Pastor Cody Harlow Romans 12:3-8

Romans chapter 12 we're going to be in verses 3 through 8. I believe with all of my heart that every single believer ought to have a Ministry that they are serving in amen oh you guys are not of the same mind are that's why we're talking about this [Laughter] every single men every single person in the body of Christ has a role to play they are a member of the body of Christ if you are in Christ back in May I had a part of my body which was failing me and it was my appendix and when that stopped functioning it just wreaked havoc that little you know like bit of tissue that's attached down in there somewhere right it just wreaked havoc on my body because it stopped working it actually got gangrenous and necrotic and nasty and all that kind of stuff gross but I guess that my point in before we even get into this is that we all have a role to play in the body of Christ and when there's not when you are not participating in the work of the body of Christ what happens is that even though you may not notice it wreaks havoc on the local church body that's what happens when you just kind of lay back and say you know what I've been doing enough ever since I was I've been walking with the Lord for 23 years I got saved in 2000 I was a 14 year old kid and a year later I got to really serve for the first time in a church it was a I was a preschool helper in a vacation Bible school that year I think the theme was truth trackers and that was just a long time ago and ever since then I've been I've been serving with toddlers with teens with preteens doing whatever I can to serve in the local church even as a pastor you know there are different ways

That I serve on occasion and so whether it's toddlers or teens as a pastor or prayer leader it has been wonderful to see God work in many neat ways and I know there are some of you that you serve week in and week out and I thank the Lord for each and every single one of you amen Church I mean from Sunday school teachers to administrators to prayer warriors to folks in the AV Booth to you know musicians I mean it takes a lot of people to make this local church body function I sat down a couple of years ago and I wrote out how many people minimum it takes to make Sunday mornings work and it takes minimum 53 people to make Sunday mornings work that's a lot of people in a church of you know what 200 or so thankfully we're not a church that has you know 10 percent of people doing 90 of the work today we are talking about four marks of Faithful Servants four marks of Faithful Servants and I would invite for you for you to stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Romans chapter 12 verses three through eight God's word it says this 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 the members do not all have the same functions 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 and so Lord we do thank you for this great day that you've given to us and we thank you for your word and God I just pray that today would be a day where folks are prompted Lord to use the gifts that you've given to them to glorify you Lord wherever we're at Lord from the youngest to the oldest we can all be used by you the big issue is do we know you and are we willing to serve our Lord and so I just pray that we would help that you would help us give us understanding Lord and as Lord I just feel uncomfortable opening up a passage and preaching from it in a way that is not you know like book by book versus diverse Lord It's a challenge to me Lord I pray that you would just use me as an imperfect human Lord to do your perfect work we know that you can draw straight lines with crooked sticks Lord and Lord just help us not to go looking around for crooked sticks but Lord always seeking out your will in your way father thank you for your kindness and your mercy and we just pray that you would move us today to obedience to you in Jesus precious name and all right I want to talk to you about a guy in our church that is really busy he is always doing the things that no one else wants to do he works hard he prays he is always serving where people no one else wants to serve he volunteers where people don't want to volunteer his name is somebody else you know somebody else they can serve on the properties team somebody else they can serve with preschoolers somebody else can help out with worship someone else can

Do this or that I've got too much on my plate besides somebody else they can do a much better job than I ever could somebody else they stand where you aren't and as a result somebody else they get oftentimes weary and worn out and so the next time that somebody else gets worn out and maybe someone asks you to do something worthwhile I want to ask you to stop and think a moment are you letting somebody else do what God has called you to do when you entrust yourself to the Lord God he always gives you exactly what you need I was I am you guys don't know this about me I am an introvert of introverts you would not be able to tell that I go home and I spend all week prepping for Sunday mentally preparing myself because it's one of the things lawyers called me to do and he always gives me what I need you know to meet with people to talk with people to minister to people takes time being with the Lord and by myself one of my favorite times is going outside and doing yard work because no one's around me I'm mowing my yard and I'm doing what I got to do and that time I'm just spending time praying Lord help me be with me fill my cup help me I could easily say you know as a pastor somebody else can they can stand up here and do this no they can't God's given me this mission to preach the word but I digress let me go back one of the one of the things that's important to note about this passage in Romans chapter 12 verses three through eight is that it's not an isolated passage right and if you've got a copy of God's word open it up

