Grace Community

Well, we'll look forward to next Sunday for our missions, Sunday, hearing Steve McCullough and also watching the full length of this presentation. I can't see you guys. We're doing this to keep everything cool. OK.

OK, Romans 12, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Romans 12. This morning And actually, I was gonna share an encouragement with you guys. I found online this week, someone online wrote a review of Cornerstone. who had visited Cornerstone.

And, and it, it goes like this, after not having really attended a church in a few years, I found this visit to be a positive one. I was reluctant, but ended up enjoying it. On the outside, the church looks a bit spotty. But inside it looks really nice, beautiful interior, and the people are friendly in a non-scary way.

So I wanted to thank you and commend you for, being part of the beauty of Cornerstone and for being friendly in a non-scary way. Romans chapter 12, in a nutshell, just summarizing, we, we spent about a year and a half studying Romans 5 through 8, learning of the glories of the gospel that, that belong to us in Christ. We are sinners, we don't deserve salvation, but we came to Jesus, confessed our sins and our need for a Savior, and God saved us and And forgave us of our sins and made us His children.

And we learn about the blessed, glorious realities that belong to us as believers in Jesus in Romans 567, and 8, and we've studied that, but what we are doing now is asking the question, what then shall we do, both by way of, responding to these blessings in Christ, but also what then shall we do?

by way of unleashing these realities in their fullness in our lives to uncage the gospel, as it were, so that we can walk in the fullness of Christ. And we're providing many answers to that question as we're going through the rest of the book of Romans, and we're going to add to that list this morning. What then shall we do today, one of the things we're gonna learn to do is to do commerce with the grace of God. This grace that we've learned about belongs to us in Jesus.

one of the things we ought to do in response to this grace is learn to do commerce with the grace of God. Now, you may not, understand fully what that means at this point. Hopefully it'll become clear as we go along, this morning. But just a quick example, this right here is a crinkly $1 bill.

It's currency. And someday soon, I'm going to do commerce with this dollar. I'm going to go to somebody and I'm going to give this to them. And I'm going to expect something in return from them for my heaven, having given them this dollar.

And it's not an exact parallel, but the money that we have, we do commerce, we engage in business, and we make use of and we benefit from the currency that we possess. And there's a real sense in which this grace that God has given to us, we relish it, we're thankful that we have this grace. But part of what we're going to observe this morning is that God is saying to us, this grace is currency. It is a commodity, and you make use of this currency and, and receive the benefits of this grace in community with your brothers and sisters in Christ in the church.

And so if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it is grace, community. Grace Community. When I was in seminary, my wife and I attended a church that was called Grace Community Church, and we would often just refer to it as Grace Community. And actually, that's a fitting description of every church composed of people who know Jesus Christ.

We are a grace community and Paul's gonna show us how we can really live out that identity in our passage this morning. Let me begin reading in verse 3 of Romans 12. Paul says, for through the grace, that's the first time that we're going to see the word grace in this passage, but it's not the last through the car. is the Greek word for grace given to me, I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

And we've understood faith as speaking of the full package of all that is needed for life and godliness. And what Paul is saying is that God doesn't give that full package to every single believer. What God does is he takes that full package of all that we need for life and godliness. He divides it up, and he apportions it out, and he gives to every single believer a measure of that package.

So everyone gets a piece of that package. But Paul is saying, That everyone has, each person has only a measure of that package. And the rest of what we need for life and godliness, God has deposited that inside of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And you may say, well, God, I thought you were going to give me everything I need for life and godliness.

And his answer is, I have, I've given some of that directly to you. And the rest of it, I have deposited inside of your brothers and sisters. And now I give them to you. And if you really want to walk in the fullness of all that I've given to you in Christ, you need to live in community.

With them. Paul then says in verse 4, for just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same functions, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members, one of another. God does not in our physical bodies give to any organ in our body full capacity to carry out absolutely every function. He doesn't do that.

He apportions that out and all of the parts of our body doing what only they as an individual part can do, create a wonderfully complex cohesive whole. And there is a bodily unity that we see in our physical bodies, not in spite of the diversity of the parts of our body, but because of that diversity. Paul then comes into our passage for today. And he says, and since we have gifts, and this is the Greek word charisma from the same root charis as the word grace in verse 3 and throughout the rest of the book of Romans, as we saw it, especially in Romans 5, God is, our sense we have charismas.

