SPEAKER_00: I wanted to figure out how I could be good enough to actually get myself into the game.
SPEAKER_00: I knew where I wanted to get to.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't exactly know what path was needed to get there.
SPEAKER_00: And so I had the opportunity in that particular summer to travel with my basketball coach and several guys on our team doing basketball camps all over the eastern seaboard.
SPEAKER_00: We went from uh northern Canada all the way down to Florida and as far away as Japan doing camps five days a week the entire summer.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and in that summer I learned what it was gonna take for me to be a basketball player that was good enough to get off the bench.
SPEAKER_00: And so our schedule would kind of go like this.
SPEAKER_00: We'd we'd get there, and our assistant coach would say, Okay, guys, we're gonna we're gonna get up early, we're gonna be at the gym at uh six o'clock, and we're gonna lift for an hour, hour and a half before camp gets started, and you're gonna have a couple hundred campers come in and uh they recognize my remedial state, and so they had me join in with the drills with the kids, and you're gonna do these drills all morning.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, I was really looking forward to lunch, and so we get to lunch and I'd eat my pizza, and uh and then our head coach would say, Okay, now we're gonna come do our shooting drills.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Man, I feel like it's kind of time to take a break here.
SPEAKER_00: I was lifting early this morning, just did all these drills through the day, and now you've got this other set of drills, and so we would do those over lunch, and then in the afternoon, well, sure enough, our assistant coach said, Yep, you're still pretty remedial.
SPEAKER_00: You need to jump in and do these other drills and uh do those drills a little bit more after the campers went home for the afternoon set, then we would start the rest of our skill workout and we'd go all the way till dinner.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, goodness gracious, this is a higher level of commitment than what I was ready for.
SPEAKER_00: But day after day, week after week, through the entire summer, I saw my strength and my skills grow.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't like that I didn't know how to work hard previously, like I didn't know how to sweat and get after it, but there was just a more comprehensive, higher level of commitment that was needed.
SPEAKER_00: And this was after I'd had a relatively decent high school career.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like I was new to the game of basketball and didn't know what was going on, right?
SPEAKER_00: That summer was transformational for me.
SPEAKER_00: And Romans 12, I think God has given to us in a similar kind of way to say, you might have been around the game of basketball and you might have been around the church for a while.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I am calling to you to as a follower of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And for most of us, if we would slow down and read Romans 12 in a reflective and a prayerful way, we would start to see, boy, there is more that God is calling me to as one of his followers than maybe I had previously realized.
SPEAKER_00: That's been my prayer over our entire church, that God would show us here's what you're being called to.
SPEAKER_00: It's not per se harder work and more spiritual sweat, but a higher level, a more pervasive level of commitment all the way around.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul's doing here is he's writing to this church at Rome, and he wants them to see here's how grace will train you to see yourself differently.
SPEAKER_00: Like I was with my coach, he was training me, here's how to see basketball differently, right?
SPEAKER_00: Paul's saying, here's how grace will train you to see yourself differently.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul wanted to get there in person to tell them.
SPEAKER_00: That's generally the best way to do things, but God had prevented him, and so, in the most tangible and vivid words possible, Paul writes to them and says, Here's what this is supposed to look like.
SPEAKER_00: You should know, and I mentioned this last week, this last section of Romans, the fourth quarter of Romans, is an incredibly practical, but also incredibly intense section.
SPEAKER_00: This is a high application section of scripture and the sermons you'll see reflecting that as well.
SPEAKER_00: Quick review: we're almost at the end of Romans, and it's really important you get the theme.
SPEAKER_00: Talk back to me a little here if you've been with us.
SPEAKER_00: What is the theme of Romans?
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't written it down, please write it down.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you said that and it just kind of got muffled on the way up to me.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness of God is the theme of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: Paul starts out and says, the righteousness of God is needed by everyone.
SPEAKER_00: You can have religious leanings, you can have irreligious leanings, but on your own, your moral efforts, your attempts to be a good enough person, active enough for social change will never get the job done.
SPEAKER_00: You need the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, here's how the righteousness of God, the perfection of God, can actually be obtained, not through anything you do, but solely by faith in what Jesus Christ has done.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we just sang a second ago.
SPEAKER_00: That song all sufficient merit.
SPEAKER_00: The law could never save us.
SPEAKER_00: Our lawlessness had won until the pure and spotless Lamb had finally come.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one way.
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul says, here's the benefits of having the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: You have a right relationship with God, you have eternal hope of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can separate you from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: And by the time you get to the end, Paul says, Now here's what it means to live in light of receiving this righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: God has done all this to do for you what you could never do for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you're supposed to live in light of the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, the sermon title is, What does grace produce?
SPEAKER_00: Was it change in you?
SPEAKER_00: And here's the answer from verses three through eight: a radically changed view of yourself and others.
SPEAKER_00: What does grace produce?
SPEAKER_00: A radically changed view of yourself and others.
SPEAKER_00: If you were here last week, you know that Paul at the beginning of Romans 12 was saying, Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world.
SPEAKER_00: There's a mold.
SPEAKER_00: The world wants to press you into the mold.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be pressed into that mold.
