Romans 12:1-8

1:03We chose Romans chapter 12 because it's the point in which in Romans Paul switches from explanation of doctrine to living out this gospel that we believe. In 1873, construction began on a chapel named Our Lady of Light in what we know as Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was maintained. By a group of nuns named the Sisters of Laredo. As construction began to come to a close, the sisters realized a big mistake. The chapel was not very big, so the plans called for a second-story choir loft, but the architect died during construction and never designed a way to reach the loft.

1:58Now, the chapel was too small to put in a regular normal-scaled set of stairs. And the sisters thought that it would be too immodest to just put a ladder up due to their dresses. They just didn't know what to do. Now, the story that is told is that an unknown man came to town with a wagon load of wood, and this man was a carpenter and said that he could build a set of stairs, of winding stairs, that would be exactly what was needed.

2:34In fact, this man did build a flight of winding stairs that is truly a wonder. It's made of 33 steps, one step to represent each year of Christ's earthly life. It has no center post, as you can see. It seems to be completely supported from the bottom. It contains no glue, no nails. And as you can see, it is truly. Evidence, someone with a gift. Someone who was able to use their skills to help a few nuns complete this chapel.

3:10Now, legend tells us that this man disappeared right after the stairs were completed. He never asked for payment for his work. Some say that it was Saint Joseph who, back to life, the father of Jesus, who came to help the sisters complete what is now known as the Laredo Chapel stairs. But a historian named Mary Straw Cook did some research and found that payment was made to a man named François Jean Rokas. We just call him Frenchie.

3:49This payment was made around 1881, around the same time that the stairs were completed. And Mr. Rokas was a member of a secret society of highly skilled craftsmen called the Campagnons. And he died in 1894 and is buried in Our Lady of Light Catholic Cemetery on the grounds of the chapel. Now, Mr. Rokas obviously had a gift, and though he was paid for his work, he did use this gift to serve the people of this chapel. In fact, those stairs still stand today. You can go see them, and they're studied by engineers and artisans as a wonder.

4:30This morning, we're looking at Romans 12, and the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit says through Paul and his letter to the believers in Rome will show us that God's grace gives us the ability to love him and to be used to build up the church. First, I want to encourage you to keep your Bibles open or keep the Bible app open that you have. Because we're going to be looking at a lot of scripture today, and though I have some that we'll post on the screen behind me, we're going to be looking at a lot of it, so I'll encourage you to turn there here and there. Also, I want to give a little bit of background to our text.

5:15So let's look at the first part of verse 1. It says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers. Therefore, is a conjunctive adverb. You get an English lesson today. It means that it's there to join together two separate clauses or sentences. And it shows the reader that the second clause or the clause that it's introducing will modify the first clause. Let's look at what Tony Moretta says about this transition. Romans 1 through 11 includes a host of indicatives where believers are told that. What God has done for them in Christ.

6:02And then Romans 12:1 through 15, 13 includes a host of imperatives where believers are commanded to now live in a certain way. The indicatives underlie and empower the imperatives. So, what is being done here is first, the first part of Romans is told its doctrine. Paul is teaching the Roman church doctrine. This part that we're coming to, Paul is telling what that doctrine should do in our lives to help us live Christian lives and how we should do that.

6:43It should change us from the very depths of our hearts and radically change us to the point that we are absolutely set apart from the world and culture around us. As we enter 2022 and we're looking at a fresh start, we're all setting resolutions or hoping for a better year, we can go to a very practical part of Scripture which describes how we should be living as believers. And we use it as our standard in how we should live.

7:18So let's go back to verse 1 and finish reading that. Paul tells us, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. To God, which is your spiritual worship. When Paul says the mercies of God, he's using that as a three-word summary of Christ and His redeeming work for us. And now, what we should do in light of that: it's but to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, which is now holy and acceptable because of what Christ did for us. This is how we worship.