There and look at Romans 12. Look at Romans 12 verses 1 and 2 brother Steve he preached on this not too long ago so I won't go into a deep exposition of the text but I want you to look at the passage and what it says 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 what is acceptable and what is perfect and so it is from a life that is fully submitted to the Lord and is fully submitted to his will it is from that submission stems in our service to God you will not find a servant of the Lord who is completely unsubmissive to him we must present our members ourselves our whole life our physical our mental our emotional all of our time all of our money all of our resources we present that as a Living Sacrifice to the Lord and so he asked God whatever you want me to do whatever you want me to be however you want me to serve God I am willing to do that but I just need some wisdom because I don't know how to serve I don't know what I am called to do what is it that you would have me to do my rest my time my money my hobbies my family how should I serve you and it's not just by a mere chance that Paul he goes directly from submission to the Lord to how we submit to him in service and he does this through the lens of blessing and I want you to look here with me it is for by the grace given to me is what Paul says here for by the grace given to

Me this is in reference to him as an apostle his calling that he received from the Lord that he says to every one of you this is a command this is a listen up Paul he gives us the very first point that we're going to talk about today and if you're taking notes write this down the mindset of service the mindset of service not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think and so this is in the realm of our minds clearly our minds how do you view yourself in relation to God what is your mindset are you a Living Sacrifice or not are you transformed in the renewing of your mind do you have an accurate view of yourself or do you view yourself as maybe more important than you ought to think every single one of us we get the same 24 hours in a day none of us gets more none of us gets less we all get the same amount and so you think maybe maybe you work 8 10 12 hours a day some of you sleep eight ten twelve hours a day and if you're a teenager you need that and sometimes toddlers too but what's left at the end of the week you got maybe 40 to 50 hours for the rest of the week that you get to outside of your work outside of your rest you get 42 50 hours what do you do with those Get You Gotta Eat You Gotta spend time with your family but we all have the same amount of time and how you spend that time is very important and so you and I we must have the right mindset for service there's three things that Paul points out here firstly is humility humility what does he say here in this passage we must not think of ourselves

More highly than we ought to think and the best example of that we have in Scripture is of course Christ in Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 8 he says have his mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant God Almighty the creator of all things humbled himself by becoming a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross what was the motivator for Christ's humility wasn't his salvation because he didn't have to be saved he was God Almighty he was perfect it wasn't humility for humility's sake it wasn't that he was he was gentle and lowly at just simply as an example for but what do we learn about we know that the reason why he was so humble was because of his love for us love is ultimately the motivator for humility loving humility is valuing someone else love and being a being willing and able to get down and wash their feet being willing and able to touch the leper to heal them being willing and able to teach to the Lost to do acts of Mercy ultimately for Christ it was to go and die on that cross that's why Christ came to display his love in a humble way you know if an athlete wants to get stronger they want to get stronger legs you know what they do is there's nothing better for developing strength in your legs and squats right and so you put these you know these weights on your shoulder

And you get low right I'm not gonna do it my knees are bad but you get low okay and you go back up you get low Up Get Low up but you have to have good form and you have to get low enough in order for that actually to work for you if you have bad form you're not going to develop the right kind of strength and I think there's a lot of Christians that don't get low enough they don't get down they don't humble themselves before the Lord or others so do you get low enough or do you think more highly about yourself than you ought to think there's some folks that have a faux sort of humility and they use that to avoid doing anything I'm not smart enough I haven't been here long enough have too much going on and we're all we're all busy do you remember the pandemic how all of a sudden we had all this time very quickly that we were giving ourselves over to things that ultimately didn't matter do you all remember that ended like everything's back to normal and what are we back to we're all the craziness we just didn't learn our lesson it's like we're Israel is you know one thing one day we're going to give an account to the Lord for the things that we do and what we've done with our time and so let's make sure that we're doing the best with that second Point under that humility is Right thinking the mindset of service look at what the passage says Paul he uses this phrase but to think with sober judgment that means to be clear-headed that means that you are not confused about stuff you know when I find that I'm the most confused in my life is maybe when there is an area of sin or Disobedience going on in my life