SPEAKER_00: But rather be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And when you're transformed by the renewal of your mind, then you'll be able to know what God's will is.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be able to test things and approve things and know what his good, pleasing, and perfect will is.
SPEAKER_00: And as he says, here's what God's will looks like.
SPEAKER_00: What's the very first thing he comes to?
SPEAKER_00: These action steps.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you know what God's will is.
SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
SPEAKER_00: Three points things that grace produces.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first thing grace produces.
SPEAKER_00: Here is God's will for your life: humility.
SPEAKER_00: What does grace produce?
SPEAKER_00: It produces humility.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I joked about whether you use the hardback Bible or the leather one in the lost and found.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care which one you're using or if it's on your phone.
SPEAKER_00: But make sure you got one open, because we're going to go back to it a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what verse three says.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: What's the root issue?
SPEAKER_00: Pride.
SPEAKER_00: And it's everybody's issue.
SPEAKER_00: And the immediate thought, I know how this goes, like, oh man, let me tell you about the guy I work with.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you about that kid in my elementary school.
SPEAKER_00: They are so full of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Let me, you know what Paul says?
SPEAKER_00: Everyone among you.
SPEAKER_00: No, don't think about somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: You think about you.
SPEAKER_00: You think too highly of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: This is a universal issue.
SPEAKER_00: And we tend to think it's more particularized than somebody else we know.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, nope, nope, nope, that's not how it goes.
SPEAKER_00: Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.
SPEAKER_00: Think of yourself with sober judgment according to the measure of faith that's been assigned to you.
SPEAKER_00: That phrase measure of faith is like, okay, I got it.
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't think too highly.
SPEAKER_00: But what does it mean to think of myself according to this measure of faith?
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the trickier phrases in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Give you a tip for Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: When you're trying to read and understand your Bible, there are two tools that you should always be using: word study and context.
SPEAKER_00: Study what the actual words mean and see what the context says.
SPEAKER_00: So let's apply those two tools to this phrase, measure of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Scholars say the word measure could be understood in five different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Of could mean or indicate two different things, and faith could have seven different definitions.
SPEAKER_00: So if you put them all together, there's 70 possible meanings based on the word study.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not the most helpful in this particular case.
SPEAKER_00: But the context does help us quite a bit here.
SPEAKER_00: How does the context help us?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we know right out of the gate we're supposed to be thinking of ourselves with humility, and so the idea is the measure of faith that God has assigned, that God has given, think not measure of faith in terms of like how much faith, like you have two tablespoons, you have two cups, you have two liters.
SPEAKER_00: Not difference, but there's a unity of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Paul is driving towards a unified church body here.
SPEAKER_00: And if you say, well, I've got more faith than you, that would actually drive us towards division.
SPEAKER_00: The context is, no, it's the same faith, the faith once for all delivered to the saints that you possess, has been given to you.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a unity in what you have received, not what you have earned.
SPEAKER_00: God has allotted this to you.
SPEAKER_00: God has given you an inheritance of faith.
SPEAKER_00: So even the faith I have, I can't take credit for.
SPEAKER_00: God has given me even that.
SPEAKER_00: So measure of faith is a way of saying, look what God has given to all of you in driving, we are united as receivers of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, measure of faith, you we are united as receivers of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's gonna change how you think of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot think of yourself too highly when you recognize we are all united here simply as people who've received and we've not brought anything to the table.
SPEAKER_00: And the contrast, the opposite of thinking of yourself appropriately with sober judgment is drunkenness.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Paul uses that example.
SPEAKER_00: Think of sober, think of yourselves with sober judgment as opposed to drunken judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And it's very easy to see in somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: Pride in somebody else looks like someone who is drunk on themselves, who's full of themselves, who thinks their jokes are funny and their stories are interesting.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just not.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Think soberly about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help but read this and think of Napoleon Dynamite in Uncle Rico back in '82.
SPEAKER_00: Throw that pig skin a quarter mile.
SPEAKER_00: Coach would have put me in the game in the fourth quarter.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want state, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt about it in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: I'd have gone pro, made millions.
SPEAKER_00: I'd be living in a mansion off somewhere, soaking it all in, in a hot tub with my soulmate.
SPEAKER_00: He's drunk on himself, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's absolutely, and we just like, yeah, it's ridiculous, man.
SPEAKER_00: Think of yourself with sober judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen the way you tried to throw that loaf of bread at Napoleon?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have it, bro.
SPEAKER_00: But our proclivity and our bent is to think of ourselves more highly than we ought.
SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the things we've been saying all throughout the book of Romans is that sin is a an art, it's a Bible term, but it means uh something from the world of archery.
SPEAKER_00: It's to miss the mark.
SPEAKER_00: So sin is I pull back the arrow of my own life and I shoot and I miss the target.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it is to sin.
SPEAKER_00: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23.
SPEAKER_00: But it's more than that.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I say missing the target, you could think of it externally as actions, but it actually goes much deeper than that.
SPEAKER_00: One of the church fathers, uh, Augustine of Hippo, served in North Africa, uh, said that sin was something different.
SPEAKER_00: It was being curved inward on ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Every chance to go and see something else, see God's goodness or others in it, I'm gonna curve it back inward on myself.
