The Foundation for Spiritual Service (conclusion) 09-24-23

The sermon is about the foundation for spiritual service, focusing on the gifts of faith and grace. The speaker emphasizes that faith and grace are closely interconnected, forming a solid foundation. He explains that grace cannot be separated from faith because we are saved by grace through faith. The speaker also discusses the concept of undeserved grace, highlighting forgiveness as one of the things we receive from God that we don't deserve. He concludes by encouraging listeners to rest in God's grace and let go of the burden of trying to earn it. For those who are remaining in here with me, I want to encourage you and invite you to turn to Romans chapter 12, where I will finish the sermon I started last week entitled, The Foundation for Spiritual Service. The Foundation for Spiritual Service, and by way of introduction, I want to remind you of what was covered last week, and even in the weeks and months leading up to last Sunday and this Sunday. Paul is writing this letter to the church at Rome, and he has given them what I determined to be the why we should live by faith, the why we should be led by the Spirit, the why we should allow our faith to impact how we live, and that is this, that God's wrath that we are all in danger of experiencing, and should be, and deservingly poured out on us all, God's wrath is satisfied in Jesus. And you can go very quickly to the seven sayings that he uttered from the cross, and be reminded of the things that he spoke and even said, and the final thing being, it is finished. Well, what was finished? The salvation that we all needed was finished. The pouring out of God's wrath, it was finished. All of those things were satisfied in the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. The why, the what, what should we do in light of this? We should present our bodies as a living sacrifice. That was found in Romans 12, 1 and 2. And what we see in Romans 12, 3 through 8 is the how. How do we do this? Through the gifts. And the gifts are what form the foundation for this spiritual service. And we looked at the gift of faith last week found in verse 3 when he says, "'For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.'" And we looked at that faith is given, that faith is sobering, and faith is equalizing. And so we now turn our attention to verses 6 through 8, where we will look at the next two gifts that form the foundation for spiritual service. And I want to make mention of this, they are so closely interconnected that we can't separate them as often as we like to do in our lives, or maybe it's just me, we like to compartmentalize everything. And we like to look at this thing separated from this thing. And some psychologists say that's just a man thing, that women's brains are so interconnected with every single thought and memory and everything that they don't compartmentalize as much as men do. Well, let me speak from personal experience. I compartmentalize everything. I have a shop mode. I have a visitation mode. I have a studying mode. And it's hard for me to be thinking about what I've been studying when I'm working in the shop. It's hard for me to be thinking about what I've been studying when I'm on visitation. Because my mind is so compartmentalized, and what I have to do is retrain myself to understand that the truths of God are often so interconnected that we can't look at them individually. And I say that to say this, the second gift that forms the foundation for spiritual service is grace. Grace cannot be separated from faith. Why? Because we are saved by grace through faith. They go together. We don't receive grace without faith. We don't understand faith without grace. And so these two are so interconnected that we have to understand that just like, for instance, a foundation. That's what we're talking about, the foundation of spiritual service. In my shop, I had a concrete pad poured as the foundation for my shop. Now, there would be a big problem if you walked out to that foundation and you found one layer of the gravel that made up the concrete. You found one layer of the dust that made up the concrete. And then you found one layer of the coating that I put on the top. If they were all mixed together, what if the water separated from the concrete mix? Then I would just have a bunch of dry powder and rocks laying there. But no, that has to be so mixed in together that it forms a solid foundation. That's what grace and faith do here. They have to be so mixed together that they form a solid foundation. And so we have faith and grace. This is the gift of grace, but it's tied to the gift of faith. So let's begin reading once again in Romans 12, verse 6. And we'll go down through verse 8. It says, "...having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness." And so we see this idea of the gift of grace twice in verse 3 and in verse 6. He mentions grace that is given. And so just like faith, a measure of faith, a portion of faith is given to us, grace is also given to us. It cannot be earned. You are saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. We don't earn grace in our life. We don't earn grace by coming to church enough. Now do I think you should be faithful to a loving Bible-preaching church family? Absolutely. Why? Because of what that letter spoke to us about this morning. This idea of community and having love and support and prayers and encouragement and all these things that we will actually look at in just a second when we begin diving into the gifts that are mentioned in 7 and 8. And so we should