Gifts Given By Grace • Aidan Van Eck

Introduction and Prayer

Romans chapter 12.

Our passage this morning is Romans chapter 12, verses 3 through 8. I'm going to read our passage for us and pray, and then we'll dive into the word together. I'm excited to, to bring it and be with you all here.

Romans chapter 12, beginning in 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. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."

Let's go before the Lord together.

Dear Lord, we just ask for your help now. Your word is precious, and we know that your spirit will work through it. We thank you for the way that this passage will be used in our lives, and we ask that your spirit would do the application, that you would change hearts, change lives, that you would use your word to do all of that. Help me now to get out of the way and let the word speak. Thank you, Lord. We pray this all in your name. Amen.

The Danger of Self-Comparison

God has created children in many amazing ways. They bring so much joy to life, and also sometimes they can bring some conviction as well. Children are a lot like adults, a lot like humans in many ways. They have lots of thoughts, lots of emotions, lots of feelings, but a lot of times they express those a lot more honestly than maybe us adults do. And that's where that conviction can come from.

One of my favorite things about working years with kindergarten through second graders has been listening in on their conversations and being curious about what they're talking about. One of my favorite times to do that is just after Christmas time. You sit down in Sunday school, all the boys are bustling at their table, and here's usually how the conversation goes. One of the boys, you know, is wearing his new Christmas gift. Let's say it's a Spider-Man watch. And he brings it in, he's showing it off to all the other boys at the table, so proud of the new gift that he has. And then starts the competition. Right? The second boy starts with that famous phrase, "Well, guess what my parents got me!" And then he talks about the new Pokémon cards that he got. And then, guess what, the next one comes in. The third boy comes in, "Well, guess what my parents got me!" And there's even more emphasis. And the next thing you know, the whole table erupts in this chaotic, yeah, eruption just of all these boys trying to one-up each other, saying, "Oh, no, I got the best gift. No, I got the best gift." And they're all trying to decide who had the best gift.

A very funny conversation for us to listen in on or to have perspective on. But the reality is, we want to ask the question, have you ever played this game? Compared yourself to others in that way? Compared maybe the amount of money that you make? Compared the style of clothes that you wear? Compare your personality to somebody else? Compare your giftings to somebody else? Our hearts can quickly say, "Ah, I wish I was like that person." And we think to ourselves, and we make these comparisons. These comparisons can sometimes lead to these "if only" statements. I know I make these a lot. I wonder if you guys have too. Where we say, "If only I had his job or her job. If only I had their health. Oh, if only I had their intellect, their skill, if only I had that ability of theirs, oh, then I could serve God better. Then I could be a better husband, a better wife, a better friend." We make these "if only" statements that sometimes reveal the idols of our hearts. And it shows the discontentment that is in our sinful flesh.

Context of Romans: From Theology to Application

But, does the Bible call us to this comparison? The answer is no. Instead, the Bible calls us towards contentment. A contentment that is only possible because scripture shows us that everything we have, even our giftings, our abilities, the amount of money we make, the kids we have, whatever it may be, all of these things in our life is a gift from God. Not that we are owed anything, but we are given these certain gifts and abilities not to boast about or to compare to others, but instead, they are given to serve God and to serve others.

So our passage is going to speak about this grace by which these gifts are given. So our main point today in Romans chapter 12 is that by grace, we uniquely serve Christ's church. So once again, our main point is that by grace, we uniquely serve Christ's church. So in our passage today, we'll look at verses 3 through 8, looking how we are grounded by grace, different by grace, and built up by grace. But before we jump into our very first point, we would need to understand where are we in this book of Romans? We need to understand the context of this passage.

And so, we first look at Romans chapters 1 through 11. There is a whole lot of background that we're going to quickly cover before we get to Romans chapter 12. Romans 1 through 11 is a bunch of theology that Paul lays out in his letter to the Roman church. He starts in the first three chapters by he establishes our sinfulness. But he also establishes how God can be just and righteous in this judgment of our sinfulness. Then, he moves on in chapters 3 through 5, and he talks about that despite our sinfulness, guess what? There is hope, and that hope is in the gospel because we can be made righteous by the grace of God. He gives this great hope. Then he moves on to the next three chapters, chapters 5 through 8. He speaks of how we can only be saved by faith and by grace. And how because of that, then believers can live out these sanctifying lives, being sanctified and having this true, lasting, abiding hope in God. And finally, in chapters 9 through 11, Paul responds to those who want to distort, who want to twist the gospel. And he goes against them and makes it clear that we are saved not by works, but by faith. And he gives an understanding for his readers about God's plan for Israel.