SPEAKER_00: Like a card that badly needs alignment.
SPEAKER_00: I just keep pulling towards myself, pulling towards myself, pulling towards myself.
SPEAKER_00: With every opportunity to love God and love others, I see a way to love myself in this situation.
SPEAKER_00: This might be one of the most counter-cultural messages that we can deliver here.
SPEAKER_00: Our world says, what you need to do is love yourself more.
SPEAKER_00: What you need to do is care for yourself more.
SPEAKER_00: What you need to do is have a larger view of what you bring to the table here.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, not only is that bad for the world, it will end up being absolutely destructive for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because as you have a larger view of yourself and a larger love for yourself, what's going to happen is one of two things.
SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, it'll cause you to look down on others who have not done whatever you think they should have done, who have not measured up to your standard, who have missed the mark in whatever way, as if you haven't missed the mark in the exact same way.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the more insidious things is not so much how it causes you to look down on others, but how a large view of yourself and self-love actually will cause you to look down on yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So I recall at one point, you know, fifth grade, working to be a good basketball player.
SPEAKER_00: I'm shooting free throws out there, and I miss a free throw, and I got so mad at myself, how could you ever miss this free throw?
SPEAKER_00: I took the ball and I punted it like it was the ball's fault, and went across the road.
SPEAKER_00: What had happened in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: I had a large view of myself and my skill set.
SPEAKER_00: I was a fifth grader trying to shoot free throws.
SPEAKER_00: What do fifth graders do shooting free throws?
SPEAKER_00: They miss.
SPEAKER_00: But when you have a large view of yourself, it's gonna cause you to look down on yourself in self-hatred and self-loathing and self-despising and receive and recognizing grace trains me to see we're united as receivers of grace, receivers of faith, not producers of faith.
SPEAKER_00: It actually shrinks my view of myself so that I can see others rightly, but also see myself rightly and not have an outsized view of myself.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what this is gonna require of you, brothers and sisters, is that you start thinking about your thinking.
SPEAKER_00: How do I think about myself?
SPEAKER_00: How do I think about others?
SPEAKER_00: And this is a process that'll take a little time to peel the onion.
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't think about your thinking, you're gonna end up with stinking thinking.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want stinking thinking.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a lot of ways that we think we're moving through the world, we're looking at others and God, and we're actually kind of bending things back on ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: This is precisely, I think, what Trace Adkins, the great theologian, was talking about in his album, Songs About Me.
SPEAKER_00: So some of you don't love country music, that's okay, we'll keep praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: But um so here's what happens in the song.
SPEAKER_00: He's on an airplane, and somebody asks him what he does, and he says, I write country songs.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I write songs about loving and living and good-hearted women and family and God.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty much every country song.
SPEAKER_00: And then he follows up after that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But really, they're all just songs about me and who I am.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times in our life, it looks like on the outside, we're going through life, we're living life, we're talking to people, we're engaging on loving and living and good hearted women and family and God.
SPEAKER_00: But if you would think about your thinking, you'd find out actually it's all just songs about me.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta think about your thinking to avoid stinking thinking.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just pause here and let me give you a couple of reflective questions to think through.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna put these on the screen because that makes you write them down real quick.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to listen to them again, grab the podcast or something.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just think about this for a second.
SPEAKER_00: How do I see that I'm thinking of myself too highly?
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you easily irritated?
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't be bothered with this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Many times that's revenue outside of view of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Where am I quick to second guess others?
SPEAKER_00: If I would have led that project, if I would have taught that lesson, if I would have been in charge of this thing or that thing, if I would have parented that child, they would have seen what grace looks like.
SPEAKER_00: If I would have parented that child, they would have known what discipline looks like.
SPEAKER_00: You see, where you're quick to second guess others is an indicator of an outsized view of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that everybody else was always right.
SPEAKER_00: It just means I tend to think, well, if I was there, I would have that fixed, and you've forgotten that there's one Messiah and it's not your name.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you another one.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you struggle to listen well?
SPEAKER_00: You always got something to say real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's not I'm not the quick talker person.
SPEAKER_00: I just check out all together.
SPEAKER_00: Sit at the table, smile and nod, nothing to say.
SPEAKER_00: That can be an indicator of pride in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: That I can't actively listen, be engaged and interested in others, and all I can do is figure out how I'm gonna make this a song about me.
SPEAKER_00: And if I can't do that or I think it's totally uninteresting, then I have the ability to just opt out of this conversation and say this isn't for me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you one more.
SPEAKER_00: Where is it difficult for you to freely confess sin?
SPEAKER_00: When I say freely confess, here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: I mean specific sin.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean, well, I had a little struggle this past week.
SPEAKER_00: I stumbled a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean my heart was gripped by greedy desires because the things of this world look really stinking good to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I want more of that.
SPEAKER_00: I lusted after that man or that woman.
SPEAKER_00: I coveted what my neighbor has.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't tell a little white lie.
SPEAKER_00: I realized it would look good for me if I told a lie in this situation, and so I was not committed to the truth because it would make me look good.
SPEAKER_00: Like we don't we don't talk about sin usually in specific terms like that, but we should.
SPEAKER_00: And when I say freely confess sin, what I mean is specific sins vertically to God and horizontally to one or two other brothers or sisters who are close.
