Evangelical Free Church of Embarass

Presentation and transformation. Those are the 2 subjects of verses 1 and 2 of Romans 12. Last week we began a series through Romans 12 and 13 called The Transformed Life. We looked at the first 2 verses. Verse 1 talks about the experience of presentation. Paul challenges the Roman Christians, based on what God has done for them, to present themselves to Him as, what He calls, “living sacrifices,” to offer themselves to Him once and for all for whatever He wants. He says it’s your reasonable act of service and worship. It just makes sense to make that presentation to God once and for all because of what he’s done for you. Then in verse 2 we have the transformation. Paul instructs the Roman Christians to stop being conformed to the world, to stop copying the world around them and instead be transformed, to be different, to be changed. And he says it happens as you’re renewed in your mind. As you learn to think differently you will live differently – be transformed. And then as we go through the rest of chapter 12 and all of chapter 13, I’m going to suggest to you that what Paul does is he gives a number of examples of what that transformed life looks like after a person has once and for all presented himself or herself to God. Because of that great salvation that he has given to them, they are able to begin to live the transformed life and Paul is going to show us what that looks like in a very practical way. So that’s what our study is going to be in the next 10 weeks. We’re going to look at what the transformed life is like.

Now, for some of you, last Sunday, February 11, 2001, (or whatever date you read this message) is going to be a reference point because you decided, after we had looked at these scriptures, that it was reasonable for you, after all that God had down for you, to once and for all make this presentation to him, in a sense laying yourself on the altar and offering yourself to God for whatever He wanted. And you’re not going to forget last Sunday. Those of you who made that presentation, you will keep going back to that as you seek to live out this transformed life. That once-and-for-all presentation is that significant.

Today we start with verses 3-8 and we’re going to look at this transformed life, at least one part of it. Let’s pray first.

Father, we thank You so much for Your salvation through Jesus Christ and His work. Thank You, Father, for freedom from the control of sin. Thank You, Father, for saving us from the penalty of sin. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit who lives in us and for the security we have in You. All these things that Paul teaches us in the first 11 chapters of Romans. Father, I thank You for those who have once and for all presented themselves to You in response to that. And now, God, as we begin to look at the transformed life and how You want to change us, how You want to work in our lives to change our thinking and our living to make us different, Father, speak to our hearts every week through Your word. Just use Your Spirit, Father, to powerfully show us what needs to happen in our lives. And Father, please start today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

In verse 3, Paul says, after he’s just talked about being renewed in our minds, “Don’t think more highly of yourself than you should.” Think properly about yourself. So right after saying we are changed by the renewing of our minds, he talks about how we think, and specifically in verses 3-8 it’s about how we think concerning ourselves. In verse 3 he says, don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought. Literally he is saying don’t “overthink.” The Greek word is a combination of the prefix that means “over” or “high” or “a lot” (huper) and then the word for mind or think. So literally he’s saying don’t overthink about yourself. Don’t think too highly of yourself. But rather, think about yourself with sound judgment, soberly, properly. Have the right thinking about yourself. Now, in the conformed life, the life where we as Christians would tend to conform to this world, we would have thoughts about self that are very self-ish, self-sufficient, self-promoting, individualistic, independent. Those are some of the typical ways that people in our world think of themselves, right? And the last four of those actually, in our society, are typically viewed as healthy – self-sufficient, self-promoting, individualistic thinking, independent thinking about yourself – those tend a lot of times to be presented as very healthy. Just read the self-help books. They encourage you to think those ways about yourself. But according to God’s word, they aren’t healthy ways of thinking about yourself because they will lead to a way of living that is self-centered and selfish and self-promoting. And we end up with an exaggerated opinion of our importance. What Paul is saying is don’t be conformed to the world. Don’t think like they think about themselves. Don’t overthink about yourself. Think properly about yourself.

Unfortunately so many of us as Christians find ourselves conforming and we become selfish and we become self-sufficient and we become self-promoting and we get wrapped up in individualism and independence, and then we start living that way just like the world. But we’re supposed to be different. We’re supposed to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, by thinking differently. So the question is, Paul, how then are we supposed to think about ourselves as Christians?