Because that's what happens it's like it's like water when it's when it's Disturbed and all the sediment comes up and you can't see clearly in the water that's what happens is that sin it clouds the mind it clouds our thoughts so whether it's unforgiveness or frustration or what have you that word's sober is the Greek word sofrano which means sane it means sensible and I believe that one of the sane and sensible things to say is that every member ought to have a Ministry that they give themselves to I think that's the same and sensible thing to say in our church we have a lot of gaps I mean we've had a lot of gaps in our church right I mean whether it's I mean how many times have we talked about the children's ministry praise the Lord did y'all see how many children were up here you know it wasn't that long ago that there weren't that many families in our church and praise the Lord we got them and it's not time to step back and go you know somebody else can do it's time to engage it's time to continue developing that it's time to invest in that you know this past year this past summer Steve you had a pretty good group come up from that sixth grade group into the youth ministry for the junior high class that's the first time since I've been on staff that we've had a sizable amount from that sixth grade group move into the youth group it's the first time in over seven years praise the Lord for that amen that's an awesome thing you know and so we talk about these needs and different things like that but one area that we I want to specifically address is Moana okay Awana it's a huge thing one of the desires is that we would love for

That to be opened up like it used to be before the pandemic we would love to get there totally unrealistic right now sorry to rain on your parade you know what we've got nine volunteers signed up for Awana right now nine you know how many it takes to do a small scale program is 25. 25. And so you know some folks they go we need to open that up and it's like yes we do will you serve and they step back they don't engage we want to open it up it needs to be 50 if it we want it completely open it needs to be 50. Those aren't my numbers by the way that's just what was recommended I believe that we can get there but and I pray that we would and I ask for you to pray for that too pray for the 50. And also pray that if someone's critical about that Lord would silence them I once heard a poem by M Croft Pence it goes like this I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord real service is what I desire I'll sing you a solo anytime dear Lord just don't ask me to sing in the choir I'll do what you want me to do dear Lord I like to see things come to pass but don't ask me to teach boys and girls oh Lord I'd rather just stay in my class I'll do what you want me to do dear Lord I yearn for thy kingdom to thrive I'll give you my fives and tens dear Lord but please don't ask me to tithe I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord I'll say what you want me to say I'm busy just now with myself dear Lord I'll help you some another day third point for mindset of service is being faith-filled Paul he says each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned as Believers our service is to be done with faith and I and I gotta admit

When I was reading this I was particularly challenged because I started thinking when is the last time that like my service was filled with faith I mean think think about that for a moment if your service it is your service to the Lord whatever it is filled with faith where you say God I'm I'm I feel called to do this and I'm going to take steps of Faith to do this because I feel your calling and I'm just going to see you work when's the last time that happened in your life and so I started wrestling with that own question in my heart God when is the last time that you call that I was walking in faith in my Ministry oftentimes I'm leaning on my own understanding and that leads to trouble you know in Hebrews chapter 11 it teaches us that all the great works of the Believers in the Old Testament were done by faith Hebrews 11 6 it says and without faith it is impossible to please God and the contrary is too is true too look at Romans Chapter 14 verse 23 it says for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin and talk about offensive am I right most of the time when we serve it's out of obligation or habit and so what would it look like for you to take a step of faith in your service to the Lord it may be that your function in service doesn't change I know many of you who are serving in multiple areas God bless you I love you're wonderful it's on your shoulders that we stand because of your faithfulness every Sunday I come here early with my son Malachi we come in through the entrances we pray we pray over the classrooms we pray for the service over each of the classrooms by the way it's something that's really cool

