Unity Despite Different Contexts

There's a story of a retired colonel in the US Army by the name of Staz Przywski. He's got a weird Polish name. Staz Przywski, who was the coach of the Army crew at West Point for the rowing team a few years back. And he faced a very interesting problem. Rowing in the Army between the military forces, as I'm sure it probably is in Australia between the military forces here, is very competitive.

The inter-military forces games is a very big thing over there, and so this was his job: to be coach of the rowing group. And he got a lot of resources to test all the potential rowers that he had involved in the rowing team. And through very strict, very scientific testing, he discovered the six best rowers or the four best rowers that were there, you know, height and strength and arm length and all that sort of stuff, and he got them together and he put them into a varsity boat. Sorry, this was an eight-rower rowing team race.

He got eight on this side, and then the leftovers or the second-rate guys got into another boat, and he raced them. But bafflingly, two-thirds of the time, the junior team, the secondary team, team B, won two-thirds of the time. The first team lost two-thirds of the time. The situation, as was explained in a Harvard Business School case that I read recently, was that the varsity team was full of resentment over who was contributing the most to the team. And they just couldn't work together.

The other team, the junior team, the second team, feeling they had nothing to lose, supported one another very happily and did exceptionally well. Now, we've all heard these sort of scenarios, right, of just exceptionally gifted teams coming together, whether that is in the workplace or in the sporting field. And this crack team of elites just simply can't get things together. You might think back to the nineties with the US Olympic basketball team, the dream team, players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen playing together. They lost, came third behind Lithuania. Just couldn't put it together.

Why? Because their abilities were too narrow, perhaps, too similar to one another, and because they didn't have any depth in the team. And their egos dealing with the why of playing the game was terribly skewed. Perhaps you've witnessed this around you. Perhaps you've seen that in the workplace or in a cultural team or choir that's just got too many, what's that, alto singers or sopranos or whatever singing, and it just doesn't sound good.

This morning we continue our investigation on the spiritual gifts, and we're going to be looking again in the context of unity that this takes place in. Every single passage of those three that we mentioned last week, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, and Ephesians 4 is set in the issue that was facing that church, and that was unity. So if you have your Bibles open, and we're going to keep them open so we can work through it systematically, we're going to read Romans 12, verses 1 to 8. It starts with a very well-known verse: Romans 12, verse 1.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer 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. 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 measure of faith God has given you.

Just as each one of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is teaching, let him teach.

If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. So far, our reading.

Now this is another one of those texts that lists quite a few gifts, and therefore it's important for us to work through it. Now there are a few things that are a bit of an overlap from the last two messages that we've had on this, but it's good again to just refresh and remind ourselves of the context that these gifts are mentioned, and then we will hopefully have a bit of a look at each of these gifts mentioned in this passage. Firstly, Paul encourages us to estimate our gifts correctly. He says, estimate your gifts. Look at them carefully.

He says, keep in mind this gift in light of the gospel, the measure of faith that was given to you. This means that we do not have an exaggerated understanding of the function or the purpose of this ability that we have. We do not have an exaggerated understanding of ourselves. He uses the word to judge with sober judgment, to look at ourselves with sober judgment based on what?

Based on the understanding of grace. It's interesting that he uses that. Based on your knowledge of the gospel of grace, a God who has saved you by no means of your own, no contributing factor that you could have brought to this salvation, judge your actions. Weigh up your situation. Weigh up your abilities.

Weigh up the expectations of yourself and the expectation of others according to this principle. If you have a gift, measure it with the gospel of grace and weigh it up. Estimate your gifts correctly, verse 3. Then verse 4 and 5. We must realize that each person with a gift has been given a gift, and therefore is invaluable to the rest of us.

We have about a 100 members in this church. If we were to count up the numbers today, I reckon we'd get to about 80 or so. We have about a 100. We have, within this 100, gifts of people that will lead our elders, some who will teach our Sunday school or be a teacher or the pastor. Some who will show mercy, our deacons, and just informally as well, informal members.

Then there are those who will serve, those who come and clean our carpets every Saturday afternoon, those who will serve morning teas and give us a great opportunity to have hospitality and fellowship here. Of this 100 members, we have many different parts doing their thing. The question is this morning, when we talk about gifts: how do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as God sees you? Do you see yourself fitting into the church the way that God intended you to fit into this church?

Are you an active participant of this church? Do you understand correctly? Do you know how important it is that you are a part of this body, that you do not simply attend this church, that you have a role to play here, and that you are represented here for a particular reason, and that you have a contribution to bring? You are invaluable to us. You are invaluable to us.