SPEAKER_00: Probably not everybody in your Sunday school class, I get that.
SPEAKER_00: But James 5 says there's healing in the confession of sin.
SPEAKER_00: You go back, you read David in Psalm 32, he says, My bones wasted away.
SPEAKER_00: It ate up my strength until I could confess.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons we don't freely confess is because we want to make ourselves look better than we are.
SPEAKER_00: We want to uphold a high view of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And grace trains me to say we are united as receivers, and therefore I don't have to pretend like I have my act all together here.
SPEAKER_00: That's grace humility.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing grace does.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the second thing grace produces it produces a unity.
SPEAKER_00: It produces unity.
SPEAKER_00: Look back at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: 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 of one another.
SPEAKER_00: It produces unity.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's important we understand unity rightly in this situation.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in the church, we define unity as an absence of conflict.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not after more conflict, so don't get me in the wrong sense there.
SPEAKER_00: That's not really what unity is.
SPEAKER_00: Unity is more rightly understood as a tightness of bond for mission.
SPEAKER_00: Tightness of bond for mission.
SPEAKER_00: And let's just be real clear: our mission as a church, Parkside Bible Church, is to glorify God by making disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Very, very, very straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: Glorify God by making disciples.
SPEAKER_00: The tightness of our bond for that mission is the measure of our unity.
SPEAKER_00: You might think of a musical, like a high school musical that happens.
SPEAKER_00: And uh you imagine all the different moving parts, right?
SPEAKER_00: You need you need the actors, the singers to be united, you need the dance team to be united, you need the musicians to be united, you need the stage crew to be united, you need the people running the lights to be united.
SPEAKER_00: But if you get to the end of the production and they say, oh, we were super united, we didn't have any big arguments, well, that's not actually a super unified team.
SPEAKER_00: But if they were all tightly bound around the same mission and nothing would distract them from the mission, all of the moving parts working together to produce this amazing musically say, wow, that was an incredibly unified team.
SPEAKER_00: You see, unity is much bigger than the absence of conflict, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a tightness of bond for a mission.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul does after he says that grace produces the first point, humility, what is the immediate next step he goes to?
SPEAKER_00: He says, it's how you relate to the community of faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is so, so important, guys.
SPEAKER_00: You understand in the New Testament, God says that you are saved, God makes you a new person, but your faith is always personal and never private.
SPEAKER_00: The language of the New Testament says God puts you into a new group of people.
SPEAKER_00: It says He's creating a new nation, He's creating a new body, interconnected, He's creating a new building, a new community, a new family.
SPEAKER_00: Like every single image here is saying you're becoming part of a group, and it is always tied, not as like an optional add on for varsity level commitment, but what it means to follow Jesus is I am made into a new person and placed into a new people.
SPEAKER_00: And the key phrase here in verse four is you are members of one another.
SPEAKER_00: There is a huge payload attached.
SPEAKER_00: To that.
SPEAKER_00: It means as a Christian, your core identity is reoriented into this group.
SPEAKER_00: So helpful cross-reference here, Hebrews chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: The author of Hebrews says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of some.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so virtual church was happening back then, and so was skipping out on church to go to whatever else people skipped out on church on.
SPEAKER_00: Got it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: The opposite, don't forsake the assembling, but rather get your butt in church and be there every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: If you did your devotions in Hebrews this morning, you know that's not what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It says, but rather encourage one another.
SPEAKER_00: Don't forsake the assembly.
SPEAKER_00: Don't stay home, but rather come and encourage.
SPEAKER_00: See how you can give, not what you can receive.
SPEAKER_00: You see, deep in the heart of the American church is this idea of consumerism.
SPEAKER_00: I come to church to get.
SPEAKER_00: I come to church as a receiver.
SPEAKER_00: I get teaching.
SPEAKER_00: I get filled up.
SPEAKER_00: I show up and I say, What programs do you have to offer?
SPEAKER_00: Like, and some people show up and they're a little bit easier to please.
SPEAKER_00: Like they could go to the golden corral and be happy with the whole menu there.
SPEAKER_00: Other people a little harder to please, they're looking for Fogo to Chow.
SPEAKER_00: They want the whole menu there.
SPEAKER_00: But underneath both of those is showing up saying, What's on the menu?
SPEAKER_00: And what can I get from this situation?
SPEAKER_00: Now the reality is when you come to church, I do hope you get things.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what's gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00: You are receiving what others are giving.
SPEAKER_00: And you receive not only what they are giving, but you will receive by giving.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a fundamental shift from this menu mindset that often comes into the church.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's around Christmas time we often quote Jesus, who said it's more blessed to give than to receive.
SPEAKER_00: But do you think about your local church involvement in the same way?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus said the path to life came from giving, not receiving.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Philippians 2 says he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant, becoming obedient unto death.
SPEAKER_00: And as he said the path to life was death to self, and then resurrection in the power of the Spirit, so, brothers and sisters, the path to life, joy, and peace for you is death to self, resurrection to new life in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the way you relate to the other brothers and sisters in this body is one of the number one battlegrounds for that to be lived out.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely have to get this straightened out.
