Welcome back to afaithtalk.com. I’m so glad you’re here. Today I was reading from Romans 12 again and it’s stewardship time of the year and wow do those two plus two of this coming Sunday’s Scriptures go so well with this.
Join me as we take a short walk through these 8 verses.
Romans 12:1-2 NIV
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Therefore, it’s a continuation based on all that came before. It’s ‘in light of this’ or ‘because of that’.
And look, ‘in view of God’s mercy’ Psalm 123 is in Sunday’s Order of Worship and in it “Have mercy upon us, O LORD,” is repeated a few times in that.
We’re in view of God at all times, so of course we’re in view of His mercy too. And if you wish to receive mercy, be a living sacrifice. The promises in that decision are awesome. A living sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God and it’s true and proper worship too.
Sure we could spend hours on those first two verses, but today, that’s not my intent. This is behind schedule for one reason.
Do not conform to this world. We do not belong to this world. Jesus put it this way: John 15:19
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
So by not conforming we are agreeing with His choosing. And we need to be transformed in our minds, how our minds think, every day a little more so that we can test and approve, meaning believe and know to be true, God’s will, his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:3-5 NIV
Humble Service in the Body of Christ
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
What do you think Paul means by ‘by the grace given me’? He knows what John said in chapter 1 verse 16.
“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.”
We’re positively drowning in God’s grace. For that reason, we’re not to think more highly of ourselves but with sober judgement in accordance with our faith. ‘The faith God has distributed to each of you.’ Faith is both a gift and a choice. It’s both something given and something you can grow. It’s absolutely critical for life today and life everlasting.
And look, it’s more unity talk. We are one body and belong to all the others. John 17:20-21
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
That’s why unity is important today. “So that the world maybe believe.” We’re hurting those chances with all our infighting. We’re supposed to love and be one. Each of us belonging to one another. Our unity is in Him, of Him, and with Him.
Let’s go back to Romans 12.
Romans 12:6-8 NIV
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your [your name] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, [or to provide for others] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
The different gifts we each have are meant to serve the family of faith. The bracketed type was footnotes I filled in for you. All of these gifts are best served in accordance with [your] faith. And it’s by no means an exhaustive list, just some to show that we all have different gifts.
If you don’t know your gifts, ask Him and look at your life. I know they change according to the growth of our faith. I’m sure your gifts have changed over the years too. And so long as we’re ‘awake’ we should keep growing, keep gaining in gifts.
2 Corinthians 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen and Amen.