our faith in the Lord be firm, may we not let our emotions take control but let us face every storm standing firm on the word of God. Every storm we encounter is not to destroy us but to let us know that we have an Almighty God on our side. As believers in the Lord Jesus, let us be prepared to face every storm like situation, knowing that even when it appears that the Lord is sleeping, He is still God, and in perfect control. In His time He will most certainly bring a complete calm to all of our raging storms.

Faith That Raises The Roof

Mark 2:1–12

A taxi driver and a preacher go to heaven. Upon arrival the taxi drive gets a HUGE heavenly mansion.
When the preacher saw this he thought, "surely if the taxi driver gets a huge mansion, I will get something even more grand!"
But, when it was his turn to receive his reward, the preacher was given a studio apartment.

The preacher was very surprised and asked, "why does the taxi drive get such a grand mansion, whereas I just get this studio apartment?"

“That’s simple to answer… when you preached, people fell asleep...
But when the taxi driver dove, people prayed."

As we follow Jesus through the Gospel According to Mark we come to one of my favorite miracles in the life of Jesus. It’s the story where four men tear up a roof and lower their paralyzed friend until he’s hanging in front of Jesus. These four friends created a skylight in a house so that they could get their friend to Jesus.

But this same skylight allowed Jesus to see these four men. And this unintentional skylight also filled the house with light. Part of our job as followers of Jesus is to build skylights to bring light to dark places. In this message I would like to challenge you to apply for a job working in the Faith Skylight Company.

I’m actually going to have you fill out a job application. If you have ever had a job interview or filled out an employment application, you know it can be a nerve-racking experience. You can go online and find some humorous statements people made during job interviews.

Here are a few of my favorites:
1. “I was fired from my last job because they were forcing me to take anger management classes.”
2. “Can we speed this up? I’ve got to be somewhere else.”
3. “It’s best for your other employees if I don’t work with people.”
4. “I’d prefer to work for a company that is very lax on tardiness.”
5. Provide an emergency contact number: the applicant put “911”

I seriously doubt any of those applicants got the job. But in our text this morning We read about four tactical friends who started what could be called the first Faith Skylight Company two thousand years ago.

Mark 2:1–12, “1 And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house.
2 Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.
3 Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.
4 And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So, when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,
7 “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?
10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” —He said to the paralytic,
11 “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

I have so many questions.
I wondered what the homeowner said when he saw his ceiling start crumbling; dirt and dust starts falling on Jesus and on everyone in the room.
If I had been the homeowner I probably would have said, “Hey, who’s going to pay for this damage?”

As the four guys keep creating an unintentional skylight, I can’t imagine Jesus could keep talking, there was too much distraction. But because He knows all things, He realized what was happening. Perhaps He said something like, “We interrupt this sermon to bring you a paralyzed man.
Please direct your attention to what’s left of the ceiling.”
I wonder if the paralyzed man felt any fear from this ordeal of being lowered by ropes to hang in front of Jesus. So, what did you do today? “Oh, I was just literally hanging around Jesus for a while.”

But I think the main focus of this miracle should be on those four unnamed friends who brought their paralyzed buddy to Jesus.
In verse 5 it says, “When Jesus saw THEIR faith...”

He saw the faith of those four friends. You may think that faith is invisible, but according to Jesus, faith can be seen. Can Jesus see our faith? Do we have an invisible faith or a visible faith? These four guys formed the Faith Skylight Company.

I think God wants everyone of us to be employed in this company. I’m going to ask you to apply for a position. But first you probably need to know what your job description will be if you work for the Faith Skylight Company.

Here it is: Creating skylights so people can meet Jesus. Real carpenters build real skylights so the light of the sun can brighten dark places in a home. When you work for the Faith Skylight Company you create openings so the light of the SON can brighten dark places in someone’s heart.

If you’re interested in applying for a position, here’s the job application.
Check each box that applies to you.

1. I CARE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE HURTING
The story begins with this statement, “Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic.” These four men had a friend or a relative who was suffering.
He was paralyzed, and there was no way he could get to Jesus on his own.
These friends had heard Jesus was in Capernaum and they were convinced Jesus could help their friend. They had an unshakable faith in Him.

These four friends believed if they could somehow get their friend to Jesus that Jesus could make a difference in his life. We’re surrounded by hurting people; the question is do you care enough to bring them to Jesus? We have a lot of information that we share, but people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.

There were probably hundreds of sick and weak people in Galilee, but these four men concentrated on just one. That’s good advice for us. Would you ask God to lead you to just one hurting person who needs Jesus?

We should care for people’s spiritual condition. We should care about how our friends are doing spiritually. My best friends are the ones that care about my relationship with God, those that check to see how I am doing spiritually, those that encourage me to be a better person.

That is the type of friend I want to be and want to have. A friend’s greatest desire should be for spiritual well being. If you want to be a good friend, check in on your friend’s spiritual condition. Hold them accountable to living a godly life. There are hurting people living in spiritual darkness. In order to work for the Faith Skylight Company you’ve got to care enough for them that you’ll do everything you can to let the light of Jesus fill their darkness.

2. I’M WILLING TO WORK WITH A TEAM.
The Bible says this paralyzed man was “...carried by four of them.”
They teamed up for their friend. They did as a team what none of them could have done individually. Can you imagine one of the friends trying to carry the paralyzed man? Two or three might have been able to do it. But because the cot he was lying on had four corners, a team of four people made sense.

We can learn a lot about the importance of team work simply by observing flocks of geese. Winging their way to a warmer climate, they often cover thousands of miles before reaching their destination. Have you ever studied why they fly as they do? It is fascinating to read what has been discovered about their flight pattern as well as their in-flight habits. Four come to mind.

1. Those in front rotate their leadership. When one lead goose gets tired, it changes places with one in the wing of the V-formation and another flies point.
2. By flying as they do, the members of the flock create an upward air current for one another. Each flap of the wings literally creates uplift for the bird immediately following. One author states that by flying in a V-formation, the whole flock gets 71 percent greater flying range than if each goose flew on its own.
3. When one goose gets sick or wounded, two fall out of formation with it and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with the struggler until it's able to fly again.
4. The geese in the rear of the formation are the ones who do the honking.
I suppose it's their way of announcing that they're following and that all is well. For sure, the repeated honks encourage those in front to stay at it.

As I think about all this, one lesson stands out above all others: it is the natural instinct of geese to work together. Whether it's rotating, flapping, helping, or simply honking, the flock is in it together... which enables them to accomplish what they set out to do.

You and some friends who know the Lord should team up with the goal of helping another friend who doesn’t know the Lord. You might never be able to help that person all alone, but if you enlist some people to help you, a team can accomplish much more than an individual. If you want to work for the Faith Skylight Company, you must we willing to work with a team.

3. I SEE OBSTACLES AS OPPORTUNITIES
The Bible says this team of friends faced several obstacles. “They could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd.”
The first obstacle was the crowd. I’ve seen the ruins of Capernaum many times. The lanes between the houses are so narrow there was barely enough room for two people to pass. The house was full and the narrow lanes were filled with people wanting to catch the words of Jesus inside the house.
Then there was the obstacle of the house itself. The houses were built with black basalt stone and then covered with plaster. There was only one door, and there were only a few small windows cut at the top of the walls under the ceiling.
There was no back door or window to use to bring in the stretcher. The roof of the house was another obstacle. On top of the stone walls, wooden timbers were used as ceiling joists. A mixture of palm leaves, mud, and clay were mixed into a thick mortar and placed in layers between the timbers.

When each layer dried another layer was added until there was a thick, waterproof roof. Then more palm leaves were placed on top of the roof.
These roofs were thick and hard as a rock.

But these four friends didn’t let obstacles stop them. They saw these obstacles as opportunities. They kept on moving toward Jesus. How do you react when you’re confronted with obstacles? Obstacles are often simply opportunities for faith. If you want to work for the Faith Skylight Company, you’ve got to see obstacles as opportunities.

4. I LOOK FOR CREATIVE WAYS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS.
There were obstacles, but these men of faith found a way to overcome the obstacles. The Bible says, “They made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.”

We’re always going to face problems. But people of faith should always be looking for creative ways to solve problems. I heard about a businessman from NYC who was going to take a month-long trip to London.

He went to his local Manhattan bank and asked to borrow $1,000 for the trip. He even drove in his new Cadillac as collateral. He was a good customer, so they gave him his money. When he returned he paid back the full $1,000 plus $12 interest.
The banker asked him, “So, I’m curious. You’ve got plenty of money; I wonder why you wanted to borrow $1,000 for this trip?” The businessman replied, “Where else could I park my new Cadillac in a safe place for a month in Manhattan for $12?” He was thinking creatively.

So, think about your friend or friends who need Jesus. What are some creative ways you can team up with others to expose that person to the light and life of Jesus Christ. If you want to work for the Faith Skylight Company you will need to come up with creative ways to solve problems.

5. I DON’T QUIT EVEN WHEN CRITICIZED.
What would you do if someone started digging a hole in your roof? You’d probably call the cops. What would you do if you saw someone digging a hole in your neighbor’s roof? You’d call the cops.
I think it’s reasonable to think that the homeowner or neighbor of this house probably yelled up for the men to stop destroying that roof. But they didn’t stop. They kept on digging.

Jesus didn’t tell them to stop. Why? Because Jesus knows people matter more than buildings. Jesus knew there were two miracles that were going to happen as a result of that skylight.

First, Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven.” That’s the greatest miracle in the world. That’s what Jesus wants to say to each of you today. “Your sins are forgiven.” But even Jesus was criticized. The religious leaders were thinking, “Who does He think He is? Only God can forgive sins!” They were right. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus knew what they were thinking, just like He knows what we’re thinking right now.

He said, “So, what’s a bigger miracle? Forgiveness or healing? You all expected me to heal him. Well, just so you will know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sin, go ahead, friend, grab your bed and walk out of here.”

And that’s what the man did. I can imagine Jesus looking up at these four workers in the Faith Skylight Company, and He smiled at them as they were high-fiving and hugging each other.

Do you have friends or family members who need Jesus? Don’t give up on them. Even if you are criticized don’t stop enlarging that skylight. Just keep letting them see the light of Jesus. When Jesus sees your faith, He’ll smile, too.

CONCLUSION
Of all these characters in this story, which one do you see most like yourself? You may relate to the paralyzed man. You may not be physically paralyzed, but you are bound by sin and you need to have Jesus forgive you.
Jesus is in the house today. If you will come to Him Believing that He is the Son of God, Repenting of your sins And, being BURIED with Him in BAPTISM… He will say to you the same thing He said, to that paralyzed man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

For others of you who are Christians already, you see yourself like the four friends. You want to work for the Faith Skylight Company. You want to open ways for your friends to meet Jesus.

But there were other people in this story. They were the one who were crowding in the house, even the religious leaders. In other words there were two kinds of people there. Some were ON the way to Jesus and some were IN the way of Jesus. The Boss is offering you the job today. Will you come to work for the Faith Skylight Company? The pay isn’t very much, but the retirement benefits are out of this world!

The lesson is yours as we stand and sing the song of invitation.

Worship in Spirit

Psalm 100

INTRO: Good morning church! Please turn in your Bibles to the Book of Psalms and let’s read Psalm 100 together. I will be using the NKJV.

Psalm 100 –
“1. Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
3. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.”[NKJV].

We don't know who the inspired writer was, and we don't know when this particular Psalm was recorded, but it's very beautiful. The Bible teaches that whatever things were written before, are written for our learning, therefore we need to pay attention to the Book of Psalms because they are a part of the Old Testament. Jesus referred to the things written about Him in the law, and the prophets, and in the Psalms.

During His ministry, the Lord revealed His requirements for true worship. You will recall that in John 4, our Lord was having a conversation with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. One of the subjects they talked about was worship.

In connection with worship, our Lord said John 4:23-24 – “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Here our Lord reveals some fundamental requirements concerning worship.

First, He said that true worshippers worship the Father. We need to always remember that our worship is directed to God in heaven. Next, He said that true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit means to worship with the proper attitude and disposition. To worship in truth means to worship according to God's will as it is revealed in the New Testament.

Worship is directed to the Father, and worship to please God must be in spirit and in truth. The Lord taught that worshiping in spirit and worshiping in truth are equally important. We must not exalt one over the other. Jesus said that they're both essential.

Today, what I would like for us to do is examine two important guidelines from Psalm 100 that will help us worship in spirit. We will look at “in spirit” because it might be a bit harder for us to grasp then “in truth”. In doing so we're not in any way indicating that worshiping in spirit is more important than worshiping in truth, they're both equally important.

From time to time we find we can use reminders of principles that will help us to not only worship in truth, but also to worship in spirit. It's just a matter of being a human being, I guess. When we do the same things over and over again, if we're not careful, they can become commonplace, and we must not allow that to happen in worship.

Each time we come together in worship we participate in the same activities. We need to use some discipline to make sure that we always worship in spirit, that is, with the proper attitude and disposition.

The reason why that's such an important matter is because of what can happen. In the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, Malachi wrote about the coming of Elijah. Malachi closed by calling upon the Lord's people to look forward to this event. Jesus said during His ministry, that the prophecy of Elijah’s coming was fulfilled by John the Baptist.

There is a story from a time when many of us were a lot younger about a young couple inviting their preacher for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the preacher asked their son what they were having. "Goat," the little boy replied.

"Goat?" replied the preacher, "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes," said the youngster. "I heard Dad say to Mom, 'We might as well have the old goat for dinner today as any other day.

Malachi closed his writing with a message of hope to his people, but he primarily dealt with some of the sins of which they were guilty. One thing that Malachi dealt with was the spirit that some of the Jewish people had begun to manifest in worship. Malachi 1:13 – “You also say, `Oh, what a weariness!' and you sneer at it,'' says the Lord of hosts. "And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?'' says the Lord.” When people spoke of worship as “a weariness”, were they worshiping in spirit? Certainly not.

They had allowed worship to become “weariness” to them. That in turn affected what they were doing. Some of them were taking blind, lame, and sick animals and offering them to God. Malachi, speaking on behalf of God, said, Offer that animal to your governor — see if he'll be pleased with it. They wouldn't dare do something like that, yet they had no problem presenting that type of animal to God Almighty.

The Book of Malachi shows that a failure to worship in spirit will lead to other failures in worship. They didn't put forth the effort to make sure that they maintained the proper spirit as they were worshiping God.

I. In Verses1-3 "PRAISE" is Emphasized:

A. Let's consider two very important guidelines that will help us to worship in spirit. When we look at the first three statements of Psalm 100 we will notice that praise is emphasized. It plays a role in worship to maintain our desire to worship in spirit.

1. Psalm 100:1 – “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!” That sounds like praise to me, doesn't it to you?
2. Then is says, “Serve the Lord with gladness…” That's maintaining a proper spirit while worshiping God. I can't help but think about what David wrote in Psalm 122:1 – “I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord.''”
3. Next we read, “… Come before His presence with singing.” All of those statements are emphasizing the importance of praise.

B. It's interesting that when we examine the Book of Psalms, we find that others of them begin in the same way.

1. Psalm 95:1 – “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.” Notice how joy is emphasized. That has to do with maintaining the proper spirit.
2. Psalm 96:1-3 – “1. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. 3. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.”
3. Psalm 98:1 – “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory." The Psalms include appeals made to God's people to offer praise to God, - to sing, to make a joyful noise, and to do so with the proper spirit.

C. The Bible teaches us to emphasize praise, but it goes further than that. The Bible teaches us why God deserves our praise. Psalm 100:3 says simply, “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” I think that's a very good reason to offer praise to God. He deserves our praise because He IS God.