SPEAKER_00: I recall hearing a number of years ago about a grandpa pastor, and he was doing the grandpa pastor thing after church, shaking hands, kissing babies, doing all that.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and somebody came by and said, Pastor, I really didn't like the worship this Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And he shook their hand, he said, No problem at all.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're here not worshiping you, but worshiping the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's not an audience of worship, there's a congregation gathered raising worship to the one who is worthy, and it's not me, and it's not you, and it wasn't that person.
SPEAKER_00: So let me try and put this in even a little bit more starker practical terms for you.
SPEAKER_00: Wave your hands at me a little bit right now, make sure the blood's still flowing.
SPEAKER_00: Go doing a little survey action here, good, okay.
SPEAKER_00: If the person next to you didn't do that, you got permission to just elbow them, they might be asleep right now.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe they just didn't want to hit you with the elbow there.
SPEAKER_00: They've been lifting, they're kind of swole, you know, whatever the case.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: You don't actually have to raise your hands for this exercise.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I want you to think in your mind scale of one to ten, as I ask, I have three questions I want to ask you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I understand when it comes to spiritual growth, like you have a part and God has a part, like he's providing the grace, but you're doing the work on a human level term.
SPEAKER_00: Are you responsible for your own spiritual growth?
SPEAKER_00: All right, so I hope you said somewhere near 10 for that.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Now let me ask you a second one.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a family, are you responsible for the spiritual growth of your family?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you said somewhere near 10 for that.
SPEAKER_00: Like obviously the other people are more responsible than you're responsible, but if you're a, especially if you're a dad, you have a vested responsibility in their growth.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a third question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you responsible for the spiritual growth of the other members of this church?
SPEAKER_00: Now maybe you're not sure.
SPEAKER_00: Is this a trick question?
SPEAKER_00: There's 500 of them.
SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to be responsible for all of them?
SPEAKER_00: When Paul says we are members of one another, one of the things that means is that we have a vested interest and not only interest, but responsibility in the spiritual growth of our other church members.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you can't have the same kind of responsibility for every single other person, right?
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: But have you taken that level of responsibility and interest in someone else's spiritual growth?
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps this is the moment for you, like it was for me in the summer of 2006, where I realized that my coach was calling me to a higher level of commitment than I'd realized.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, wow, I don't know that I've read Romans 12.4 quite in that way before.
SPEAKER_00: And God is calling me as a follower of Him to a higher level of commitment than I had previously understood.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is the basics of biblical Christianity, that every Christian is called to commit to other Christians in some kind of a local assembly.
SPEAKER_00: At Parkside, we call that church membership.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna make a commitment to love one another.
SPEAKER_00: It's very, very important.
SPEAKER_00: There are some who've been attending for maybe a while, and you haven't joined, you haven't made that commitment.
SPEAKER_00: And you understand, like, I've got this commitment to 4-H, I've got this commitment to use sports, I've got this commitment to the lake, I've got this commitment to like whatever you've got a commitment to, and I'm gonna fit in the church where I can.
SPEAKER_00: This is a call to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: I need to reorient my life around a local assembly of believers, as Romans 12:4 calls me to.
SPEAKER_00: And there are others of you who've been members at Parkside, maybe for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: You did the membership class, you serve in kids' ministry, you regularly give.
SPEAKER_00: But this relational element of I'm taking interest and responsibility in the spiritual growth of others is not a step you've taken.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a call for you to repent as well.
SPEAKER_00: We are united to one another in a meaningful, meaningful way.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Jesus said in John 17?
SPEAKER_00: He said, our unity, our tightness of bond on mission is actually mission critical because when the world sees that tightness of bond on mission, that's how they know that Jesus is actually the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: That this fundamental identity reorients all the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how the world knows.
SPEAKER_00: You talk about a countercultural truth right here.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason the room's getting quiet.
SPEAKER_00: You hear that?
SPEAKER_00: You feel it?
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, the toes are getting stepped on.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you another countercultural truth right in this passage as well.
SPEAKER_00: Your function doesn't define you, Christ defines you.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He talks about how you're united to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody has the same function, is what the end of verse 4 says.
SPEAKER_00: Your function doesn't define your value.
SPEAKER_00: Like some of you are in retirement or approaching retirement, and you went from being a who's who to now you're a who's he.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's kind of an identity shift that's tough to navigate.
SPEAKER_00: You need to remind yourself my value does not come from my workplace function.
SPEAKER_00: There are others of you who are at home rearing children, and you're looking out at what the other ladies in your community are doing.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, boy, it seems like they're really making a difference in the world, and I'm just changing diapers and getting bottles ready.
SPEAKER_00: Your function doesn't define your value.
SPEAKER_00: Unless we get any further away, let's not pretend as if that function is not a very valuable and needed function as well.
SPEAKER_00: There are other ladies who are in the workplace facing a totally different kind of challenge, saying, I wish I was at home with those kids.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, your function doesn't define you.
SPEAKER_00: Christ defines you.
SPEAKER_00: And in different seasons of life, there will be different needs, different calls upon your life.
SPEAKER_00: We understand that, but you must get square straight out of the gate.
SPEAKER_00: Your function doesn't define you.