What is that proper way of thinking of ourselves that isn’t too high? Well, I think he goes on and tells us that in verse 4. First of all, the proper thinking about ourselves is this: I am part of a community. I am part of a group. Whatever word you want to use – body, family, community, church – but the idea is that the thinking in the transformed life is that I’m a part of a community, the community of believers, the family of God, the Body of Christ. I’m part of that group. When you and I trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, He placed us into that group, into that community. We became a part of the family of God, a part of the Body of Christ. And that’s what Paul says here. Verses 4 and 5, “Just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, (there I think he’s referring to the physical body, he’s trying to give a comparison here. Just like in our physical body there are many different parts, all have different functions, yet they’re in the same body) so we (we believers) who are many are one body in Christ.” We are part of one group, one body -- community. And that’s how we have to think. That isn’t always the way that the world thinks. They don’t think group. They don’t think community. They think individual. But when you and I became Christians, we were placed in a group. God’s intention is not for us to be an island to ourselves, to be a lone ranger. We are now part of a group, a body, and that’s how we are to think of ourselves. That is the proper way of thinking of ourselves. So when we talk about the transformed life in these next weeks, we’re going to be talking about a life that is lived in a group, in a community. We’re not going to talk about a life that is lived in isolation, a life that is lived independent of everybody else. The transformed life that Paul’s going to talk about in chapters 12 and 13 is a life lived in a community, in a body, made up of all other believers. Now, that’s an important way to think because that’s going to affect how we live, if we think that way. I’m part of a group, part of a community.

The second thing that he brings up is that we’re not only part of a community, a body, but we belong to everyone in that body. We belong to each other in the community of believers. Notice, he says that at the end of verse 5. “So we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.” The New International Version says, “We belong to each other.” The Amplified Version says, “We are mutually dependent upon each other.” And the New Living Translation simply says, “And we need each other.” The idea here is interdependence. That’s the word. That’s the thinking of the transformed life in Christ. We’re part of a group -- the community of believers – and we belong to each other in that community. We are interdependent. We need each other. We need to learn that kind of thinking because that kind of thinking is not out in the world. Interdependence is not a common way of thinking. Independence is. So as Christians, we have to somehow unlearn the independent type thinking and learn interdependent thinking as part of the community of believers. And that’s not always easy to move from thinking independently to thinking interdependently. But that’s the transformed life. That’s the renewing of our mind as we begin to think those proper thoughts of ourselves. We’re part of a community, part of a whole, and we belong to each other in that community. We need each other. We’re interdependent.

Someone has said that what Paul is saying here is that as Christians we are to be like a bag of grapes rather than a bag of marbles. Picture this…Here you have a bag of marbles. They’re shiny and they look good. They’re hard. You can’t see what’s on the inside no matter what you do. If you were to shake the bag and tap the bag, they remain independent. They’re not connected to each other at all. In fact, if you shake it, all they do is bang against each other. No matter how hard you shake this bag, you still don’t get to see what’s on the inside of those marbles. They’re so hard. So it’s really a collection of unconnected, individual pieces. Whereas you have a bag of grapes. Now, the first thing you notice about a bag of grapes is that they’re all connected to a branch, and because they’re all connected to that same branch, they’re connected to each other. They’re a lot softer than marbles. In fact, some of them are even showing some blemishes, some imperfections. If you look closely you can even get an idea of the inside of some of them. It’s kind of leaking out. If you were to shake this bag of grapes or smash it, they’re still connected. They’re connected to the branch, thus to each other. It might even create a little more blemish on some of them and a little more might come out of some of them, but that’s because they’re softer. We find that grapes need to stay together in order to be strong. If you separate a grape from this cluster and put it on it’s own, it’s pretty vulnerable, isn’t it? But if you put it together in a cluster like this in a bag, there’s a lot more strength.

What someone has said is that the teaching of scripture says that we who are believers are to be like a bag of grapes, not a bag of marbles. Some groups of believers are like a bag of marbles. They’re all independent from each other. They’re hard. They never let anyone see what’s on the inside. They’re not connected at all, just a bunch of individual people together in the same place. And when they’re attacked and they get all shook up, they just bang against each other.

Then you have groups of believers who are like the bag of grapes. And you can see right away that there are imperfections. They’re not hiding the imperfections. Sometimes there are even blemishes. You can see what’s inside of them. At times they let it out. They’re all connected to each other, because they’re connected to that same branch as followers of Christ. When that group of believers is all shook up and beat on, they stay connected. They might bruise and they might even spill over what’s on the inside, but they stay connected to that branch and that’s where their strength is, because they know if they were separate from that branch, from the group, they would be very weak and vulnerable. Paul is saying here in Romans 12 that we need to start thinking like a bag of grapes, not a bag of marbles. We need to start thinking that we are part of a group. We are part of a community, the Body of Christ, and that in that group, in that Body of Christ, we are interdependent. We need each other. We need to stick together because that’s where the strength is. We need to be real with each other. We need to acknowledge that we need each other, because we belong to each other. We’re part of the same whole.