1. Psalm 95 also talks about this. Psalm 95:3-5 – “3. For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods. 4. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. 5. The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.” The Lord, He is God, not just a god with a little g, but He is God with a capital G. God deserves our praise because of who He is.
2. There's another reason revealed to us in Psalm 100:3 concerning why God deserves our praise. “…It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…” To go along with that, let's look at Psalm 95:6 which reads, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” These passages help us understand exactly what is involved in worship. The Hebrew word for worship here, (שָׁחָה), (shâchâh), means; bow, bow down, obeisance, reverence. (Strong’s H7812). Worship means to show reverence to, to bow down before.
3. Let's read it again. “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” This is showing reverence is to be paid to God. God deserves our praise. First, because of who He is, He is God. Then also notice that we haven't made ourselves. God has made us.
4. There's a third statement made in Psalm 100:3, another reason why God deserves our praise. “…We are His people and the sheep of His pasture…” Notice the point that the writer is making when he writes, “We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.” Since we are His, we belong to Him, we are in His pasture. That is, He cares for us as the shepherd cares for the sheep. We have access to wonderful blessings.

D. When the writer of Psalm 100 mentioned the fact that we are the sheep of His pasture, it leads us to think about the 23rd Psalm, doesn’t it? I strongly suspect that of all the psalms the 23rd Psalm is known by all who are listening this morning. This is the favorite Psalm of many people and it is one we should spend some time thinking about often, as we go through our lives.

1. David began this Psalm by saying, “The Lord is my shepherd”. That's a key statement. David recognized the Lord as his shepherd. Remember the writer of Psalm 100:3 said, we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. That's a reason why God deserves our praise.
2. Having said that, let's consider some blessings that David mentioned in the 23rd Psalm which are associated with knowing the Lord as our shepherd.

a. Blessing number one is contentment. David said, “I shall not want.”
b. Blessing number two is providential care. “He makes me to lie down in green pastures;”
c. Blessing number three is peace. “He leads me beside the still waters.”
d. Blessing number four is restoration. “He restores my soul;” That means that God will turn back the soul if we will submit to His will.
e. Blessing number five is direction. “He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.”
f. Blessing number six is courage. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;” I've wondered if when David wrote that particular part of this psalm, did he reflect back on that occasion when he faced the giant Goliath? There was no fear in David's heart and he won a victory that day. Then he led the children of Israel to win a great victory over the Philistines.
g. Blessing number seven is companionship. “For You are with me;”
h. Blessing number eight is comfort, something we certainly all need from time to time. “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
i. Blessing number nine is favor. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;”
j. Blessing number ten is abundance. “My cup runs over.” There are times we hear people refer to that particular statement who don't even believe the Bible. When they talk about enjoying a great blessing, they say, my cup is running over. David knew about that blessing. He knew all about abundance.
k. Blessing number eleven is assurance. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;”
l. Then blessing number twelve is immortality. “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.”

3. David wrote many beautiful Psalms. They are a joy to read and to study. He wrote about half of the Psalms. Think about all the years that the 23rd Psalm has been in existence, and the comfort that it has brought to so many people. We should be grateful that David wrote it.

E. These principles revealed in the first part of Psalm 100 will help us to worship God in spirit. A lot of emphasis is placed on praise. God deserves our praise, and of course, there are reasons given to us why He deserves our praise. We need to think about those matters.

II. In Verses 4-5 "Thanksgiving" is Emphasized:

A. Let's turn our attention, though, to something else that's addressed in verses 4 and 5 as we talk about guidelines that will help us to worship in spirit. We've already talked about the important role that praise plays in worship. Now let's see the emphasis placed on being thankful in this particular Psalm.

1. Let's look at two statements that are made in Psalm 100:4. The first, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving”.
2. The second, “Be thankful to Him” These are two appeals made for God's people to approach Him with thankful hearts.

B. Similar appeals are made in other Psalms.

1. Psalm 105:1 says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.”
2. Psalm 106:1 says, “Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
3. Psalm 107:1 says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Many times the Book of Psalms teaches us that as we endeavor to worship the Lord, we are to do so with thankful hearts, we give thanks to him. Praise is important, but thanksgiving is also important.

C. Now consider verse 5 of Psalm 100. This verse gives us several statements that show why God deserves our thanks. As we saw the first part of the Psalm emphasizes praise, and the writer shows us why God deserves our praise. Next our attention is turned to thanksgiving, and now we're shown why we need to be thankful.

1. Number one, “For the Lord is good;” Certainly that is an excellent reason to be thankful. Psalm 33:4-5 says. “For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” and Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
2. Statement number two says, “His mercy is everlasting”. We've already read several times from other Psalms that His mercy endures forever. Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.” And then verse 11, “For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;”

a. You probably have all experienced those warm summer nights when you were somewhere where the sky was clear and you could see the vast expanse of stars. I recall those times and wondered at the vastness of our universe and how far those stars are from earth. When you read about the stars, distances are mentioned which we can not even imagine. Suffice it to say it's a long way.
b. “For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;” God’s mercy is everlasting.

3. Then there's a third statement made in verse 5 that teaches us why God deserves our thanks. “His truth endures to all generations.”

D. Today it seems a lot of people have the idea that what they say is truth regardless of the facts. Why I wonder? Because the person thinks it is—and that is subjective.

1. There's an objective way to determine truth. Truth is not subjective, yet a lot of people today think that it is. What's true for you may not be true for me and vice versa. That, I think, is a reflection of one of the problems that we have in our society today.
2. Truth is truth. Truth can be known objectively. God's truth doesn't change from one generation to the next. His truth endures to all generations. That's the reason why God deserves our thanks. He's the source of truth, and His truth endures. It doesn't change. It doesn't go away. It's not replaced by something else.

CONCLUSION:
The principles we looked at from Psalm 100 that have to do with Praise and Thanksgiving will help us to worship in spirit. Jesus said, that acceptable worship, that true worship, must be offered in spirit and in truth. We need to understand “why” we worship God. To worship in spirit means to worship with the proper attitude and disposition.

We need to keep in mind the “why” to help us worship in spirit so that we can avoid the mistakes made by the Jewish people of Malachi's day. They got to the point where they said, Behold what a weariness it is. That's a bad attitude toward worship, isn't it? It became a chore to them. They became jealous of giving their best and even of the giving of their time.

If we have our hearts centered on praising God and offering thanks to him, I'm persuaded that that will go a long way toward helping us worship in spirit.

What about Christian worship? To determine how to worship God, today, we want to go to the New Testament. Let's look at Ephesians 5:19-20, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Praise and thanksgiving are included in Christian worship.

Let's also read Hebrews 13:15, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

We should also keep in mind that praising God and being thankful are not limited to worship. They're included in worship, they will help us to worship in spirit, but they're not limited to worship.

______________________________________________________________________

The lesson is yours. Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

# ??? Reference Sermon by: Raymond Sieg

Why Forgive?

Why Forgive?

Good morning. How was everybody's week? Good to have you here. I think most of you all know this is my first sermon, so bear with me a little. I might stumble. Thank you.

I have a question. Has anyone ever wronged you before? Have they done something that made you mad, angry, just feelings that you know aren't necessarily right. Have you ever done something to someone else that made them angry at you? Have you wronged them? Have you ever wronged someone? Has someone ever wronged you?

Did you forgive them? Have they forgiven you? Why? Why should you forgive them? Why should they forgive you? What have you done to earn that forgiveness? What have they done to earn your forgiveness? What have they done to earn that mercy?

In today's lesson, I will be going over forgiveness. I will answer the question, why should I forgive? Let’s go over a couple aspects of mercy and forgiveness that the Bible points out to us.

The first thing I wanted to go through is found in Matthew 18:21-32. It’s a scripture a lot you know. I'll start with verse 21. “21. Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22. Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. 24. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. 25. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. 28. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 29. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 30. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. 31. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 32. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: 33. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34. And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”

I think that answers the question, why should I forgive? You have been forgiven. The glory of God sent down His son, who sacrificed Himself for our sins. We are forgiven of our debt. He says here, we are to forgive 70 times 7. I've seen many people say is more likely 70 to the seventh power, which is a very large number. In other words as much as you can. Again, why should I forgive? Because the Lord has forgiven me.

In Colossians 3:12-13, it says, “12. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”

These two verses, in broad terms, epitomize what a Christian should look like. One of these things is forgiveness. Forgiveness is not an option. It is not a choice we have as Christians, it is a necessity. This is something we must do. This is something we have to do. It's something commanded for us to do.

There's Moses in Exodus 32:31-32. “31. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. 32. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.”

This is Moses pleading to the Lord to forgive the people as they had erected statues and other gods. They had sinned, a great sin. They were fools. Moses pleaded for the Lord to forgive His people, to forgive them of their foolishness.

You have the story of Joseph. Joseph was Jacob's favorite. He was loved by his father, and his brothers were jealous. They sold him onto slavery. For years, he was tormented as a result of this burden. Then when he met with his brothers, years down the line, after he had made it to a high position, after he had gained power, after he had gotten out of those bad places, he gave his brothers the opportunity to make up for what they had done. He was willing to forgive them. It's just another example of how we should forgive.

Obviously, there's Jesus as well. We have Him saying forgive them, for they do not know what they've done as He was being crucified on the cross. If Jesus is willing to forgive being crucified, being tortured, being murdered; how much more should we be willing to forgive? We can forgive others as many times as we should.

There are a couple different ways that forgiveness is useful to us as Christians. It is not just that we should, but there are benefits to it as well.

In Isaiah 43:18, it says, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.” I think this is telling us to forget our old sins. The Lord forgets the sins we have done when he forgives us, so should we. The things we have done in the past are not part of us. They're gone. They're forgiven. They've been washed away by the blood of Christ.
In Matthew 6:14, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:” Again, this just points out again that forgiving others is essential for our salvation, and it is something that we must do in order to be forgiven.

It will help us spiritually, mentally, and physically. There are plenty of studies out there that that show if you're willing to forgive and get rid of that burden, and then you're more likely to live a long and healthy life. To carry the burden, to carry that hate, to carry that anger, is not good for you. It never has been.

In Ephesians 4:31-32, it says, “31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.: 32. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

We are also told to be patient. Again, more things we as Christians need to be. It's not just forgiving. We need to be patient. We need to be compassionate. Earlier, we were talking a lot about humility during Bible class and how it is important to be a humble person.

Humbleness, to me, is being able to recognize other people's strengths while being able to recognize your own weakness. When we come onto the Lord, that strength to forgive will come as well.

Another thing we need to do as Christians is ask for forgiveness, ask the Lord to forgive what we have done. Because what do we just do? What is communion for? To remind us of that sacrifice and to ask for forgiveness for what we have done so our sins can be washed away.

In 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

We must confess our sins. The Lord will not forgive us for what we do not admit. We must forgive others. We have to ask for forgiveness. We have to be faithful. It seems like there's a lot of things, but in reality, if you have the word of God in your heart, all these things will come naturally.

There are a couple of different ways the Bible says to forgive. A big one is 1 Corinthians 13:5. “Love is never rude, love is never selfish, never quick to take offense, love never keeps track, never keeps score of wrongs.”

This is saying what love is and it emphasizes it a little bit. Love keeps no wrongs. When we are filled with love in our heart, we will not keep account of these things. There's one time I was at church camp and my cousin said something to me that didn't really sit well. For a long time, every time I'd be reminded of it, it made me really mad, made me angry. It didn't feel right that I felt that way, but with love in my heart, it's just another memory that I forget most of the time. Every once in a while, I'm reminded of it, but I just laugh. Now I think, Oh, it's just saying something stupid because we were in fifth grade.

Love is never rude, never selfish. Forgiveness is a very unselfish act. You're forgiving another person for what they've done.

Selflessness. A selfless person forgives. A selfless person is compassionate and humble. Love is never quick to take offense. It's a lot easier to not have to forgive someone when you never really take offense in the first place, when you don't really think there's anything to forgive. Yeah, they might have wronged you, but, oh, well, they accidentally nicked me a little bit. They cut my arm. I don't care. It’s just a little bit of blood. It's not that bad.

Love is never rude. We are supposed to forgive, but we really should try our best to not need to be forgiven. As Christians, it is our goal to walk in the way that Christ walked. To walk in the way of Christ means we need to do our best, and our best is to strive never need to be forgiven, so one is never rude.

In Matthew 6:12, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” This is from the Lord's Prayer. I think that tells us another important part of forgiveness, especially about forgiving ourselves.

A good way to forgive is to pray. It's our strongest weapon. How can we do things without praying? How can we have the strength if we don't ask for it? How can we be forgiven if we don't ask for it?

I've heard my entire life that our strongest weapon is prayer. So pray. Pray for forgiveness. Pray that you have the strength to forgive your debtors so you may have your debts forgiven.

In John 20:22-23 John said this, “22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” It has parts about if you do not forgive, you'll not be forgiven.

I think I want to focus more on the Holy Ghost. We take on the Holy Ghost, when we put the word in our heart. We will take on the Lord, and the Lord will give us strength. It's the Holy Ghost that will give us the strength to forgive. It was the Holy Ghost that that will give us the ability to do this, even if it seems hard.

A lot of us, I'm pretty sure, have been wronged—incredibly sometimes. Inhumane things, some things you don't even want to speak about. It can be hard to forgive actions like that. It can be hard to forgive people who have wronged you so vilely. It's the only way I can say that, really, who have committed such wrongs against you. It is the Holy Ghost, it is the Lord that will give you the strength to do that. How can you have that strength? How can you have the Holy Ghost if you are not praying, if you're not asking for strength, if you're not asking for forgiveness, if you're not interacting with the word daily? Read your Bible daily. That's what I've been told. Read, pray, and walk a straight path.

So far, we've gone over the image of a Christian. What is the image? It’s a humble, compassionate, loving, forgiving person. We can see that in so many examples that the Bible gave us. You have Moses, Joseph, obviously Jesus, most of the disciples, and plenty, countless that you can look to. That takes a very long time to read through, at least in my experience. Its uses are many.

As I said earlier, it's just good for you to keep that evil out of your heart. Do good things. Be forgiving, because removing that burden can just make your life happier, longer, better. It is good to forgive yourself. It is good to forgive others. It is great to ask for that forgiveness. How can you receive if you don’t ask? Ask and you shall receive. You must ask for that forgiveness and be willing to give forgiveness as well.

How do we forgive? Keep love in your heart. Be a loving person, and not necessarily that fuzzy love, as we were talking about earlier, but in action. Forgiveness is not a feeling like we would normally think of it. It is an action, and it is a part of love, and love itself is an action.

Again, love is not rude. Love is never selfish, never quick to take offense. Love keeps no store of wrongs. If we keep love in our heart, we will be able to forgive.

Pray without ceasing and keep the Holy Ghost in our heart. The way we do that is by reading our Bible daily, and by prayer daily, and do our best to walk the straight and narrow.

Jesus’ crucifixion is the most important thing to us because it is the sacrifice that gives us the opportunity to be forgiven. It is the crucifixion that allows us to make it to heaven. We have all failed. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all sinned. Everybody besides Jesus that I've talked about today sinned, Moses sinned, and Joseph sinned, all of them except Jesus. It is his sacrifice, the torment he went through that allows us to be with Him at the end of it all.

Luke 23:34, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”

Forgive them. He had been tortured, murdered, completely brutalized. Unspeakable things were done unto him, and He forgives them without a second thought, without hesitation. Did He want to go through that? No. But He was willing to go through it for us, and He was willing to forgive them and us. They were the ones who put them up on the cross, but it's our sins that are responsible for that, each and every one of us. It's our sins that put him on that cross that made it necessary for that sacrifice.

If Jesus is willing to forgive that much, a deed done onto him like that, how much more should we be willing to forgive? How much should we? Again, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother? Up to seven times? No. 70 times 7. Always forgive. Whatever has been it is. It might be hard. When it's hard pray and read your Bible. Ask for the strength to do what is hard. Ask for the ability to do what you know, as Christians, we have to. It is not an option to forgive. It is a necessity.