So all those things, all those 11 chapters of theology are laid out before us in Romans 1 through 11. And it brings us to Romans chapter 12. If you could put your eyes on verse number 1 in Romans chapter 12. It says, "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. 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."

So Romans 12 is this switch. We have these first 11 chapters of this theology. These really important things to understand. In Romans 12, that "therefore" is a switch to now practical application. Where he's saying, "Because of all this theology, how do we take this theology and now move to practical application in our lives? How do we apply these truths?" And so, the first thing that he talks about in those verses is that this first application is we need to be a living sacrifice. We can't be conformed to the world, but we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And our application today, our verses today is going to continue that application in verses 3 through 8. And he talks to the brothers and sisters in the church, encouraging them to use their giftings in the church, because that is another practical application of the theology he's talked about.

Grounded by Grace

And so, if we look at our passage now, in verse 3, we're going to look at our first point, which is that we are grounded by grace. We are grounded by grace. And we see this in verse number 3. In 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."

Paul begins this verse by saying, "For," right? "For by the grace given to me." This is showing that this whole passage, this whole exhortation, all of this is an outflow of grace. Paul was almost stating his credentials at the beginning. He's like, "I can say this to you because of the grace given to me." He's saying, "For by this grace, then I can proclaim these things to you, charge you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to."

Now, this may beg the question for us, okay, well if I shouldn't think more highly than I ought to, uh, how should I think of myself? What does the Bible say about how I should think about myself? One of the first verses that pops in mind for me, a very convicting verse, Philippians 2, chapters 3, or Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 and 4: "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you not look only to their own interests, but also to the interests of others." That is so unlike our prideful, sinful flesh. But another verse that comes to mind, if you want to turn in your Bibles, just a couple pages forward to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. It should just be a couple pages over in your Bibles. We're going to read 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26 through 31. The end of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And this will help us to understand how we should think of ourselves biblically. It says, "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"

Whoo! That is an onslaught from Paul. In those verses, Paul calls believers, here we go, fools, weak, low, despised. Many things that hit right to our pride. These statements about ourselves, they're not wrong, though. We know this. And we can actually praise him for these weaknesses that we have. Now the world may look at that and say, "How is that possible? How can you call yourself weak, low, despised?" And the answer is, because of the gospel, because of grace. If we didn't have this grace, we would have never known our sin. We would have thought ourselves as high and lofty, maybe of noble birth, who knows. But, instead, because of God's grace to us, we see that he is rich in mercy. And when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God made us alive together with Christ, because it is grace that we are saved by. Only by the blood of Jesus.

And so, we see that this grace is what helps us to have this natural humility that comes from the gospel. Where we can say, "It's not anything that I have done so that no man may boast." Even as we think about these different giftings and boasting, we can see the silliness of it even in a real-world example. I think of a painter, a famous painter, let's say Van Gogh. Van Gogh is preparing to make his next amazing masterpiece. He sits down, has a blank canvas, and he has his assistant come. And his assistant helps with making sure that all the paint is ready to go, that all the water is ready to go, that his canvas is ready to go. Van Gogh has everything that he needs. Days and days later, Van Gogh paints this masterpiece. He gives it away to a museum. The museum hangs it up. Van Gogh signs it. They put a plaque on it. And everyone comes to marvel at the beautiful painting that Van Gogh has made. Now the silly example comes in when the assistant goes into the museum. He steps in front of the Van Gogh placcard and stands there with a smile and claims the painting as his own, greeting people saying, "Look what I've done! Look what I've done!" Meanwhile, he did nothing. Sure, he maybe helped to prepare some paints, some other things like that. But in reality, Van Gogh is the one who made the masterpiece. The assistant just wants to take the credit.

And in the same way, we can boast in our own giftings sometimes. And that's what we look like. It is God's gifting towards us. He's the one who has done all the work. And sometimes we try and take credit for that work that God has done. So, although we may have nothing to boast about, we still have the amazing gospel reality that we don't need to identify ourselves in the same way anymore. We don't need to identify as sinners, fools, weak, low, despised. Why is that? It's because we have a new identity in Christ. In Christ, sinners are made saints. In Christ, fools are made wise. In Christ, weak, they are made strong. And it is only by that grace of God that we see this.

