Building Our Community (Romans Week 26) by Eric Gonzalez

What does it mean to truly belong to the body of Christ? In this message from Romans 12:3–8, we discover that the gospel frees us from pride and comparison, calling us instead to humility, unity, and joyful participation in God's family. Every believer has been uniquely gifted by God's grace, and as we use those gifts to serve one another, we help build a healthy, Christ-centered community that reflects His love to the world. 

Transcript

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Well good morning everyone. Good to see all of you today. Um do you mind before we start? Maybe look in look at the person next to you and just tell them, man, you are so beautiful. You are so beautiful. You're probably a guy in here, like, this is the first time someone's calling me beautiful. Did that on purpose. Well, like Pastor Michael said, we are in Romans chapter 12 today. But before I jump into the text, I have a question for you. Have you ever been part of a community or a group of people outside of church that maybe when you were in this group, you were a little kooky and a little crazy. Maybe, no one? Alright. Maybe were you were, when if you were in high school, college, right, uh back in the day, or if you're in that now, uh, were you ever part of some type of I don't know, sports team, book club, Yu-Gi-Oh Pokemon club? We have a friend right now, she's our age, and she's in a knitting group right now. So, I mean, anything's possible. Like, have you ever just been part of a group? Yeah. Have you ever been part of a group that pushes you to be a little bit crazy, just a little bit weird? Maybe? No? Maybe you've had a friend group that, you know, everyone in your friend group, it there's like this unspoken permission to be weird. So you can only be weird with them. Now, have you ever been part of the like a group so big that if you're on the other side of the world and if you see someone, you greet each other with like a crazy chant or a crazy handshake. Oh, there you go. You guys are going ahead, and there you go. Exactly. I think everyone here should have their hand up. Columbus culture is so weird. Alright, I my wife and I are from Colorado, and we were on a flight from California to Phoenix. Imagine being on a flight, and someone in the front just stands up and OH! The back of the plane, a group of people respond. Everyone was like, What is happening right now? What is happening? You know, some of these groups specifically, you know, OHIO has been made really popular because of Ohio State and their football team. And I think to me, it highlights how humanity just longs to be part of something. Longs to not just be part of a culture, but even to participate. Some people go to real big extremes to, you know, on game day, they take off their shirts and paint their bodies and O H I O. You know? Some people go even further and get, you know, a big old O tattooed on them or a buckeyed. And I mean, it just communities kind of push us. And it like, to me, it was just highlighting as I was thinking about this message, like, we just long for community. And we long not just to belong, but we we long to participate, to find our place in community. And then today in on chapter 12 of Romans, I think the apostle Paul is going to highlight the importance of community. And not just the importance of it, but the importance of belonging, participating, and it's going to be hopefully a fun and encouraging ride for you today. My hope today for us is to walk out of here just encouraged with some hope. Um, that's always been my heart as a as just a communicator that people just feel encouraged and feel like they can with the Lord. Amen. So before we dive into it, I I titled today's message, Building Our Community. Let's just pray and invite the Holy Spirit to come. So, Lord, we invite you. We ask that you come. Come, Holy Spirit. We ask that you speak to us. Lord, we ask that you fill us today, fill our hearts. Lord, we surrender everything to you. In Jesus' name. And everyone says, Amen. So we'll be starting at chapter three, or I mean verse three, chapter twelve, and this is uh what the apostle says. For by grace given to me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgment. In accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you, for just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy, in accordance with your faith. If it is serving, then serve. If it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement. If it is giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Amen. Now this is pretty simple. This is pretty awesome because we get we are now in the portion of the letter of you know, everything before chapter twelve was all doctrine. It was all just really intense meat. And if you've been around with us, we've been learning a lot, a lot. And if this is your first time here, I recommend you join joining our Spotify account and you can catch up and and learn a lot. But now we're getting to the portion of the scripture of where we're learning to apply the very things that we are learning. And the very first thing that the apostle Paul does is he attacks our mindset as believers in community. How we should, how we should show up when we are in community. Or I think, or just in general, how we should show up. And the very first thing that he says in verse 3 is do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgment. I think the apostle Paul here, what he's trying to do is he's attacking a problem that humanity has always had. And what is that problem? The problem is ego. Everyone say ego. Ego and self-centeredness. Ego and self-centeredness. Did you guys know that ego and self-centeredness is pretty destructive? Did you know that it destroys communities? Did you