If anyone here has not yet asked for forgiveness, has not yet been baptized for the remission of their sins, I ask you, why wait? Come up here. We have a baptistery that's mostly full. You're going to be saved today. There's no reason to wait. It only prolongs. You're only making it riskier because, yes, we can be forgiven, but only with the time we have here on earth. As I conclude with that, let’s stand as Doug leads 606.

I Am Weak But Thou Art Strong

Mark 3: 20-27

Macho men always want to brag about how strong they are.
One day some boys on a school playground were bragging. Johnny said, “My dad has a list of all the men he can beat up—and all your dads are on his list!”
Later that afternoon a knock came on Johnny’s house
and his dad answered the door.
A big angry man said, “Are you Johnny’s dad?”
He said, “I am.”
“Well Johnny told my son said you have a list
of men you think you can beat up, and my name is on it.” Johnny’s dad said, “That’s right.”
The big guy started rolling up his sleeves and said,
“Well, I don’t think you can beat me up.
What are you going to do about it?”
Johnny’s dad thought for a moment and then said,
“I’ll will ERASE your NAME OFF my list.”

Guys are always bragging about who’s the strongest.
Since 1977 there has been a televised event called
“The World’s Strongest Man.”
Most of the winners have come from Finland, Iceland,
and Eastern Europe.
These guys are required to perform amazing feats of strength
like pulling a Boeing 747 with their teeth.
In 2024, Ryan Stoltman secured his third
World’s Strongest Man title,
solidifying his status as one of the strongest athletes
on the planet.
Standing at an impressive 6 feet 8 inches
and weighing 408 pounds he’s a force to be reckoned with.
He holds the world record for lifting
the heaviest Atlas stone ever (631 lb) over a 4ft. bar.

So who do you think was the strongest man in the Bible?

Are you thinking the guy with long hair who could
kill a lion with his bare hands?
Samson was pretty strong,
but after he got a haircut in the devil’s barbershop,
he lost his strength.

In our passage today, Jesus is going to talk about a strong man;
Hopefully, by the time we finish you’ll know the identity of
the “The World’s Strongest Man.”

Mark 3:20-27. 20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.
21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?
24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end.
27 But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

On June 16, 1858 more than 1,000 delegates
met in the Springfield, Illinois, for the
Republican State Convention, and they chose Abraham Lincoln
as their candidate for the U.S. Senate,
running against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.
That evening Lincoln delivered this address
to his Republican colleagues and the main focus
of his remarks were on the issue of slavery:
“Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention.
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise,
of putting an end to slavery disconcertment.
Under the operation of that policy, that disconcertment
has not only, NOT ceased, but has constantly intensified.
In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis
shall have been reached, and passed.
A house divided against itself cannot stand."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
That's a powerful sentence!
Did Abraham Lincoln come up with that phrase all by himself?
No. Well, where did he get it?
He was quoting Jesus.

Whose kingdom is Jesus talking about here?
Who’s the “strong man” that must first be bound?
Who’s kingdom is about to come to an end?

The main reason for Jesus’ coming was to bind Satan,
to divide and destroy Satan’s kingdom.
Now, hold that thought for a moment.

Did you ever look up verses in the Bible that have the words “division” or “divide” or something similar in them?
I found that division is not always a negative thing in Scripture. In fact, sometimes God CAUSED division to take place.
For example, in Genesis - when God created the world
– we’re told that: “God saw the light, that it was good:
and GOD DIVIDED the light from the darkness.” Genesis 1:4

I know quite a few people who when they eat…the various items on their plate CANNOT touch!

A few verses later we’re told “God made the firmament,
and DIVIDED THE WATERS which were
under the firmament from the waters which were
above the firmament: and it was so. Genesis 1:7

And these were pretty good things...
because God SAID it was good.

And then in Deuteronomy we read
“... when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars,
even all the host of heaven...
which the LORD your GOD HAS DIVIDED unto all nations
under the whole heaven.” Deuteronomy 4:19

God divided the stars unto all nations?
Did you know that if you were in the southern hemisphere
you see an entirely different set of stars than WE see
in the northern hemisphere.
God has divided all the stars unto all the nations under heaven. And that’s kind of a cool thing.

THEN I read this passage in the New Testament:
(Jesus said) Do you think that I have come
to give peace on earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.
They will be divided, father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
(Luke 12:51-53)

WAIT! WHAT???
Jesus came to bring division??
Well, that’s what He said!!!

But if (by definition) if God does something
it’s got to be good… so how can Jesus
causing division in a family be a good thing?

Well, here’s the deal: People live in one of two realms.
They either belong to Jesus or they belong to Satan.
And when you think about this
you begin to realize there are times we’ve seen
ONLY 2 or 3 members of any family come to church.
Maybe the wife. Maybe a teen.
Maybe grandparents.
And that reality can create division in the family
because some members of the family decide to
belong to Christ and others don’t.

By default – if these people don’t belong to Jesus
they belong to Satan.

You see --- belonging to Satan is not all that hard.
You don’t have to DO anything to Satan.
You don’t have to BELIEVE anything to go to hell.
In fact, not believing in God –
not belonging to Christ –
is all it takes.

Well, what about the people who have trouble
making up their minds?
There are many can’t make a decision to save their souls.
WAIT!!!! DID YOU HEAR THAT!!!
THEY CAN”T MAKE A DECISION TO SAVE THEIR SOULS!!

People who do not make up their minds
to believe in and follow God in their lives...
belong to Satan!
Satan’s kingdom is made up of all kinds of people
who simply have not decided that
they want God to run their lives.

Revelation 3:15-16 tells us
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.
And God’s focus is on bringing Satan’s kingdom to its knees.
His intention is to bind the strong man
and to invite the people who once belonged to the devil
the opportunity at life and hope and peace.

Matthew 11:28-29
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Now, the problem becomes that Satan has no intention
of letting that happen.
Satan intends to hang on to every last one of those that he has. And one of the tools Satan will use... is family.
That may end up being true.
OR your decision might just make all the difference
in the lives of your family.
They might just come to Christ because
you made that choice first.
By standing off to one side and simply being God’s child
you may begin to make your family jealous of your faith in Christ.

And if that happens, you may be able to
help divide up Satan’s kingdom
and change the eternal fate of those that you love.

Jesus faced continued bitter criticism
from these religious leaders throughout His ministry.
That lets us know that if you’re serving God,
you can be assured that you’ll face criticism.
When Jesus faced false accusations and criticism,
He usually asked His critics some questions,
and answered with a parable.
He turned their rants into teachable moments.
In this case He asked, “How can Satan drive out Satan?”
And then Jesus, the Master Teacher shared one of his shortest, and most enigmatic parables.

Let’s REREAD Mark 3:27… examine the parable Jesus spoke,
27 But no one can enter a strong man's house
and plunder his goods,
unless he first binds the strong man.
Then indeed he may plunder his house.

THE PARABLE: Jesus came to reverse the work of Satan.
The Pharisees were insulting Jesus when they claimed
that He was possessed by Beelzebub.
In Jewish literature, Beelzebub was a chief demon, and sometimes even identified as Lucifer himself.
Jesus used this event as an opportunity
to give a short but powerful parable.

What is the spiritual meaning behind this short parable
Involving the world’s strongest man?
Satan is strong, but Jesus is the strongest!

Jesus announced to the world that He came to drive out Satan, the prince of this world.
He said, “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” (John 12:31)

I could have said Jesus is stronger,
but He’s the strongest.
Satan is real, and he is strong.
But sometimes we make the mistake
of give him qualities that only belong to God.

God is omnipresent—He is everywhere all the time.
God is omnipotent—He is all-powerful.
God is omniscient—He knows everything.

Satan, which means adversary, is Lucifer, a fallen angel.
He isn’t omnipresent, but he’s fast
and has an army of demons.
Lucifer isn’t all-powerful,
but he is like a roaring lion roaming about
seeking whom he may devour.
Lucifer isn’t omniscient, he can’t read your thoughts.
But, like a snake, he is shrewd and crafty.

So the strong man in this parable is the devil,
but Jesus is stronger.
Satan’s house is this world.
Satan is called the prince of this world
but this isn’t the only world there is.

Jesus is the one who came into the world
and He has bound Satan and then stolen his possessions.
But Jesus wasn’t really stealing anything from Satan.
He was only reclaiming what Satan stole in the first place.

Jesus isn’t a thief sneaking in and ripping off someone.
He’s like a policeman going into a robber’s house
and handcuffing him to retrieve stolen property
that the devil took.
Jesus called Satan a thief. He said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”
Satan’s “possessions” are people without Christ
The Bible describes people without Christ this way:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 2:1-2)
The Bible says Satan is at work in the lives of people
who don’t know Christ.
Now if you told an unbeliever that they were
under the control of Satan, they would laugh at you.
They would probably say, “Are you crazy?
I don’t even believe in Satan!”

But the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:4,
In whom the god of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Even for people who don’t believe God or the devil exists,
Satan is actively keeping their minds shut
to the truth about Jesus.
They are slaves to Satan without even knowing it.

Jesus bound and overcame Satan on the cross
The Bible says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8)

“By his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14)

So what does this mean to us?
The devil is a defeated foe.
He is still active,
but he was rendered powerless on the cross.
He knows his doom is sealed.

He’s smart enough to read
Revelation 20:10 that says, “And the devil,
who deceived them,
was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur,
where the beast and the false prophet
had been thrown.
They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
You may be thinking, “OK if the devil is a defeated foe,
he sure is causing me a lot of misery.”
He’s like a wounded animal.
He’s going to fight to the end, although his defeat is sure.

It’s like when the Nazis realized the war was lost,
Hitler issued the Nero Decree.
He told his retreating armies to destroy everything of value. Satan is doing the same thing.
He continues to steal, kill, and destroy.
But he no longer has any authority over you.
He will try to kill your joy,
steal your peace, and destroy your testimony,
but his power is broken.
You can say to him, “Get away from me, Satan,
because greater is he who is in me
than he who is in the world!”

You’re strong, but I have the strongest man living in me!
So that’s the parable.

CONCLUSION
On the evening of June 18, 1850,
a man stood in the bell tower
of London’s Winchester Cathedral staring anxiously out to sea.
All of England was waiting for a report of
the Battle at Waterloo between British general,
the Duke of Wellington,
and the French dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte.

The torch signals from a ship in the English Channel
were sent by code.
The message read: “Wellington defeated...”
At that moment a thick fog rolled in.
The man in the tower signaled the news across the city
To which there was great gloom and sadness
because that meant Napoleon would next invade England.

But hours later the fog lifted
and the rest of the message could be read:
“Wellington defeated the enemy.”

Sadness and despair was replaced with joy and celebration.
When Jesus died on the cross,
it would seem as if He had been defeated.
But when Jesus rose from the dead
the rest of the message was received.
Jesus defeated the enemy!
And we can rejoice today.
The World’s Strongest Man has defeated our enemy!

INVITATION

Using Our Gifts - Part 3

Romans 12:3-8

INTRO:
Good morning. Today we are going to continue to look at Romans 12. Just as a reminder if you hear me say anything that is not according to scripture please let me know and we can look at it together. This morning I would like to continue in our study of this chapter beginning at verse three and continuing through verse 8.

Annie Johnson Flint lived between 1866 and 1932. She suffered from early onset arthritis yet she wrote many beautiful poems. With a pen pushed through bent fingers and held by swollen joints she wrote without any thought that it might be an avenue of ministry, or that it would bring her returns that might help in her support. Her verses provided a solace for her in the long hours of suffering. Then she began making hand-lettered cards and gift books, and decorated some of her own verses. Her life was beset by many problems and suffering. I would recommend you read about her sometime. In considering her life it brings again the question to mind; “Why do good people sometimes suffer?” Of the many poems she wrote I want to mention one titled; The World’s Bible, of which I will read just the first few verses.

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today;
He has no feet but our feet to lead men in His way;
He has no tongue but our tongues to tell men how He died;
He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

We are the only Bible the careless world will read;
We are the sinner's gospel, we are the scoffer's creed;
We are the Lord's last message, given in deed and word;
What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?

What if our hands are busy with other work than His?
What if our feet are walking where sin's allurement is?
What if our tongues are speaking of things His lips would spurn?
How can we hope to help Him and hasten His return?

I would suggest that's what we need to think about. Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today.

I would also suggest that this is a basic truth of the passages that we've been studying in Romans 12 concerning offering our bodies as spiritual sacrifices to God. God has given us the responsibility to do the work. Not only has He given us responsibility but He has given us the tools and functions as well.

This evening we're going to talk about the gifts God has given us to do His work. Christ has no hands but our hands. He has no feet but our feet. He instructs us to use what we have, to do what God has given us to do.

Turn to Romans chapter 12 if you are not already there. Let’s read starting in verse three again the passage we've been studying.
Romans 12:3-8 – “3. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5. so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7. or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8. he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

We’ve examined these passages in past weeks to try to understand what our responsibility is in terms of service. What serving God is all about. We found as we studied earlier that the attitude of service is humility. That we must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to be always willing to put the other person above ourselves.

We also recognized that in the relationship of service, there are many members in one body. Last week we talked about not being stand alone Christians, we are not isolated from one another, but as the physical members of our body make up a single unit, so we as spiritual members make up a spiritual body. As such we are to focus attention on one another, to care for one another, and to serve one another.

This morning I would like to look at verses 6 to 8, and this aspect of gifts.

I. The activity of service is using gifts: It is functioning in a way that God has given us, not only as a body together corporately, but more specifically as individuals who would do their own work and thereby build up the body of Christ. There are a lot of those in religion who seem to misunderstand what the Bible says about spiritual gifts. In fact, the term gift as it relates to what God has provided for us is looked at in many religious circles as a mystical term that can't really be defined, can't really be explored in any concrete way. That is unfortunate because what the Bible tells us about the things God has provided for us, using the term gifts, is very concrete. It's very particular and practical about way that we are to serve before God.

A. The Apostle in Romans 12, uses a word that is very familiar in the New Testament translated into English as the word “gifts”. The Greek word is charisma [khar-is-mah] which means a gift of grace. It is from the common Greek word charis [kha-res] from where we get the word grace or mercy as it is used throughout the Scriptures. In fact it is used in this very verse that says we are given gifts according to the grace of God.

1. Three times in this passage Paul mentions the aspect of grace or mercy. One of those times is in the definition of the word gift itself. That a gift is an act of mercy. When you receive a gift from someone it is not because you earned it. It means the giver was not under obligation, but rather they gave of their own free will.
2. Before we begin talking about the gifts that God has provided for us and discerning what it means to you and me, to have these gifts from God, we first have to recognize, that we have what we have, and we are what we are by the grace of God. God has given us the tools that we need to function in a spiritual way. These gifts then are not earned; they are that which God has given us of His own free will.
3. In fact, other passages indicate, as Ephesians chapter four does, that God has placed these gifts in His church at His own pleasure. That He has placed the structure of the church according to His own desires. It’s not up to man to decide the leadership characteristics of the body either corporately in terms of the local congregation or even universally in terms of God's church as we can talk about it in a universal sense.
4. Back up a little bit and recognize what Paul said in verses three and four of this particular passage.

i. Paul just said; God has dealt to each one a measure of faith for as we have many members in one body but all the members do not have the same function. So what are the gifts here? What are these things that God has given us?
ii. In the context itself Paul saying they are functions. They are practices or deeds that need to be accomplished. This is not in terms of rank or position as we mentioned last week, but in terms of work that needs to be done.
iii. The implication here is that all of us have received or do receive from God the responsibility to function in a certain way and the ability to function in the way needed. He has given this freely to us through His grace.