If you are not here, we miss you, like I would miss a thumb or a big toe. You are special and meaningful. Each person has a place in the church body because they have a gift to bring. That's the basic teaching here. And each member of this body has to then exercise their gift fully.

To do that not is to rob the church of something. It's not simply not to offer it, but you are taking something away. Just like we need to use a muscle in our body, to exercise a muscle in our body, so the gift we have must be exercised in the body of the church. If I do not exercise my legs or my arms, it will become useless. It will actually disadvantage the rest of my body.

If I have an arm and a bicep that cannot lift things, then it's pointless. And I might not even be able to eat my Snickers bar. Each member of the church is then also in verses 6 to 8, really importantly here, verses 6 to 8, encouraged to use their gifts to the fullest. Not only does it say you will have gifts, not only is it good to know that you have gifts, but you have to use them. Paul says, if you have the gift of prophesying, let them use it in proportion to their faith.

If it is someone who has a gift of serving, let them serve. If it is teaching, let them teach. If it is encouraging, let them encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let them give generously. If it is leadership, let them govern.

If it is showing mercy, let them do it cheerfully. If you have the gift, use it. It sounds so basic, but amazingly, that is something that I see in churches often. That's a rough overview of what Paul is saying here. Understand your gifts in light of the grace of God, that you are not higher or lower than anyone else, that you have been given it freely by God, but also that you have been given it for a purpose to use, and that you are invaluable in a church.

Let's have a look at these gifts mentioned here in Romans 12. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to work through every 27 of these gifts. We will be, hopefully, in the next few weeks, be able to hand out surveys for all of us to sort of reflect on and think about, and these surveys are good as a broad general understanding of where your giftings may lie because it's based on your passions, of who you are, what you're involved with already, but you have to be praying about this as well. I really encourage you to be praying and understanding what God has given you, and also to be doing this in community, in your small group, in your Bible study, in your family, to ask, because other people may recognize and see gifts that you don't see for whatever reason in yourself. These gifts happen in a community, and so they are often identified in a community.

But we'll be doing that a bit later, and I'll just give a brief overview of some of the gifts mentioned here because they are relevant to our church and relevant to us. The first one that Paul mentions here in verse 6 is prophesying, and we spoke a bit of that last week, so I won't go into it too much, but it is the idea that God may give us a supernatural understanding of a particular context. And it may not be revelation on the scale of a new, you know, plan of God or anything like that, but it is an application of God's word, of His truth, into a new context. People may have this gift, and Paul says that if you have this gift, use it in proportion to the amount of faith God has given you. We see the sovereignty of God there.

This cannot be removed from God and His intervention in that, His inspiration in that. It has to come from God, and if it's true prophecy, you will know that it has come from God. But we'll move on quickly to the other one that's mentioned here, and that is service, the gift of service. Now all Christians are called to be servants. All Christians are called to be servants.

We are to emulate our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who came to earth not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. We are to follow the example of Jesus who Himself said, after He had washed His disciples' feet, He said, I leave you an example now to follow: to wash one another's feet. So all Christians are called to be servants, to be involved in the act of service. But there are those who have sovereignly been given this gift in this particular area. This is a gift that drives them. This is a passion, and that word passion means suffering in Greek.

It is something you will suffer for because it is so important to you. It's not a merely a feel-good thing, oh, I've got a passion for Snickers bars. Well, maybe I do, I will walk to the cafe or to the shop to go and get myself a Snickers bar and get all hot and sweaty for it. A gift is usually connected to a passion. Every Christian is called to serve because we follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus, but there are some who will be given an extra measure of this calling.

And the word for service is linked to the word deacon. The word service is linked to the word deacon. They are individuals generally moved by loving, caring attitudes towards those who have massive needs, to a particular person or to a particular group of people. They will go out of their way to seeing that need met. Now traditionally, the church has installed people into the formal office of deacon, people who are called to acts of service.

And these individuals are generally those that the church, whether they will say so verbally or not, recognize as having this spiritual gift of service. However, God obviously doesn't necessarily need us to create this office or this order to have someone serve others. They may exercise their gifts informally in a whole variety of spontaneous ways. These people are people that come to mind when I think of service in this church. Some of these people that I'm thinking of who have this gift, I believe, some have been in the office of elder or deacon, but many haven't.

Many haven't. They've been individuals who've given themselves to this church, some of them for many, many years. Strengthening this church, upbuilding it, going to the ends of the earth for this community here. And they have definitely got this gift. And I'm going to, as I work through some of these, sort of just reflect on who I believe, just so we have an image.