Third, Paul moves on to verses 6-8, and I think he gives an example of this interdependence, this interdependent way of thinking in the Body of Christ. What he says here in these verses is that we are gifted and we need to start thinking that way, that as believers in this community, belonging to each other, we are gifted by God for the purpose of serving the others in that community, in that Body. Notice how he says it in verse 6. He says, “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them.” Now, he teaches the same thing in 1 Corinthians 12, that all believers have been gifted by God with certain abilities that are given to them by God so that they can function in the Body of Christ, minister to each other. It’s the same thing Peter teaches in 1 Peter 4 where he says that each one has received a special gift and we’re to use those gifts in serving each other. That’s their purpose. All believers have been given gifts from God to be used in serving the others in the body. That’s how we function. God gives us gifts so we can carry out our role in the Body of Christ, so we can fit in to the Body of Christ. So Paul says since we each have gifts, let’s exercise them. Let’s use them.

Now, he lists 7 of them. There are more listed in 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4. Maybe there are more than that. I don’t know if the lists are exhaustive or not. But there are 7 here and I’m willing to go on record and say that every Christian in this place this morning has at least one or more of these 7. They’re that common.

So let’s look at the examples of gifts God has given His people in this community of believers that we can use to serve each other as part of this interdependence, needing each other, functioning together.

The first one he mentions is prophecy. He says, “If your gift is prophecy, exercise it according to the proportion of your faith.” So there’s the gift of prophecy. It’s the public proclaiming of God’s message. It’s that special ability to speak forth the message of God. There was a time when people who had this gift had to speak forth publicly a message that God gave them directly because not much of God’s message was recorded. Today this gift is more the proclaiming of God’s message as it is now already recorded for us in scripture. But God has given some of His people this special gift of taking His message, His Word, and proclaiming it.

Next he says, “If your gift is serving (or service – verse 7), then exercise it in your serving.” This is that special ability that God’s given so many of His people to see needs and to just help in a practical way, to minister in a practical way. It’s from the Greek word “Diakonos.” We get “deacon” from it. It means to serve, to minister. And God has given some of His people just a great gift in that area. A lot of times their practical serving is behind the scenes, but it’s so important and so needed and so practical in the Body of Christ.

The third gift he mentions is teaching. “He who has the gift of teaching, let him exercise it in his teaching.” To teach is to be able to systematically give instruction from God’s word or to systematically explain it. Now, that’s different from prophecy, the proclaiming of God’s message. You see, someone with the gift of prophesy can publicly proclaim God’s message and it might not necessarily be real systematic, real orderly. It will be bold. It will be the message of God. It will be challenging, but it may not be systematic and just an orderly explaining of God’s word. God has given that gift to some of his people – teaching – where they are able to take His word and in a systematic, orderly way help people to understand it, to explain it. It’s a gift for serving God’s people.

The next one is exhorting or encouraging (verse 8). He who has that gift should exercise it in his encouraging and exhorting.” This is real interesting because the word here is “parakeleo” and “parakaleo” is the word that Jesus chose in John 14-16 in referring to the Holy Spirit. He called the Holy Spirit the “Helper,” the “Encourager,” the “Comforter” depending on which translation you use. But it was this word, parakaleo. It means “to be called alongside to help.” God has gifted some of His people with this ability to come alongside and provide what’s needed. Sometimes it’s encouragement. Sometimes it’s comfort. Sometimes it’s motivation and challenge. Sometimes it’s counsel. But He’s gifted some of His people to just have that ability to come alongside of you and provide what’s needed at that time. It’s a great gift for serving God’s people.

We go on and he brings up another gift. “He who gives, let him give generously.” There’s a gift of giving. God has given this special ability to some of His people. Now, we’re all supposed to be givers, but God has given to some of His people a special ability to see the needs and to joyfully and generously give of what He’s provided for them to meet that need, to contribute to the needs in that physical way. It’s a gift that God has given to some of His people.

He goes on and he talks about the gift of leadership. “He who leads, should exercise that gift with diligence.” God has gifted some of His people with leadership. The word here means “to stand before.” It’s a word that was used in referring to steering a ship. A leader is someone who steers the ship, who provides that leadership, someone who can take a group of people from one point to another. And in the context of the church or the Body of Christ, I would say it’s a direction, a route, that God has laid out, that there are people he has gifted that can steer the ship and help a group move from point A to point B. It’s a gift of leadership.