B. “Differing according to the grace”: What the text also says is that these gifts differ. That though we all have gifts, we all have functions, we all don’t have the same function, we don't all have the same gifts. We recognize that aspect in the physical body when we make the analogy that Paul makes. We have a physical body. We have different parts, members, of the body and these different parts of that body do different things. They differ.

1. This diversity of gifts or functions makes up the benefit of the whole and so the body is able to function, it is able to do what it does as a whole because each individual part of the body works its own work. The diversity of gifts then is a part of the biblical discussion of the church that Paul presents in a couple of other places.
2. Last week we turned to First Corinthians chapter 12, and I ask you to turn back over there again, because I want us to notice that Paul uses the same concept there. Paul uses the aspect of the diversity of gifts to talk about the actual activity or the functioning of the church at Corinth.

i. In First Corinthians chapter 12 I believe what Paul's talking about are the temporary, miraculous gifts, given by the Holy Spirit at that time. We'll talk about the distinction between this discussion and Romans chapter 12 in just a few moments.
ii. We see in the context of First Corinthians chapter 12 there are these spiritual, miraculous gifts that were given by the laying on the hands of the apostles and they differed from individual to individual. Not everyone that was a Christian in the first century had a miraculous spiritual gift. Some did but they did not all have the same gift. Paul is making it clear here this diversity lends to the unity of the whole.
iii. I Corinthians 12:4-7 - “There are different kinds of gifts but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good.” [para]
iv. Each manifestation of the spirit, gift, is so that the body itself can grow as a whole and can function as a whole. Certainly he’s saying there are different kinds of gifts and this diversity must be recognized.

3. The reason Paul wants them to realize that there are different kinds of gifts, is because he's going to point out later on, particularly as he gets to Chapter 13 and 14, that no gift is better than another. There are different kinds of gifts but any gift, such as the gift of speaking in tongues, is no more spiritual than any of the other types of gifts that were given such as the gift of prophecy.
4. Before we go any further in terms of our discussion of Roman 12 the question comes to mind: Do Christians today have spiritual gifts? We recognize from the study of miraculous gifts that the apostles are no longer around to lay hands on people. The miraculous gifts in the first century were temporary, and therefore there is no miraculous measures of the spirit given to individuals today. In the sense of First Corinthians 12 there are no spiritual gifts today.
5. We see the term spiritual is not used in connection with the gifts in Romans chapter 12. When Paul talks about God giving differing gifts in Romans 12 he doesn't use the term spiritual, and that is significant. In comparison to that, looking at 1 Corinthians 12:1 we recognize that when Paul begins talking about spiritual gifts that the word gifts is in italics which means that Paul doesn't use the word gifts. He simply uses the word spirituality or spiritual. It's clear from what takes place in the rest of the context of 1 Corinthians 12 that what he's talking about there are individual miraculous activities, which benefit the whole spiritual body.

C. Miraculous or not: I wondered, how do the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 relate to Romans 12? In Romans 12 when he says we all receive gifts; is he talking about spiritual gifts that are miraculous or not miraculous?

1. We have to be careful to recognize the context of the times in which Paul and the other apostles mention the list of spiritual gifts.
2. Paul has a list in 1 Corinthians 12. He also has a list in Romans 12. Peter has a list in 1 Peter 4. There are lists of individual gifts that are given by the Apostles. Are those lists miraculous or are they non-miraculous? Can we make a clear distinction in the list between what is miraculous and what is non-miraculous? I would suggest that first we have to recognize the context of each passage.
3. The context of 1 Corinthians focuses on the Corinthians misuse of miraculous gifts. Some of those Christians were saying speaking in tongues was more important than any other gift. It was more visible, showier if you will; therefore those who had the gift of speaking in tongues seemed more “spiritual” than other people who did not have that gift. Do some religious people think that today?

i. Paul corrects this. He says there are a variety of gifts God provides for all of them and in the end a person should really seek for love which is far beyond any temporary miraculous gift that was given. You should seek for that greatest gift first, love. 1 Corinthians 13
ii. In the Corinthian letter where Paul deals with the aspects of miraculous gifts he provides a certain context.
iii. The context of Romans 12 is different. The context of Romans 12 is that every Christian has an obligation to offer his body as a spiritual sacrifice to God, verses 1 and 2. The list here then, verses 6 through 8 certainly includes what we would recognize to be non-miraculous functions. Notice what he says here. Paul says there is ministering, there’s teaching, there’s exhorting, there’s giving, there's leading, there’s showing mercy. None of those things require miraculous activity or a miraculous ability to function.
iv. There are no implied miraculous gifts in Romans 12. In fact the only one on the list, I believe, that seems to demand miraculous activity or miraculous measure is the first one when he says if you go into prophecy do it according to a measure of faith. We also find in 1 Corinthians 14:3 – “he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.”

4. What's this mean to us? I think the first thing it shows us is the willingness of the apostles to mix miraculous with non-miraculous gifts. It shows, in some sense, that the church in the first century held them as equal functions. In the congregation you had people who did particular work that they couldn't do without a miraculous measure, such as speaking in tongues. There were other individuals who functioned in what we might think of as a regular capacity, who had been given gifts of ordinary measure of the spirit and performed functions in non-miraculous ways.
5. When the apostles talked to the church about gifts, they lumped them together and recognized that all of these were the product of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual and given by God. They were equal functions from the same spirit.
6. Later Peter uses the term “gift” in 1 Peter 4:10-11 and notice that he applies it to the aspect of that which is non-miraculous. “10. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever.”

D. We’re familiar with these verses. We use these words of Peter to make the point that if a person is going speak or preach he needs to do it as the oracles of God. Meaning what? That he’s going to receive a special miraculous manifestation? No, he’s going to take the word of God as the oracles of God and on that he's going to base his statements and not speak anything other than what God has spoken.

1. Peter indicates that speaking is itself a gift. It is itself a product of the Holy Spirit and therefore spiritual in its very nature. The focus of what Peter said, the focus of what Paul says, in both places, is that the gifts are from God. The glory ought to be given to God when the gift is utilized, or used.
2. When we get through considering the context of each list we should recognize that the term spiritual certainly applies to both miraculous and non-miraculous gifts. It's not wrong to recognize that you and I do have spiritual gifts and that God has given all of these things to us by His power through the Holy Spirit, but that doesn't involve nor necessitate any miraculous activity.

E. These are spiritual functions that benefit the spiritual body of Christ to build it up. They have been acquired through the influence of the Holy Spirit through the word of God. I think that's an important distinction, but sometimes we talk about passages like Romans 12 where it says that we have been given gifts, and we are to use our gifts to the glorify God, and we think simply in the terms of obvious ability.

1. If someone has the ability to run fast or if they can jump high or has some athletic ability or they are very smart, has a lot of intellect, or excels in math, they needs to use that ability to the glory of God.
2. Certainly we are to be using all of the things that God has given us in terms of ability to serve God but recognize in the context of Romans 12 that's not all that Paul's talking about. He's talking about spiritual gifts that have been given to us by the influence of the Spirit of God in our life to do spiritual work.
3. He mentions or lists these things that come from the Spirit of God that an individual ought to be able and willing to use. As a person uses these gifts in the work that is what makes the gifts productive. Makes these gifts function. We are the hands.
4. Consider that for a minute. Now in Philippians 2:13 Paul says; “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

i. The person is influenced by the word of God.
ii. The Holy Spirit provides gifts or functions that we can engage, that will build up the body of Christ.
iii. The implication there is that if the person does not spend time in the word of God they are not influenced by the Spirit of God, then they can’t have many spiritual gifts.

F. Certainly then, when we think about this aspect in searching after ways in which we can serve God, we have to recognize that the source of the ability and the knowledge and strength to use it comes from the word of God. Making sure that we spend time in the word of God and we meditate on the word of God and we live in obedience to the word of God in our life, so that the things God has given us to do become the functioning of the service that God provided to us.

II. Use Them: Then we come to the text. “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:” This then is the activity of service—use of the gifts that God provides. The growth and development of the body of Christ through the gifts that God provided, is the way that Paul says the church has built up. What gifts does Paul mention here? Let me take a couple of minutes to talk about these gifts because I think that even though the list is not exhaustive, there are some thoughts contained in it that help us to understand what our gifts may be or what our functions may be.

A. The first one he mentions here is prophecy. He says “if prophecy let us prophesy in proportion to our faith.” As I mentioned before the Greek word here prophēteia [pro-fey-tie-ah] is defined as; speaking forth of the mind and the Council of God, according to Vine’s. It simply means the aspect of speaking what God has given the person to speak. In nearly every occasion in the Bible, prophesy is used to describe the activity of someone who has been given a message directly from God.

1. The apostles were inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak and write. God brought things into remembrance that they wouldn’t have known had not the Holy Spirit been given unto them.
2. The prophet was one, both in the Old and New Testament, who could predict the future, reveal undiscoverable things from God, and therefore I believe that this aspect of prophecy always relates in its use to the miraculous measure or the Holy Spirit. It is by definition a miraculous gift.
3. The prophets and the apostles are talked about as laying the foundation of the church. Ephesians 2:20 so their work was by its very definition temporary. They were to receive the word as the apostles did and when they preached that word it became the basis on which the church was built.
4. Other men would preach the word of the apostles even as the apostles preached the Old Testament prophets to lay the foundation of an individual coming to God.

B. Today if we try to make an application of this aspect of the gifts we recognize that prophecy most clearly relates to someone who would stand up and preach or teach the word of God. This someone would not be receiving a direct revelation but would preach the word that came through direct revelation as recorded in the Bible.

1. If we think about the gifts there are some individuals who have a gift to stand up and preach the word of God, because they know what the word God says. That is, they've come to understand and recognize and discern what the word of God teaches and therefore they can stand up and they can take the prophetic word and they can make it known unto those listening.
2. That's exactly what Paul told Timothy to do to commit the word to other faithful men who would be able to teach others also.
3. Vine’s New Testament dictionary says that with the completion of the cannon of scripture prophecy apparently passed away. In this measure the teacher has taken the place of the Prophet. The difference is that whereas the message of the Prophet was a direct revelation of the mind of God for the occasion, the message of the teacher is gathered from the completed revelations contained in scripture.
4. You see then as mentioned in 1 Peter 4 the implication is; we dare not preach and teach anything other than that which is written in scripture, for which we have prophetic word. As Peter said in 2 Peter 21 “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”.
5. In the text Paul says, “let us prophesy in proportion to our faith”. The faith here may refer to the objective measure of the revelation. I think that's probably the best understanding. The prophet received a message. He was to prophesy according to that. He was not to go beyond that or leave anything out. He was to make known to others what God had made known to him. That's the very same principle we’re talking about here in speaking the oracles of God.

C. Then he mentions the word ministers. He says one of the gifts is ministry. If we have the gift of ministry let us use it in our ministering. The Greek word here is diakonia [de-aka-ne-ah] which means to serve. It’s used to describe all types of service. Physical servants who would serve a master or Paul as he talks about himself being a servant of Jesus Christ, as the apostles were talked about as being servants of the church.

1. The word there is diakonia [de-aka-ne-ah] referring to these as servants of the church. The word minister simply means Servant. Are you a minister? Yes, you are if you’re a Christian. You can't be anything other than a minister if you’re a child of God. Someone who recognizes their responsibility to serve others, and by the influence of a Holy Spirit has the ability to serve, to help another person.
2. Then we look at people as they help one another today and we recognize the spirit still gives the ability to individuals in a non-miraculous way to help one another even through the experiences of life and certainly through an understanding of the word of God. To understand what it means to sympathize and have empathy for another person, to read what Jesus did and know what Jesus did to help others and follow that example. All of that ability comes through the power of the Spirit influencing a person’s life. If one has the capacity to serve, to help in any way, Paul is saying you must use that gift. You dare not hold it back if you can serve another person you must do it. In a very real sense then we are all to be ministers.

D. He also says he who teaches in teaching. The word here again is the very general term. The original word simply means someone who stands up and through systematic and regular instruction tells another person what he needs to do or what he needs to know. In school your teachers would stand up and they would tell you things you didn't know before you studied and that's the aspect of teaching here.

1. The teacher in the biblical context has an enormous responsibility. In fact James says in James 3 that he has a heavier responsibility than a person who doesn't teach. “let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” His is a greater degree of condemnation because if he teachers something wrong and leads someone astray there’s a problem there. He is not only responsible for his own life he is also responsible for the life of the person he’s teaching.
2. Teaching is something that a person should never engage in without serious consideration, without recognizing the serious responsibilities involved. However, on the other side of that, every Christian must be a teacher.
3. Teachers are not simply a select group of individuals here that we set aside to do the teaching for us. The Bible nowhere in any way, condones the clergy-laity distinction among God’s people. In that sense we’re all clergy in the sense that we are all to be priests before God serving him and sacrificing and certainly teaching.
4. We look at Matthew 28:19 where the great commission is given to the apostles to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. He says they're to teach them to observe all things I have commanded. Everybody needs to be involved in the process of teaching. Titus 2:4 even older women are to teach the younger women how to love their husbands.
5. The word teach is used over and over again in the scriptures to talk about this aspect of imparting to someone information that they need to know.

Are you a teacher?
Do you know how to teach? Perhaps not in the official capacity or before a group. Consider...
Can you teach your children?
Can you teach others’ children?
Can you teach your spouse?
Can you teach your neighbor how to become a Christian?
Teach the very basics of what you did to become one.
Can you replicate that in teaching someone else?
Maybe the more pressing question is: Have you ever done that?

6. By becoming a Christian God gave you and me responsibilities to teach others how to become a Christian. Have you ever converted someone to Christ?

E. Paul also uses the term exhort here. He who exhorts. The compound word parakaleō [para-ka-layo] in the Greek language, para meaning alongside kaleō meaning to call. It literally means to call someone to your side. You're traveling a path that you have chosen and you call another person to go along with you. Side by side you encourage, you exhort this person.

1. In Ephesians Paul uses parakaleō and the English translation of that word is encourage. It means to advise, to plead with someone, to beseech, to warn someone, to strengthen someone, to comfort someone as this particular term is used to describe the Holy Spirit as the comforter, the paraklētos [para-kla-tos], the one who would bring assurance to Christians even through miraculous measures.
2. The Christians then is obligated to learn to exhort another person. It might involve comforting a brother and sister who is going through some emotional distress, who is facing trouble or suffering physically or is facing spiritual problems, who is involved in some trouble or some temptation. The Christian has an obligation to use the gift that they have to call that person along to their side and to exhort them.
3. How important is it for the church to have individuals utilize the gift of exhortation? We should recognize that there is a potential for all of us stray, become weak, fall away, just head down the wrong path, and if there is not someone there to bring us back, if there is not someone there to exhort us, someone who's close to us who can relate to us in a personal way, who can go to us even in privacy and talk about these things, we may very well be lost simply because there is no one to exhort.
4. In Galatians 6:1 Paul called on those who are spiritual. Notice he says; “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” Do we see the context here? The person who through the power of the Holy Spirit has learned a function and God expects them to use it. If you have a person that's spiritual they have an obligation to use that spiritual function or gift to bring someone back, to restore someone who's fallen away.
5. They have to do it in a spirit of gentleness. They may have to bear that other person’s burdens but they must use the gift. Perhaps many times we do not. Many times people fall away from church and become weak. They don’t come to the assemblies anymore and they don't associate with other Christians, they get involved in sin. What do we do? Do we stand back and watch? We have the ability to go talk to them, visit them, and try to encourage them. We can give an example of faithfulness to them but perhaps we don't use our gifts.

F. Then Paul says he who gives, do so with simplicity [KJV] or liberality [NKJV - ASV]. The idea of the word here is sincerity, free from pretence, not self seeking, openness manifested in generosity.