belong to a loving church family. But just because you come to church, just because you're a member of a church, just because you pray every day, just because you read your Bible every day, just because you evangelize every day, just because you do all of these works, God doesn't look down and say, you know what? That person deserves a little more grace than this person does. Now again, should we do all those things? Absolutely. Why? Because as we're doing those things, what we begin to see and understand is how much grace God has given us. As I study His Word and I begin to understand what was waiting for me outside of God's grace, then what I begin to do is understand how amazing grace is. Now it doesn't mean I've earned more grace. I just have a clearer picture of what grace is and what it should mean to me. When I study His Word, when I pray to Him and He speaks to me in love and in grace and in mercy, what that does is turn my attention off of me and my sinful heart and my own deceitfulness, and it turns it on to Him and His holiness and His grace. And so yes, I think we should do all those things, but good works does not earn grace. And at that moment, everyone who has been living their spiritual life, their religious life by checklist, should just take a deep breath in and let it out. Preacher, you mean this load that I've been carrying me, I can lay it down? Absolutely. That's why Jesus Himself says, come unto Me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Think about the day He spoke those words into it. A day of Jewish leaders pounding them. Law, law, law, law. You can't even so much as save your ox out of the ditch on the Lord's Day. You can't even so much as break a piece of head off of a piece of wheat on the Lord's Day. If you do, you break the law and you're a guilty of sin. You can't take more than so many steps from the front door of your house. If you do, you're in violation of breaking the law and you need to cleanse it. Can you imagine the religious weight on the people? The reality is most of us can't because of where we live right now and the religious freedom that we have. But imagine living with so much weight that you were afraid that if you got one little toe over that line, then you would be kicked out of the church, ostracized until you made a sacrifice and cleansed yourself. But what we have under grace is this. God, I've sinned against you. Forgive me. Cleanse me from all unrighteousness. And in that moment, you're free. The weight can be laid down. We can rest in that grace because it's not up to us. We can't earn it. We just receive it. Grace is given. What is grace? Some people define it this way. God's riches at Christ's expense. Others might say it's getting what is not deserved. I think they're both saying the same thing in a different way, but in my mind, that makes more sense. Getting what is not deserved. Because that leads me to this question. If God gives me grace, and grace is me getting what I don't deserve, then what does God give me that I don't deserve? Right off the bat, the first word that comes to mind is forgiveness. I don't deserve forgiveness. Beloved, you don't deserve forgiveness. Why? Because we are enemies of God. Because our heart is deceitfully wicked above all things who can know it. Because we are sinners from the day that we are born. And in sin, we were conceived. And in sin, we were brought forth into this world. Our sin nature is so depraved and dark and bitter and set against anything godly that we don't deserve forgiveness. But because of God's grace, He gives it to us. We don't deserve the presence of a holy God within us. Now listen, Christ in us, the hope of glory. When we put our faith and trust in Christ, what does that mean? That means that we become a child of God. And Scripture says that our body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now what is the temple? It was where the place of God's presence resided with His people. The Spirit of God comes in. This is what we mean when we say invite Christ into your heart. Now I want you to hear me. When we say those words, we're not saying, alright Jesus, I want you to get really, really small. And I want you to come and build a little cabin right there in my heart and run around those little atriums and whatever little parts of your heart. I've got four rooms in there that are beating and pumping. And Jesus, I just want you to run around in there and live in there. No, no, no, we're not talking about a literal Jesus in our hearts. What are we talking about? The Spirit of God coming within to the deepest parts of who we are. Our emotions, our thoughts, our motivations. Jesus, we want You to come in through the power of Your Spirit. Indwell us. Live inside of us. And give us God's riches, His power, His understanding, His wisdom, His love, His grace, His mercy for us so that we can give it to others. When we experience the grace of God and Him coming inside of us, it begins to change us and mold us and turn us into the people of God that we are supposed to be. Now here's the rub with that. Is that sin nature is still clinging on in there. That sin nature is still wrestling in our hearts. That sin nature is still looking at the Spirit of God saying, You can have all of that, but I'm going to keep this. You can have all of that, but my pride I'm going to hang on to. And You can forgive me. I'm going to allow You to forgive me for the drugs, the women, and all of this stuff. You can forgive me for all of that, but my anger I've got to keep. But what the grace of God says, I want it all. I want to forgive you for