So there's this natural humility that comes from grace. And Paul then commands the Romans, if you want to turn back to our passage. He then commands the Romans to then think with sober judgment. Think with sober judgment, because this sober judgment is only befitting to those, it's only given to those who have been grounded by the grace of the gospel. Without this grace of the gospel, our knowledge, we would be much too puffed up in our knowledge, thinking too highly of ourselves, extremely prideful. But because of God's grace, we can see the world rightly, see it with this sober judgment. I think of people in our world today. There are many people who are colorblind, who are unable to see certain colors, whether it be red or green, or there's different colors that some people can't see. There's been amazing technological advancements in which they're able to give glasses to these people which help them to actually see the colors they couldn't see before. They're able now with these colorblind glasses to see the world rightly, as it was made to be seen. In the same way, when we are hardened with sin in our hearts, we have a skewed view of the world. We don't see the world rightly, but instead, we need the spectacles of faith that God gives to be able to see the world rightly. And then we can think with this sober judgment that Paul commands the church to.

He says that we are to think with this sober judgment. Final verse in verse 3 says, "each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." And still relating to this humility, this sober judgment he's talking about, because God has assigned a measure of faith by his sovereign decree and choice. He's allowed us to see our own limitations. He's allowed us to see these limitations we have and has allowed us to see that we are gifted in these certain ways, and not in other ways as well. And that's very helpful because there's many ways in which I could not be gifted in some of the ways that you are. But God has given me sober judgment, thank the Lord, to be able to see that I am not gifted in those same ways. And so God has perfectly equipped us for each opportunity, each trial in our lives with this sober judgment. We see that this faith that God gives, is assigned to us.

Different by Grace

Because the gifting between us varies person to person, which leads us to verses 4 and 5, and our second point. Our second point is that we are different by grace. We are different by grace. Let's read verses 4 and 5 together. It says, "For, as in one body, we have many members. And the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another."

Once again, Paul begins verse 4 by saying, "For." He's repeating this again to show the continuation of thought that God has assigned these different giftings by grace. He's given different members with different functions. And we can speak of believers as a whole here, but specifically, this letter was written to those in local churches in Rome. They were working out these giftings in these local bodies. I think even here, if we look around the room at La Sierra Baptist, there is so much beautiful variety in the way that God has gifted this local body. And so, God has made us all amazingly and uniquely different, and that, we're going to see, is by grace alone.

Because the first way, that we even think about serving in the church or being able to help others in the church, we need to think about how we became a believer, right? If we were to think about entering the church or even entering membership, grace is the entry fee at the door of the church. If you are to serve in the church, if you are to be a part of the church, you must be marked by grace. Every believer has that mark to say, "Yes, I have been marked by the grace of the gospel." And by this grace, we saw comes this humility, this sober-mindedness that we need in the body. Because without this humility from grace that we saw earlier, whoo, life in the body would be cutthroat. Okay? Everyone would be butt heads with each other. Everyone would be trying to do what other people are meant to do. It would be chaotic. Everyone in our sinful flesh, if we didn't have this humility, would try and be the mouthpiece of God, right? As we see in so many other cults and religions, everyone wants to be the mouthpiece. But that's why God uses this imagery of a body, because a body needs diversity. If everyone is a mouth, then you don't have any eyes to see the needs of others. You don't have feet to be able to run and help those who are in need. If everyone's trying to be a mouth, there's no arms to comfort those when they need help. The body of Christ needs every single part in its diversity. And the gifts that God has given you are needed in this body.

Have you ever felt almost useless in a way? Like, "Ah, I'm not gifted in the way that they are. I don't know if I can be used in the church to serve in this way." My encouragement to you from scripture, is to put that feeling away. The best way I can think to put it, is that there is no appendix in the body of Christ. There is no body part in the body of Christ that can just be removed without any effects. God has given you a specific gifting that is meant to be used in this body of Christ. There is no just removable part of the body. But instead, God desires every gift that he has given to be used.