SPEAKER_00: You go to the youth group.
SPEAKER_00: Students, let me see you here.
SPEAKER_00: The 12th graders are not more significant than the sixth graders.
SPEAKER_00: Their function doesn't define them.
SPEAKER_00: And you apply this more broadly.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world that desperately needs care for the unborn.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world that desperately needs care for those who have no father, who have no mother.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world that desperately needs care for the migrant worker, whether they're here legally or illegally, because your function doesn't define you.
SPEAKER_00: Christ defines you, his value defines you.
SPEAKER_00: And you apply it to the church.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the preacher seems more important.
SPEAKER_00: Like he we gotta make sure we got him in place, until you look out and you see maybe God's hand of blessing is not on a church.
SPEAKER_00: And if you could ask the Lord about it, he would say, Well, you have not because you ask not, because nobody's praying around here.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter how good your teaching is, if God's not giving the growth, there will be no growth.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Well, maybe the counselor is the guy who really matters.
SPEAKER_00: Because he meets people, you know, right where the rubber meets the road and helps solve their difficulties and their issues and gives them, you know, practical stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that sounds good until you realize most counselors are really, really bad at administration.
SPEAKER_00: You end up triple booked with somebody else for that counseling appointment.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We probably need a diversity of gifts here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the big giver is the one that's really important.
SPEAKER_00: Because look at all the ministry that's going through their gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Until you don't have accountants that are using their skill set to make sure that we have good checks and balances in our system, and you discover a huge money wandering scheme, and those big gifts went in the wrong direction, and maybe you say, we really need a diversity of gifts.
SPEAKER_00: We are unified as receivers of gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Your gifting from God matters.
SPEAKER_00: It's needed, but it's not ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: Christ and his body are ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: You see, unity is not the absence of conflict, but it's a tightness of bond for a mission where I recognize I exist for this body, I've been united to this body.
SPEAKER_00: My function doesn't define me, but is useful to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means for us to be united.
SPEAKER_00: And just getting real practical here.
SPEAKER_00: Like next year, we are gonna be in the process of planting a church.
SPEAKER_00: That is the mission that God has given to us.
SPEAKER_00: Glorify Him by making disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And as you make and multiply disciples, you're gonna end up multiplying Sunday school classes and community groups, and that's gonna bubble up into planting churches.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just tell you guys, if Jesus' mission was costly for him, then our mission we should expect to be costly for us.
SPEAKER_00: And the best analogy for church planting is like childbirth.
SPEAKER_00: Making babies is fun, raising babies is hard.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: To plant a church is gonna be really hard for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna require sacrifice from us.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be an invitation for some of us to step out and go to this church, an invitation for others to step up and fill the gap.
SPEAKER_00: Step up or step out.
SPEAKER_00: That's the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: But it's gonna be challenging.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to prepare ourselves, like we're looking ahead.
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Yay, we can't wait to do this to make a difference in a community that needs a gospel witness in a church.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: But on the front end, we recognize for us to be unified means a tightness of bond around the mission that Christ has delivered, and it's gonna be difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And we count the cost and we say Christ is worth it, his mission is worth it, so let's get after it together.
SPEAKER_00: But grace produces unity.
SPEAKER_00: Third final thing, grace produces.
SPEAKER_00: Transformed service.
SPEAKER_00: It produces transformed service.
SPEAKER_00: This section of the passage, verses six through eight, is often the part that gets the most traction.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know that I front-loaded the first two points to leave the smallest amount of time here on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: The fundamental mindset on how you see yourself point one and others point two is infinitely more important than the gift set that you have.
SPEAKER_00: Your gifts matter, but how you see yourself and others will totally impact how you use your gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Gotta get that part straight.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's read verses six through eight and see what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Your gifts are used.
SPEAKER_00: They're meant to build others up.
SPEAKER_00: Your gifts are meant to be a conduit of grace, not a mirror to your own glory.
SPEAKER_00: And this conduit of grace thing matters a ton because here's what it will do: it will elevate your gift and lower your gift at the exact same time.
SPEAKER_00: You're a conduit of grace.
SPEAKER_00: You're a PVC pipe of grace.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of seems to lower it, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, you're this hard white plastic that just is a tunnel for other stuff to get there.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't seem all that significant.
SPEAKER_00: Until you try living in a house with bathrooms without it, and then you're really thankful for the PVC pipe that brings fresh water and removes the rest.
SPEAKER_00: You see, understanding that your gifts are meant to be used as a conduit of grace, not a mirror to your own glory, but raises and raises and lowers your gift at the exact same time.
SPEAKER_00: And it gives me a great desire to use my gift without being mistaken for thinking that my gift is ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that often comes up in this passage is well, how do I discern my gift?
SPEAKER_00: And especially for younger men and women.
SPEAKER_00: So like children, students, people in your 20s, oftentimes this is really hard.
SPEAKER_00: Three words I want you to write down in this section for discerning your gifting.
SPEAKER_00: This is uh straightforward, it's easy, but I want you to write this down.
SPEAKER_00: Desire.
SPEAKER_00: Need gifting.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want to do?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you see an area of need?
SPEAKER_00: And what are you good at?