And I hope I don't embarrass them too much, but someone I think of when I think of the gift of service is John Campas. Someone who will come and pick up stacks and stacks of boxes for the Solomon Islands on a Wednesday afternoon after work. That's a gift of service. Then we come to the gift of teaching. There will be individuals called to be teachers.

What do they teach? Do they teach mathematics or English? They could, but they might do badly at it, because generally when it's talked about teachers here, it's teachers who teach the word of God. It's the traditional rabbi who were given the gift, who have the gift of teaching God's word.

And although it might influence a profession as a teacher, the predominant purpose of the gift is to explain, to expound the meaning of God's word to people. Often this gift of teaching is combined with another gift. So we may have an example of a pastor teacher, or maybe, you know, especially in the New Testament days, a prophet teacher. Someone like the apostle Paul, who had significant insight, who was able to understand, I believe, prophetically how the Old Testament was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, was able to go to Isaiah 53, was able to go to Joel 2, like the apostle Peter did in Acts 2, and say this because of this. Prophet teachers, pastor teachers, and I think this designation again of pastor teacher is one of the most common ones we can probably relate to and understand.

Ephesians 4:11, for example, speaks of some who will be called to the office of pastors and teachers. If you remember, some will be called to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. And commentators have said that it's interesting that these two words, pastor and teacher, are chucked together. They're not separated. So there's an idea of this person being the one person: a pastor and a teacher.

Now, why do these two gifts get mixed together in this way? Well, often, the teaching gift is very much content focused, and you can have some great scholars that come from that who might have a gift mix of, say, knowledge and teaching, who can give great theology lectures, but pastor teachers are the ones who have a person-focused approach, understand the flock over which they are a part of, and can relate the teaching of God's word to the people. Can make them understand why this is relevant to them. They have pastored through their teaching.

The pastoral gift keeps the teaching gift relevant because it gives a great understanding of God's word and keeps in mind a sensitivity to the flock. Again, we would be very foolish to think that every minister will have the gift of teaching. In our reformed churches, this has often been the case that someone that has early on been designated as having a gift of teaching will be sent to Bible college so they can educate and empower and grow this gift, and then come back. But I sometimes wonder whether we are missing out on great pastors, great shepherds of a flock, and because we do not recognize that gift in them. Or vice versa, we have great teachers in our churches that may have no real connection with their church members when they preach.

So a pastor teacher combination is very important, I think, in some way to have in the church, whether that is formally or informally. The gift of teaching has been an important one for our churches, and we obviously seek to encourage that and grow that in certain individuals. To give an example, I believe that teaching is one of my stronger gifts, whether that is teaching up front or whether that's teaching in a group setting. Then we come to the gift of encouragement. The Greek word for this gift is parakaleo.

Parakaleo, which literally means to call to one side. To call to one side. Encouragers are people who have the gift of encouragement. They exhort, request, console, comfort, and cheer up. A New Testament example of this is, of course, Barnabas, who we believe was given the name after he became a Christian.

Barnabas literally means son of encouragement. Son of encouragement. He was the apostle Paul's right-hand man. He was his buddy in most of his missionary journeys. He was a man who had a ministry of exhortation and encouragement, who assisted others in walking in the light of the gospel.

In fact, it was Barnabas who was responsible for bringing Paul into the circle of the disciples. Paul, remember, the church was persecuting, Christian-murdering zealots of the old Jewish law, called him to his side and then stood by his side as Paul had to ask for forgiveness and repentance of the leaders of this church he was persecuting at one point. It was Barnabas that reached out to Paul. These people are influencers, and they may be often overshadowed by flashier giftings and personalities, but their gift is so invaluable to a church. When Paul had given up on John Mark, who we believe wrote the gospel of Mark, he was, at that time, a young apprentice missionary who had abandoned Paul and Barnabas on one of their missionary trips.

He just left. We don't even know really why, but he gave up on the guys. And the apostle Paul, you can just hear in his writings, was so disheartened that he was willing to write him off. He's not part of this team anymore. And it was Barnabas again that reached out to Mark and sort of played mediator with Paul and said, give him another chance.

And so Mark was brought into the fold, and like I said, later he went on to write one of the earliest gospels we have, one of the greatest blessings to the churches. It was Barnabas integrally involved in this. This is an excellent gift to use in the context of counselling. They'll also make excellent door greeters and people who follow-up on new Christians, who encourage them as they struggle with giving up on certain sins and stuff in their life. They will make excellent small group leaders.

Again, every Christian is encouraged to encourage, but these individuals will go to the ends of the earth to bring comfort, to bring exhortation, to bring strengthening to those who need it. A particular individual in our church that I really believe has this gift is Jeff Rogers, who was again saying hello to everyone here. An amazingly encouraging guy every time I speak to him. He speaks so well of this church and of individuals here. I've never heard a discouraging word from him.