So we have this diversity in the body. But we not only need diversity in the body of Christ, we need unity. If we didn't have unity in the body of Christ, then it would just be a bunch of body parts laid out across the church. Everyone trying to do their own thing. But we need this unity in the body of Christ. And we even see this in our own bodies, how this works out. Let's say, for instance, I had an ant crawling on my hand, and I went to go brush off the ant from my hand. Does my hand move away as I try and brush it? Or if I'm trying to tie my shoe, does my shoe move away from me as I try and tie it? No. Why is that, you may ask? It's because all of my body parts are united under the one head. They're united to my one mind. And it's the same way in Christ's church. We are united under the one head, who is Christ. They are centered on the same goal and subject to the same head. So they are able to be their own diverse, unique body parts, but they are able to obey the will of the head and able to work together coherently. So it's beautiful that this body of Christ has diversity and unity.

But our verse says that not only do we have this diversity and unity, and that we are one body in Christ, it says in this last phrase, that we are individually members one of another. We have almost this dependency on one another. So here at La Sierra Baptist, we have a church covenant. We have membership that helps us to express this reality. That we all belong to one another. It's that reality that our lives, our time, our giftings are not just for ourself, but they are to serve the other members of the body, to show that we belong to the Lord and to these other believers. We have this shared commitment together. And these documents of our church covenant and membership help us to understand what that commitment is that we are committing to. Because if we are not united in that manner, then the body parts cannot help to serve each other. And 1 Corinthians 12, verse 26, it says, "If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, then all rejoice together." But if we see a disjointed body part, or maybe an unmoving or stubborn body part, then it won't be there to comfort. It won't be there to suffer with this other body part. It won't be there to honor or rejoice with this other part of the body. And so, we need to have this dependency on each other. This uplifting of the body.

Built Up by Grace: Using Our Unique Gifts

And this uplifting of the body brings us to our last point. We see it in verses 6 through 8, that although we differ in our giftings, these different giftings actually have a purpose. And this third point is that we are to build up by grace. Build up by grace. That is the purpose of these giftings.

So, let's read verses 6 through 8 together. It says, "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; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."

Our verse begins, it says, "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us." It's kind of an odd phrase, "according to the grace given to us." Does that, does that mean that a person with the gift of preaching has more grace given to the person with the gift of doing audio? You know, does Pastor Michael have a million grace points and, sorry, AJ, you've only got a thousand. No, that is not what that means. We may chuckle, but sadly, this thinking can easily creep into our hearts. "Oh, you see, they're gifted in that way, and if only I was gifted in that way, I would be more valuable to God." That's not what this verse is talking about, though. It's not talking about these points of grace that are given out, or this value of your gifting, but this verse is talking about the different, or the variedness of the gifting. So, for instance, we see in creation and in the Bible, man and woman are created for different roles. They have different giftings. Yet, they are still equally valuable. They're both created in the image of God, and they're both worth the same, you could say. So just because you have a different gifting than somebody else in the congregation, does not mean that you have this much less valuable gifting.

So, we see that with this differing grace, then Paul encourages them. What it says, "Let us use them." He's exhorting them to use these gifts. And so we're going to go into this list of these different gifts that he gives here. This list isn't a completely exhaustive list. So, if you go through this list and you think to yourself, "Man, I'm not gifted in any of these." That's okay, you're not missing out. But there's lots of other New Testament passages that speak to other gift gift lists as well. But I would encourage you, as we go through this one, although it's not exhaustive, I would encourage you to think about and pray and discern as we go through this list, am I gifted in this way to serve the church? Am I gifted in this way to encourage the church? We want to have this self-reflection as we go into this time, looking at how we can best serve not only Christ, but the members of the body here.

So, beginning with prophecy. It says, "If prophecy, in proportion to our faith." Now, I believe that it is clear in the Bible that there is a standard of prophecy. The Old Testament makes this standard clear, and it's also the standard of the New Testament to say, "Okay, if you are going to call yourself a prophet, if you are going to say, 'I am speaking for God,' you must speak with 100% accuracy." Does God ever lie? Does God ever get things wrong or maybe just not see what was ahead? No. So if you are going to claim that you are speaking on behalf of the Lord, you must speak with that same authority and same accuracy that God does. Now we see today, we don't see that 100% accuracy of biblical prophets as we saw in the Old Testament, or even just in the early church period. Ephesians 2:20 makes it clear that prophets were used for the foundation of the church, and now the church can be built up on that foundation. So we don't need to go building foundation after foundation after foundation after foundation, but instead, we're able to use the foundation of the prophets to now have our church. And this prophecy, this foundation of prophecy has now been built on with what we would say is the ministry of teaching. Although it's not a one-to-one correlation, it is very similar, in which a prophet would speak the exact words of God as we have in our Bibles here. Preaching or teaching is a ministry in which we take the words of God and we help to explain them to others. And so, we see that this preaching or teaching is now almost a continuation or replacement of prophecy. So it encourages the body, it serves the body by bringing the body what they need. The body needs the words of God. The sheep need to eat, which is why Paul exhorts Timothy and say and says, "Preach the word in season and out of season." The people of God want the word of God. So it's important to bring it to them to build them up and encourage them.