8:09Our worship does not stop at the doors of the church, it doesn't just happen on Sunday morning, it's not done just because we're singing it. The entirety of our lives, all of it, is an act of worship. Your work, your free time, your life choices, all of these are to be centered around the redemption given to you through Jesus by the mercy and the grace of God. And the reason we know that our worship should cover the totality of our life follows in verse 2, where it says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

8:53Paul merges the mind and the body. So we're not only to give our bodies as a Living sacrifice, but our minds also. So our whole being is to be given as a living sacrifice to Him. We're no longer to see the world through the lens of culture or allow ourselves to be influenced by worldly things. Let's take a look at Philippians 4, 8, and 9 on the screen behind me. Paul tells the church at Philippi: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

9:46What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Now, all of this list, truth, honor, justice, purity, love, things that are commendable, things that are excellent, things that are worthy of praise, all have a separate worldly definition, does it not? For example, my truth is as true as yours. Have you ever heard the term you do you? No matter how hard our society or any society has tried, they cannot find complete justice.

10:32There's always someone who is going to be treated unjustly. Even purity is defined differently in the world. Most of the time, we refer to purity as the intent behind someone's actions or the naivety of a person. As believers, we have to let God's Word define value to those things we are to dwell on. Only Scripture is true, only God's Word is true, and only God is honorable. And we are given honor through Jesus Christ. Only Jesus knows true justice and can show us how to live justly.

11:18Our minds are transformed and renewed by knowing and living by God's word. David says in Psalm 119:9, How can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word? So, Paul tells us that our doctrine should translate into action. And the way that Romans 12 is lined out, first it translates into action for the individual, then translates into action how that individual should interact with their church, and then how that individual should interact with the world.

11:59He tells us. That the gospel of Jesus should change our entire being. But to do what? So we can be a good person, so we can be worthy of this grace that has been given to us. Paul answers this question in verses 3 through 8. And so we'll break that down in just a minute. Let's go to verse 3. It says, For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

12:45Paul uses grace as the authority to say to everyone to think of themselves properly. Look at the screen behind me. Paul knows that he cannot boast in himself, and he tells us in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 17 through 18. He says, Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one who the Lord commends. This should tell us something about grace. And honestly, I think that there's a lot of confusion about grace, and there's so much confusion that a lot of preachers won't even touch the subject because it can get a little sticky.

13:30And when I say grace, I'm not talking about the lady who passed away 30 years ago. That was a Christmas vacation reference. I'm talking about one of the five solas, sola gratia. Grace can be defined as an unmerited favor of God, meaning that we cannot do anything to deserve or earn God's favor, which is true, but I think it's a little bit misleading. I think that this mentality can lead us to believe that God just gives away his favor because he's a nice God.

14:08And this mentality is what leads to the struggle on why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Does he think sin is all that serious? This idea that God just gives away his favor or his grace freely? Dietrich Bonhoeffer called this type of thinking cheap grace. In fact, Paul addresses this mentality in Romans 6 when he writes, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into his death, God's grace isn't cheap?

15:01It came at enormous cost. In fact, God's grace is not given away freely. It was earned. Look at what Jerry Bridges says about grace. He says, The truth is, God's approval does not have to be earned. That is what Christ did for us. The difference between God's unconditional acceptance and the acceptance purchased for us by Christ is a massive difference. Failure to understand this leads to a critical misunderstanding of grace. A concept of grace that does not include our ill-deservedness and Christ's work for us will lead people down the wrong path of cheap grace. But a concept that does not include our ill-deservedness and Christ's work for us leads to gratitude for that grace, which leads to loving obedience.

16:00So when Paul uses grace as his authority, he's reminding us that God's grace should remind us or push us to remember that we are redeemed solely by the work of Christ. So we cannot boast in our own actions. So we need to regard ourselves humbly. But we're also children of the Most High God. And we have purpose, dignity, and value in his kingdom, not for anything we did, but for the price that was paid for us by Jesus.