You go on and he talks about mercy. That’s the last of the 7 he mentions here. The gift of mercy. And he says “Whoever has that gift should exercise it with cheerfulness.” We don’t all have the gift of mercy. We’re all supposed to be merciful, but some Christians have a tremendous, special gift from God in the area of mercy. And that’s the ability to show compassion, to actively show compassion toward the afflicted, people who are suffering, people who are in misery, people who are less fortunate. Those with the gift of mercy can just feel with those folks, and they love to just actively be there and minister to those people. For some of us that’s very difficult, but for the person with the gift of mercy, it’s something they do cheerfully, because it’s a part of their heart. God has given them that gift of mercy.

So there you have 7 gifts that Paul lists here, and it’s in the context of thinking right about yourself. It’s in the context of renewing your mind and thinking right about yourself, not being conformed to the way that the world thinks about themselves. As Christians, we’re part of a community. That’s how we should think. We’re part of a community. We belong to each other in that community. That should be the way we think of ourselves. I belong to these other believers. They belong to me. We are part of the same whole. We need each other. We are interdependent and part of that is to realize that I am gifted and my role in this community is to use the gift or gifts God has given me to serve those people I belong to who are dependent on me, whom I’m dependent on. I need to see myself as a gifted person who has a role to play in that community in serving those other people. That’s the way we’re supposed to think of ourselves, not some high view of ourselves that’s self-sufficient and self-centered and self-promoting, and individualistic and independent. That would be conforming to the world, but to let God transform our thinking and thus our living. I’m part of a community. I am interdependent on those people and I have been gifted so that I can do my part in serving that community.

The great conductor personally selected 100 musicians to play in his orchestra. Along with sending out word that they had been selected, the conductor presented each one with a brand new instrument, their own special instrument as a gift, and then he invited these 100 musicians that he had selected, and given the instruments to, to gather with him at a certain town to do a concert. Some didn’t come. They were too busy. They turned down the invitation. Some didn’t come because they just didn’t feel like it. Some came but they didn’t bring their instrument that had been given to them. Others came but when they heard those who had arrived before them warming up on their instruments, they didn’t even open their case because they didn’t think they could ever play as well as those people who were warming up. Some of the musicians refused to play because they said they had just come to listen to the others. And a group of the musicians were even behind the stage fighting over a trumpet because everybody thought that was the best instrument to play. One guy told the conductor that he would only play in the concert if he could have the solo part in every song, because after all, he was the only one the conductor really needed. So there were only 35 musicians left out of the 100 that were willing to play the instrument that the conductor had given them in this concert. And they played the concert and they did their best and it sounded good. The people listening appreciated it. The conductor was pleased with those 35 who played. But of course, we know that all 100 musicians were needed in order for that orchestra to sound its best, like it was intended to sound. Even though the 35 did well, there were 65 that missed out. They missed out on being a part of a great orchestra, making great music for a great conductor.

So the question is, where do you fit into that story? If you are a Christian, you have been selected to be part of a group. It’s called the Body of Christ. And when you came into that group, you were given a gift. You were even given what you would need to function in that group. Paul has listed 7 of them here. Are you part of the 35 willing to play your instrument, to use your gift and function in that body that needs you? Or would you have to say you’re part of the 65 who, for whatever reason, have decided not to play your part and to use that gift? If you’re part of the 65, you’re missing out. You’re missing out on functioning as a great orchestra, making great music for a great conductor.

God’s intention was not that we be isolated. His intention was not that we be self-promoting people, self-sufficient people. His design for us as His people was not that we be independent, that we be just a bunch of individuals doing their own thing. His design from the beginning when you and I came into the Body of Christ was that we would be part of a group where we were needed, where we are dependent on the others and they are dependent on us for the function of the entire group. And He even gifted us. He even gave us what we need to be a part of that group and to play our role. And yet so many of us choose to be spectators, to sit in the audience rather than to be participants in the orchestra. And you know what happens to spectators? They very quickly become critics. Have you ever thought about that? If I had been able to be playing basketball in that tournament that my boys were in yesterday, I wouldn’t have been as much a critic as I was sitting up there as a spectator. It didn’t take long for me as a spectator to become a critic. You think about it. In any aspect of life, the participants aren’t the critics. It’s the spectators – whether it’s politics or sports, music or the Body of Christ. There’s a danger in being a spectator. You tend to become a critic. And that’s not what God intended. He intended for all of us to be participants in the Body and to make great music together for a great conductor. Let’s pray.

Father, first of all, I thank You for Your salvation through Jesus that has brought us into a community and it’s the Body of Christ. Father, I pray that You would, if it is a need right now, work to renew our thinking, that we would begin to view ourselves as part of a community, as interdependent, as needing one another, and as people who are gifted for the purpose of serving in the body for the good of the whole body. Father, renew our thinking that we might be able to live a transformed life in this area for Your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.