Moving on to our next gifting, it says, "If service, in our serving." This is in reference to those who are able to practically serve and help in the church. I think we can even specifically look to deacons in the church who have that specific office and role of serving, who are able to have the privilege to serve hands-on in the church. So, if you have this gift of serving, a lot of times it can be almost be seen as the gift of free time. If you have time, then you should be gifted in helping to serve the church. You can be a huge help to the church, leading in service, just as our Lord did. And so, it's important to do this because it's helpful to set a culture in the church that encourages all people to serve, even without praise. So there's very practical needs in the church, where if you're able to, yes, clean the bathrooms, set up chairs, set up whatever may be needed, that is actual helpful, practical service to the church. Although, it's not getting the same praise or recognition as maybe other parts of the body or other giftings may be getting. So we would encourage that this gift of service is something that is actually exemplified most of all in Jesus.

Next, it says, talking about teaching, "The one who teaches, in his teaching." Okay. So, the one who shows his gift in this way, brings the text of scripture to show them the Lord Jesus Christ. We kind of touched on this earlier, but this teaching helps to encourage the body by helping bring them new perspective or maybe a new nugget of truth from scripture. But it's not just preaching that is teaching, but teaching can also happen in other areas too. Teaching can happen in discipleship. Teaching can happen in counseling, where you're able to come alongside a brother or sister in Christ, and you're able to help show them from the scriptures, "Hey, here is how the Lord is speaking to your situation." You're able to teach and instruct them in the ways of the Lord. Although it may not be from a pulpit, you can still serve in this way to your brother or sister in Christ, and it can be a great blessing and a great ministry. Not only that, it can also look like the teaching of children. That is a great way to serve the church, teaching the next generation of the church how to love God and trust him, helping to build a foundation of future faith in these children. What a gift it is to be able to be involved in this manner of teaching. As it encourages not only the kids, it encourages you, and it encourages the parents of the kids as well. What a beautiful way to serve.

After this, we see exhortation. Okay? So, after teaching, it says, "The one who exhorts, in his exhortation." There's this correlation between teaching and exhortation. Teaching is helping to understand the truth. That is what teaching does. Exhortation is, once you already know the truth, exhorting each other to live out the truth, or to actually apply that truth. Exhortation is very important, and it can happen both negatively and positively. A negative exhortation may be seen as a confrontation, a situation in which you may come to a brother or sister in Christ and say, "Hey, I see this going on in your life. I think you know that it's sinful, but I don't think you want to stop." It's an exhortation to say, "Hey, because I love you, I'm going to come to you with this truth." That's a negative exhortation, or we can also have positive exhortations as well, where we can encourage people to keep going. Paul does this in his letters to the churches. He's exhorting them, "Keep fighting the good fight. Keep going. Keep racing." That is an exhortation and encouragement to those saints, because the Christian journey can be a weary journey. It can sometimes feel like a lonely journey. But we know, and it can be a great comfort that we have brothers and sisters exhorting us, walking this same path of faith with us. So we are to encourage you to exhort.

The next gift we see is in contribution. "Contribution in generosity," it says. Okay? Our first thought may be to monetary contribution, and we're like, "Whoo, gift me in that, Lord! Yes, please!" Okay? But that prideful instinct may not be exactly correct, because we can still contribute to the body in many ways, not just monetarily. You can contribute with your time. You can contribute with your money, of course. You can contribute with other resources, other abilities, other talents. Many things you can contribute to the church. But we want to do this all knowing it is a gift from God, because it says that we can have this gift of contribution, but it says, "in generosity." That's a hard thing for us to fathom, a generous heart. That is not the natural inclination of our hearts, is to just give and give and keep on giving. And we see that in our culture today. But generosity is fostered by the gospel, and specifically, by grace. Because once we recognize that either our money, our time, our giftings, once we recognize they are not ours, but they were given by the good giver, then our hands open up. It's much easier to be generous and let go of these different things when we know that they are not ours, but they are ultimately his. And that's why in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, Paul talks about our lives as a living sacrifice. Our entire lives are a sacrifice, because we know that our life is not our own.

