Gospel-Centered Giftedness

(MAIN SERVICE)My heart is already full and encouraged from our gathering this morning, but baptism is such a special moment in the life of a Christian I can’t help but get excited. If you haven’t been baptized yet, or if you have questions about baptism, please talk with me or Pastor JP. There is no better time to get baptized than as soon as possible.

Before we begin, and in recognition of tomorrow’s Veterans Day/Remembrance Day, I’d like to for us to express our gratitude and show honor to those present who serve or have served in our armed forces. Your sacrifices and the sacrifices of your family are of great value, and do not go unnoticed. We are blessed to know you and want to say thank you for being willing to stand in the gap for us. Please join me in showing gratitude for these veterans as they stand.

My heart is already full and encouraged Before we begin, and in recognition of tomorrow’s Veterans Day/Remembrance Day, I’d like to for us to express our gratitude and show honor to those present who serve or have served in our armed forces. Your sacrifices and the sacrifices of your family are of great value, and do not go unnoticed. We are blessed to know you and want to say thank you for being willing to stand in the gap for us.

Please join me in showing gratitude for these veterans as they stand.

Well, today and next Sunday we will be in . The text will be presented on the screen, but I want to encourage you to open your Bibles to and read along. Our goal is to study together the first 8 verses today, and verses 9-18, next week. The theme for this week and next is “A Gospel Mind for the Daily Grind.” When I told my wife Amanda the title, she just shook her head and said, “You just had to make it rhyme, didn’t you?” Well, the title rhyming is far less important than what I mean by a gospel mind. When you or I get up in the morning, a part of our day is about preparing ourselves to accomplish the tasks of the day. Say, it’s a Tuesday, and you have a meeting at work with your supervisor and an out-of-town client; you are going to take different care either physically with your presentation or mentally with your content and preparation than you would on a day where you are working remotely. In order for us to accomplish the task at hand, we must put ourselves in the right frame to do so. The Christian task is twice baked, as we operate both in the kingdom of God and in the kingdom of man. We are to fulfill all that is good and profitable in our lives, while seeking to achieve our primary goal - to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Let’s look together at verse 1

Romans 12:1 ESV

1 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.

Paul is beginning his descent in this epistle to the Romans. He has written to them very heavy teaching, and now moves into a phase of encouraging them in the Spirit, giving them practical markers for holiness, and reminding them of the grace of God that covers all things. As Paul writes here in the twelfth chapter, he focuses on the Christian view of the body, or the temple of the Holy Spirit. In the Hellenistic (Heavily Greek influenced) culture, it would be ridiculous to assert a connection between the body and spiritual worship. But with how God designed us, our spirits and our bodies were made to reflect Him. It makes sense that the physical would impact so heavily the spiritual. Think of our time here, gathered together as the local expression of the Global Church. While we are united in spirit with Christians across the world, we are united here together in physical proximity, as an expression of our community and worship towards God. Think of how we interact and how we physically express that worship before the Lord. We sing with our voices; we raise hands in honor to God; we eat the bread and drink of the cup in spiritual remembrance and in receiving spiritual blessing; we are baptized with real water. All of these acts are acts of living sacrifice.

Additionally, a living sacrifice denotes the bloodless nature of sacrifice going forward. We offer ourselves up as sacrifices because Christ’s blood has fulfilled the blood sacrifice for our justification. His death covers our sin and pays the price for our debt. We see here once again, we are saved (once and for all in Christ), but we are also being saved (constantly being renewed and perfected to be like Christ).

The basic idea I’d like us to apply to this week and next is the daily presentation of ourselves to the Lord/before the Lord. As living sacrifices we have the opportunity to do as William Barclay says here:

The Letter to the Romans The True Worship and the Essential Change (Romans 12:1–2)

We might say: ‘I am going to church to worship God’; but we should also be able to say: ‘I am going to the factory, the shop, the ofﬁce, the school, the garage, the mine, the shipyard, the ﬁeld, the cowshed, the garden, to worship God.’

It’s a beautiful way to put it really. But more than just worship God in our vocations or activities, it’s about bearing the cross of Christ in those venues. It’s striving for holiness at it says in verse one, “Holy and Acceptable to God;” it is maintaining a character or reputation with those around you to show the work of God in your life through your integrity, humility, and honor.

Finally, this verse tells me that my sacrifice goes on and on - it doesn’t happen once.

We put on the gospel daily and wear it as the uniform for our living sacrifice.

The gospel becomes our uniform in the way that we walk, talk, work, and think. We clothe our conversations in blessing, we treat others with the same love we would desire for ourselves, and do our best through the Spirit to exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit.

Let’s move into verse 2 and continue to explore this.

Romans 12:2 ESV

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul continues to write in the descent of his letter important reminders and practical tools. Here in verse 2 we have one of the most memorable and most important prescriptions for living a life of holiness, blessing, and sacrifice. “Do not be conformed.” This beautiful command is the crux of our study today. How does one become conformed? Have you ever seen a cast for a human body part? Say, a wrist, foot, or elbow? If you have, what you are seeing is the appropriate pressure and construct for that bone to heal and grow in the right manner. It conforms to the cast’s shape, as the cast is designed to give the appendage its appropriate shape. So it happens with the world. What does it mean to be conformed to the world? Does this seem to point to living an Amish lifestyle? Are we to separate ourselves entirely, or are we to separate our words and actions? Are we to withdraw the culture or embrace the culture? Thankfully, the answer to these questions is answered here in verse 2. Our responsibility and calling is not to withdraw, separate, or embrace; we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Since we ought not to be conformed, what exactly does that look like?

Christians ought to have a right balance of grief over sin and a foundational joy in Christ

This is such a key balance of the daily walk with God. We experience the grief over our sin and the sin of others - this awareness alone keeps us from conforming to the ways of the world, which is at home in sin and more than comfortable to continue in it. However, because we know our sin debt is paid, we purse reconciliation with Christ regularly to continue to be transformed for holiness and joy.

What does it mean to be transformed? It’s the picture of the caterpillar that emerges from its cocoon more beautiful than ever before as a butterfly. That butterfly was there all along, but needed to go through a transformation to achieve its ultimate goal/purpose/beauty.

As image-bearers of God stained with sin and broken, we must needs experience the transformational beauty of the gospel once and forever. We must die to our sinful nature and be daily communing with God and His Word. This helps us to fulfill our ultimate goal/purpose/beauty - to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

As we continue in the verse, our daily walk and how the gospel impacts our lives shows up again - “that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” There’s that word acceptable again! It must be important. But really, we see that the testing of our lives, our faith, and our sacrifice is what produces the communion with God to know His will for us.

Let’s wrap up our time by taking a look at the next section from verse 3-8.

Romans 12:3–8 ESV

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

As we live as sacrifices, we do so with blessing from the Spirit and gifts from God that empower and transform us for service. They point us back to Christ and to our ultimate goal in life. I’d like us to focus our attention in these verses by asking ourselves the questions?

What gifts have I? How can I use them daily for God?

Another way to ask these are What have I not sacrificed yet to God? What am I holding back from becoming a gospel-minded person in my position?

We have to reassess this point in our walk regularly. What gifts have been given to you according to the faith granted you by God?

We will never fully use our gifts unless we remember to live as a sacrifice for the gospel on a daily basis.

We will continue in this in more detail next week as we study verses 9-18. But for this week, be meditating on these things- on God’s Word. Are you putting on the gospel mind for your daily grind? Are are you being conformed to the world through passive acquiescing? Has the gospel truly transformed you and renewed your mind? If so, does it daily? Let us think and pray on these things by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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