SPEAKER_00: And just get started in that area.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're younger on the spectrum, you're like, I'm not sure what my gifts are, I want to encourage you to ask a question, say, what do you see in me?
SPEAKER_00: Find somebody that you know a little bit that's a little bit older.
SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes that feels like you're fishing for a compliment.
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to liberate you from that fear and just say, what do you see in me?
SPEAKER_00: Because to the rest of us, it's super obvious, but it's really hard to see in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are 30 or older, I want to encourage you to lean into a simple statement.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the statement: I see in you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't make people come and ask.
SPEAKER_00: See somebody around.
SPEAKER_00: Say, hey, I see this in you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm encouraged by that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that.
SPEAKER_00: I see in you.
SPEAKER_00: And in that act, together as a church, you'll start to discover your gifting because God steers moving cars, not parked cars.
SPEAKER_00: And if you get started and you really hate something, that's a pretty good idea.
SPEAKER_00: You may not be gifted there.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're really terrible at it, you'll probably know that too.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody might let you know.
SPEAKER_00: How about we find a different ministry for you?
SPEAKER_00: Look, don't be offended by that.
SPEAKER_00: We're just trying to get you in your in your lane, your area of gifting.
SPEAKER_00: And other times you just need somebody to fill the hole.
SPEAKER_00: Small steps are good steps.
SPEAKER_00: But remember, in eternity, Matthew 25, there's people that get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, You served me, you fed me, you gave me something to drink, you gave me some clothing.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Really?
SPEAKER_00: God, when did we do that?
SPEAKER_00: I said, when there were people in the church, the least of these?
SPEAKER_00: That's actually applied in that context to disciples who were in need, and you just kind of stepped up and helped out and served and met in need.
SPEAKER_00: You actually did that for Jesus Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_00: So let's not neglect small steps of obedience, saying, I'm gonna use my gifts to build up the body as a conduit of grace, not a mirror to my own glory.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the list of gifts that are given here.
SPEAKER_00: Let's race through these real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Recognize this is not an exhaustive gifts, g exhaustive list of gifts.
SPEAKER_00: It's illustrative.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna get to the heart, right?
SPEAKER_00: The heart behind the gift is more significant than the action from the gift.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea is basically this: go bonkers in your area of gifting and be faithful in everything.
SPEAKER_00: Go bonkers in your gifting, be faithful in all things.
SPEAKER_00: Here they are.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, to the one who prophesies.
SPEAKER_00: A prophecy in scripture means four different things.
SPEAKER_00: It could mean when you write down the words of scripture, it means when you tell the future, it could mean what I'm doing right now, I'm prophesying, I'm preaching, or it could mean the spirit impresses upon me something to say to you in a particular moment.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 12, 6 seems to be the last of those.
SPEAKER_00: When the Spirit impresses upon you, say what the Spirit is impressing upon you, but don't get busy meddling with the stuff that annoys you about that person.
SPEAKER_00: Use your gift as a conduit of grace, not a mirror to try and replicate yourself.
SPEAKER_00: The next one, service.
SPEAKER_00: May refer to deacons.
SPEAKER_00: It is the Greek word for deacon, or it may refer more generally to serving, but serve as unto the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say this, guys.
SPEAKER_00: This summer, we are not gonna be in this room.
SPEAKER_00: We have like a few more Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: And our deacons here are doing a great job of preparing us to be across the way in the high school gym, but it will require an absolute truckload of work.
SPEAKER_00: Setting up, tearing down, setting up, tearing down.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna require a ton.
SPEAKER_00: Don't make it hard on our deacons to find volunteers.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna require giving up some Saturday nights and some Sunday afternoons.
SPEAKER_00: This is an opportunity for us to come together, link arms, and on the one hand, it's a sacrifice, but some of the greatest moments of my life and the most fun I've ever had is doing this kind of setup and teardown.
SPEAKER_00: You're sweating, sometimes you're having a good time, sometimes you're a little grumpy, but at least we're grumpy together and we get bonded together and we have a good time doing it.
SPEAKER_00: So don't make it hard on our deacons in teaching and exhortation.
SPEAKER_00: What's the basic idea?
SPEAKER_00: If you have the gift of teaching, if you have the gift of exhortation, recognize your authority, my authority comes from this book.
SPEAKER_00: It is my job to elevate this book, hold it up, to shine a flashlight, say, here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It's not my job to meddle in your own affairs and get off topic from what this says.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we say expository preaching.
SPEAKER_00: I expose the meaning of the passage.
SPEAKER_00: That should be every Bible teacher's job.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who exhorts from the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And catch this, these last three gifts is where Paul really drives at the heart of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to slow down on these because it makes it really, really clear.
SPEAKER_00: What's it say about the one who contributes?
SPEAKER_00: The one who contributes in generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Why does it say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the more you have, the harder it is to give in a sacrificial way that hurts.
SPEAKER_00: This is why it's so important, kids, you learn to give in a generous and sacrificial way right now.
SPEAKER_00: Because it seems like if I have more, it'll be easy to give more generously.
SPEAKER_00: And it's exactly the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: You must develop the habit and the discipline of giving generously when you have a little, because it only gets harder from there.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says to the one who leads with zeal.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the super gifted leaders can coast and nobody else knows the difference, because they're just like zooming ahead.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, you wouldn't even know if they were given like half their effort.