1. All of us give. I suspect Paul knows that some do not give from the heart, not giving as cheerful sharing but perhaps with other motivation. Paul is saying that God has given you the ability of the function to give, to understand the importance of giving, not just in the aspect that you have something to give but understand the importance of giving, and also to know how to give so that other people can benefit from it.
2. You remember what Jesus said in Luke 3:11 “"He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.''” That passage is pointing out what we have determines our responsibility. If you've got two tunics and think someone else needs one you should give him one. You can give to him abundantly.
3. Let him give it to him who has none certainly that applies the physical blessings but I believe it applies spiritually as well. A person is to give with liberality, generosity. While this carries with it the aspect of the amount that a person should give freely, it’s important to recognize that what the apostle is talking about here is that a person gives with no strings attached. He gives in an untainted way without any ulterior motive. That they are to give for the sake of the one they are giving to, for what God has called them to do. They do not give to be recognized as a giver, they do not give to get back or to have the applause of man.
4. Those who have the capacity to give should never be discouraged or prohibited from giving. One way we can deter people from giving—is by not receiving. Sometimes we are simply too proud to receive help. We don't want to admit that we need something.
5. I’m not just talking monetary here. Giving can take many forms and sometimes we are inclined to refuse it. Here's the problem: The person who is trying to do what is right, giving liberally and using their gift for good is turned back and discouraged from giving.
6. Or we're simply not willing to let them be anonymous in their giving. We want to shower them with Thanksgiving and bring them out into the open and give them applause. What we need to realize is that sometimes our human fleshly propensities and ideas of helping one another stand in the way of true spiritual giving where a person can give simply, for the purpose of serving God anonymously, seeking nothing in return, doing it out of the conviction of the heart.

G. Paul says he who leads to lead with diligence. I strongly suspect that this particular Bible passage refers to those who are in positions of leadership, the elders in the capacity of overseers. The same words used to describe their work is translated in 1 Timothy 5:17 – “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.” The word here is translated rule. That they need to rule over their families. They need to rule over the church.

1. Those who have been given the capacity to lead—need to lead. If they have the ability through their knowledge and through the Spirit’s influence in their life to lead others, they should lead. They should not be held back from their function of leading, and they need to do it with all diligence. The word there means zeal. This means you do something not casually, in a leisure way, you do it with great intensity towards a purpose. If you take on a position of leadership you need to take it seriously.
2. There's something here that really stands out to me where a person has been given the spiritual function to lead, whether they like it or not...and that's when you’re a father. You are the spiritual head of a family. You may not have consciously chosen that. You didn’t get that position because you were qualified from a training class, because you had a checklist, met all the requirements to be the head of a family.

i. You got that when you entered into the relationship of marriage and then you had children. You’re a father and a husband and God says by His very decree, without any necessary explanation, you are the leader.
ii. God will give you the capacity to lead. Not in some miraculous way, He’ll give you the capacity to lead in his word. If you spend time meditating on the word of God, listening to the example of Jesus, trying to be a spiritual person, if you use the gift that you already have in a way that pleases God, you will learn through the power of the Spirit of God how to lead.
iii. Not just how to lead but how to lead seriously your family into spiritual health.

H. Then lastly Paul says he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Look at the list. Does it seem a little odd that this would be included in a list of spiritual gifts? I can understand leading, some people are leaders and other people are followers. In the aspect of giving some people have something and some people don't. But showing mercy? Isn't that something everybody should do? Yes it is.

1. Showing mercy and showing sensitivity to suffering and sorrow and then responding, is a gift. It is something that God gives us through the influence of the spirit in our lives. The way of the flesh says I'm for myself and I only care about myself and a person ought to get what they deserve. Isn’t that the way the world looks at it?
2. A person becomes a Christian, the spirit influences their lives and they recognize I am what I am by the grace of God. If I am going to be a spiritual person I need to learn how to show mercy to others. I need to learn how to look at other people and see their suffering and empathize with that suffering, to see the suffering and sorrow that go unnoticed by others. To see the suffering that takes place within the heart of an individual and tries to do something about it.
3. I believe this is particularly seen in the Christian who visits the hospital, who goes to the sick, who visits the prisoner in jail, who helps the young mothers struggling with their children. The one who cares about other people, who aids people with disabilities, who recognizes that other people don't have as much as they have and wants to provide help for them. Those are the activities of mercy that were vital to the first century church.

I. One of the first visible manifestations of the Lord’s Church in Acts chapter two was that they cared about one another. Individuals that didn't have immediately received from those that had, so that everybody had what they needed. They didn't deserve that, they didn't earn that, those weren’t acts of obligation. They were Christians using the gift that God gave them through the power of the Holy Spirit to help another person, to show mercy.

1. How do you do that? If you have to bite your tongue when you're saying a kind word, if you have to grudgingly squeeze the nickel out of your hands, God doesn't want it and neither does the person who’s going to get it. It has to be given from the heart. It has to be given cheerfully.
2. One cannot show mercy out of obligation because showing mercy is giving to someone who does not deserve it. That's how I got the Mercy I got. That's how you received mercy as well. We didn't deserve it. God gave it to us. If I'm going to give to someone else, I have to be willing to give it cheerfully.
3. One writer wrote in talking about this as a spiritual gift and comparing to other spiritual gifts in the Bible: “Would all the Christians with this gift not only administer it cheerfully but also regularly and consistently there will be fewer needy who have to depend on a Godless and impersonal government or social agency and if Christ’s people patterned their lives after His gracious example, far more people would hear and respond to the saving gospel that meets their greatest need.”

CONCLUSION:
Oh, if we were just people who would use the gifts that God gave us. If we could just show mercy, as basic as that is, we might even bring people to Christ.

It's critical to understand that spiritual gifts are not given for us; they're given for other people. In order to properly use our gifts we have to be willing to serve other people and use our gifts for the development of the whole body of Christ. It is into our hands these gifts have been given.

We are personally blessed, when we're able to use the gifts that we have for other people. Not only that, it is helping the other people that makes the gift powerful.
1 Peter 4:10 a passage we looked at earlier and we’ll close with this; “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Stewardship, folks, is how we use the grace, the gifts, given us.
What do we do with our gifts? Do we minister to somebody else? Do we give to other people? Help other people with it. A thief steals it for himself. Christians give to somebody else.

No ability, gift, spiritual or otherwise is of any value if it is not used. Think about this; what if all the worlds beautiful sculptures and paintings were in private hands, in collections not to be seen by others. They would simply be a collection. That's not what God means for us when He says we have been given gifts. They have to be used to be beneficial. It’s tragic when we keep our spiritual gifts stored rather using them to serve our Lord and to provide for the benefit of His spiritual body.

We are about to sing the song of invitation. If you are not a Christian, we with all our heart plead with you to make a decision for Christ today. To decide to be His child, step out in your faith and be baptized in water for the forgiveness of sin. That faith becomes access to the grace of God, made possible by the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We believe in that and we rest our hope in that blood.

We invite anyone who has that need or any other need to come forward while we stand and while we sing.

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon: David Schmidt

Using Our Gifts - Part 2

Romans 12:3-8

INTRO:
Good morning. Today we are going to continue to look at Romans 12. Just as a reminder if you hear me say anything that is not according to scripture please let me know and we can look at it together. In general I will be using the New King James or the King James Version for reference. This morning I would like to continue in our study of this chapter beginning at verse three and continuing through verse 8. Please turn there with me now.

Romans 12:3-8 – “3. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5. so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7. or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8. he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

In our last lesson we looked closely at the first part of these verses and talked about Paul’s admonition to humility. We cannot think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. True humility is the environment for serving one another and for serving God. That was the lesson last week, to have a proper attitude for service.

In the continuation of our study I want to look two other aspects of service that are contained in these verses. First is the proper relationship of serving. We will talk about that this morning. God has placed us in a relationship with Him and with one another. That's the perfect environment in which we can serve Him and each other. Second we will look at the activity of serving. Paul gives us a list here that talks about different activities which are to be involved in serving one another and serving God. These activities flow from the attitude and the relationship that he just discussed.

I. The Proper Relationship of Serving: As I thought about that I wondered, what is the proper relationship of serving? I believe it may be found in the verse where he said we have many members in one body. Earlier in this chapter the apostle used the term body in the literal sense when he said we should offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God. He was talking about the use of our physical bodies in such a way as they are consecrated to God. In verses 4 and 5 he uses the term body in a different way, a symbolic way, illustrating the spiritual sense. He says; For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

A. The term body here is referring to the body of disciples, the assembly of individuals. The analogy is easy for us to see. In the physical reality we have one body, one physical body. In the spiritual reality there is one body of God’s people, one body of disciples. That tells us some things about the body of Christ, about the singular nature of the body of Christ, or as we refer to it, the church. In the Bible the church is not a conglomeration of various denominated congregations. The Bible does not teach that the church in the universal sense is made up of different denominations or even of different congregations.

1. The Bible describes the universal body of disciples as made up of individuals who are individually consecrated and given to God. Who individually belong to Him in the same way that the members of your physical body belong to you. Those members, in the strictest aspect of the analogy, all submit to the leadership of the single head.
2. I don't believe we can possibly understand the Biblical use, and particularly Paul’s use of the terminology “body”, without looking closely at what it refers to in the analogy.

i. That is, the physical organism that you and I live in—the physical body.
ii. In these verses Paul is not using physical body in an institutional sense. He is not talking about a body in the sense of being an institution or an organization, but in an anatomical sense—in the aspect of an organism or a living thing as our bodies are living things.

3. Paul identified the church as the body of Christ. We can use that analogy to further understand the spiritual relationship that we have with God, and the spiritual relationship we have with one another. Now there are several times in scripture where Paul talks about the body as being the body of disciples. He identifies the body of Christ as the church in Ephesians 1:22-23 – “22. ... He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23. which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”. Also Colossians 1:24 – “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,”

i. Paul uses this illustration in several different ways to help us understand that the body is the universal group of God's people. It is the church. I think that in many ways we can recognize that this destroys the idea of the denominated church such as exists today. In this country we seem to have the view it is ok that there are many churches with different beliefs and different creeds, different confessions, and with different congregations. I’ll talk more about that in another lesson.
ii. In our text in Romans chapter 12 that's not really the way Paul uses that particular terminology or at least that's not the main point when Paul says that we are members of one body.
iii. The only head of the church as His is body, is Christ. That concept can never be divorced from the Biblical use of the terminology that the church is the body of Christ. When Christ is referred to as the head of the body it’s referring to this aspect of the mind or the spirit of the body—the control of the body.
iv. Jesus is the head of the church in the sense in which you and I submit to His leadership we submit to the mind of Christ. We submit to His desires and it is Christ that animates the church in the same way that the mind animates the body in the physical realm.
v. When a body loses its mind or loses its spirit it becomes dead, it is nothing more than a corpse. If a group of individuals, or if a congregation of the church of Christ loses its connection with the head, if it fails to follow the mind of Christ, it is nothing but a dead corpse of individuals, spiritually. That concept is important for us to recognize. The church may be properly organized may have an institutional reference to being a church of Christ, but if it does not follow spiritually the head it is certainly not the body that belongs to Christ.

4. The same picture, I think, of the body of Christ is utilized by Paul in his discussion of miraculous gifts in I Corinthians chapter 12. I would like to look at a couple of passages from that as well to help us understand the point. First Corinthians Chapter 12:12-14 – “12. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14. For in fact the body is not one member but many.” Here Paul again utilizes this aspect of the body to make a point about the diversity of spiritual gifts that existed in Corinth, how they were misusing those gifts and how their attitude towards those gifts was certainly not indicative of the spirit in which they were given.

i. In this discussion Paul makes it clear that the unity of God's church is based upon their common obedience to a single head, the Lord. In this passage he mentions this aspect of the single nature of God himself. One Spirit. There is one God. As there is one God, there is one body. In verse 13 he says “have all been made to drink into one Spirit”. The singular nature of God, the singular nature of the spirit, singular nature of the revelation makes it clear that there can’t be many different bodies. There must be one body because there is one head, because there is one mind, because there is one spirit.
ii. That tells us something. That the unity of God's people in the church is based upon the unity or the singular nature of the objective message of the Spirit of God. It's contained in the written word. We become the church that belongs to Christ when we obey the word, the revelation of the mind and the spirit of God.
iii. When we as members of a body submit to the head, we become the church that belongs to Christ. The physical body has many members but one mind. That one mind tells each part of the body what it is best suited or fitted or equipped to do. The members of that body work in conjunction with the other members of the body and they make the decisions they do and actions that they take based upon what's good for the body as a whole. All of that is orchestrated. All of that is made possible because there is a will, because there is a mind, because there is a head.
iv. In Ephesians chapter 4 Paul says that we are not to create the unity of the spirit that we are to maintain the unity of the spirit because the unity of the spirit, the unity that is created by the spirit of God, is already in place, by the written divine Spirit given by God.

5. What makes the church one? It's not me saying it or you saying it. It’s not by putting it on a banner or making it a mantra of the church that we are one. What makes the church one is the singular nature of the mind of God revealed through scripture. God had given His body one direction, one mind.

B. In Romans Chapter 12 Paul uses the term one body. In this context Paul is showing that there is one body and there is a diversity of members of that body. How obvious that is to us in the physical sense. There is only one of us, but there is one body that works together, we just have different members.

1. The implication of that is what Paul is able to show here. He makes a point about using the gifts that we have for the benefit of the church as a whole. He says this one body has many members, just as we do in a physical sense. What does that mean? As I mentioned, I think, there are implications.

i. One of the most basic implications of that statement is that God's church is not a homogenized group of spiritual clones; we are not all exactly the same. We come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different races, different social classes, different nationalities, we come from different places.
ii. Ultimately our backgrounds contribute to make us who we are. It is an arrogant mistake, I think, to see Christians or to visualize Christians as being American, white, middle class Northerners, who sing 4 part harmony. That may, in some way, describe some of us, but in no means describes all of us and certainly does not describe who all Christians are. Even in a local group of individuals there are different people from different cultures from different backgrounds who have ultimately different thoughts and ideas. Maybe even to the point they have different convictions on what God has said in his word, and are very likely at different points in their spiritual growth.

2. Paul deals with that in the book of Romans and again in the book of First Corinthians. Individuals are at different levels. Some are more knowledgeable and some are not as knowledgeable, and some are strong, some are weak. All those individuals make up a single body—many members making up a single body.

i. God demands within that body, even with all of that diversity, He demands that there be what we might call “practical unity” among the group. As God has established unity on a spiritual level so He demands unity on a practical level. By that He means we’ve got to get along as God’s people. The way that we get along as God's people in this context, is that we recognize that we have a job to do, that we have tools to be used, and that God has made possible practical unity among His people even in diversity, through the use of their gifts.

3. What we recognize in this is the individual diversity is consistent with practical unity. The fact that we are all different and come from different backgrounds does not mean that unity is not possible, nor is that individual diversity inconsistent with the fact that God demands unity. It is as big a mistake to force unity by trying to make everyone alike, a clone, as it is to elevate diversity to the extent that each individual member looses contact with the mind and unity becomes impossible. There's diversity in God's body but that body works together because the single mind has given each individual member a function to perform and as it performs that function—the body has benefited as a whole.

i. The body is like unto a football team, you've got 40/50 guys on the roster. What happens if all of them want to be the quarterback? How about if there are just a couple of guys that want to be quarterback, and who have the skills to be quarterback? You know what has to happen; one has to be selected as the quarterback. He will operate as quarterback and nobody else on the team can be him. They have to be somebody else. Everybody on the team has a job to do and as those individuals work together—the team functions.
ii. Practical unity of the body is based upon individual function. Individual function does not destroy unity it creates unity. Certainly that's true from a spiritual sense. Paul addresses that Ephesians 4:13-16 “till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;”. There’s the body, there’s the measure. “14. that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, 15. but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ 16. from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. ” Paul tells us in using the analogy of a physical body, that all parts have to function together and it is the head that directs. We all grow up under a single head and if every part does its share then the body grows. A body that is unified grows stronger.
iii. A body where the parts rebel and the members don't do their job is a body that will die. Think about that in the spiritual sense.