every bit of it. Even that deepest, darkest sin that no one knows about, I want to forgive you for that. That hurt, that heartache that runs so deep, that cut that that loved one gave you, it runs so deep. But I want to heal that. I want to draw you into me. I want to give you the grace. I want to give you all the riches of God because of what Christ did. The receipt of grace. We notice also the application of grace. He says in verse 6, Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given us, let us use them. Let's use this grace. Let's use the gifts that God has given us through this grace. Let's use it. Glovin, I want you to know that the gifts that God has given us, and I'm going to dive into the gifts and a little bit of difference here in just a moment, but I want us to look at overall the gifts, the things that he mentions here. The gifts are a gift. Not something you earned. Not something you deserved. It's not something for you to boast about or to be prideful about. And I want us to take just a moment and understand this. There's a difference between talents and spiritual gifts. Talents, things that we often celebrate in the church, and we should celebrate them, but things that we oftentimes put on pedestals and think, man, if I could just do that, man, I would be such a godly person. Singing is a talent. You say, how do you know that? Because there are a radio filled with people who sing very, very well, and they don't sing for the glory of God. That's a talent. Talents can be used for the glory of God or for the glory of self and Satan. Gifts, spiritual gifts can only be used for the glory of God. If you're talented, should you use those talents for the glory of God? One hundred percent. Absolutely you should. Do all things for the glory of God. All things, whether you eat or drink, do all things for the glory of God. Every talent that you have. If you're a talker, talk for the glory of God. If you're a singer, sing for the glory of God. If you're a musician, play for the glory of God. If you're a teacher, teach for the glory of God. But there's a difference between talents and spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts can only be used for the glory of God. Let's look at some of the gifts that he gives. Prophesying. What is that? That is application of God's Word. The interpretation and application of God's Word. Prophesy. Ministry. Providing the needs for those that are around us. And what's the greatest need? Jesus. Ministry. Teaching. Rightly dividing the Word of God, right? Pulling out the truth and the principles that are there. Exhorting. Encouraging in the faith. Come on. God's doing something in your life. He's going to use you. Come on. Encouraging someone in their faith. Leading. Leadership. Leading someone. Discipleship. Saying, hey, follow me as I follow Christ. Mercy. Have you ever met somebody who just had the gift of mercy? They were just so kind-hearted and tender-hearted that it didn't seem like anything frustrated them or made them doubt. They were just full of mercy and it flowed from so much that it brought comfort and healing and peace in troubled times. I know this isn't an exhaustive list. And if you added all of the lists of the gifts that were mentioned in Scriptures, you wouldn't get an exhaustive list. But outside of prophesying, which I would consider to be preaching in our day and age, I don't see anything that's going to be up front of everybody. I don't see where it says, oh man, just sing and that's a spiritual gift. You just sing your heart out. But we've experienced that, haven't we? Somebody, when they sing, it's like heaven's doors just open up. And the glory of God sits down on them. The singing is not the spiritual gift. The singing is the talent that they're using for the glory of God. The spiritual gift would be, I'm saying, James Williams' version, ministry and exhortation. God is using that singer to minister to you, the listener, because they're willing to use their talent. And so, I want to take just a moment to understand that talents and gifts are separate things. And those gifts that we have been given, whatever that is, and each one different, you notice the Scripture, there have been different gifts. So that me and Ellie are not gifted the same. Y'all know that. We know that. But the diversity that God has brought together right here is a beautiful thing. In the same way that it's beautiful that all of the different gifts that are sitting in that pew this morning, God wants to use for His glory. And He's brought us together for that purpose. Gifts are gifts. And I want us to look thirdly at the receipt of grace, the application of grace, and the expansion of grace. He says, let us use them. The expansion of these grace gifts, the expansion of this, is that the gifts that He has given to us are not just for us, but for the edification of the body. That the gifts that God has given me, and whether I understand it or not, is neither here nor there. But here's what I know, the calling that God's placed on my life, and therefore, the gifting that God has given me. Prophecy. The preaching of His Word. You guys know me well enough, and you've heard me say well enough, that every time I preach, this is not just for you, it's for me too. God has used my ability, not even my ability, I misspoke right there, 100% misspoke. He has used my gifting, in spite of my ability, He has used my gifting to speak to me, to encourage me, to challenge me, to make me fall on my faith and cry out, woe is me for I'm a man of unclean lips. But if I kept all of that to myself, what good is that for you? But He has gifted me to encourage you, to challenge you, to draw you closer to Him in the same way, even if your gift is not prophecy. He has gifted you for you and for others. Here's where it gets real. Jesus reveals this to us in the parable of the Master who gives the servants the talents. One servant He gives, I believe, if I remember this correctly, one talent, five talents, and ten talents. The one talent goes and buries it, because the Master is a hard man. The one with five, He goes, and I think He doubles it, or He increases it some fold. The one with ten increases it greatly. The one with talent who buried it, got reprimanded. But if you're burying the gift that God has given you, I want to lovingly tell you this, you are out of the will of God. And He has gifted you for a purpose. And Kingsgrove Baptist Church and Six Mile Community and the whole upstate, and I would dare say the whole state and the whole nation will be better when you start using the gift God has given you for His glory. That's why He gave it to you. Because He has given it to you for His glory. Gifts are gifts, and when we expand the grace that God has given us, it impacts those that are around us for the good. We have the gift of faith, the gift of grace, and this is where we're really going to dive in to verses 4-8. The gift of gifts. The third and final gift for the foundation for spiritual service is the gift of gifts. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. What do we gather about the gift of gifts from those sections of Scriptures that we are all gifted? Every one of us are gifted. I'm not looking at a single face in this sanctuary this morning. How old is Porter there? From eight years old? I think he's the youngest one in here, right? No? Yeah? Oh, Fisher's over there. How's Fisher? Four. I'm not going to go to the oldest. Whether you're four or four hundred, you're gifted. You're gifted. If you put your faith and trust in Christ, you're gifted. He has given you a gift for His glory. But here's what I really want you to understand this morning about that. Something I think we fail to see about ourselves. You are a gift. You are a gift. I like movies. And I even like animation movies. I will turn on a Disney animation movie before my kids will. There's a movie, it's been a few years ago now, called Encanto. I don't know if you've seen it or not. It's a really cute little movie. Landry, thank you. I appreciate that witness right there. It's a really cute little movie about this family who receive these miraculous gifts. And the whole point in this movie is that the grandma, the matriarch of the family, gets so focused on the gift that she forgets about the person behind the gift. And so they go through this struggle. They go through this turmoil within the family and all that for her to recognize at the end of the movie that the true miracle, the true gift, the true miracle is you. Not the gift. Now, God's gifted you to work the work of reconciliation through King's Grove Baptist Church. But I want you to understand something. You, the person behind the gift, is a gift. Now, how many times have you looked in the mirror and thought about yourself? Man, I'm a gift. And I don't mean this way. And I knew I was God's gift to earth. I knew it. I've been trying to tell everybody. They wouldn't listen. But now a preacher said it, so now everybody knows I'm the gift. I do mean it that way. Not more highly than you ought to think of yourself. Remember that? He said that earlier. But you are a gift. And so when I open up the service and I say thank you for being here, thank you for choosing us for your place of worship, I don't say that lightly. Thank you. You are a gift. Even if it's just raising a hand at a movie thing, right? Get a little encouragement for the preacher right there. You are a gift. You have a gift. We are all gifted. We are all unique. Different gifts, different roles. It takes all of God's people to do all of God's work. But over here in just a few weeks, we'll be here before we know, we have a fall festival going on. You know what it's going to take to put on that fall festival? All of God's people doing all of God's work. Whether it's a smiling face, shaking hands. Whether it's somebody who is gifted in the form of administration and can really take on some registration forms and welcome people and do all that. Whether it's people that are gifted with gab and can just walk around, have conversations. Whether it's somebody who has the personality to be a 50-year-old child, 60-year-old child, 70-year-old child and just cut up and laugh and have fun and run a game with all these wonderful kids and parents that are coming through. We need all of God's people to do all of God's work so that some will hear the Gospel and experience the grace and the mercy and the love of God through God's people. They may respond in faith. We are all unique. We can't all do the same thing. And Scripture will put it this way, what if the hand were to say to the foot, well, I think I'm going to be a foot. And I know some people can walk around on their hands for long periods of time. And I know some people can pick up coffee cups with their foot and drink it. So I've seen people pick up a cereal spoon with their feet and eat their cereal with their foot. That's the exception. We need hands to be hands, feet to be feet, eyes to be eyes, ears to be ears, mouth to be mouth. We see in these mystical movies weird monsters, right? Would you imagine if we looked like, if we walked around with a big eyeball on our shoulders instead of a head? It would