The gift of giving is mentioned, and it refers to giving away what is one's own. Giving away what is one's own. It's a special ability that some Christians have to share material possessions with others. This obviously includes finances as well, but it's not limited to that. Again, all Christians are called to give generously out of a response of having received generously God's gifts and God's grace.

All Christians are called to give generously, but these individuals will have a heart and a mind that is inclined to share with others what they have, and they will give generously. Our churches have generally worked on the principle of the Old Testament of a tithe. That 10% of what we have received as an income is given to the work of the kingdom of God in this church or a church. But sometimes I fear that this might be too legalistic in many ways, that we live in a time of grace. There is no particular limit in the New Testament given to the tithes, and we shouldn't be too strict on enforcing 10% off on some of those who cannot do that.

But also on the other side, there might be people who may be able to give 20% very comfortably. If these individuals are generous with their possessions in life, it is a good indication that they are generous givers to their church both in finances but also in their possessions. These persons may in fact give more than their 10%, which is the baseline principle. These are people that make an impression with their generosity. And again, this is often a very quiet sort of gift.

This is not something that's very flashy. These people are people that often don't even think of themselves as being very generous. But I believe we do have these individuals in our church, and again, not wanting to embarrass them, but I think Michael De La Silva is a generous man in many ways. And it's not something that he does with any flash or any pomp, but he's a generous bloke in many ways. The gift of leadership is someone who has been given authority.

They have a personal authority. In the New Testament, the usage of this gift always takes place within the context of leading people, but at the same time caring for them as well. It's interesting here in Romans 12:8 that the mention of leadership falls between the act of service and the act of giving generously and of having mercy. Oh, sorry, the act of giving. Giving generously and of having mercy.

So isn't that interesting? It's not some sort of obscure thing that's different, you know, that's more academic or more intelligence-based or anything like that. It falls between these two things, and it comes with the context of care. The emphasis on leadership is not rank or authority, but on pastoral care. Again, pastors, some ministers may be leaders, but not all of them will be.

They'll be able to facilitate church growth through encouraging the church and walking beside them and getting their goals. They may be pioneers of new ideas, or they may just be valiant examples of pioneers, of individuals sold out on following Christ. Like Paul said, because I believe he was also one of these, follow me as I follow Christ. But not all ministers will necessarily be leaders. This is why we have a body of elders.

This is why we look to elders, some of them, to have gifts of leadership. There will be individuals in a church who have a strong following in a church because they have this gifting. And you'll know them because they will inspire people, they will influence people without really saying very much at all. You know, they won't beat their chest or do anything, again, very profound, but people will be swayed by them in interesting ways, strange ways, and they will make it look easy. Now, I don't think he's here this morning, and I don't think he might not completely agree with me on this because we've spoken about this, but I believe Zeb has a gift of leadership.

Over the little corner of this church, of the youth that he has, I believe he has that ability. But, I mean, again, it's just not simply contained within his, it's just an example. Lastly, we move to the gift of mercy. Interestingly, mercy is distinguished from the gift of service. They're not the same.

The gift of service and mercy are not the same. Now, with some of these gifts, I believe there is overlap, and that some of the outworking of these things will be similar in some ways, but generally it appears that the gift of mercy is again person-centred, and the gift of service is task-centred. Getting a job done on behalf of someone who is in need, perhaps. The gift of mercy gives certain Christians a deep sense of compassion towards the needy. Romans 12:8 emphasises that this gift should be exercised with cheerfulness.

Those of us who have had anything to do with the mentally ill or the chronically ill may know what I'm talking about here when it comes to being with them and the sense of despair that can sometimes overcome us. But those who have the gift of mercy are not only deeply moved with compassion, but they won't be overcome with sorrow. They identify with human need, but retain a certain cheerfulness in how they do it. Those who have this gift might be able to go much further than some of us when talking about people or talking with people about their situations. Or some of us may visit someone with terminal cancer and say sort of random cliche feel-good things like, you'll be right.

You'll be fine. You know, the Lord will heal you. People with the gift of mercy will be able to talk with great sincerity and great understanding to those who are going through this trying time. They're not afraid of the nitty-gritty stuff. But it doesn't end with a person in despair or sadness as well.

They have an ability to cheer up people's lives and to alleviate the burden, at least just for a little while. Now again, the church is called to love mercy according to Micah 6:8, to love mercy, to pursue it for all the sections of the world, all the demographics of the world, but people who have this spiritual gift will often be the ones who motivate the rest of us to do that. By their example, by their die-hard passion, they will motivate the rest of us to get off our seats. They will be catalyst to getting this done. Now again, if I was to identify someone as an example, I would say Erica Brisseau has a gift of mercy.

