Mission Sent
Thanks so much for your time as you hear from Mission Sent in Florida. Our mission is to Serve Others, Share the Gospel of Jesus, and Live our Lives on Mission! Let's make the world better one Mission at a time.
Mission Sent
From Consumer to Producer: Living Your God-Given Purpose
Pastor James examines Romans 12:3, challenging us to embrace humility as the foundation for all spiritual growth and service to God.
• Paul begins with humility before discussing spiritual gifts and church roles
• God actively opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble
• True humility requires honest self-assessment about our spiritual condition
• Faith isn't just believing facts about Jesus but putting belief into action
• We were each created on purpose WITH a purpose and specific spiritual gifts
• Fruitless Christians who only consume without producing are in spiritual danger
• The church exists to equip saints for ministry, not provide entertainment
• Transformation comes through renewing our minds, naturally resulting in service
• Humility isn't weakness but the pathway to spiritual power and growth
What will you do this week to start using your gifts to produce fruit and stop just consuming? How will you advance the kingdom of God with what He has given to you?
I'm going to start by saying this prayer works. If you look down, I already have shoes back on. Some of that was because my feet were getting cold. The other part of that was I went, just my feet. The other part of that was I went if someone busted in. I want to make sure I have shoes on, just in case I have to, like, defend or fight. So I'm going to rough through the pain because I just want to make sure I'm ready. Right, all right.
Speaker 1:So we're going to jump into a new verse. This is the first time we've done this in over a month, so we're going to move on to Romans, chapter 12, verse 3. It says 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. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you so much for your word and I ask and I pray, father, that as I preach through it this morning, that even it is my words, people are hearing. It is your voice cutting to their heart, father. I pray in humility to be able to get through this message and it just be you. I pray that people see you more clearly this morning and that we are conformed more to the image of Jesus. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:All right, as we jump into this, there's a couple of things we want to really focus on right out of the gate. The first one Paul gives us right here. He starts with this phrase for, by the grace given to me, paul's showing us something very important in here. What he's showing us is this that, before he ever dives into because, like, the next couple of weeks are going to get a little bit more awkward for us Because he's about to dive into the gifts of the spirit, alright, he's about to dive into those things like prophecy and teaching and healing and mercy and all of those things. But right here, before he does that, he starts off with a very different position. He starts off before he ever gets to that. He starts off with a very different position. He starts off before he ever gets to that in humility. And humility is a very important thing and I think it's something we overlook a lot. See, Paul is sitting here going, by the grace given to me, because he's sitting here going I ain't got this. I can't get this. This isn't going to be a thing where I can sit here and go hey, I got it all figured out. It's funny Like I remember growing up I never really saw my parents like stress out about things, and so when I was younger, I went I can't wait to be an adult, because it just looks like fun and games.
Speaker 1:Then I became an adult and I went. Man, there's a lot more to this. Like, for example, we had JT. He was my first child. They well, yes, I were. Obviously I didn't create him by myself. But then after about two days at the hospital, the doctor comes into the room and he's like hey, you guys are all good to go. And I went hold on, there's not an instruction manual, there ain't a book, there ain't like something you're going to give us to make sure that this child is going to stay alive. Like they didn't even walk me out to. Like the car, they didn't even make sure like the car seat was in right. They were just like hey, we trust you Go.
Speaker 1:And then, as a parent, you really quickly find out that your parents didn't really have all the answers throughout life. They were just really, really good at faking it. They were just really good at going. Hey, we just got to figure out. As it comes up Like we don't know, like a preset answer. That's really called humility. See, what Paul is about to do in this verse and we're about to see it is he's going to give correction, he's going to tell the church in Rome hey, there's something you need to do, there's something you're not doing correctly and correct right now. But he doesn't do that from a position of power. See, a lot of times, especially like when we start thinking through, like leadership, and we start thinking through like all of these different things, we as people want to think and act from a position of power. How do I know this? It's been my whole life.