And he started going up to his classroom to pray and pull out the Bibles and set up the tables and things like that because we want to make sure just as a family and we pray about this on Saturdays you know just preparing our hearts and our minds for the service the next day God what do you want us to learn tomorrow God what are there things that maybe we can be a blessing to others in it's a small and it's a crucial step in refocusing our work not on our abilities but on the presence of Christ Jesus in this church the next Mark that we see is the body and service the body in service because our church does not need a whole bunch of little Cody's running around that'd be awful likewise it doesn't need a bunch of gems doesn't need a bunch of Steves or dance we just need the ones that God has given to us it takes everyone doing our part to make the local church function well take some using their gifts for the Lord for the benefit of one another look at what the verse says in Verses 4 through 5 it says for as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same functions so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another now this is the Biblical idea of membership not being a member of a club or an organization but a member of a local body Paul he goes on to describe this in First Corinthians chapter 12 verses 12-14 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 for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks slaves are free and all were made to drink of one spirit for the body does not consist of one member but of many

Take a moment to just digest that and think about that our church our local church is not the body of Christ like capital b capital c you know what I'm saying we're not completely the body That's The Universal Church throughout all history of all believers however the universal church is very real and present in our local congregation in other words just as you are a member of the local of the universal church and you're important to the entirety of the Kingdom functioning well of making disciples fulfilling the Great Commission developing the kingdom by serving using your gifts and your abilities you are called to do that in this local church or the local church that you belong to you should be a member of it in order for things to work and operate locally you know turkeys are interesting they're really only good at one thing and that's eating now in Turkey what they do is they just they can't fly not very well at least you don't see a turkey soaring across the sky they might try but what they do is they eat food and they waddle around wherever you see them they're just waddling waddling waddling eating not flying and there's a lot of Christian turkeys today too you waddle in on Sunday morning sit down get fed get up waddle out hey waddle in on Sunday mornings be fed and waddle out again and then they wonder why they're not flying anywhere and you know on the strength of Eagle's Wings before the Lord well why can't they fly it's because they're stuck at ground level the question that you have to ask is are you going to be a waddling turkey or a functioning member of the church capital

As a part of the body of Christ serving is not optional the third Mark that we're going to look at is the gifts of service look at the passage with them Paul he doesn't give us a complete list here but they're worth looking at says having gifts that defer according to the grace given to us serving the one who teaches in his teaching 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 so there's some gifts that we see there service teaching or exhortation giving leadership Mercy going back over to First Corinthians chapter 12 that these are what's called parallel passages Paul he writes out teaches given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good it's talking about spiritual gifts for to one is given through the spirit of utterance wisdom that's a spiritual gift to another yet by The Same Spirit to another Gifts of healing by the one Spirit to another the working of Miracles to another prophecy to another the ability to distinguish to distinguish between spirits to another various kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues so there's a lot of different gifts to be used and some of these gifts I'm a cessationist I believe that some of these are signed gifts which disappeared with the apostles things like working in Miracles and healings and speaking in tongues and things like that but these other ones that are listed are also in use today for the local church but the point is this that every believer is given a gift at the moment of salvation every single believer in the Lord has given you a gift too if you are in him and you are called to exercise that gift in the local church body and whenever a Believer does in the local church body

And whenever a Believer does not use their gift in the local church body what happens is you actually Rob the body of Christ of the blessing of your service and not only that but you rob yourself of the blessing of exercising that gift for the benefit of others you know what would happen if I said man I gotta date my wife this week do you think that would be the right attitude to go into a date with man I can't believe I got to spend some time with her I love my wife I've said it before date night is my favorite night of the week I could spend every single waking moment with that woman she's the best what would happen if we said man I can't believe a guy it's my week to serve again I can't believe that was a quick month can't believe I Gotta Serve again what if we changed that mentality up from I have to serve to man I get to serve Christ this week that do for your service to go man I get to use my gift to be a blessing to this local church how would that revolutionize your just your outlook how would that revolutionize your service because you can always tell when someone doesn't want to serve and I guess I'll do it I really don't want to and so their heart isn't in it and it just winds up floundering and all that kind of stuff what would happen if we took it as a blessing that we get to participate in the Universal Body by making it function in such a wonderful and a blessed way I mean that'd be a radical change the fourth and this is an overarching principle I know that I've gone through verse 8 but this is an overarching principle in the Scripture and I'm so glad that Rex quoted this but the goal of service the goal of service now