All of us in one sense are charismatic Christians. because we all have received charismas or little graces is the idea. Little grace deposits and expressions God has given to us. And Paul says, and since we have charismas that differ according to the chorus, and there's another occasion where we see this root word given to us, let each exercise them accordingly.

If prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality or generosity, he who leads with diligence, and he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. What I want to do with the time that we have this morning is to look at 4 truths in this passage that, that I think will help us. to enter more deeply into the experience of the grace of God in community with one another.

I went a little bit over time in the first service for just for the sake of time, let me just skip to this passage.

we've learned a lot about the grace of God up to this point of the book of Romans. But one of the most stunning passages to me is Romans 5:17, where Paul says much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, that's the word justification, that's God saying, I'm gonna always think of you as righteous and forgiven. And so Paul is saying that we have received an abundance of grace and of righteousness. And we therefore will reign, we reign, and this is the word that means to reign as a king.

We will live as royalty, and the treasury from which we draw. As we seek to live and reign as kings in Jesus is from the treasury of grace, and the treasury of the gift of righteousness that is found in Jesus. We observe in Romans 5:17 that this grace of God, is not some static thing that we just, OK, we have it, but there's nothing to do with it. But hey, we're glad we have it.

No, this is a currency, this is the treasury from which we draw as we reign as kings. You see what Paul is saying there in Romans 5:17, God's will for you is that you reign. And can you look back over this past week, and if someone said, hey, how was your week this past week? How many of us could say, what, by the grace of God, I rained.

I rained. I don't know that many of us could, could say that, but that's, that's the heart of God. He's like, I want this for you. And so I give you this treasury of grace and of righteousness, so that you can learn to do commerce with that and actually begin more and more to live a life of reigning as a king and Jesus living like the royalty that You are.

Well, what our passage today does in Romans 12, is it gives us a clear picture of what that treasury looks like, how it's set up, and where to go to find those deposits of grace, those treasures of grace so that we can walk in the fullness of what God has for us. And 4 truths that are found in this passage will help us to discover that and experience. In God's grace in community with one another. Truth number 1, we each have graces that are given to us.

Don't want to spend a lot of time on this point. But that's pretty clear. Verse 3, God is allotted to each a measure of the faith, everyone gets something. To contribute.

Verse 6, we have gifts or graces, little graces according to the grace given to us. Every one of us have received spiritual gifts, or little graces or charismas that we can make use of to be a blessing and a benefit to our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And I can honestly look at every one of my brothers and sisters in Christ. No matter how young they are in the Lord, no matter how imperfect they are, and know that God has put something in them for me, that I might experience His grace more deeply.

We each have graces given to us. That's how the treasury is set up. God deposits some of his grace into everyone. Number 2, the graces that we have been given are different from one another.

We all have received God's grace, capital G, the big grace, and that's the same for all of us. But these little graces, these expressions of grace, these manifestations, deposits of practical grace are different. No two of us are gifted exactly alike with these little graces of God. When Paul says that our gifts or our charismas differ, what does he mean by that?

it means that our giftedness differs in category. In fact, later he's gonna give seven categories of giftedness, prophecy and service and the gift of teaching and exhortation and giving and leadership and mercy. I believe it's all of them. Those are categories of giftedness and And so we differ in terms of those categories of graces that God gives to us.

Someone may have the gift of teaching and another person is in possession of the gift of service or of mercy. But also our giftedness, differs in, in levels. We may have 20 people in this church that have the gift of service, but that doesn't mean that all 20 of them are equally gifted. In that particular category of giftedness.

We also differ in the combinations of the gifts that God has given to us. it's not like there's nowhere in Scripture where it's indicated that God gives us one gift and only one. You get one gift from me and don't ask for any more. No, there's every indication, even from practical experience in scripture that God actually blesses all of us with several categories of, of grace or, or giftedness.

We all possess giftedness in various combinations. Someone may be exceptionally gifted in the area of teaching and, and modestly gifted in the area of exhortation, but this brother over here may be exceptionally gifted with exhortation and modestly gifted with the gift of teaching. So our combinations of giftedness, in fact, I, I think that to one degree or another, we all possess all of the gifts. but then some of those gifts are more prominent than, than others.