16:43This is what's meant by thinking of ourselves soberly. We don't have too high of an opinion of ourselves, and we don't go in the complete opposite direction where we have too lowly of an opinion of ourselves. If you would, turn your Bibles to Ephesians 2. I'm going to start in verse 4. Paul tells us how we should view ourselves. He says, But God, that's my favorite transition in all of God's word, but God. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

17:58Brothers and sisters, we're able to. To think of ourselves soberly if we measure ourselves properly. This is what Paul means when he says in the latter part of Romans 12:3, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Many theologians say that the word measure in this context does not mean a measured quantity of something, but rather the standard by which we measure ourselves, meaning that we measure ourselves according to the gospel of the cross. Paul tells this to the church in Ephesians 4, verse 7. He says, But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

18:47We measure ourselves in and through Christ, the gift that God has given us, so that we might be reconciled to him. So we're no longer enemies of God, but rather we are children of God. If you would, go ahead and flip back to Romans 12. And when we rely on this gift of grace, when we measure ourselves according to the gospel, it follows that we should start to live that out among each other. So, beginning in verse 4, 12:4, Paul uses the analogy of the body, a body made up of many members.

19:27We'll read it. For as one As in one body, we have many members, and the members do not have the same function. Verse 5. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Those who believe in Jesus by grace, the gift given to them, have been given gifts which are intended to include us in the body of Christ. See, the Father doesn't just redeem us, he gives us gifts to help ourselves and help each other fulfill our role as a unique part of that body of Christ.

20:10And this isn't the only place that Paul uses this analogy. Paul tells the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 12:12, for just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. In verses six through eight in Romans twelve, Paul tells us, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy, in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity.

21:01The one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. When you become a member at New Life, and if you haven't already, this is a spoiler alert. We ask what you think your spiritual gifts are, according to the passage in 1 Corinthians 12. Or, yeah, 1 Corinthians 12, also Romans 12, this passage, and Ephesians 4. These gifts are used to build the body of Christ up, not the person using the gift.

21:41They're not meant to stoke our ego. When my girls were little, I think red was four and Bug was three. We went to a large church. One of the men in the church, Mr. Tipton, had horrible allergies. He couldn't come into contact with people who had perfume or cologne or use soap. It would break him out. He would break out in horrible hives. He was allergic to some kind of chemical that was in anything that was perfumed or anything.

22:23And as you can imagine, everyone in church, hopefully, bathes every once in a while. And so it It was very hard on him. But Mr. Tipton would always sit in the foyer away from everybody else so he could hear. And he was there every Sunday. And he was always in isolation. You can imagine how lonely that is. But he wanted to be part of the church body. In fact, every Sunday, Mr. Tipton would make little toys like wooden trains or cars, little animals, the kind of stuff that you would see at a local craft show.

23:14And on that toy, he would put a label that said, Made with love by Mr. Tipton. And we would wait for the right kid to give it to. See, in his isolation, Mr. Tipton noticed as he sat in an empty foyer that every Sunday, inevitably, there would be a frazzled mom or dad that would have to take their toddler out of the service to go to the bathroom or because they were being disruptive in the service. And Mr. Tipton would walk up to that parent and give a child and give them this toy. And he kept track of all the kids he gave it to. His goal was to give every baby in that church. A handmade toy, and he had every excuse not to even attend church service.

24:14But Mr. Tipton knew the Bible, and he knew that whatever gift he had, it belonged to his church. So rather than finding every excuse not to come to church, he found every excuse to use his gifts for the church. Now, some of you might be sitting there thinking you don't know what your gift is. If that is you, then I ask you to ask a Christian friend, what ways have they seen and what ways have they been blessed by you?

25:00This will help you figure out your gift. Some of you might know what your spiritual gift is, but it just takes so much out of you that you have grown weary or even lazy in using it to build up the church. If you've ever said to yourself, right now, I just have so much going on, I can't manage or justify giving that much. Time to anything other than what I have going on right now. Friend, I'm calling you to repentance.

25:45That gift that you have is meant for the church. And refusing it, refusing to use it in that manner is to deny the grace that God has given you. But I also want to encourage you. The spiritual gift that God has given you will take energy. It will take effort and time. Sometimes it will break your heart using it. It will go unnoticed. But God in His incredible grace will use that gift to strengthen you in your walk with Him.