Speaker 1:The thing about anyone in here like I was bullied a lot growing up, like a whole lot. Like I was a super small, like I kind of like look like the runt, you know, I know like I don't look small anymore, but hey, food catches up with you and gravity eventually wins. But when I was younger, I was super, super small and I used to get bullied a lot and I always remember going like if I could just be bigger, like. My brother was like literally three times my size, and I just remember going. If I could just be bigger than him, I learned to be faster, but I went. If I could just be bigger, I could have the power to stop him from bullying me. And it wasn't until I got older and it wasn't until I started working out and it wasn't until I started taking all of that stuff seriously that I got to a point where I was bigger Not bigger, but like stronger.
Speaker 1:But now I have the power in this Right, feeling like He-Man. No one in here gets that. Okay, some of y'all had a bad time in the 80s, right by the power of gray skull. Anyway, we think that having that power puts us in a position of control. When I was a cop, one of the first things they told you like when you hire on is this there are only two kinds of people that become cops those who were bullied and those who are bullies. Don't be either one, because you think that now you have a badge, that you have this power and you have this control, but you really don't Think about it.
Speaker 1:And I'm just going to use Kevin as an example. Kevin used to be a corrections officer. That's a job I could never do, because you want me to go inside the prison, like, where there's like a 100 to 1 ratio. Well, what happens if something happens? At that point, I don't care how bad you are, unless your name is John Rambo, your ratio is not going to be 100 to 1. See, we think power and control and position are what's important.
Speaker 1:But what Paul is trying to get us to see here is that he understands. Jesus came to show that if you want to be first, you must be last, that if you want to lead, you must first serve. See, jesus flips everything around on his head by doing everything in humility, sitting here, going. Yeah, I'm the one who spoke the universe into existence, I'm the one that has the power to create, but yet I still came and chose to lay down my life. I chose not to be served but to serve. I chose to be humble. In fact, in Philippians, paul would say this that Jesus chose to empty himself out and become obedient, even to the point of death on a cross.
Speaker 1:How many of us like and you don't have to raise your hand, because I know you don't like admitting like you're a sinner, but how many of us have seen like Bruce or Evan Almighty Okay, a couple of us. You shook your head. How many of us like if we were and I'm just gonna talk about bruce almighty like if you had the power cosmic, our lives would be really good, right, just like bruce did. Like, theologically speaking, the movie isn't as wrong as some of us think it would. Be like if god bestowed his power upon you, your life would look amazing. I have no doubt about it. And you might even be like benevolent, like he was, you know, when he like hit, reply yes to all on the email prayer request that he was getting. And then the world just goes into chaos because sometimes you got to say no See, sometimes, like we have to understand that would be us, because Jesus didn't come and do it that way. Jesus went.
Speaker 1:No, humility is where it is at, and all we have to do is just listen to these other verses In James 4, 6,. The Bible tells us but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. It doesn't say that God like looks down on the proud, like understand what the Bible just told us. God opposes the proud. What happens when you oppose someone. That's a fight. Like literally, it is sitting here and going. Do you want God to fight with you? Operate in pride, you know why? Because that's the same thing Lucifer does Like. Understand that right there.
Speaker 1:Being prideful, being selfish, that is the center of every sin you could possibly commit. Think about it. Jesus says the greatest two commandments love God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, and love others the way that you love you. Both of those commandments cause us to look outside of ourselves and look to the needs of others. You cannot be selfish and do these two things. They are incompatible with each other. However, when you just think about yourself, you know what happens Fights. Think about it even in your marriage, like when you become the center of your marriage. What do you and your spouse do? Fight? Gabby kind of shocks me. You answered that that quick. Is this what you see at home? Like, if I sit here and just put myself at the center of anything, it's going to cause fights. Why? Because God opposes the proud.
Speaker 1:In Luke 14, 11, jesus says this for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. It doesn't say might be. It says will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted, will be exalted Like think about this Like Jesus is like sitting here talking about go ahead and exalt yourself and I will show you that you don't stack up to me.