Also, our giftedness differs in the manner given., some people, the, the giftedness they have as believers in Christ is very consistent with what everyone observed about them even before they came to know the Lord. They were a people person, they love serving other people. And they're believers in Jesus now, and that's, you really see that gift come to its fullest expression in Jesus Christ. And then there are times where I think there would be a number of people in this congregation who could testify to this, where you found yourself in a situation that is way out of your comfort zone, way out of any area where you ever dreamed that you were gifted.

But someone needed to step up and do something in this crisis situation or whatever. And you stepped up and trusted God. And in that moment, a giftedness came upon you to do what you otherwise would have never been able to do. And after that moment was over, you look back and say, I don't have a clue how I did that.

God showed up. And clearly, God gave you a gift in that moment, according to the need. that needed to be addressed. And so that gift, you may look back on your life and say, what, I know in that moment, I possess that gift.

The giftedness we have. differs in its durations. there are people who in one season of their life, a particular gift is prominent. In another season of their life where different things are required of them, their giftedness is altered by God's design, and other gifts become more prominent and are expressed more.

Our gifts differ in opportunities to give expression to our giftedness. You may have two people equally gifted with the gift of teaching, and yet in one person's life, the way that God providentially opens doors and provides opportunities, there's a wider opportunity for ministering that gift to a greater number of people than maybe this brother over here who's equally gifted. And that's all in the providence of God, and even our giftedness differs in manners of expression., let's say that Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Amos, and Daniel, and Elijah all had the gift of prophecy.

Is that safe?

but as you read what they wrote and hear what they spoke in the Old Testament, you see how different these men are, as they give expression to their giftedness that God had given to them. the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, the apostle John, they all had the gift of apostleship. But as you read their writings, you see that they spoke differently, they emoted differently, they, you, you see the differences in their personalities and ways of thinking and so they all had the gift of apostleship.

And yet the way they gave expression to that giftedness was different.

And so when you read Paul saying that, we have gifts that differ, don't just think, OK, there's 7 categories of, of giftedness and there's differences in those categories. When you look at all of the ways that there are differences, you realize that there's thousands of shades and hues of differences amongst us when it comes to our giftedness. So we each have graces that are given to us, the graces we've been given are different from one another by God's divine design. And the third truth that we can observe in this passage that will help us to enter more deeply into the experience of God's grace in community with one another, is that the different graces or the different gifts that we each have and don't have, guess what, is determined by grace.

When you read this verse, it actually seems somewhat redundant. But Paul is actually making a profound point. In Romans 12:6, Paul says, and since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. The idea is, since we have little gifts, little graces that differ according to the big grace that is given to us, God has given to all of us the big grace.

And it is this grace that dictates what our giftedness is, and what it is not. And the ramifications of that are huge. Let's say it this way. This will help us to think about where we're gifted and where we're not, and how that's all an expression of grace.

It is grace that determines who gets what spiritual gifts, meaning that the gifts you have are determined by the grace of God. It also means that the gifts you don't have, in other words, your deficits are also determined by the grace of God. We often read this passage in Romans 12, and it's like, oh, it's about spiritual gifts and hmm I wonder what my spiritual gifts are, and what do you think your spiritual gifts are? And that's great.

But we also should be led by a passage like this to ponder, I wonder what my deficits are. what gifts do I not have within myself? What are my, what are my deficits? What are your deficits?

Because both the gifts we have and the gifts we don't have, the gifts God gives us, and our deficits are all an expression of the grace of God, even your deficits are left in you, allowed to exist in you as an expression of God's grace, just as much as your gifts are an expression of God's grace. Let's say it this way. What gifts you have are an expression of God's grace, what gifts you lack are an expression of God's grace. If God does not give to you a particular gift, then he withheld that gift from you because there is a gracious work he wants to do in you through the absence of that gift in you and the presence of that particular gift and some other person whose ministry you now require.

There is a special grace of God that you will experience as your life comes together with that other person's as they, that other person ministers their giftedness to you. It's those deficits in you, that help you to see your need for others that drive you into community with others. And now they're exercising their giftedness towards you. You're experiencing God's grace through them.

When you, when you realize this, folks, you, you begin to get in a frame of mind where you start to celebrate your deficits. both the gifts that you don't possess and you begin to realize the gifts I don't have are an expression of God's grace. Also, guys, we find ourselves in circumstances that expose our deficits and that cause us to require the ministry. Of, of other people.