26:32Flip over to Isaiah 40. The spiritual gift that God has given to you to build up the church is a grace given to you by the Father. And it's meant to build you up as well. Not stroke your ego, but to build your walk with Him up. We'll begin in verse 28. It says, Have you not known? Have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth? He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. See, this just isn't some scripture we put on a coffee cup, which I think is kind of ironic that you would put a scripture on a coffee cup telling everyone that God gives strength to the weary, but you're getting your strength from caffeine.

28:01But nonetheless, this scripture is there to encourage you to keep going, to encourage you to turn to our everlasting God. And so, some of you might think that you know what your spiritual gift is, but you feel like they're not recognized or very effective. I understand that. There are books out there that treat spiritual gifts like the Strengths Quest books or the Myers-Briggs questionnaires. Maybe some of you have taken these quizzes and determined what your spiritual gift is. And I'm going to try to say this as nicely as possible.

28:52These are probably the most awful way to determine your spiritual gifts. I've seen many people believe that they have a spiritual gift, but they really don't. They would just like it if they did. That's what happens when you take those tests that are one-sided. It's only what you think. And I really think that some of us need to take a sober look at this. In truth, if you have a spiritual gift, but no one in your church sees it, then you may not have that gift.

29:35And whatever gift you think that is, it's okay if you don't have it. But I want you to understand and develop and walk in the gift that God has given you. Because that's the grace that God has given you. And I want this church, I want your church to use you. Because we need you. We need your gift that God has given you to build up our church. So you might need to put aside some preconceived notions. You might need to throw away the Christian Enneagram and seek out where you are being used to build up God's church.

30:26This is where discipleship matters. Discipleship and the relationship with disciples are important because these relationships can help us understand what our spiritual gifts are. A few weeks ago, I've been meeting with a group of guys, and we spent some time to end up the year just telling each other and encouraging each other what we noticed about that other person. And it was a sweet, sweet time. And believe it or not, some of us were surprised at what the other person, the other people, were thinking they were strong in.

31:13You might not feel like it's a spiritual gift, but others see it. And we want you to move in that. That's what the church is for, to help you discern what your spiritual gifts are. That's why we organize discipleship. Classes, life groups, and membership meetings, so that you'll have touch points and interactions with the church body, so that you might better be able to understand where you fit in and where God can use you. And lastly, you may be legitimately tired, and it's okay to rest. I know there's some people in this church who have just gone and gone and gone, and they need time to recoup.

32:10That's okay, but while you recoup, be praying that God would raise somebody else up to help take your place because that's what he does, that's his gift of grace to the church. If you're here today and you want to be part of the body of Christ, and you're hearing God's grace, about God's grace that is given to you through Jesus, his Son, take a moment to come talk to us. Fill out the next step card. Talk to a friend.

32:59We would love. To talk to you more about believing in the good news of Jesus and help you understand the grace that has been given to you through Him. And perhaps you're one of those who's struggling to understand your gift. We'd love to talk to you about that as well. Again, seek a friend out, fill out the card. We'd love to help you in that journey and discovering what that is. Romans 12 is about how a Christian should live.

33:41God's grace is always, it always translates into action. It's not something that's just received, it goes forth, it builds up the church, and it helps us walk with Him better until He comes back again. Let's pray, Our everlasting Father, you do not grow weary, you do not grow faint, and you give us strength and build us up. And you sent your son to this world to live a perfect life, to willingly go to the cross and die as a ransom for us, who was buried and then rose again and now intercedes for us.

35:02That is a huge measure of grace. Help us to use our gifts in accordance with that measure. Help us to live lives that are living sacrifices with our bodies and with our minds. Father, give us clarity, as Pastor Alan prayed earlier, so that we might know how to love the church body and how to give these gifts of grace that you have given us to them. Give us a profound love for your church. Father, we want to follow you.

36:01We want to live according to your word. Help us do so. In your Son's name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.