So, after contribution, we see, "The one who leads, with zeal." Okay, a leader being able to rally people together in a church. A leader of a ministry should not do it just as an obligation, or with no passion in his heart. It's like, "Ah, yeah, I guess I'll lead music this week." Or, "I guess I'll lead our Bible study." But the leaders in the church should have their hearts affected by gospel truth, so that when we see someone leading a ministry, they can help lead in a way that wants to almost pull others with them, leading with this zeal, this passion that other people can come alongside with and get excited about. But not only is this just for those in leadership at a church, having a leadership position or office, but you can also lead in the body of Christ in service. There was this great story, I got to go to Malawi this past summer, and one of the pastors shared this story of this seven-year-old girl who, we would say, was leading their church in service. She had been saved and was so excited that she would basically go door-to-door all of Saturday inviting a bunch of different little kids to come to church. And she would come in with this swarm of kids into the church and would help them understand what the teaching was about. She would bring people into the church. She was just on fire, and it really helped to ignite the church because they saw her fervor, her passion, her zeal for serving the church. Now was she in a leadership position in the church? No. But she still led the church in a way because she led with her service, with her passion, with her zeal, and you can lead in the same exact manner, leading in this example of service.

And finally, we see in our list, "The one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness." Okay? The Bible makes it clear that no matter how little or how much we have, we are to be generous and cheerful. Not a begrudging giver, whether in money, if we're talking about acts of mercy, giving to those who are in need, we are to do it cheerfully, it says. But also we can think about this acts of mercy in the giving of forgiveness. When we forgive each other in the body, it should not be a situation where a brother or sister comes to us and asks for forgiveness, and we say, "Yeah, I guess, sure, I forgive you." Okay? Not a begrudging forgiveness, but a cheerful forgiveness, that we can have this right relationship with them, this restored relationship, where we can show them mercy and show them this forgiveness, this love that Christ has already shown us. The ultimate goal of all these giftings is the encouragement of the church. And we see that they're not just for pastors. They're not just for elders. They're not just for deacons. But every single believer in the church has these different giftings. These different giftings have this purpose of building up the body of Christ, encouraging the body of Christ. As we zoom out and look at this different list, this beautiful array of gifts, it's almost like a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Picture it. Different colors, different sizes, different patterns, all made to compliment each other and arranged masterfully by the florist. And this church here, at La Sierra, is the same way. Although we are different, although we are unique, our giftings are made to serve and compliment each other. And they are beautifully arranged and gifted by the good giver, by our good God. So the encouragement is to use your giftings.

Final Exhortations

So, final exhortations to close. The first exhortation is to those who are here this morning at La Sierra, who have not bowed the knee to the Lord, who have not surrendered their life to Christ, who have not admitted that they need a Savior. I would beg you, and scripture begs you, turn from your sin. Ask God for forgiveness. Believe in what Jesus has done on the cross, that he has taken on your sin and shown you grace, unmerited favor. Not anything you deserved, but true gospel grace. So we believe this, and we trust that Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins.

Now, for those who are believers here today, not just professing faith, but are truly regenerated, who are part of Christ's body, I have three application points for you, real quick. The first application I have for you is that I would encourage you to discern your giftings. Discern your giftings. I would encourage you to pray to the Lord, ask him to help you see the ways in which you are gifted. And even talk with others who are close to you, who know you well. "Hey, how am I gifted? How could I best serve the church?" It's a great way to understand how you are gifted. So first, discern your giftings. Second, one of the main things in our passage is that you should use your giftings. So once you know your giftings, and you discern what they are, you are encouraged, and even exhorted by Paul here, "Use it! Put it to use!" Don't just be a limp arm hanging, but actually work for the church, serve the church, and encourage the body. And finally, our last application is not only discern your giftings, use your giftings, but also credit God for your giftings. As we are in the church, as we are serving, that is what we want to come back to over and over and over again. That gifting is not our gifting, but it is the Lord's, and he is the one who deserves all glory and all praise. So, in conclusion, we see that everything we have, our lives, our faith, our gifts, our service, all of it is attributed to this grace so that we may serve Christ's church. So my encouragement to you is, go serve. Use your giftings for God's glory, and thank him all the while for it. Let's pray.