Maybe you're going through some trial and you realize I can't go through this alone and it exposes deficits, some heartbreaking issue in your life, and it just causes you to reach out and to ask for prayer and to benefit from the encouragement and the giftedness of other people. maybe there's a sin struggle that you have. Some of you, when you got saved, there were certain sin struggles that immediately went away, and then some remained. And that really bugs you.

Why did these other ones seem to go away? And yet this struggle here remains. You need to realize that God in His providence, in His grace, allowed that to remain as an expression of His grace because God wants that deficit to drive you into community with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And so whether it is marital difficulties, struggling with sin, Some tragedy, crisis that you are going through where you are faced with great and deep need, these are allowed by God as an expression of His grace to drive you.

In the community with others whose ministry you now require. Maybe you find yourself involved in ministry and you realize I can't do this by myself, that's by God's design. The apostle Paul was an apostle, incredibly gifted by, by God. He went on missionary journeys, but what, he didn't say, hey, I'm an apostle.

I'm an exceptionally gifted man. I'm gonna go out on my own and I can do this. No, he took Barnabas and, and Silas and Luke and John Mark and other traveling companions he took with him wherever he went because he needed them with him. And Paul frequently in his epistles is celebrating how God is using those comrades in ministry to supply what is lacking in him and to be a blessing to him in doing the work of ministry.

With our soccer camp, coming up starting tomorrow. John Gator and others just took the bull by the horns and said we want to do this, but thank God they didn't say, just a few of them, what, we can handle this, we don't need anybody. No, they're like, we need other people and here's all the ways that we need other people, and it's been a real joy to see many people coming together of a variety of graces and giftedness to work together as a team. And, and so the giftedness that each possesses and the deficits, they're all made up for and all of that is an expression of the grace of God as we as a church can now minister to this community.

As a community. When you think about giftedness in this way, guys, it, it ought to change to a degree the vocabulary that we use. If you came to me with this in mind, I'm thinking about this, all right, and you ask me, Milton, what are your spiritual gifts? I can honestly reply to you by saying, what, I got them all.

I'm loaded. I've got every spiritual gift, prophecy, teaching, exhortation, service, and giving and leadership and mercy. I have got all the gifts. And you might respond by saying, well, that sounds boastful and proud, and I would say, actually it's not.

Yeah, I've got a few gifts inside of me, but as for the rest of the gifts, they're mine. I'll show you how. You see that brother over there who has the gift of exhortation? He's mine.

And the gift of exhortation inside of him, that's got my name on it. That person over there with the gift of teaching, he belongs to me, and his giftedness belongs to me. And we begin to see how that if we're living in community with one another, we each can honestly say I have all the gifts. Now, if you're living as a Lone Ranger, you don't have all the gifts, but in community with one another, you do.

This can alter the way we actually speak about our own spiritual gifts as well. You may say, Milton, what are your spiritual gifts and, and I know what you mean by that, but technically, whatever spiritual gifts I have inside of me, they're not mine. They belong to my brothers and sisters in Christ. Those gifts don't have my name on them.

They have the names of my brothers and sisters, and whatever giftedness you all possess belongs to me. We are common property in the Church of Jesus Christ and our giftedness belongs to the rest of the body. And so whatever gifts we possess and whatever gifts we don't possess are all an expression of the amazing grace of God for us. And so celebrate that there's a 4th truth that we can observe.

And, it's the final truth, and I'm saying the final truth to give you the impression that we're just about done, but actually this point has a lot inside of it, but again, we'll try to, to go at a good pace here. The, the grace that God has given to you and to me, these spiritual gifts, we each should exercise the graces that have been given to us. God didn't give you these little graces and put them inside of you. Just so they can sit there and not be used.

God put those inside of you, so that you would look at yourself in the mirror as it were, and say, what, by the grace of God, I've got something to contribute, and your giftedness drives you into community with others as you want to experience that satisfaction of blessing others with the gifts that God has given to you. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them. Accordingly. Those words, let each exercise them accordingly, are not in the Greek text, but virtually every English translation finds some way to convey this meaning.

They'll either say it right here or, or they will pack it in. along inside of each of the gifts that come a little bit later, but basically everyone understands Paul to be delivering some exhortation to put the gifts, the little graces. The charismas inside of us into operation. Paul then gives specific examples.

He says, if you've been given the grace of prophecy, exercise that grace according literally to the faith is the way that would best be rendered. And when Paul speaks of prophecy here, just as succinctly as possible, the word prophecy refers to the speaking forth of special revelation from God according to the need of a particular moment. Usually in the scripture, it's freshly given revelation from the Lord, according to the need of a given moment. Often it involved predictions being made of something that is to come, and that is the most central definition of prophecy, but I think that we can say that there are things that we do today.

That at least have kinship with prophecy. Whenever we are proclaiming God's word, God's written word is the prophetic word and so whenever we are reading, we are proclaiming and explaining the word of God, declaring it, we are declaring prophetic content, and we can say that that action perhaps belongs under the category that Paul is identifying. Here, it may not be prophesying in the strictest sense of the term, but it is a declaration of prophetic content. but Paul is saying, if God has given you the grace, the charisma of prophecy, then put that in operation and be one who communicates the mind of God.

The will of God, the word of God to others according to the need of the moment. It's interesting though that Paul says exercise this gift according to the faith or literally in correspondence with the faith, and the faith is referring to the body of doctrine that is taught by the apostles. In fact, one commentator says this must, the prophetic content anyone speaks must correspond to the rule of faith as proclaimed by the apostles and believed, confessed, and taught. In the churches.

There are people nowadays, and they're out there that are saying thus saith the Lord, and I've got a prophecy to deliver, and the stuff that's coming out of their mouth is directly contradictory to what the apostles taught. That's not a prophecy from the Lord. Anyone who is attempting to speak for God and represent Him needs to make sure that what they are saying is always corresponding to tethered to God's revelation in scripture. So it must be in correspondence with the faith.

Paul says, if you have the gift of prophecy, put it to work and exercise that gift. If God has given you the grace, Of service than exercise that gift by serving other people. The idea of serving here is, is just essentially discerning needs and then addressing those needs. Often, it has the idea of addressing physical, material needs, but it can even be used to refer to addressing spiritual needs that, That are observed.

So someone with the gift of service is someone who is just skilled at discerning needs that need to be met. Things that need to be done, and then they find pleasure in meeting those needs. Someone with a gift of service, they don't, they don't generally need to ask, like, is there anything I can do? Is there any way I can, I can serve.

They don't need to ask, they see it, they just have the, this eye to see ways that things need to be done and then they find pleasure in doing those things. Someone with this gift is not someone who would attend Cornerstone for a year and then come up to one of the pastors and say, I've been here for a year. There's just nothing to do. is there any ministry that you can give me?

Someone with this gift, they see everywhere things that need to be done, and they don't need to be asked to do it. They're the ones coming to you and asking, can I do this for you? In some ways, people like this freak me out. because they, they'll come up to you on a Sunday and they're like, hey, how's it going?

How are you doing? And you're like, oh, I'm doing fine, and, and they're just asking you questions, and you're answering and you don't think you're revealing anything to them. but they're just listening to what you say and what you don't say and how you say it, how you're not saying it, and they're reading between the lines, and you walk away from a five-minute encounter with a person like this, and you think you gave them nothing. No, no, no, they walked away with a list of ways that they can serve you.

It's amazing. And there have been people like this in our church body over the years that I've had a conversation like that with, and I didn't think I revealed anything, and the next day their vehicle was in front of our house and they were over addressing some need that somehow they were able to discern. This is one of the gifts that I just admire and the beauty of it when it is in fullest expression in someone's life and in the church is absolutely wonderful to behold. Someone with this gift doesn't want credit either, don't even mention my name.

Just let me serve. Let me serve. Paul says if this is your gift, then, then exercise it. He also says if you've been given the grace of teaching, exercise it by, by teaching.

He says he who teaches in his teaching. Now the word teaching in the New Testament generally means to instruct in doctrine and in practice. Nowadays, we kinda use the word teach to speak of the sharing of enlightening information. And yeah, that has kinship with teaching, but generally teaching in the New Testament was an authoritative act.

It's something that elders did. It's something that the apostles did, it's something that Jesus did. it's something that someone who is discipling another person does for the person he's discipling. It's not just sharing information, it's instructing a person in what to believe and in how to behave, how to tease out the ramifications of gospel reality and apply that to one's life.

And Paul is saying, if this is your spiritual gift that is prominent in you, then exercise that by teaching. You say, well, I, I can't teach, no one's given me a class or a Bible study to lead. You don't need that. Teach, find someone that you can disciple and take deeper into the faith.