Speaker 1:This was me all day as a cop, because I remember what it's like to go home from school and cry, because I know what it's like to sit here and go. I'm never going to be enough. I was the one that was bullied, and so I took great joy in going to a call where some man uses his size to intimidate, say, his wife, or to fight with a smaller person, because everyone's hard until you have like seven armed people in front of you. All of a sudden, you're not as massive and manly as you think you are, and that is what Jesus is trying. That's just an illustration. I'm not comparing myself to Jesus, but that's what Jesus is showing here.
Speaker 1:Exalt yourself, think that you're something that you're not, and I will humble you Because you may be all that in a bag of chips to you, but in comparison to Jesus last time I checked none of us can say let there be anything. Us can say let there be anything. I can't even say let my toe be healed and finally, I'm perfect and that's my own body, but yet Jesus can go. Let there be light, something that he had to himself invent, and it was In Proverbs 22, 4,. It says this the reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. The reward for humility, like there's a reward for it. See, that's our problem. Right, I'll tell you right now.
Speaker 1:You get a group of middle and high schoolers together and you go all right, everybody grab your snack and a drink and line up. There's a fight right here by the door. Almost every time there's pushing, there's shoving, there's I'm first, get behind me. You cut all the things you could think of. No matter how many times I explain these young people, what difference does it make if you were the first one out the door, the last one? What are you gaining? A second and a half, like you really think it's that important? Think about when you're driving down the road. Yesterday we were driving out to Daytona and this car, like this Kia, came up from out of nowhere and I mean just like wah, wah, wah, wah. There are 10,000 motorcycles out there. You can't see them very well. When you're driving, you're going to wind up killing someone. And when we got off at the exit, guess who was right in front of us at the light? What did you gain? I'll even tell you another example, just like that.
Speaker 1:With cars I have a problem. I am very, very, very like competitive. So a couple weeks ago, we went to Kennedy Space Center for a field trip. Well, since we don't have our own bus yet, we have to take cars, and we were the last ones to leave the parking lot, and, in my mind, I went. I'm going to be the first one there, though, and you know what I was. But do you know how much fun it is like when you're pulling into the parking lot and everybody else is like you can see them in your rearview mirror. And you're pulling into the parking lot and everybody else is like you can see him in your rear view mirror, and you're like what did I gain? I put my whole family at risk. For what? Because no one got out and was like hey, you, you are an incredible driver. In fact, on the flip side, I had a couple of kids that were like you ran red lights, and I was like well, first of all, they were yellow when I entered the intersection.
Speaker 1:But that being said, listen to what Proverbs is saying. The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor in life. But there's a reward that comes with this and it has nothing to do with what we think. Second chronicles 7, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. And you want forgiveness, you want healing, you want our country to be better. Here's all we got to do.
Speaker 1:Humble ourselves, because when you humble yourself, you're sitting here going God, I ain't got this. I can't figure this out, I'm not smart enough for this. It's the opposite of going. I got this, and what Second Chronicles is showing us? Here is God, is sitting here going. Hey, just humble yourselves.
Speaker 1:There have been times that one of my children take a pick, get in trouble and as we're sitting there and we're talking, I go. You have no humility and therefore you are not going to grow at all from this situation. That's what causes growth. When you can sit here and go, I messed up. When you can sit here and go, I messed up. When we can't do that, all we're going to do is repeat the situation over and over and, over and over again. That's why God is sitting here, going.
Speaker 1:If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and go look God, we can't do this, we're never going to get it right. We need you, then I will forgive them and heal their land. And lastly, we're going to look at 1 Peter, 5, 5 through 6. Likewise, this one actually might be a verse for tomorrow at school. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to your elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that, at the proper time, he may exalt you. Like Peter is sitting here going. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Think about this what could God do with his hand to you? You want to talk about a thunderclap to you? You want to talk about a thunderclap? Imagine the creator of the universe slapping you across the face, like if he holds all things. Like you guys remember that song right, he's got the whole world in his hands. Like if he holds the whole world in his hands. What is a slap going to do to you?