C. Now turn back to Romans chapter 12 and a further description of the unity of diversity. Paul says in Romans 12:5 that we are individually members of one another. What does that mean—individually members of one another? I suggest to you that is the biblical picture of interdependence. Not independence but the opposite, interdependence. What Paul's telling us is that we cannot in the spiritual sense function in isolation from each other any more than a member of the physical body can say to the rest of the body I'm not connected. I don't have anything to do with you.

1. The members of my body cannot exist nor function in isolation from other members of my body and we are the same way in the spiritual sense. There is no independence in the body of Christ. There is interdependence in the body of Christ. Again go back to First Corinthians chapter 12. First Corinthians 12:21-25 - “21. ... the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you''; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you.'' 22. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24. but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25. that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.”

2. Paul compares again the spiritual parts of the body of Christ to our human body. He says there are different kinds of parts to your physical body.

i. I'm not well versed on anatomy and all there is to know about parts of my body, but I think what Paul says here is obviously true of our physical bodies. There are parts that are more visible, that are more prominent, that are out in front, that everybody notices.
ii. If a person walks up to you and they don't have a nose you're going to notice that right off. It's a presentable part in the middle of a face that should be there and if it's not, you notice. There are parts of our body that are up front and prominent such as our eyes and our hands and our arms and our legs or our ears.
iii. There are those members which by the way they are placed on the body would seem to be more important or stronger than other parts of the body. We know that's not so. There are members of our body that are in that sense less strong, more vulnerable, yet are more important in terms of the life of the body itself.
iv. In terms of Paul's discussion here think about the physical body and ask, what are our vital organs? Is your ear a vital organ? If you lose it, it's a bad thing or if you lose an eye, it's a bad thing, but you can live without it. There are people who have no eyes or no ears who live. If however someone were to lose their heart or their lungs or one of their vital organs that are on the inside of the body they cannot survive.
v. Isn’t it interesting in terms of the physical body those organs we consider to be vital, organs that need to be protected, in the physical sense they are protected. The lungs and heart are skeletally protected in your body away from the view of others and away from that which might harm them, so that they can be vital to life. They are weaker but they're more important.
vi. We can lose an eye or an ear or a leg and still live. Certainly the work of your hands is more prominent, what do you do with your hands is seen by all, the work of your heart that goes unseen almost unnoticed—yet is absolutely essential. I lose my hands and I can't work where everybody can see what I do, that's bad. But if my heart stops working--that's critical. Just because a member is weaker does not mean that the member of the body is less important to the body as a whole. In fact the natural aspect of it is that the body itself protects those members that are more vulnerable because those members that are more vulnerable are sometimes and in many ways more important than those that are not as vulnerable.
vii. Think about that on the spiritual level. We all have different vulnerabilities spiritually before us and we could use the term weaker and stronger to apply to ourselves as members of the body of Christ. If there are weaker and stronger members of the body of Christ, which of those members are more important to the body as a whole. Which of them are more vital?
viii. Could it be that sometimes the members who appear the weakest, who are less prominent, are the most vital to the life of the body itself? Could that possibly be what Paul’s telling us? We have to recognize that we are members one of another. I cannot stand in isolation from others and say “well you know they are just not that important”. I can not say “it doesn't matter about them and that I can overlook them, I can neglect them”; when they are members of the same body.

3. Paul's using this analogy to get us to recognize that we have a mutual responsibility. In Verse 25 and 26 he gives two necessary admonitions that flow from the illustration. He said but the members should have the same care for one another. I Corinthians 12:25. Mentally underline the word same there because while we are willing to say “I care about everybody”, that’s not all the Paul’s saying. He's saying you have the same care for every member of the body of Christ. If this person is hurting and this person has spiritual problems and this person's marriage on the rocks... that is just as important as this member over here, when they suffer.

i. We have the same care for one another, that we value each person in the body, and sincerely care about them as well as the others in the physical and social and spiritual sense. We are all members of one another in the body of Christ.
ii. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it or if one member is honored all the members rejoice with it. That’s true physically isn’t it?
iii. Sometimes members that are seemingly insignificant in our physical body when they start hurting, everybody else hurts too. I never even gave my thyroid a thought through most of my life, but when things started to go wrong with it believe me the whole body felt the effect! When one member suffers all suffer and there is no insignificant suffering going on in the body of Christ. Because there is no insignificance part.
iv. There's also no insignificant honoring going on. If there is an occasion for rejoicing among seemingly the most insignificant member of the body of Christ, members of the body need to rejoice over that. They need to be happy about it. We need to be willing to honor one another.

4. What this tells me is that in the whole body of Christ there is no place, there can be no place for competition and for envy among God’s people. Envy destroys the ability in us to rejoice about something good that happened to somebody else—in somebody else's life. It's the very antithesis to this aspect that Paul’s talking about here. When envy is there honor doesn't happen it simply doesn't happen.

D. Turn to Romans chapter 12 Verse 4 again. In verse four he says; “we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,”. Not every member has the same function. Again that's one of those ideas when you apply it to the physical body that’s easy to see. In fact we diagnose problems depending upon the function of a particular member of our body. If we're having trouble hearing we don't examine the big toe because we know that we don't hear through our big toe. There's a place to look if we can’t hear and there's a place to look if we can’t see because there are members of our body that are distinguished by their function.

1. Paul uses the words function in this particular passage of the NKJV and the King James uses the word office which I think is probably one of those unfortunate translations of the original word. The word here is praxis which means a doing, an act or a function or a deed. It is best rendered I think as function. When we talk about a doctor and say: Does he have a practice? We might mean does he have an office somewhere but we may mean more. Does he have a place for his patients to come? We mean does he have a function of serving as a doctor. The term office in the 1600’s did indeed carry that meaning though not so much here today.
2. That's the aspect here. Not all members have the same function in the body of Christ. Paul is not talking about position or rank, which is what we might get from the word office today. That's not the thought. There are many in the church who do not have an office so to speak, but they all have a function to perform. That's what Paul's saying here.
3. The question that comes to mind, what is your function? What is your practice? That's an important question to our discussion unfortunately we're low on time. We're not going to discuss all that this morning. Lord willing next week this is where we're going to pick up at this particular passage and talk about how we function as an individual, diverse members of the body of Christ.

E. But let me give an overall answer to the question before we close. We're going to try to answer it to some extent from the scriptures in a particular sense by looking at the things that Paul mentioned here. What’s my function? What’s my job? What is important for me in terms of the overall working of the body of Christ?

1. Think about this on a local level as this body of Christ exists today. I believe the answer is found in verse six. My function is to use the gifts that God gave me. That's my function. That takes some spiritual discernment, not only does it take courage and faith to exercise the gifts God gives me but before that—I have to find out what the gifts are!
2. What is it that God has given me to do, for which I am equipped and which I am able to perform in such a way that benefits the body as a whole? Never be mistaken or deceived into thinking that each one of us does not have a function for the performance of the body as a whole. That's exactly what Paul’s saying here. You and I, each one of us have a function. We all have a gift if we use that terminology as Paul does.

i. We all have a gift given to us by the grace of God that we need to utilize to benefit the body of Christ and for our own salvation. In fact, if I'm not mistaken Paul's making it an absolute criterion of my own salvation in Romans chapter 12, that I learn to exercise my spiritual gifts. Don't be thrown off by the word spiritual there because sometimes we take the word spiritual and apply it to the word gift and immediately assume we're talking about miraculous activity. There are times the Bible where the term spiritual gifts, particularly in First Corinthians 12, where it’s talking about that which came in miraculous measure in the first century by the Spirit of God.
ii. The word spiritual in the general sense applies to those things that come as a result of the working of the Spirit of God in my life. God expects me to be a spiritual person not in some miraculous measure but with the spirit of God influencing my life to the point that I would do and think and act in ways that I have never acted before. That are contrary to the carnal way, the natural way that I might act. God would turn me around and make me a spiritual person.
iii. There are spiritual gifts that all of us have. There are things that God could create within us through the power of the His Spirit to get us to do things that we wouldn't ordinarily do. Some of them we've already mentioned in the passage such as; to be able to have the same care and concern for people that are not like us; to be unprejudiced and open minded towards the lives of others; to be compassionate towards those who are suffering things that you and I have never suffered. Where do we get the ability to do that? We get it from the Spirit of God. That does not come naturally.

3. I have to say this, naturally men divide. They divide on the borders of nationality and culture and thinking. They are carnal by their very nature. There is not a natural unity among people today. There is a natural disunity. When God's people, diverse as they are, come together to work together, coming from different backgrounds all for the purpose of doing what is right, that's a spiritual thing that comes from the Spirit of God.

i. Paul tells us be filled with the spirit of God not with dissipation. Learn to love your enemy, give to those who do not give to you, that is doing things that are unnatural. In this society that applauds self-sufficiency, that applauds independence; it is easy for us to fall prey to the notion that we don't need each other. It's easy for us to fall prey to the thought that we can stand alone in our relationship to God.
ii. Paul dispels that forever here in these passages. You and I are a body. We are not only members of the body but more specifically and particularly we are members of one another. God redeemed us and called us not only for Himself, He's called us and redeemed us for each other so we could benefit each other in the quest to live for God.

4. In Hebrews 10:24-25 the writer says; “... let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” I wonder about the overall emphasis of what the writer is exhorting here.

i. These verses are not simply to be used to encourage people to attend an assembly. As important as attending an assembly is and as absolutely essential as it is that we not forsake the assembly of ourselves together, he prefaces this aspect of the necessity of the assembly by saying; we must first consider one another. We first have to care about one another.
ii. We first have to really be involved in one another's lives to stir up love and good works. We can't do that by forsaking the assembling of ourselves together! It’s the coming together that provides the arena and the environment in which the true stirring up can take place. Let us recognize that without the care and concern the assembly loses meaning. We have to care as members one to another and to serve one another.

CONCLUSION:
Let me close with this thought.

You cannot fulfill your responsibility of being a member of another individual in the body of Christ if you are outside the body, if you’re not under the head. Paul told the Corinthians in the passage we just studied that they had been baptized into one body by the Spirit of God. He makes known to them the time at which they became a member of that body because that's an important consideration in terms of their responsibility.
They can't simply stand aloof from the responsibly when they become a Christian and just say oh that's nice. There are a lot of people that take that approach to religion. They want to ignore the clear indication of what it means to become a Christian and do things in obedience, to come into the body of Christ. Yet they want to extol the aspect of unity and interdependence and mutuality among us.
We all ought to love one another. Of course the concept of love is portrayed more clearly in the body of Christ than anyplace else. That is the true and proper relationship of service that you be a part of the body of Christ. You cannot serve God apart from being a part of the body of Christ. That doesn't make the body an institution to save you. It makes it the environment and certainly the organism that you must be a part of to ever be saved.

Certainly the Bible describes the body of Christ as those that are saved. We submit ourselves to the headship of Christ. That's the question we end on this morning because that's the question that's most related to our understanding of the body of Christ as the Bible describes.

Are you willing to submit to the headship of Jesus Christ? That was the call of the Gospel from the first century. In the very first gospel sermon the thing that Peter made known to them was that this Jesus they had crucified is both Lord and Christ. The question was What must we do. What can we do to submit ourselves to the authority of Jesus Christ? The answer to that question was You must repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins.

Do you believe that Jesus Christ is head over all things to church the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. Do you believe that Jesus died for you and rose again on the third day and by that He has all authority in heaven and on earth? You as a creation of God must submit yourself to Him before you can ever be pleasing to Him. If you believe that and are not part of the body, come and be baptized this morning. When you repent of sins and you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior and are baptized for the forgiveness of your sins you are baptized into a body.

That's not a local congregation; you're baptized into the universal body that belongs to Jesus Christ because you in the exercise of that faith have submitted yourself to the head of that body. He alone is the one who directs you. You've all been made to drink of one Spirit and are of one body. We invite anyone who has that need or any other need to come forward while we stand and while we sing.

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon: David Schmidt

Be Ye Angry and Sin Not

Ephesians 4:26-27

INTRO: Good morning church. For our text this morning I invite you to turn to Ephesians 4. In just a moment we'll read verses 26 and 27. There are people that I know who have expressed concern to me about a family member or a close friend who is not listening to their doctor. I suspect many of us have seen this problem. We go to the doctor, the doctor tells us what to do, and then it seems we think we know better and do what we want to. Unfortunately, we sometimes pay the price. There are times when we need help medically. We go to a doctor that we trust, and we want their recommendation. Then, of course, we need to put this recommendation into practice. I wonder, if we don't listen to what the doctor says, then why go to them? We need to follow the doctor's orders.

There's a doctor I want to speak about today that we read of in the Bible. He's called the great physician. His name is Jesus. What good does it do to go to Him for spiritual healing if we don't listen to what He says? That just doesn't make any sense for us to go to the Lord, have Him tell us what He wants us to do so that we can be healed spiritually, and then not pay any regard to what He tells us.

By inspiration, the apostle wrote in Ephesians 4:26-27. “Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” Here the Lord speaks to us through the apostle Paul. Today, we will base our lesson on the opening words of verse 26, “Be angry, and do not sin”[NKJV].
That's the title of our lesson.

These days it seems we are constantly exposed to angry people, and we see the effects of uncontrolled anger all the time. We're concerned about all the violence taking place in our country and throughout the world. We hear about a person with a gun taking innocent lives. Often the root problem is anger. There might be other issues, but sometimes they are a symptom rather than the real problem. The Bible has a lot to say about anger.

We're constantly exposed to outbursts of uncontrolled anger. There have been many appalling instances, but one I recall was reported on February 24th of last year by the MetroWest Daily News. Two ladies, (if you want to call them that), got into a brawl in a store. Someone recorded it with a phone, and I thought, how sad. To make matters worse, there happened to be a little boy there, I would guess, about five or six years old. He was the son of one of the women and his mother encouraged him to get involved, and he started kicking the other woman. I thought, ah, there's my nomination for Mother of the Year. I'm being sarcastic, of course. Just last month there was a video of 2 men fighting outside of a Miami Publix Grocery over a parking spot. One man pulled out a gun and fired a shot fortunately missing the other. What leads to fights like that and other things that are even worse? Uncontrolled anger. We're constantly exposed to outbursts of anger, and if we're not careful, it can rub off on us. What takes place in the world will affect God's people if we're not watchful. We have to guard against that influence.

I. Let God in His word, teach us some things that He wants us to know about being angry and yet not sinning. First, we consider some general principles that relate to anger.

A. We just touched on this, but as you examine the scriptures, you can't help but see that anger leads to irrational behavior. That particular point is made numerous times in the scriptures. Let’s look at three illustrations.

1. In Genesis 4, just a few chapters into the beginning of the Bible, you read about Cain and Abel. In Genesis 4:5 it says “…Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.” [NKJV]. In other words, he was filled with wrath. He was filled with uncontrolled anger. Why? Because God did not respect the offering that he gave. By faith, Abel gave of his flocks. He presented an animal sacrifice unto the Lord, and the Lord was pleased, and He had respect for Abel and his offering.

a. Cain presented an offering of the fruit of the ground, his produce. God was not pleased with that, and He had no respect for Cain and his offering. Consequently, Cain became very angry.
b. What did his uncontrolled anger lead Cain to do? Genesis 4:8 tells us that he killed his brother Abel. At almost the very beginning of the Bible, we see that uncontrolled anger leads to irrational behavior. A man killed his brother.