Someone. less mature in the Lord and, and begin a relationship with them where they're blessing and benefiting you and you are also playing this role of bringing them along in their faith. If you have the gift of teaching, put it to work. Also, Paul says, if you've been given the grace of exhortation, exercise that by exhorting.

He who exhorts, In his exhortation. This word exhortation literally has the idea of coming alongside of someone and delivering whatever is appropriate to be said to that person from that position of a long-sightedness. So it's a relational ministry. You move towards a person, assume a position alongside of.

The not over them, where you're talking down at them, but alongside of them, and from that position of alongsightedness, you speak to them what they need to hear, whether they need comfort or encouragement. or challenge, or motivation, or to be roused from their spiritual apathy, or even rebuke. But even when a person with this gift is delivering a rebuke, There's a palpable feeling that that rebuke is being delivered in a brotherly way from that position of a long-sightedness.

Rather than down at a person.

People with this gift are very relational, friendly people. This is an amazing gift to behold in action of someone just moving towards another person, coming alongside of them, and, and they just have this boldness to, in a very personal way, say what needs to be said, by way of comfort or encouragement or Even rebuke when necessary. Paul says, if you've been given this grace, this charisma by God, then put it to work. Start moving alongside of your brothers and sisters and, and minister to them in this way.

Also, we learn in verse 8 that if you've been given the grace of giving, exercise that with generosity. And liberality. He who gives, Paul says, with liberality. People with this spiritual gift or people that are skilled at discerning needs.

they don't even need to be told. They can do math in their heads and just they, they can just, it's, it's a gift to be able to discern that someone has a need and then they are gifted at generating whatever provision is needed in order to address those needs and they find incredible joy in giving. When they're giving, like they're, they're never more happy than when they are being generous and giving to another person and This way. And don't think that you have to be a millionaire to have the gift of giving.

Some of the most incredible displays of giving that you'll ever see are from those who have little to give. My daughter was in Uganda a few years ago and They left the city and the people that she was hanging out with were just desperately poor compared to the way we live in America. Compared to what my daughters used to, and they said, we're gonna go out into this area in the country and and visit some people and, and they said, these people out here, they don't have much. And my daughter was like, you, you guys don't have anything and, and yet they're looking at these other people who had so little, it's like, well, they don't have much.

And when they went out to visit, they, they saw that a person needed a mattress. And this person just gave away his own mattress. He had nothing to give but that, and he gave it away. And experience great joy in, in giving.

So you don't have to have millions to have this gift. Whatever you have of your time, your resources, your talent, and, and, and income where need be and just addressing needs and finding joy in that. Paul says, put this gift to work and do it with generosity and thereby reveal the heart of God to your brothers and sisters. He goes on to say, if you've been given the grace or the gift of leadership, exercise that with diligence.

People with the gift of leadership, this word literally means to stand before. These are visionary people. They see a job that needs to get done, a service that needs to be rendered. They're able to think through what it takes to get that job done, to render that, that ministry or service.

People with this gift are the ones who can. Who can interact with other people and start identifying other people's giftedness. If you want to know what your spiritual gifts are, talk to someone with the gift of leadership. Hang out with them, and they'll tell you, usually what your gifts are.

And such a person is able to, to, to get people to work together towards that common purpose and to instill in each person the vision for the role that they are playing in the larger picture. And get things done. I admire this, this giftedness when I see it in other people and our church needs this giftedness. In our membership, and Paul says, if you have this gift, exercise it with diligence.

This word diligence is actually the word haste. Hurry up and put this giftedness to work. By the way, if I can say to our dads and husbands, According to First Timothy, if you are a husband and a dad, you are to be a manager of your household, and the word for managing your household is, is exactly this word, and God is the one who puts you in that position. And therefore, if God puts you in that position to manage, to lead your household, implied in that fact is the fact that God has gifted you to do that in your household.

So all of our men who are married men and have children, are gifted at some level to execute this and be the leaders that God has called them to be in their home. Well, there's a final. Challenge that he gives, and that is at the end of verse 8, if you've been given the grace of mercy, then exercise that with cheerfulness. To show mercy is this.