Speaker 1:We were in academy yesterday, just because you know, anytime you get two guys together, you got to do this. Hey, how much can you lift? And we walked by the dumbbell. This might be why it hurts. We walked by the dumbbell rack and JT's looking at me and he's like Daddy, you think you can do 50? It's like, give me that. And of course, we both do 50, so what's the next logical step? We've got to go up. One of us has to get to muscle failure. One of us has to be stronger. So we can look at the other one and go you're weak, like one of us has to do this right, you don't even have a choice at this point. And y'all will be happy that even in my old age, I can still do more. And y'all will be happy that even in my old age, I can still do more. But, that being said, with as strong as I may be in it, I'm no match for the mighty hand of God. Like, not even close.
Speaker 1:And seeing what Peter is saying is the same thing. Know who you are, know your role. See, you want to know the biggest barrier to your spiritual growth. It's super easy. It's one phrase. I got this Because the minute you think you're good. You stop growing the minute you go. I got all the answers. You stop growing.
Speaker 1:I spent a lot of money and a lot of time to learn how to study the Bible and I have a lot of degrees and I have yet to get to that point where I go. Oh, I have all the answers. It is an inexhaustible well. I will never get to the point where I can look at God and go. I got this. I know how to react in every situation. I'll never get to the point where I'm like I am strong enough to conquer my own flesh and my own temptation. I will never get to the point where I go God, I don't need you, and that is what Paul is starting with here.
Speaker 1:For by the grace given to me because I realized it was grace given to me, it wasn't me earning God's favor I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. In other words, be honest with yourself. This is one of the biggest things we struggle with, right, just being honest with ourselves about who we are, because every single one of us has a mental picture of who we are and your mental picture. I'm going to go ahead and describe everyone's in one shot. Your mental picture is one or two things. You are either like amazing and awesome, or you have degraded yourself to something that you don't even want. That's where we all line up.
Speaker 1:There's a show that I've never even actually seen. The show I've only seen like commercials of the show, but I've never understood it. It's called my 600-lb Life. Okay, and it's about these people who, I guess, like just are 600 pounds, like just judging by the title. Like I said, I've never actually seen the show, but something I've never understood and something I've never been able to wrap my head around was this how did you let yourself get to 600 pounds? Like, how did that happen? Like, how, never in your life.
Speaker 1:Like, when you stepped on a scale and it went okay, you're at 300, did you not go, okay, I need to start making some lifestyle changes? Like I am reaching an unhealthy weight? Like how did you not have anyone in your life that came up to you and went, hey, look, man, you might want to see a doctor. You might want to go talk to a nutritionist. You might want to change your diet up. You may want to start exercising. Like you want to work out, buddy, like I can work out with you. Like, how did no one in your life come up and go? Hey, look like you are going down the wrong road. How did no one love these people enough to go? Hey, this is going to be bad for you. Like I've never been able to understand that. Like, how you got to that point Because, let's be honest, it didn't happen like fell asleep tonight and tomorrow.
Speaker 1:You need like help getting out of bed. I was trying to think of something. Yes, all I was getting were like movie clips in my mind and none of them were appropriate. But yet that is what Paul is sitting here saying Be honest with yourself. Like I'll tell you right now and again I will talk about my own self, because in my mental picture, I'm still that 18 year old that Debbie married or not, married at 18, but definitely went. Hey, married at 18, but definitely went. Hey, that's who I want to date.
Speaker 1:My abs are still just as shredded today as that 18-year-old who was like at the gym for four hours a day. Like my bench press is still so high that, like I could literally bench a car off of me. If I needed to, like, I sit here and go. The problem is our dryer. The dryer is what keeps shrinking my clothes. My body isn't like being bigger. It's the dryer is making my clothes smaller when, if I was honest with myself, I would go you know what? I could do a better job of dieting. I could have some more willpower and go, hey, you know what? No, I'm not going to intake as much sugar as I possibly can throughout the day. I could, if I had a little more discipline. Go, hey, you know what I am going to exercise. That would be being honest with myself, going, hey, I have some work I need to get going on.