be kind of weird looking, wouldn't it? But God's given us two eyes, two ears, nose, mouth. You could go into all the details of the human body. The differences, the different parts, the different roles. We're all unique, but we are all united. He says in verses 4 and 5, He says it two ways. He says we're members in one body in verse 4, and in the end of verse 5, He says, and individually members of one another. So we're one body, but we're also part of one another. If we're divided, we can't accomplish God's work. If we're in turmoil, we can't accomplish God's work. If we were to cut off our hand, it might wiggle around a little bit, but eventually it will die. That hand will become no use to us. We're united. I want you to look across this sanctuary at all the faces, because we're united. It's not this group over here and that group over there. Although every Sunday morning, it's usually the same group sitting here and the same group sitting there and the same group sitting here. I'm going to come in here when I'm going to mess y'all up. I'm going to say, all right, this group, I need y'all to come sit here, and this group, y'all get up and sit here. No, I wouldn't do that to you. But we hope we understand that we're united. We need one another. I need you. You need me. We need each other so that the glory of God will be shown in this community. I know that's a weird way to close a service, but I want us to focus on that. See, we're getting ready to start revival tonight. And Scripture is plain. It's clear when it says, a house divided cannot stand. It says, if you come to offer your sacrifice before the Lord and you realize you have aught with your brother, you're going to lay your sacrifice down, go make it right, and then come back and offer it. I don't know what you have going on in your life, but if there's division, if there's aught, if there's something dividing your attention, maybe we need to go deal with that before we try to come together for a revival tonight. Let's go make that right so that when we come together tonight, we will be unified in spirit, unified in mind, unified in motivation, and we'll be unified under the glory of God for the work of God as the people of God. As we look forward to revival tonight, maybe you simply come and you pray for revival. That revival will start in your hearts that revival will start in your homes. Maybe there's a situation and circumstance you've got going on in your life that's dividing your attention. And you're like, I don't know that I can focus on revival. I don't know that I can focus on the glory of God. Maybe you need to take a step to resolve that. Maybe that step is simply just coming and laying it on this altar and saying, God, this is weighing on me. And I'm going to lay it at Your feet. I need Your rest. I want to remind you of verse 3 of that song we sang this morning. It says, My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, that my sin, not in part, but the whole, nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. For no other reason than that right there. We should praise the Lord. Because we have been forgiven by grace through faith. Lord, if we're going to serve Him, we're going to be His eyes, His hands, His feet, right where He has planted us. And we have to be abiding in that relationship with Him. We have to remember these foundations for spiritual service. The gift of faith, the gift of grace, and the gift of the gifts that He has given us. I'm going to pray to close us out right now. I just want you to think about where you stand with God. What you're facing, what you're going through. Because if a revival is going to take place in Kingsgrove Baptist Church, and it has to take place in our hearts, what's hindering that flame from being lit? Or that flame from spreading? Are you putting that candle under a basket? Are you letting your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven? Are you wrestling with that old sin nature the way Paul did? And so that which I don't want to do, I keep finding myself doing. And that what I do want to do, I can't seem to do. So your prayer is to say something like this: God help me. Help me to live out my faith. Help me to walk according to your word according to your commands and your statutes. Let's pray together. Lord God thank you for this morning. Lord as I look forward to the meetings that we're going to have this week that we are calling revival, for those meetings will mean nothing if we are not positioning ourselves to experience it. And so I pray now that we as your people will confess our sins, we will humble ourselves, we will turn from our wicked ways, we will repent, we will seek your face so that you will hear from us and you will heal our land. And Lord God I do pray for Six Mile, for Central, Clemson. Lord, it needs healing. We're just so wrapped up in sin, Lord. Your people here are so tempted by give in to sin, Lord, that we need healing. We need forgiving. We need cleansing, Lord, as Kings Grove Baptist Church. Lord, I pray you'll forgive us. Lord, we sin against you. Lord, we've relied on our own strength, our own understanding, and not leaned on you, Lord. We've not allowed you to direct our paths. Lord, forgive us. Lord, we have sinned against you. Cleanse us and create in us a clean heart and clean hands. Use us for your glory; use this week for your glory. May your glory rain down on this place through these next four nights in such a bright, in such a bright and burning way, that this community will know that we've met with you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen Amen