Someone with the gift of mercy is one who shows sympathy, brings help to those in suffering and sorrow in order to help lessen their dire need or to help sustain them and encourage them and comfort them in their time of crisis or dire need. Someone with the gift of mercy is able to feel and give expression to sympathy with another person in crisis. And in trouble, in trial, or in misery, and we all know people like this, and when there's a crisis and everyone's moving the other way, they're the person who moves towards the crisis.

Those are the cornerstone angels, and we have cornerstone angels here who when a crisis comes, tragedy strikes, they move towards that and exude a tremendous spirit of sympathy and compassion, and they just know.

What a person needs to hear and the needs that need to be. Addressed. It's interesting how Paul words this. He says, He who shows mercy, do it with cheerfulness.

This is the Greek word hilaritas, from which we get hilarity or hilarious. Now Paul's not saying do this with hilarity, but the idea does convey cheerfulness and gladness, and it seems like a contradiction, he's literally saying, show sympathy with those in misery, do that with gladness. But actually, we all know how this fits together, because often when a person like this is coming alongside of us and they're helping us in a time of crisis, we feel apologetic. And we're like, I'm so sorry to take you away from your family or to, to bring you inside of my burden, and what does a person with this giftedness say?

They say, what, I am I am pleasured to be here. I am honored to be here right beside you. In this time of difficulty, it makes me happy to be here with you. I want to be here.

That joy brings as much comfort. In time of crisis as anything else, Paul, this may not be an exhaustive list, although I think he's probably thinking of categories of giftedness, and you can take any other spiritual gift and fit it inside of one of these seven categories. But Paul says whatever gifts God has given you, put them into operation and get busy. Real quick, let me throw a couple of things at you.

You say, well, how do I know what my gifts are? Just a quick challenge. You want to know what your spiritual gifts are, get busy serving in any way you can. That's how to find out what your gifts are.

A day or two ago, I was watching Bob Costas interviewing Sir Roger Bannister who broke the 4 minute mile barrier, and Bob Costas asked Roger Bannister, when and how did you discover that you had the gift of running? And I love Roger Bannister's answer. Get your pens out and write this down. This is, this is how he discovered when he discovered he had the gift of running.

He said it was when I was running. They would be on the beach and he would just run and hit full stride and the pleasure that he felt. It was while running and he was like, what, I think I have a gift for this. So if you want to know what your gift is, don't, don't sit around and do nothing and just wait for some insight to hit you as to what your gift is.

Start running and start serving and you'll discover that. Also ask yourself, where do my burdens and my passions lie? What do I feel a burden for? What am I passionate about?

Often that's an indication of where your giftedness is. What are those things? That when you do them, those ministries, that when you engage in those ministries, you're like, oh, this is the sweet spot. This is, I was born to do this, and you feel fully alive when doing those things.

That's an indication of where your giftedness lies. And also ask other people. Ask other people who know you well how they think you might be gifted. And take what they say and consider it, and factor that in with everything else that we're talking about.

Guys, it's understanding these things, putting them into operation that enables us to really dig deep in the treasury of God's grace, that we might walk in the fullness of what God has provided for us in Jesus. Let me ask you to bow your heads. If you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, we're inviting you into the community of faith. We're no better than you.

We're no better than anybody else. If anything, we may be worse. But we have brought our sinful selves to Jesus, and asked him to be our Lord and Savior, and to forgive us, and to give us salvation. And what, Amazingly, he said, yes.

And we invite you to join us in looking to Jesus. As your Lord and Savior. For those of us that are believers, let's pray and ask God to help us to, to go deep and experiencing His grace. God, you've given us.

An abundant grace. This is a deep treasury, and I fear that That perhaps if we are guilty of anything. We are guilty of withdrawing too little from that treasury. There may be certain parts of that treasury that we dig deep and draw much from, but then there are other deposits of charisma in other locations, especially in our brothers and sisters in the Lord in this community of faith.

And we're not, we're not making use of that. And we're not playing our role. And being a part of the grace treasury of our own brothers and sisters that they might benefit from the deposits of grace you've put in us. God teach us and grow us and help us to learn how we can do community better.

I've got a million miles to go myself and so much to learn. The deficits are so great we need each other. May we celebrate our giftedness, may we celebrate our deficits, may we celebrate our need for each other and move towards one another in giving and receiving of this amazing grace. We'll give you all the glory, Lord.

Thank you for this opportunity to give our offerings to you. Receive these funds, Lord, and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. We ask these things in Christ's name. And all God's people said, Amen.