know that it destroys families, relationships, companies? Did you guys know that? It's pretty dangerous. And if it happened, then I'm pretty sure it's happening even today. We see it today. And the Apostle Paul is identifying that and he's attacking it right away. He says, you know what? Don't think of yourselves more highly than you ought. And yes, there's this arrogancy that he's he's pointing out, but I think if we go a little bit deeper, I think what he's really trying to do is just highlight, you know, just don't look at yourself with a distorted view of yourself. It's more than arrogancy at times. And sometimes it masks itself in different ways. And I have three examples that we can look at specifically. The first is what is known as the self-sufficient person. This person usually uses this type of phrase. I don't need any help. I don't need any help. They tend to use phrases like, I'm strong enough, I'm smart enough, I'm rich enough, I don't need any help. Do you know anyone like that? Maybe someone's coming to mind if no one, you know what they say about that? If no one comes to mind, you came to mind for somebody else, right? This might be that this type of person resists accountability. They resist accountability. Or they also think that their success is purely out of their own strength instead of leaning on the grace of God. Now the second type of person is the indispensable person. This person tends to use phrases like um, if I don't do it, no one will. If I don't do it, no one will. Or fine, I'll just do it myself. Or if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. And this is really dangerous. These type of people are they tend to be sought out and viewed as uh heroes, fixers, um, rescuers. They try to like push themselves and become anchors in different situations, specifically in like family dynamics. And it's it's really dangerous because then that person tries to create the people around them like have this codependency on them. It's pretty dangerous. And on top of it, it's within group dynamics, even like church groups, unfortunately, what happens is they tend to put the kingdom, like the kingdom depends on them and not on Jesus. The third type of person that we can see is uh uh a comparison-driven person, the comparison-driven person. This person consistently measures themselves against others, assuming they're better and they strive to be, and they strive to prove it. They tend to use phrases like watch and learn, just see how it's done. Anything you can do, I can do better. Let's see if they can keep up. There's a common thread with all these uh type of personalities, and the common thread is the self-centeredness. They put themselves in the middle, they make themselves or they think of themselves more highly than they are. And the apostle Paul is targeting that very problem, that very egotistical mindset, and he's saying, don't do it, don't fall into the trap. And that's really hard with today's culture, right? I looked up like the 10 top you know bestsellers for uh self-help books, and two of the main ones, the titles were The Power is Within You, and the second one, You Can Heal Yourself. Fast food has gone to the point to have a slogan, have it your way. It's really hard to be self-centered in a culture like that. Right? I don't think so. So then if we can't see ourselves with this, you know, think our think of ourselves in this manner, how should we see ourselves? Like that's the question. How should we see ourselves? And the simple answer is I believe we should see ourselves through the lens of the gospel. The gospel. What is what is what is the lens of the gospel? Well, the gospel has two different audiences. The first audience that it speaks to is the non-believer, right? The sinner, the non-believer. And what what does the gospel say to the unbeliever? The gospel offers of Jesus for salvation, redemption, and reconciliation to God. And the second audience member that the gospel speaks to is the church, the believer. And it offers up Jesus for an ongoing transformation, and it pushes us to intimacy with God for us to eventually just know God. This is the lens that we should be seeing ourselves with. This is the lens that you should be seeing yourselves with. It's it actually, the minute we start seeing ourselves through the gospel lens, it makes us sober. It brings us to that sober mindset. Why? Because it exposes who we really are. It exposes you for who you really are. What does that mean? It means that we go from being heroes to the ones needing to be saved. We go from being the author of our own lives to now a character in God's story. We go from being the saviors to the sinners that are being redeemed. We go from the masters to the servants, the judge to the one being pardoned. We go from being the provider to the dependent. We go from being the anchor to the one being held. We go from being the artist of our own stories to becoming the clay, to actually seeing ourselves as the clay. Ladies and gentlemen, that is good news. That is so sober. That is so free. Why? Because the world doesn't depend on you. It doesn't depend on me. It all falls on Jesus. Just slap them and say, that's a good point. Amen. Amen to the Lord. Amen. The more we look to Jesus, the more sober-minded we become. Evaluating ourselves through the lens of the gospel is through the lens of grace. It helps us realize that every gift comes from God, which means what? What does that mean? I think this leads us to humility, to walking in humility, to moving in humility. When you see yourself for who you really are, man, that should actually make you humble. You know, when the Bible talks about humility, it usually tells you to put it on and to walk in it and to choose humility. I love how uh Paul the Apostle says this in Colossians 3, 12. He says it this way, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself as in put it on. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Humility is a choice. Choose to be humble. Just choose it. As I was writing this, this reminded me of a story. Uh my wife and I were taking a group of leaders to a conference one time. So we were all carpooling, and my wife was at the passenger side, and I'm driving. And one of our friends, you know, everyone was in the car just sharing what they wanted, what they were asking the Lord for, you know, to do in their lives. And one of our friends was like, I'm asking God to make me humble. And immediately my wife and I both looked at each other. I looked back in the rear view mirror, and I almost pulled over and I was like, you need to get out of the car. You need to get out. Because I don't want to be in the same car with you asking the Lord that. Because sometimes our prayers are so dangerous. Like we don't know what we're asking for. And I have I recommend to you, instead of asking the Lord to make you humble, because he will, um, how about just choose? Choose it. Just be humble, walk in it, put it on. Tim Keller says it this way. I love the way he says it. He says, true gospel humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself, the freedom of self-forgetfulness. Choose to be humble. Just choose it and walk. Walk and be. Be in your community. Amen? The second thing that we see within the scripture is diversity. Within the text is the diversity in community. Verses 4 to 5. It says, For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Paul intentionally is using a metaphor with a body. He's just using a body. He doesn't use a building, he doesn't use an army, he doesn't use a machine. Why is he using the metaphor of a body? Is because each member that's not connected to a body will eventually just die. What he's communicating to us is that we belong to each other. We need each other to thrive. No such thing as lone rangers. We belong to one another. And God wants us to be active in his body. We belong to one another. I want you to look at your neighbor and tell them, you belong to me. Metaphorically. Metaphorically. We need one another. And God designed it this way. He designed it this way so we could thrive. People from every tribe and every tongue, right? It's so amazing being able to come to a space with people with different backgrounds, different colors, different sizes, different ages, crying out, holy, holy, holy to the Lord. In different languages. Crying, holy, santo, santo. And this is the picture of the kingdom that we are trying to model after hearing you all be. And this is what's so beautiful is that the Lord is inviting you to participate in that. God didn't design the church to be uniform. He didn't. He designed it to be organic. Uniformity demands everyone to look alike and act alike. But unity requires different parts working together towards the same purpose. The aspect of diversity is awesome. But what we really strive for is unity within the diversity. All of us stacking our hands and saying, this is where we're going, this is how we're doing it, in the name of Jesus. And it's okay for you to be different in that journey. Amen? I want us to do something real quick. I know it's really quiet in here, so we're going to talk a little bit. I want you to just repeat after me and say, it's okay for me to be different. One more time. It's okay for me to be different. Now look at the person that you were ignoring the whole time we were talking, and just tell them, it's okay for you to be different. I really do feel like there's some people being set free right now. I really truly feel that. Sometimes I feel like we need permission to be different. It's okay. It's okay. Because this is what the kingdom is about. If you're an I, be an I. You don't have to force yourself to be an ear. If you're an ear, you don't have to force yourself to be a foot. Every member has its own function. And the apostle Paul is saying, it's okay. We need you. If you don't worship in English, it's okay for you to worship in Spanish. It's okay. You can worship in French. You can worship in Canadian, right, Nathan? It's okay. And we strive here in New Albany to be diverse. We want to reflect the kingdom in every aspect. In every aspect. Here's the reality, okay? That we are members of one another, meaning isolation is an illusion. Cut off from the body, an organ dies, attached to the body, it thrives. And again, this is more than just diversity. We need to have unity within the diversity. We all need to stack hands and say we are chasing after Jesus and everything he has for us for the glory of God. Jesus himself prayed a prayer of unity. Did you guys know that it was it's really important for the Lord for us to be united? Did you guys know that? He prayed a specific prayer to the Father in John 17, starting at verse 20. This is his prayer. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, meaning us. That all of them may be one. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you have given me, that they may be as we are one. I and them, and you and me, so that they may be what? Brought to complete. Everyone say unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved me. Or have loved them even as you have loved me. This is what the Lord wants us to strive for is the unity within the community and the diversity. Your uniqueness is not an obstacle. Your uniqueness is not an obstacle. It is the very contribution to the community, the very thing that we need. Now the third thing that we see within the text is the purpose of community. There's purpose. Purpose. What's the purpose? It's releasing God's life, God's life through gifts. Verses 6 through 8. We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. If it is serving, then serve. If it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, give encouragement. If it is giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, then do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. What the Apostle Paul is doing right now, if you were to look at those specific gifts, is he's like mixing these over spiritual gifts that sometimes we think about, and practical gifts, and he's saying, just do it. He's like meshing them and he's saying, do it. Just do it. Just do it. They're both practical and they're both spiritual. Every gift comes from the Father. The point of the gifts is to use the gifts. The point of the gifts is to use the gifts. So if you have the gift of prophecy, prophesy. If you have the gift of prophecy, prophesy. If you have the gift of encouragement, then encourage. If you have the gift of leadership, lead. Do it all for the glory of God and do it to build the body. This is the invitation that God has for us. Look, what we what I've noticed is when you know who you are and you know what you carry, what the Lord tends to do is show you the areas you lack. Now, should we always grow? Yes, I always believe we have to grow. We have to, we have to be stretched, okay? But it also highlights how much we need one another. Here's a really good example. Pastor Michael and I. We are really good friends, but we are really different. Him and I are super different. Pure example, you know, I'm Hispanic. I'm really good looking, I'm loud, right? Be humble. All right, I get it. All right. I speak three languages. I speak English, Spanish, tongues, you name it. Okay? And then Pastor Michael, you know who's Pastor Michael? He's also super good looking, super kind, extremely smart. And you know what knits us together is our common love for the Lord. Another thing that knits us together is our desire to build God's kingdom. Man, we both have different backgrounds, come from different places. And look what the Lord has done. And we look at each other like, man, you're good at that, you take care of that. Man, you're good at that, you take care of that. And we depend on each other. It's a beautiful picture of the kingdom. And now the Lord is inviting all of us to participate. Every single one of you. Some of you guys, some of you ladies, have the gift of cooking. Amen. Invite us over. You know? So the question is: how do we discover our gifts? How do we discover our spiritual gifts? How? Well, the word gift and the word grace are intertwined. They're like almost the same type of word. When it says here in verse 6 that we have different gifts according to the grace given to us, literally Paul is saying that we have different graces or gifts of grace, gifts coming from grace. Another way to think about it is your spiritual gifts is like you should look at them as graces. Your spiritual gifts are graces. And because they are graces, they make us graceful. Meaning your gift, it shouldn't be like pulling teeth out of somebody. You know you're gifted in it, and if it just comes naturally. If it comes naturally. Some people, my wife has the gift. I'm gonna just tell you, she is a giver. She loves to give, even when we don't have.

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I'm like, babe, what are you doing? We don't got to give. She's like, we'll find a way.

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It just comes so naturally to her. And I'm more like, oh, it tenses me up. What gifts do you have that come naturally? And whatever comes to mind, get involved. Get involved. You know, I think of people like Sandy, Sandy from Hospitality. She leads our hospitality team, but she has such a gift of encouragement. She will literally stop what she's doing and stop you just to ask you how you are doing. And always drives the conversation back to Jesus. I also think of people like Velvet, she helped lead today, this morning. A few weeks ago, we had an emergency where the worship, there was no one around for the worship team to help her, and she still found a way to lead us into the presence of God. Talk about the gift of leadership. What gifts do you have? And whatever they are, use them. I'm giving, we are giving you permission today. Use your gifts. I also, when I was writing this, I was feeling really heavily that there are some people in here that have gifts. You know what your gifts are, but they've been dormant. You've kind of turned them off for this season. Or you haven't used them for a while. I believe the Lord is knocking on your door and inviting you to step out again. Some of you know how to hear God's voice very well. I want to invite you to be part of our prayer team. We need people like you to pour into our community. Look, the scripture is very clear. There's like practical gifts and spiritual gifts, and like I said, they're all one. They all come from the Lord. And sometimes we try to lean one in one direction more than the other. And here, y'all being we're trying to hold that tension of both. Because that's what Jesus did. You know, you find in the scripture, Jesus began to do and to teach. Okay? It's not just about being intellectually sound, but it's also like being spirit-led. It's it's the both and. It reminds me of this awesome and amazing, super good-looking buff author. He wrote this book called The Both and. His name is Pastor Rich Nathan, right? He said this in the book, which is, I love this quote. He said, if we emphasize the word without the spirit, we dry up. If we emphasize the spirit without the word, we blow up. If we hold the word and the spirit together, we grow up. The Lord is inviting us to grow up and to mature and to build the body, to build the body. Spiritual gifts are God's grace and action through ordinary people. They are meant to channel. Channel, they're meant as channels of life flowing from one member to another. And all together. This is the invitation that God has for us to build the body, to not think of yourselves more than you ought, but to be sober, to be sober. And you know what that helps us do? That actually helps us be a good witness out in the real world. Because we understand we need a savior, so it's so easy to connect people to Jesus. It's like, what is Christianity? Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where we found the bread. That's how easy it is. It's like, dude, you need Jesus, I need Jesus, we all need Jesus. And it makes it so easy to be practical out in the real world. Now, I was thinking of a few applications so we can actually apply some of these things that we've talked about today. And as I was praying for this morning, um, I saw a picture of back in Colorado, my me and my brothers used to float the Colorado River uh quite a bit. And there are areas where we would specifically like launch from, and uh there was this area that I remember that it was it looked like solid ground, but when I took a step, my foot just sunk. Like it just went, it was like sinking mud. And that's really dangerous because if you have really nice shoes or flip-flops, they're they're gone. They're you'll never get them out. But I saw this picture of a few of us in the room, like they were in the mud. They weren't moving forward, but they weren't going backwards, they were just stuck. Have you ever just felt stuck? And I feel like a lot of us, in order to get free from that mud, from that muck, I think the Lord wants you to renew your mind on the way you look at yourself. Pastor Sarah last week, Sarah Neper, gave um one of the preach last week. She she taught on verses one and two. And I think she said something really powerful that I think is the key to all of this. Um and it's found in verse 2, and then let me just read it. She said this is what the scripture says in verse 2: do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Then you will know, then you will be able to test and prove what God's will is good, pleasing, and perfect will. And she said this. She said, in order for us to like get to that point, we need to go back. Go back to chapters 1 through 11. What did the apostle Paul say back there in order for us to renew our mind now? What did he say? What does the gospel say about you? What does it say? What does God say about you? And I think the people that are stuck in the mud, you probably don't see yourself or you don't think of yourself in the way heaven looks at you. I feel like guilt and shame has weighed you down. Maybe circumstances, things that you've gone through even this past year, maybe the loss of someone in your life, that muck, God wants to get you out and wants you to see yourself through how heaven sees you. How does heaven see you? Well, the Lord says that you are redeemed. You are righteous, you are restored. Here's the heavy one. You are forgiven. You are forgiven. You're clean, you're holy, you're free, you're loved, you're a friend of God. You are never alone. You're a son and you're a daughter. This is how heaven sees you. High-five the person next to you and tell them, man, that's good. This is what the gospel says about us, and this is the invitation. And Paul the Apostle is saying, look, don't think of yourselves more than you ought. Look to Jesus. Jesus is the reason for this season. Jesus is the point. Now go. Be the body, grow the body, be active in the body. The second application that I might have for us, the first one is to, yeah, think of yourself soberly. Go in front of the Lord, ask him, show me how you see me, what you have done for me. Remember, the gospel is the mirror. He's the one cleaning us up. The second application is shifting your mindset from attending to belonging. You don't just attend, you albany. You belong here. You belong. And look, don't fall into the trap because I've fallen into it. I I've always thought, you know, as long as I show up to a place full of people, I belong. No, that's a lie. I think the Lord is inviting us to find our place in our community. Find our place. Find our place and get active. You know? Get the Ohio State tattoo, whatever you need to, to just feel like you belong here, okay? Just do it. And then I want to encourage you to find a place to serve. Find a place to serve. You know, the hospitality team needs a lot of help. Children's needs a lot of help. I mean, we're a brand new church plant. Here in the fall, we're gonna do a lot of different outreaches. Look for ways to get involved. In the fall, we're gonna restart up our small groups. Get involved in a small group. Utilize your gifts there. That is a great place to practice spiritual gifts. Should be a safe place to practice. And like when it comes to prophesying, you don't need to say, thus saith the Lord. You can always just, you know, just make it practical. You know, I feel like this is what the Lord is saying. You know, I'm getting this picture. Does this make sense? And then the person will confirm if it's right or wrong. And you're gonna be like, glory to God, or man, I'll try again next time. It's a great place for us to just be active with the body. And the third thing is I think we should perform what we call a word and spirit balance check. A word and spirit balance check in our own lives. I want to challenge you, during your private time with the Lord, ask him. Ask him if your scale is a little off. Ask him, he'll show you. And some of us already know. Some of us lean more analytical than spiritual, and some of us lean way too spiritual than analytical. Ask him and then ask the Lord to put people in your way to stretch you. Super easy, super easy to do. Amen? Awesome.