Speaker 1:Part of my problem is the other. Honest with myself is this I'm already married. What do I need to attract another mate for? You guys? Right, like one man, one woman, one lifetime. I'm good. I don't have to win any other competitions. That'd be stuck with what you got. That would actually be more honest, because that is where my mindset is.
Speaker 1:But see what Paul is driving at here. Is he's sitting here going? Be honest with yourself, because some of us in this room we need to understand we're not as close to Jesus as we think we are. We're not sitting here going. I got this the way we think we do. Some of us are further from Jesus than we ever have been in our lives and yet we're sitting here going. I'm just fine.
Speaker 1:Some of us don't read our Bibles. Some of us don't do the things Jesus left us to do, like something that's been weighing on my mind as the pastor of this church is sitting here going. Should we? How should we proceed with communion? Because I know it's been a minute since we've done it. So we went from doing it every week to once a quarter. Why, like? Those are things I wrestle with as the pastor. Is this something that I need to be hitting back into?
Speaker 1:Where are my shortcomings spiritually? Because, if we were honest with ourselves, that matters more than all of the other things we need to be honest with, because how I see Jesus and what I believe about Jesus is going to impact every single area of my life. How I interact with my spouse is because of how I see Jesus. How I parent my children is because of how I see Jesus. How I interact with coworkers is how I see Jesus, and some of us are spiritually bankrupt. Some of us don't do the things Jesus commanded us to do, like evangelism, heaven forbid. I have a conversation with someone else about Jesus.
Speaker 1:Some of us in this room have yet to be baptized. Why Not saying that baptism is what gets you into heaven, but Jesus did command us to be baptized? Why Not saying that baptism is what gets you into heaven, but Jesus did command us to be baptized and to baptize others? Some of us have a hard time showing up regularly. Some of us sit here and go hey, I don't need to serve, I don't need to share, I don't need to live my life on any kind of mission. I'm good.
Speaker 1:I know a couple of Bible verses, and what Paul is telling his readers here is you should not be thinking you are crushing it. You need to be honest with who you are. And then he goes on to say what if he goes on to finish out the verse that says this according to the faith assigned to us, so we start putting our belief in action. That's what he means. See, a lot of us, we. We have a misunderstanding about this word faith. So in verses like this, we see that word faith and we go well, I believe in Jesus. That's not what that word faith means, though, the demons believe who Jesus is. When the man at the tombs when Jesus shows up to the man at the tombs who is possessed by a legion of demons, the first word out the demon's mouth is what do you have to do with us, son of the most high? The demons know who Jesus is. That word faith isn't simply sitting here going hey, I believe these facts are true. That word faith is sitting here going. Because I believe these facts are true, I'm going to put that belief into action. So when Paul says, with the faith assigned to us, he's not sitting here talking about, hey, the fact that you believe in Jesus. In fact, he's about to launch into remember I told you guys at the beginning, next week's going to start getting a little bit crazy with all the spiritual gifts. That's what he's about to launch into.
Speaker 1:So when he's talking about the faith assigned to us, what he's talking about is this is you were created on purpose and with a purpose. On purpose and with a purpose, each and every one of you. Now, I've never been into the prosperity gospel and stuff like that, so I don't mean that in this way. What I do mean is each and every one of you in this room, from the smallest ones over here to the oldest one over here were created on purpose and with a purpose. You were given gifts for one reason and one reason only to glorify and make much of God. You have special things inside of you that other people don't have Like, for example and I don't normally do this because it's not about us and what we bring to the table, it's about Jesus and what Jesus has given us at the table but like Kayla coming up here and singing, filling in where there is a need that needs to be filled. That is what Paul is talking about when he talks about the faith assigned to us. It's Kayla sitting here and going hey, daddy, I don't like just singing off of YouTube. Can I sing Sunday? Absolutely sweetheart, absolutely sweetheart. That's what it is. It's sitting here, going hey, I know I have a role to fill in this. See, the faith Paul is referring to here is action, and again, we're going to get into a lot more of that in the next coming months. And I said that right.