2. In 2 Kings 5:10-11, we read about a man named Naaman. He was the commander of the army of the king of Syria, a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master. He was also a mighty man of valor, but he had leprosy. He learned that there was a prophet, Elisha, who could cure him. So he went to Samaria to be healed, and he was told what to do.

a. “Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.'' But Naaman became furious,” How did Naaman respond? He was furious, - angry, - mad because of what the prophet told him to do. His irrational behavior was that He refused to do what the prophet told him so that he could be cleansed of his leprosy.
b. Thankfully, that's not the end of the story. After he cooled down, his servant came and reasoned with him and said, “Sir, if that prophet had told you to do some great thing, you would have done it. Why don't you just go wash and be cleansed?”[para] His anger had subsided, he went and washed in that old muddy Jordan River seven times, and he was cleansed of his leprosy. As long as his heart was filled with anger, he refused to do what he needed to do so that he could be cleansed.

3. There's a third illustration I want to mention. It involves the parable found in Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son. I’m sure you recall it.

a. He had an older brother. After the young son returned home and his father received him so graciously and prepared a great feast, the older brother wanted to know what was going on, and a servant told him, 'Your brother's home and your father has received him safe and sound, and we're going to have a great feast.
b. The Bible says in Luke 15:28 “But he was angry and would not go in…” What did his anger lead him to do? What was his irrational behavior? He refused to go into the feast that his father gave for his younger brother.
c. These are three illustrations in the Bible that show anger leads to irrational behavior. Even if we didn't look any further, that ought to get our attention and help us understand how important it is that we be angry and sin not, as we're taught in Ephesians 4:26.

4. Anger not only causes irrational behavior but there are some other principles that we need to mention.

B. Did you know that anger is habit-forming? Let's look at Proverbs 19:19 which says, and I paraphrase, “A hot-tempered person must pay the penalty; rescue them, and you will have to do it again.”[para]. That verse has to do with the fate of those who are overcome with anger, but listen to this; if you rescue them, you will have to do it again. In other words, anger becomes a habit. It has to be dealt with. If it isn't, it will continue and will probably get even worse.
C. Did you know that anger is contagious? Let's look at Proverbs 22:24-25, “ Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go,” Why? “lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.” Have you ever heard it said, “It’s easy to be good when you're around good people”? Unfortunately, it's also easy to be bad when you're around bad people. Any parent who has worried about the friends their child has knows this instinctively. It's also easy to be angry when you're around people who are prone to be angry. That's what the writer is teaching us here, Solomon, of course, was a wise man. Anger is contagious.
D. Sounds to me like maybe a visit to the doctor is necessary. Anger leads to irrational behavior. Anger is habit-forming. Anger is contagious. Let's go on. Anger leads to other sins. Look at Proverbs 29:22, “An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression.” Anger leads to other sins. It opens the door to doing things we might not otherwise do.
E. Let's look at Proverbs 30:33. This verse shows us that anger causes strife. “For as churning milk produces butter, and as striking the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.”[para] Notice how strife is associated with anger. Anger causes strife. It doesn't reduce strife. It doesn't eliminate it. It causes strife. These are some general principles that relate to anger. Let me mention them again very quickly. Anger leads to irrational behavior. Anger is habit forming. Anger is contagious, anger leads to other sins, and anger causes strife.

II. With those general principles before us, let's go back to our text in Ephesians 4:26-27.

A. As we study these verses we need to look at them in the context. Always study passages in the proper context. That will avoid a lot of misunderstanding.

1. Chapter 4 has to do with the way that God's children are to walk. Notice how it begins in Ephesians 4:1, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to have a walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,”.

a. Reading on through verse 16, we're shown how we are to walk. We are to walk worthy of our vocation.
b. Notice the change in Ephesians 4:17, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.”[ESV] Continuing through verse 24, we are taught that we're not to walk like people in the world. This chapter begins by showing that we're to walk worthy of the vocation by which we've been called. Then beginning at verse 17 and going down through verse 24, we find that we're not to walk like people in the world. These are general instructions related to our walk. Next Paul gives some specifics.

2. In verse 25, he dealt with lying. Then in verses 26-27, the verses that we're studying, he gives us some instructions that relate to anger. As we strive to understand the meaning of what's written in Ephesians 4:26-27, we need to look at them in the proper context. Christians are being shown how to walk.

B. What do these statements in these two verses mean?

1. I’m using the NKJV here. Verse 26 says, “Be angry” followed by a comma, not a period. If there was a period, then we would be commanded to be angry, but that is not what it says.

a. What is anger? How do we define it? Anger is an emotional response. It's an emotional response we have to something or someone that displeases us. Something happens to us that causes us to be displeased, and the emotional response to that can be anger.
b. Let me point out right here that not all anger is wrong. Mark 3:5 says that Jesus looked at some people with anger. “So when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts,…” Jesus was angry, being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts.

He was in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. There was a man there with a withered hand, the Pharisees were present, and they were watching to see if Jesus was going to heal this man on the Sabbath day so they could accuse him. They were looking to bring an accusation against the Lord. Jesus, remember, knew people's minds. He knew what was inside man. Jesus knew the condition of these people's hearts, and He was filled with anger. He went ahead and healed the man. They left and started a conspiracy to try to bring something against the Lord.

c. There are times when people try to pass off a sinful type of anger as righteous indignation, but there is a difference. The Bible doesn't condemn all anger.

2. There is a particular anger that the Bible does condemn, and that's what we're concerned about today. We all have emotions and some of us are probably better able to control our emotions than others. We also have things that displease us. Some people have more things that displease them than others. Since we all have emotions and we all have things that displease us, we're all subject to being angry. It can happen. It can happen to the best of us. These verses teach us not to sin as a result of being angry. Notice what it says, be angry, and do not sin. What we're being taught is not to sin as a result of being angry.

C. It is the anger that leads us to sin that scripture condemns. We're all subject to it, but the Bible teaches us to have it under control. As we examine the scriptures, we see that often this particular anger is also referred to as wrath. Anger that causes sin is condemned, not justified, not rationalized; it's condemned in the scriptures.

1. Let's look at Ephesians 4:31-32. “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” Verse 31 is very clear in teaching us that wrath and anger are to be put away. In my Bible, it says, all, all of it. Not some of it, not just a little bit of it, but it says, Let all of it be put away.
2. In Galatians 5: Verses 19-21, the works of the flesh are listed. These are serious matters because they'll keep people from inheriting the Kingdom of God. Verse 20 includes wrath. That's the uncontrolled anger that we're concerned about.
3. Colossians 3:8. “But now you must also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.”
4. I think it's interesting that a long, long time ago, back in the first century, it was necessary for these instructions about wrath to be given to the Lord's people in various areas.

a. Ephesians was written to the Christians living in the city of Ephesus. Galatians was written to the Christians living in the area known as Galatia. Colossians was written to Christians living in Colossi. It was important for them to be taught about the perils of anger.
b. It is important for us as well. We live in the same old world, and the same old things that were present in the first century are still present today.

III. We are being taught in Ephesians 4:26-27 that our anger must be controlled and we must not allow it to result in sin. That being the case, let's turn our attention to some instructions that will help us to control anger.

A. Ephesians 4:26 says, Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath.

1. In other words, let go of your anger the same day it arises. Easier said than done you might say. Yet it can be done and must be done. Otherwise, God wouldn't tell us to do it. The problem is not God and His word. The problem sometimes is our implementation of what He wants us to do.
2. What good is it to go to the doctor and they tell us what to do, but then we don’t do it? The great physician tells us to not let the sun go down upon our wrath. We have already seen from the Book of Proverbs that anger leads to other sins. If it's not turned loose, if we do not let it go, then it leads to things such as malice, hatred, and even a desire for revenge. Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath.

B. Look at Ephesians 4:27. This verse says that we're not to give place to the devil. We must determine in our hearts that we're not going to give Satan the opportunity to lead us into sin.

1. As James said, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The devil has many tools at his disposal. The Bible teaches that he's crafty. He's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He knows our strengths, and he knows our weaknesses. Do you think he's going to attack us where we're strong? No. He'll attack us where we're weak. If he knows that we have a problem with anger, you better believe he's going to attack it with all he's worth.
2. The Bible says, Resist the devil. We have to stand up against him. Anger is a point of temptation. When we're tempted to become angry and fly off the handle, as we sometimes say, we have to resist the devil. If we do that, he will flee from us. That doesn't say he won't come back because he will. He walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, 1 Peter 5:8. If he's resisted though, he will flee.

C. These are some very helpful instructions. Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath and don't give place to the devil. Let’s look at some additional instructions. I’m going now to the Book of Romans, and in chapter 12 there are some very short instructions given to us that are very, very helpful in leading us to live as the Lord wants us to live.

1. Romans 12:19 teaches us to remember that vengeance belongs to God. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.””[ESV] Often these days we hear about or even find ourselves exposed - to road rage. Do you know what the root problem behind a lot of that is? It’s anger on behalf of the person who started it. Often the other person responds by wanting to take vengeance. It can lead to very serious consequences. We have to remember that vengeance belongs to God. He can enforce it a whole lot more fairly and a lot more forcefully than I can.
2. Vengeance belongs unto the Lord. Let's look at Romans 12:20-21. “Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”[NKJV] These verses teach us to overcome evil with good. If we respond to evil with evil, that's the wrong way to go. That's going to lead to a conflict. You know that as well as I do. If you respond to evil with good, even though the other person may not change, you just might give them something to think about. You never know how that might lead to a change of life later on for that person.
3. A man was in a public setting, and some various opinions were being batted about. This man let an offender go instead of avenging himself for an insult he had received. His friend Bob criticized him for that, telling him he should have stood up to the man. The man replied, “Tell me Bob, if you were climbing a hill, and a great stone rolled down toward you, would you consider it disgraceful to step aside and allow it to roll past? There is no disgrace in avoiding and giving way to a person aroused by anger until they have had time reflect on their actions.” To overcome evil with good… that's not always easy, but it's still the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do, and the Lord will bless us for it.
4. As we think about instructions that will help us control anger, we have to look at James 1:19-20. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Notice the order given here. Why do you suppose it is important we follow that order? James says, “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God”. Man's uncontrolled anger won't lead him to do God's righteousness.

a. Anger will lead us to participate in unrighteousness. We need to follow this order. Develop the habit of being swift to hear. Rather than spout off with something before the other is done speaking, take the time to listen. Rather than be quick to speak, be slow to speak. Don't be hot-headed and quick-tempered. The Bible says, be slow to wrath.
b. If more people would follow those instructions, our world would be a lot better place. The Lord's Brother wrote in the first century to Christians. It was important for them to learn this, and we need to learn the same lesson today.

5. Let’s recap these instructions that will help us to control our anger. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Don't give place to the devil. Remember that vengeance belongs unto God. Remember to overcome evil with good. Then we need to follow the instructions of James to be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. If we treat people according to the first promptings of anger, we shall always do them wrong.

CONCLUSION:
Let’s look at Proverbs as we close. It's amazing to me how much the Book of Proverbs has to say on this subject that we're studying. Let's look at Proverbs 15:1. So far, we emphasized the fact that we are to control our anger, but we're also responsible for avoiding things that will cause other people to become angry. Listen to this verse, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” When we respond to someone else's anger, we have to do so in the right way. We have to refrain from doing and saying things that will cause others to become even angrier. This is one of the reasons I will never attend a demonstration. Solomon here is dealing with defusing a serious situation. You've got a volatile situation where an explosion can take place. What has to be done? It's got to be defused. Just like an unexploded bomb. How do you do that? Respond to someone else's anger with a soft answer. Remain in control. That will defuse the situation many times. If we do our part, then it's the other person’s responsibility to not escalate. We, however, are still obligated to follow the Lord's will. A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up even more anger.
We are responsible for controlling our anger, and scripture teaches us to refrain from doing and saying things that will cause others to become angry.

Let's turn to Proverbs 14:29. Notice the contrast here, “He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.” There's a contrast made here between someone slow to wrath and someone who is hasty of spirit. These verses teach us that we need to consider ourselves and ask; am I slow to wrath? Or, am I hasty of spirit? Am I able to keep things under control, Or am I prone to fly off the handle? Some people have the mistaken idea that being quick-tempered and quick to say harsh words is a sign of strength. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Proverbs 16:32. “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” I'm amazed at the great illustrations that are presented to us in the Bible. You think about a mighty warrior as someone who's able to take an entire city, a great military leader. We would consider him to be a strong person, wouldn't we? Well, here the Bible is teaching us that someone who has his anger under control is a really strong man or a strong woman. One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, a mighty warrior. And someone who can control his spirit is better or stronger than one who can take an entire city. So while men might have a problem looking at that in that way, we know how the Lord views it. He teaches us that true strength is having our anger under control. And a soft answer turns away wrath. I'm very concerned about things we see happening in our country and our world. One of the reasons why there's so much evil and why there's so much harshness, even to the taking of innocent lives, is because people don't have their anger under control. I want to say this, any religion that teaches people to act on their anger and take the lives of other people didn't come from God.

We know from our study today what God Almighty has said in His word. In our own country, we find a lot of things to blame for irrational behavior. But let's go to the heart of the matter. Uncontrolled anger is what we need to deal with. Unfortunately, we don't find too many people willing to control their anger.

Isn't it interesting that this old book that's been around for a long, long time tells us what we need to know? Yet, so many reject what it says. God help us to open our Bible, study it afresh, learn the Lord's will, and then put it into practice to the very best of our ability. We will be pleasing the Lord. We will have a good influence on others, and we'll be prepared to meet the Lord on that last great day. Let's remember these very important passages and consider them regularly. They can change our lives for the better, and as that happens, other lives will be changed for the better as well.

The lesson is yours. If there is anyone in the assembly today who has the need to be buried with Christ in baptism or anyone who desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage you to come forward while we stand and sing. 

# ??? Reference Sermon by: Raymond Sieg

Using Our Gifts - Part 1

Romans 12:3-8

INTRO:
Good evening. Today we are going to continue to look at Romans 12. Just as a reminder if you hear me say anything that is not according to scripture please let me know and we can look at it together. In general I will be using the New King James or the King James Version for reference. We’ve already talked about presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God. We talked about not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds. We saw that there is no middle ground, if we do not become transformed by the renewing of our minds we will be conformed to the world. This evening I would like to continue in our study of this chapter beginning at verse three and continuing through verse 8. Please turn there with me now.

Romans 12:3-8 – “3. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5. so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7. or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8. he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

It has been said that even the brightest people use only about 11% of their brains capacity. When I think about that particular statistic I realize how many use much less than that! It makes one wonder, what kind of place would this world be if we all used more of our brain? What if we used 100%? Certainly it would be a different world.

I wondered, if we get by as well as we do by using only this small portion, what if we could access all there is to access in the human mind and put it to use? Then I thought about that in terms of God’s word as well. If we do as well as we do using only small portions of the resources that God has placed before us, (what Paul describes here as gifts), what could we do if we used more of what He has given us? What would it be like if we would use, to the full extent, the gifts that God has given us as individuals? I strongly suspect that things would be different.

The purpose of living as sacrifices to God (vs. 1-2) is not mystical or monastic but eminently practical. It’s not simply coming to a thought or an idea. It is the renewal of our mind toward God so that we can put into practice what God has revealed to us and use it in our everyday lives.

It is for the purpose of devotion. Devotion is for the purpose of worship. Worship is to please God. Those two things are very intimately connected. Devotion and worship are connected to our active obedience and ministry to the Lord.

When I think about the particular passages that we’ve looked at already, the aspect of being given over to God and devoted to God and renewing our minds to give ourselves to God, I recognize there is practical application for us. That’s where Paul goes in the remainder of chapter 12. He talks about practical applications. He talks about what it means to be living sacrifices. As a transformed person, God expects us to do something. We are expected to be involved. He expects us to use the gifts He has given us to serve and be involved in service. Isn’t that what he said in verse one?
This is your reasonable service to offer yourselves as sacrifices unto God. Then Paul goes on to explain what he means.

