Use Your Gifts (Romans 12:3-8)
"Do you know your spiritual gifts?"
This question has been popular in evangelical Christianity throughout the past fifty years or so. And with good reason - the New Testament describes spiritual gifts as being one way that God provides for His people.
But how we talk about spiritual gifts in the church does not always match the beauty and fullness of what the New Testament describes. Too often they are reduced to an assessment inventory and a call to then join a ministry team ("Do you have the gift of mercy? Become a Children's Ministry volunteer! Actually, whatever gift you have, join Children's Ministry!")
There's nothing wrong with (most) spiritual gifts inventories or with matching our gifts to service, but there has to be something more spiritual about spiritual gifts, doesn't there?
This week at Grace, we're looking at Romans 12:3-8, one of the longest passages in the Bible about spiritual gifts. In this passage, Paul puts spiritual gifts in the context of what it means to be human - to have an accurate self-assessment of what is (and is not) possible for our lives, to need one another, and to offer something to each other.
When we look at spiritual gifts in a broad view of the message of Romans as a whole, I hope that we can find joy, peace, and delight in using our spiritual gifts for ministry.
In Christ,
Pastor Bob
Romans 12:3-8
3 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. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.