Many of us have been blessed by her, just a bunch of flowers delivered to our front door or a card or a message or something like that. Now, after this sort of brief overview of some of these gifts, and again, I encourage each one of you guys to be praying about this because this is just a list of, what, eight out of 27, to be thinking about this, to be praying about this, for God to show us, and to be investigating it yourself. After this sort of overview, I want us to point back to one very important thing that Paul is talking about here in Romans 12. And Paul is saying, as he lists each of these gifts here, that we've been given a gift to use it.

We've been given a gift to use it. So leaders, people who have been given the gift of leadership, should be careful not to restrict or to restrain people's gifts, but to exercise true leadership by leading them into service. As a pastor, as elders, we shouldn't be forcing people into fulfilling certain needs that our church immediately has. Oh, we need an extra drummer. You know, we'll just get someone else to do it.

We need someone to be looked after that's really struggling. We'll just get someone to do that. That may not be the best approach. That may not be a gift-centred approach. So we have to be very, very careful, very thoughtful about this process.

Unfortunately, there's a tendency in many churches, and I'm not saying this necessarily about us, that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Or to put it otherwise, 80% of the church does 20% of the work. If that is true of our church, that ratio would be a terrible reflection of our understanding of the Holy Spirit's gifts. Gifting is linked to passion.

Gifting is linked to passion. Keep that in mind as you think about these things. Gifting will be linked to what motivates you or moves you. Soon we'll be undergoing this investigation, this survey very thoroughly, but as you think about this, think about your passions. Think about what motivates you and what drives you, what you will go to the ends of the earth to do or to help with, and don't say Snickers bar.

I don't think there's a spiritual gift of Snickers bar eating. Is it a passion for you to see healthy Christians? To see healthy Christians? Is it a passion for you to see people happy? Does your heart go out constantly for sad people, suffering people?

And we all feel it in some way, but do you really get broken by it? Is the marginalised people around us, the asylum seekers, the Aboriginal communities, the debate about the Aboriginal community something that moves you? Is the frustration of people that don't know better, who need to be taught God's word something that lays on your heart? I recently watched a snippet of John Piper, I think one of this generation's greatest Bible teachers, and it just gives a snapshot. This quote just gives a snapshot of his heart.

In the message he said, look around in your life, in your church. He's talking to pastors. Look around in your life, in your church. How many Christians do you see bent with all their powers to know God more and more? How many Christians do you see bent with all their powers to know God more and more, more truly, more clearly, more sweetly?

Or rather, do you see thousands fighting graduate school sins, hard, mature, heavy sins, with grammar school knowledge of God, with primary school knowledge of God? He's a teacher. He's a teacher. He sees this big burden. He sees this big job, and he knows he has to get involved.

Teaching God's word is his gifting, and therefore, teaching God's word is his passion. And that's what God's word says to us all. You will be moved by what God has gifted you with. Identify your gifts, Paul says, and then use your gifts in the church. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful service again with these faces in front of me who have many gifts. Lord, I pray that they will see one another the way I see them. Lord, I pray that Your Holy Spirit will inspire us and give us knowledge and insight into what You have given us. There is no question, Lord, that You have gifted us. If we believe in You and we profess Your name, and we are children and followers of You, Lord Jesus, we will be given responsibilities and tasks to do in this body, which is Your church.

We pray, Lord, that as we investigate this, as we reflect on it, as we talk in our families, in our small groups, in our Bible studies about this, that You will open our eyes to see and encourage one another with words of affirmation. And then, Father, we pray, as we prayed for our elders, that You will fan into flame the gift that You have given us. Lord, in this little church, stretched in so many ways with resources and time, with individuals overworked already, Father, I pray that there will be leaders that are raised up, that there will be new capacity created in this church, that there will be vision and excitement. Lord, I thank you for, again, just the knowledge that You are at work in our church, that we can celebrate with Joanne about a real sense of calling to the Solomon Islands. Lord, as we work through these things, Holy Spirit, we just pray that You will give us clear insight.

Lord, and if You haven't given us these gifts, if there is some mystery in waiting, give us patience to wait. But also, Lord, we ask that You will give them now, that You will open our eyes to them now. Lord, may Your Spirit fall upon us so powerfully that we will not be able to be the same. And Father, give us ultimately gracious hearts, hearts of service, hearts that understand ourself correctly in light of the gospel, knowing that we are no higher than anyone else, that we love one another as You have loved us in Jesus Christ, that we may serve one another cheerfully and gladly by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We pray. Amen.