Now keep that in mind as we continue to look at the passages. Verses three through eight will give us an outline of how we are to use the gifts that God provides for us or at least it is encouragement for our usefulness to Him. We need to look at our own lives and ask ourselves whether we are very useful to God. In the whole scheme of things do we play a part? Is that part important or significant? By that I do not mean important in the sense that we see importance, but important in the sense that we actually bear fruit in the efforts that are going on.

Do we play a part? Do we serve? In the next few verses the apostle outlines 3 important elements of our usefulness to God:
1) The proper attitude of serving;
2) The proper relationship of serving;
3) The proper activity of serving

I. The Proper Attitude of Serving: Humility. Let’s begin at: Romans 12:3 – “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Humility in our attitude of using gifts. This is vitally important because sometimes it is the use of gifts, even the active use of gifts that can become a threat to humility in us. If someone has a lot of talent, or has a lot of resources, they can be threatened by pride and arrogance. We have to be careful about that. It should not surprise us that when Paul is talking about our utilizing ourselves in the service of God, that he prefaces it with a remark, and a commandment, concerning attitude. The effectiveness of what we do and the validity of what we do is very much determined by the attitude that goes along with it. This morning let’s look at humility in more detail and see how Paul addresses it.

A. Notice how Paul begins his admonition: “through the grace given to me”. The word for grace is a common New Testament word that is sometimes translated as grace and sometimes translated as gift. I believe the word grace here as Paul uses it refers to Paul’s commission to preach the gospel. We might identify this “grace” as his apostleship. Paul was given something. He was given a gift. Being an apostle was not something that he had earned.

1. Nobody understood that better than Paul. It was given to him as an act of grace. He was one who had previously blasphemed against God and persecuted God and Christ. Now he was given the ability and the power through the Holy Spirit to preach the truth of God through inspiration. It was a gift.
2. Notice that Paul’s admonition to humility is given humbly. He would not be one to stand before others and say you cannot think too highly of yourself if he thought too highly of himself. Paul has to show an example to others in the gifts that God has given to him and the way that God has blessed his life. It didn’t go to his head. He was always humble before God and recognized that what he had was by the grace of God.
3. This also teaches us that humility does not preclude authority or leadership. Paul was admonishing with the authority of an apostle, but he humbly refers to the source of this authority as a grace given to him by God. Paul in this passage is recognizing his position before God. He knew that the thrust of what he said did not come from him, but comes from the One who gave it to him.
4. Paul was able to be humbly authoritative because he recognized his position before God. He was able to be a humble leader because he recognized his position before God. He could never rightfully ask another to be humble if he failed to be humble himself. Paul begins by saying it is through the grace that was given to me, because I have already received a gift, and I recognize this is what I need to say to you.

B. He says “to everyone who is among you”. He addresses these words to every Christian. That’s important for us to recognize. There are some of us who have more difficulty in this area than others. Who among us is not tempted to think of themselves more highly than they should?

1. We are always tempted to put more attention on our needs or what’s going on with us or how things affect us. The aspect of being absorbed in ourselves is part of our human experience. Its part of the world we live in with the propensity of the flesh to conform, and follow Satan rather than to follow God.
2. Renewing our minds is not just a matter of functioning differently or picking out certain activities. It’s a matter of changing the way we think. Paul says that pride is everybody’s problem. Paradoxically, even spiritual growth and knowledge can be a source of human pride. Even when we receive all of the rewards and honors of godly living, those very things may quite easily, and often do, lead to pride, conceit, arrogance, and self-righteousness, which are totally abhorrent to God.

C. Paul continues; “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think...” Human pride is a continuing problem for us and the world reinforces that attitude. When we think we’ve overcome our pride it might be that our pride has overcome us. In the original language, Paul uses a form of ‎phroneo ‎(to think) four times in verse 3. He talks about thinking and thinking highly and thinking soberly. In the first instance he attaches the prefix “hyper” which means to exceed, or go beyond.

1. You might say that part of the problem is sometimes we think too much! Let me explain, it’s not thinking too much about things, not thinking too much about scripture. The subject and object of our thinking is that we think too much about ourselves. We think of it in terms of outright pride but sometimes we think too much of ourselves in the quantity of time we spend on ourselves.
2. A Christian is not to exceed in his estimation of himself, but to think of himself as he really is. We spend our time focused on us because, to us, we’re more important than anything or anybody else. Paul would call us to not exceed our estimation of ourselves. “For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Galatians 6:3). Staying focused on ourselves and thinking we are more than we are, is a form of self deception. It’s not reality. It’s thinking something’s true that’s not really true. That’s where Paul is going to take this discussion. The instruction that he’s giving us is not to be self-absorbed, not to think that which is not real and not to be deceived.
3. Paul’s self estimation in 1 Timothy 1:13ff would not make a very acceptable resume today. He referred to himself as a former blasphemer and persecutor and an insolent man. In his own words he was the chief sinner. Paul spoke badly about himself as he talked about his previous life.

i. Why would Paul say those things about himself? He told the truth. That was reality. He was one who was leading the fight against Christianity at one time.
ii. However talking bad about one’s self is not synonymous with being humble. A lot of people, who are willing to talk about themselves in very low terms, actually do it because they want to—draw attention. That activity itself might be evidence of pride.
iii. Paul was humble because he understood what he was and the work of God in his life. He understood his position before God. He said “God enabled me... putting me in the ministry ...I obtained mercy”[para] (1 Timothy 1:12-16)
iv. We should not think too highly of ourselves, but we need to think highly of God and put God in the proper position in our lives. God is always held above ourselves.

4. God could use Paul because he was willing to be humble. Paul is not alone in teaching this. Peter admonished all elders in the church, young and old, to “clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).
5. It is a sad reality that those who think too highly of themselves often think too poorly of others. This sort of thinking is a natural fruit of pride. We not only think we’re good, but we think others are not as good. We easily dismiss others or seek to put them down. Peter says the opposite is true.

i. True humility requires that I submit to others, allowing them to lead. 1 Peter 5:5 – “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Notice in this passage that he says “all of you be submissive to one another”. We know there are God ordained roles. Children are to be obedient to their parents. Wives are to be submissive to their husbands. Congregations are to submit to the rule of the eldership. Submissiveness is an aspect of our relationship with each other. We can not claim true humility unless we allow others to lead us and submit to what they say and what they do.
ii. True humility keeps me from hypocritically judging my brother – James 4:10-11 – “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. 11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.” James, as he does on a couple of occasions, connects this aspect of faith and activity. If you sit around and complain about other folks you dismiss yourself as a doer of the law and you are a judge of the law.
iii. True humility causes me to treat every brother with the same mind and compassion. He who speaks evil of his brother is judging his brother. He has put himself in a rank over his brother. True humility forbids this because it requires us to treat everyone alike. This is a real challenge for us, and it’s been a challenge for people all along.
iv. In every society there have been social ranks. There have been those who have and those who have not. There have been those who were masters and those who were servants, those who were leaders and those who were followers. There has always been this aspect of social class and rank. The gospel transcends all of that and puts the Christian in the position of equality among all. True humility makes us have the mind and the compassion to make that possible.
v. Later in Romans 12 Paul admonishes them to “15. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.” (Romans 12:15-16)
vi. If we treat each other with equality we must first work on ourselves to make sure that we’re not thinking too highly of ourselves, that we are not arrogant about ourselves. It is just a fact that when we think too highly of ourselves the natural fruit is we will think less of others.
vii. Scripture gives us an example in Diotrephes. God (and John) opposed Diotrephes because he sought preeminence above others. (3 John) How did that bear out in his life? He did not receive the brethren, and talked against the apostles. He put other people out of the church. He threw them out and spoke evil against them because he wanted to be first. This has played out in religion ever since.
viii. True humility means esteeming others better than myself. I am to treat everyone equally whatever their social status, or economic status, or political status. I must treat everyone equally AND at the same time in my mind I must esteem them better than myself. Philippians 2:3 – “ 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” Paul’s ambition was for us to esteem others better than ourselves.

6. Let me pose this question: Don’t we find at times that it’s not too difficult to esteem someone better then us because there are folks that are better than us, even in the eyes of the world? While you are mulling that over; What if we think someone is not better than us, are we to force ourselves to think that maybe they are better than us? That’s not the context of the passage, that is not the mind of Christ. What does Paul think we are to do then?

D. “but to think soberly” – The phrase indicates “clear thinking” or according to reality. The opposite of thinking soberly is thinking too highly of ourselves. What does soberly mean here? The intoxicated person loses their inhibitions, is not the same person they are in reality and they make poor judgments. When they sober up, they return to reality and are able to make good judgments again. Also when they sober up they may realize they acted stupidly. Now they are thinking soberly and see the world as it really is. That analogy helps us understand what Paul is saying here in the spiritual sense.

1. To think too highly is to see things different from reality. We think we’re great, but we’re not. We think we’re something, we’re not. We think we’ve accomplished great things, we haven’t. The reality is that we’re not much.
2. That’s not a very popular message today. Many folks think that’s a destructive message. They think people ought to be told they’re good people and be told that they accomplished much. We are not to suffer from a low self-esteem. To that point, we certainly do have to recognize our worth. After all, Jesus died for us and that in itself tells us that God decided what we are worth by what He sacrificed to save us.
3. Paul warned the Corinthians against making judgments about themselves and others which would promote pride. 1 Corinthians 4:6 – “6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other.”
4. We have to think soberly of ourselves and learn not to think above that which is written. We should not make judgments about ourselves and others that would promote pride.

E. Let’s look at the next part “As God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” There are differing views concerning Paul’s meaning here.

1. Some say that the “measure of faith” is a portion of faith that God gives to each Christian. This portion of faith differs from one person to another and is defined by our abilities and responsibilities. In this view the scripture here is seen as mystical and arbitrary.
2. Moses Lard says that this “measure of faith” refers to the miraculous portion of faith that was given to some as an accompaniment to a miraculous spiritual gift (such as prophecy). One who had this gift was not to go beyond the degree of revelation that went along with that gift. They were not meant to think of themselves more highly than what God revealed about that particular gift. Certainly Paul does warn those who have received miraculous gifts to not think one’s gift is more important than another’s. There is another view.
3. R.L. Whiteside disagrees with the view that the portion of faith only has to do with miraculous activity. He states that the term “measure” as it is used in scripture indicates “a measuring instrument” (like a ruler would be called a measure or a scale). It’s used as a measure to measure something else, a standard. In this sense, the objective faith that God has given is the measuring stick by which we measure our thinking.

i. I must, therefore, govern my self evaluation by what I believe concerning God’s revealed will. My self evaluation can not be measured by what others think of me or what I think I’ve accomplished. How do I know who I am? How do I know what I’m worth? How do I know how to estimate myself?
ii. There is a ruler, a measure, given by the revelation of faith that God has provided for me. Scripture. If I spend time in the faith given, if I spend time measuring myself by that standard, I will not think of myself too highly.

4. It is baffling that people who spend a lot of time with the Bible come away thinking they should raise themselves up or that true religion is raising their self-esteem when those who served God before said just the opposite about themselves. I’m fairly certain that modern religionists would have an issue with John the Baptist. I can hear them saying “You should not go around talking about not being worthy to tie a person’s shoe.” “You can’t talk about yourself that way.”

i. In the context of what today some might think of as disparaging speech, there is a Bible concept of who Jesus was. John the Baptist knew who Christ was and held Him up for who He was. In this way John the Baptist was able to serve God because of his humility.
ii. One commentator said; “No one under the influence of the teaching of the scriptures, and thereby regulated and controlled, can ever become egotistical. There is no quality of human behavior more contrary to the spirit of the Master than egotism.”
iii. That’s true, isn’t it? What we recognize in Paul’s words is that humility is a prerequisite to serving.

F. Humility as a Prerequisite to Service. When we read the scriptures can we see the attitude of those who serve?

1. I heard a story about a young man who wrote a letter to the elders of the church, expressing his disappointment that he had not been used for song leading and preaching as often as he thought he should be. He stated confidently, “I have the knowledge and experience that would be an asset to any congregation.”
2. Perhaps he did, but the attitude indicated by those words is different from the attitude of those whom the Lord has always considered an asset among His people. What kind of people can God use? Let’s consider those He did use.

i. First let’s consider Moses. Moses was confident at the age of 40 that he had qualities that would enable him to deliver God’s people from Egyptian bondage, but he failed miserably. After forty years as a shepherd his attitude toward himself changed. When God called him to do the work his response was, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11). God never told him he was somebody. Once Moses was humble enough to recognize his own limitations God could use him.
ii. Then there was Gideon. Gideon was totally surprised when the Angel of the Lord addressed him as a “mighty man of valor” (Judges 6:12). He was even more taken aback when the angel said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.” To this he replied, “0 my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house:” He was already a man accomplished in battle, but he did not view himself as one who could win everything with his own strength. God’s use of this humble man to gain a notable victory is well known.
iii. Think about Saul. Very good example to us all of how pride destroys. Saul’s response when he was called to be king over Israel was, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin. Why then do you speak like this to me?” (1 Samuel 9:21). Saul’s response was: I’m nobody. I’m not the person to do this. Later God made a point of the fact that this was his attitude when he was anointed. “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?” (1 Samuel 15:17). After Saul started to disobey God he became great in his own eyes, even to the point of substituting his own wisdom for that of God. Then God said through Samuel, “You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel” (1Samuel 15:17, 19, 26).
iv. Then there’s Isaiah. Isaiah felt himself entirely unworthy of the great vision God granted to him in the temple in Isaiah 6:1-4. His reaction: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
v. Jeremiah, when called by God to be a prophet replied, “Ah, Lord God! Behold I cannot speak, for I am a youth” (Jeremiah 1:6).
vi. Now for another example, Simon Peter. Simon Peter‘s proclamation, “though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended” (Matthew 26:33). Everybody may leave but not me. I will never leave you. That attitude was not only a profession of faith, but I believe, ultimately a liability for Peter. It was that boastful attitude that gave Satan a cause to come in. It was only after contrition and a repentance that God was able to come back to Peter. Then he was ready to tend the Lord’s sheep (John 21:15-17).
vii. Saul of Tarsus was useless to the Lord when his resume was: “circumcised the eight day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6). His usefulness flourished, however, when he had come to say, “I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am” (I Corinthians 15:9-10).

CONCLUSION:
In Romans 12 the next verses describe active service. Next we’ll talk about actually doing things to encourage the church, as the body of Christ, to accomplish its work through 100% of the members using 100% of the gifts that God has given. That will make a difference.

Can we imagine what a different world this would be if that happened everywhere? Before we get there we must check the attitude. Let us begin by cultivating that attitude behind the service. Let’s humble ourselves before God that we might serve. Nobody, but nobody, ever deserved salvation. Even the fulfillment of conditions upon which God gives salvation cannot merit the gift. It is a gift.

Next week we will begin verse four, the Lord willing, and go through verse eight and talk about the relationship and serving God.

We’re about to be led in the invitation song. If you’re here and you’re not a Christian, it is our sincere desire for you to come to Christ in all humility. We do not invite you to come to a church or a religious organization, or a religious leadership.

The Bible calls people to Jesus Christ. If you want to be saved, He will save you.
If you want to be redeemed, His blood will redeem you. If you profess your faith, you must profess it to Him. We ask you to do that in the way the Bible prescribes and the way Christians here have done it.
Scripture tells us: believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and that He shed His blood for you; repent of sins committed in the past; proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God before men and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin.
If you have done those things and become a child of God but have slipped away you can come back and ask His forgiveness. In either case the blood of Jesus Christ can make you new. We encourage you to come while we stand and sing.

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon: David Schmidt