The goal of serving is not to get a bigger Church it's not a bigger budget it's not to get a bigger building those are sources of vanity the goal of all of life for a Believer is the glory of God that's it that is the goal as we saw in Romans chapter 12 we were to present ourselves to God completely as an act of worship because it is seeking God's glory that determines what worship is and as Rex quoted in First Corinthians 10 31 it's very first Bible verse I ever memorized is whether you eat or drink or whatever you do all to the glory of God that's it that is what we are to do as Christians God how can I glorify you whatever you need me to do God I am yours and as Isaiah you think of Isaiah chapter 6 about his calling before the Lord it was not that he immediately went I know I'm going to serve God no matter the cause no what happened is that he got a Clear Vision of God in the temple first and he became consumed with his awe-inspiring Vision that God is the creator he is the most majestic and the most wonderful the Lightnings and the Thunders in that in that wonderful room in the train of his robe filled the temple in the Smoke of his glory and he just he saw the angels and the myriads of myriad singing Holy as the Lord God Almighty and then all of a sudden this most wonderful the holiest the best being in all creation says whom shall I send and who will go for me and immediately Isaiah stood up here am I God send me I'll do whatever you want me to do I'll do whatever needs to get done because he was consumed with the glory of God whatever you want for me

Whatever you call me to do God I will do I'm not going to consider myself too big for Ministry too important but God help me to think rightly about what you called me to do God I believe that you've called me to serve in this local church body so I want to be devoted to It For Your Glory God help me use the gifts that you've given to me to be a blessing to your kingdom foreign God help me to glorify you because you're my goal you're my prize whatever the cost well what would happen if that's what our mentality was might just spark Revival in your soul might just Spark all might accelerate your growth in the Lord But ultimately we are here to fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples of all the nations and you have a role you have a part to play I just want to encourage you to be a part of it head heart hand had I want you to know that you must have the right mindset for God pleasing Ministry if y'all have the right mindset I'm just going to ask you to just ask the Lord say God make my heart right for this I just I need to have that it needs to be don't have a faux sense of humility and say I can't serve because my heart isn't right ask God to make your heart right and to serve in a way that is a blessing to this local church heart I want you to believe that service is ultimately done to the Lord not for others in this church true service is done for an audience of not for an audience of many it's not there to gain Earthly Rewards or Earthly praise it's for God's pleasure and I want you to turn from self and others

Centered service and dedicate your service to the Lord and so maybe you need to change your ask God to change your heart and help you view your service as a work to the Lord no longer for others so that God may be glorified in your life let's pray so Lord we do thank you for this day that you've given to us and as we've talked at length about service God I pray most of all that we would have right minds and right Hearts not serving out of guilt or compulsion but out of calling and giftings and God we know that you've called each person to serve in this local church and so I pray that folks would find that place Lord and to just be willing God what would you have me to do and just be sensitive to your calling in your spirit God we thank you for this day we thank you for each person that's in here and we just ask God that you would continually move Among Us help us dedicate ourselves to you and your service God Lord we just pray that hearts and Minds would ultimately be transformed by your Holy Spirit God Lord it starts with having a right heart and I pray that if there's anyone here that maybe they don't know you as their Lord and Savior God that today that they would maybe talk to someone a friend that invited him see you know [Music] I don't even know if my heart is right first how do I get a right heart or to help them understand that comes through prayer repentance just admitting the Lord that

They're a center and that they need you that they're willing to follow you today help us God to devote ourselves to your service Jesus name amen let's stand and let's worship together [Music] thank you [Music] as morning dawns [Music] my need oh gracious God my soul so strength in you I live [Music] each hour is yours by wisdom planned each Deed impowered by Sovereign hands renew my spirit help me stand be glorified today [Music] foreign [Music] the man that's worth of Christ make me a Living Sacrifice be glorified today [Music] as Sun gives way to Darkest Night your spirit still is here and though my strength Fades like the light new mercies will appear I rest in you abide with me until our trials and suffering give way to final Victory be glorified today I rest in you abide with me until our trials and suffering give way to final victory [Music] be glorified today [Music] thank you wow can you bring up the Lord's Prayer Let's say this together and we'll close a minute thank you Church hey that was

Encouraging with past audio was preaching and the youth that they grew guess what the high school leads the volunteers it starts September when I used to think I did like those knuckleheads but I realized I don't like bad kids parents [Music] thank you foreign