Speaker 1:Paul is saying here today that God designed you on purpose and with a purpose, that we have to stop being consumers only and start producing actual fruit. That's the key there. Because if you were a farmer and I know all of us in here are like really up to like our farming understandabilities right, but let's say you're a farmer here in Florida, you grow orange trees and you got your little plot of land, you got 40 acres and a mule, and you go through and you plant orange trees on all this property and those oranges never, ever, ever produce an orange. Are you just going to keep farming that land forever and ever and ever? Or at some point are you going to go? Hey, if I want to eat, I have to have something to sell at the market so that I can get food to buy other things. If I want to live in this house, I have to have something that I'm bringing to it so that I can pay for my rent or mortgage.
Speaker 1:See, some of us. We got this whole vineyard of trees and gifts in our lives and none of it is producing fruit. And Jesus says this any tree that does not produce fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. You can be the most talented person in the world, but if you are not producing the fruit that comes with that gifting, you will be cut down and thrown into the fire and one day you're gonna have to stand before God and answer for what you have done with the gifts that God has given to you.
Speaker 1:And that should scare some of us, because in Psalm 139, the Bible tells us this for you formed my inward parts. This is David talking to God. For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me when yet none of them were Some of us.
Speaker 1:You got this on a t-shirt right, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Understand, here's what that means. I have no excuse when I stand before Jesus and go. Hey, here's why I didn't do anything with the gifting you have given me, because I was fearfully and wonderfully made. That's not to boost you up. That's not to make you sit here and go. I'm valuable. Here's how you know you're valuable. You ready In his image. He created them, male and female. He created them. That's how you know you're valuable, because you were made to show all of creation the glory of God, because you were made in the image of God and not like everything else in creation. Sitting here, going I'm fearfully and wonderfully made is admitting that God gave you some things to do, that some of you in this room have giftings that you are not doing anything with and, like I said, we're going to spend the next couple of months going over a lot of these giftings. But I'm going to go ahead and give you a spoiler warning now None of them are better than the other, for a hand cannot tell a foot. I am better than you.
Speaker 1:If you've ever woken up and you feel like you broke your toe at some point in night because you were just sleeping, you realize how important your foot is. You ever I don't know about you, but I'm a nail biter. You ever bite your nail too low. You realize how important your hand is when you can't grab things anymore, because every time you do it hurts, because you bit off all of the like protective tissue there. You ever bit your tongue while you're eating. You realize how important your tongue is. You start to realize at different points throughout your life that all your body parts are important, just in different ways. It's the same thing. That's why Paul uses that metaphor in 1 Corinthians, 12.
Speaker 1:Because, understand, in order for the church to be healthy, in order for the church to do the mission that god left, or jesus left behind for it to do, all the members have to work together. Because I can't do everything, I will be humble enough to tell you I cannot sing. Now, if we needed me to come up here and sing, do you think I would have a problem doing it? No, not at all. Do I think you're going to stand in here and listen to it? No, not at all. I think that's when, all of a sudden, it's like, oh, we're going to be late comes into play. Just going to get through the singing part. Another thing I can't do I'll go ahead and tell you I'm not the one you want, standing at the front door going, hey, good morning.
Speaker 1:I am incredibly introverted. I know it may not seem it because I'm up here all the time, but this is easy because you don't say anything back to me. But I don't like like inside. It just goes crazy when I have to, like, have small talk with someone that I don't know. And then here comes the catch-22, because how are you gonna know them if you never have small talk with them? Like again, like field trips, I'll tell you right now, parents like especially if I don't even teach their kid, like they just have elementary age kids and they come up and they're talking to me and it's like, oh, debbie told me. And I'm like, yes, yes, go talk to Debbie, because she'll tell you all the things she loves talking. I will just do that awkward yeah, and just make it through the conversation until there's a good break and then go all right, I gotta go. Someone's calling me over here and then just walk away. So I'm not the one that you want at the door. Debbie is, but yet she never goes over there. She always leaves me to go do it right, because everyone wants to talk to the pastor.