SPEAKER_00: So lead with zeal.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever led anything for 20 seconds, you know that leadership is hard and lonely, and people gripe about stuff, and you can get discouraged and kind of just trudge along in your job.
SPEAKER_00: Like if God has given you leadership capacity at work or at the church or anywhere else, lead with zeal and ask for his grace to lead with energy.
SPEAKER_00: Because those under your leadership will flourish in that way.
SPEAKER_00: Then the last one he says to those who are merciful, who do acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he say with cheerfulness?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're a mercy person, and you know this already, I don't even have to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a mercy person, needy people can smell you about three counties away.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I'm just drawn to you.
SPEAKER_00: I think you can help here.
SPEAKER_00: And you love to do acts of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: God has gifted you there.
SPEAKER_00: You find joy in it.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the temptation is like, oh, another needy person.
SPEAKER_00: Not that you don't really want to help out, but do those gifts with cheerfulness.
SPEAKER_00: So, do you see at the end of the list what Paul is doing?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Your gift is significant.
SPEAKER_00: It's a conduit of grace to others, but get to the heart underneath the gift as more significant than the gift.
SPEAKER_00: That is why grace produces transformed service, not merely service.
SPEAKER_00: Because it changes your heart and how you go about it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we read this list, you've got to understand this.
SPEAKER_00: This is not like a spiritual gift Enneagram.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a six-wing four, so I'm excused from all the stuff that the twos and the threes do.
SPEAKER_00: No, go bonkers in your area of gifting.
SPEAKER_00: Be faithful in all things.
SPEAKER_00: I do need to give a caveat here.
SPEAKER_00: There's like 5% of you that need to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: Just because it's written down as a gift here doesn't mean you're called to every single thing.
SPEAKER_00: It is okay to say no at times and let others do it.
SPEAKER_00: Not everything from heaven has your name on it.
SPEAKER_00: And there are some of you that have a really tightly bound conscience that you're going to feel really guilty if you don't do every single thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's not most of us, but there are some of you.
SPEAKER_00: And you just need to understand that God has gifted a diverse body for diverse needs, and you don't have to do all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Go bonkers in your area of gifting.
SPEAKER_00: Be faithful in all things.
SPEAKER_00: Your gifts meant to be used.
SPEAKER_00: They're not supposed to be on the shelf.
SPEAKER_00: There's always going to be imperfect leaders, imperfect churches, imperfect programs.
SPEAKER_00: There will be a reason not to use your gift.
SPEAKER_00: And as you use your gift, God will bless it and it'll grow.
SPEAKER_00: And pride, on the one hand, keeps me from taking action.
SPEAKER_00: And when I do take action, pride derails me, right?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, look what just happened.
SPEAKER_00: I preached that sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see how that changed those people's lives?
SPEAKER_00: Like Sunday night's a dark time for a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Because on the one hand, you think, boy, nobody's getting saved.
SPEAKER_00: That was terrible.
SPEAKER_00: And on the other hand, well, I kind of crushed it today.
SPEAKER_00: Like both of those are way off.
SPEAKER_00: Like if it hits me, I know it hits you in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: That's just a fact of life, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so you realize grace produces transformed service where I'm called to action, but it doesn't ultimately depend on me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm called to keep pouring myself out when I don't see fruit, when it doesn't seem like it's making a difference.
SPEAKER_00: And so are you.
SPEAKER_00: And we keep going, trusting the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And you start to put all of it together, and it's like grace produces this humble view of myself, it produces a unity, a tightness of bond for this mission, and transforms service that decreases my gift, but raises my gift at the same time, like, Justin, this is a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul said you're going to offer your life as a living sacrifice, do you know what he meant by that?
SPEAKER_00: He actually meant you would offer your life as a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: When he said he would be crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what he meant by that?
SPEAKER_00: He meant he'd be crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the same would happen for you.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea would be, yes, I see what I'm called to, but I don't have the strength on my own to do this.
SPEAKER_00: That I actually needed grace to get going as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And to live this out, I need grace to keep going as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And I need grace to get me home as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I need God to do in me what I couldn't do in myself.
SPEAKER_00: I need him to do in me today what I can't do on my own.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole thing is meant to push you back to grace.
SPEAKER_00: So we can say as a body, we are unified as receivers of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: It radically changes how we view ourselves and others and how it sends us on mission.
SPEAKER_00: And rather than saying, yeah, I've got it covered, we can raise our hand joyfully saying, Yes, God's got it covered, and I'm going to give everything I have in service of His grace.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we need your help.
SPEAKER_00: We need your help to take action where we want to be passive.
SPEAKER_00: We need your help to be transformed, where our heart is not in it.
SPEAKER_00: We need your help to see ourselves rightly, with sober judgment, not thinking too highly of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We need your help in a thousand ways that we don't even know about.
SPEAKER_00: Would you please give your kindness to us?
SPEAKER_00: Would you please give grace to us even right now as we consider the words of Romans 12?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to apply this to our lives?
SPEAKER_00: To see the weight of your sacrifice as the model for our sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Would you move us to obedience?
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.