Speaker 1:And I go look here, here's the deal we have to start going. I'm honest with myself. I'm not going to think more highly of myself. Here is my gifting and here is how my gifting is going to glorify God and bring work to the mission that Jesus has left his church. You were created on purpose, with a purpose, and you need to start living in faith for that purpose in your life. See, faith is taking those things and actually doing them for the glory of God, and understand this. If you're not doing that, what Paul is stressing right now is it's just as bad as living in open sin, like if you're just sitting here being a consumer. Understand you're not producing fruit. Jesus has already told you. You get cut down and thrown into the fire.
Speaker 1:The church was never meant to be an entertainment, ever. Yes, I get it. Sometimes we can make jokes and we can laugh, and sometimes, like, the singing is phenomenal and sometime maybe we'll even dim the lights and set the mood right, create the atmosphere, whatever it is you want to word it. But understand the church was never meant for you entertained. Here's why God, or Jesus, gave us the church To equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. You were supposed to come in here to be trained up, to go out there and actually do the work that Jesus has given us to do to seek and save what is lost. That's why we gather, that's why before and so, just so you guys all know, we'll be in the book of Romans until November. The week before Thanksgiving is my last message in the book of Romans. Now what that means and for some of you, you've only heard me preach through Romans what that means is we'll spend almost two and a half years studying the book of Romans, 16 chapters. You know why we spend that much time doing that? Because that's what we're called to do here.
Speaker 1:We come in here to understand that, so that we may go out there and do what Jesus has actually put in front of us, to do Things like feeding the hungry. Like that's why, in the announcements, I was like hey, guys, we need food, we need things to be able to pass out to the people that don't have any food. We're good on clothes. Like we crushed that within like the first two weeks, we started taking donations. Like we're at the point now where the sharing center is sitting here going hey, could you please tell people to stop bringing in clothes. We don't even have room to put it all. But what we need now is food, because, come next month, we're sitting here going okay, if you are hungry, you need something to eat, we have food for you. And this means that, like this is going to be an ongoing thing. It's not just a one and done kind of thing. You're at the store and you see buy one, get one, buy one for you, bring one up here. You're not even paying for it. At that point I go.
Speaker 1:What I'm trying to get you to understand, though, is the Bible is deadly serious about sitting here going. You need to have faith, which means you need to be doing. If you are not doing, if you are not conforming more to the image of Jesus. Listen to me very carefully. You do not know Jesus and you are lost. You are on your way to hell, and I am here to tell you there will be a lot of Christians in hell. There'll be a lot of wet baptized Christians in hell Because they are not putting faith into what they're doing. They're just going along for the ride, consuming. So, as we close today, I urge you, do not think more highly of yourselves than you ought to.
Speaker 1:Paul is stressing in this passage that we do not conform and if we are not transformed by the renewing of our minds, if we want to do the will of God, being humble and using our gifts to bring glory to Jesus, that is a natural outpouring. So it isn't something we have to force ourselves to do, it is something we will naturally do. I will tell you right now when I help people do stuff like when people come to me and they're like, hey, can you help me, whatever? Very, very, very seldom am I forcing myself to do that. In fact, on the flip side, if I tell you no, it tears me up inside, like there have been times we have literally moved plans around because I went. I feel bad that I can't go help. That's just a natural overflow, and I don't say that to put myself up on a pedestal. That's just a natural overflow of I know that Jesus went. I came to serve.
Speaker 1:So what is it this week that you are going to do to start using your gifts to produce fruit and stop just consuming?
Speaker 1:How are you going to advance the kingdom of God with what God has given to you? Father, I thank you so much for each and every person in here and I ask and I pray, father, that as we get ready to close this service, that we understand it is with humility that we serve, it is with humility that we are honest with ourselves and it is with humility that we sit here and go. We need to be you in our community. That Father, when we did not do it for the least of these, we did not do it for you. So I pray, father, that we start putting our faith into action. I pray, father, that we stop just being consumers and that we start being doers. I pray, father, that, with the grace assigned to me, father, that with the grace assigned to me, that, with the grace assigned to me, I can use the gifting that you have given me in each and every one of us in here. Father, we pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen.