“Have a Gift? Use It!”
Romans 12:1-8 October 16, 2005 Play
video
The Missing Members Handicap
• hospital patients adjust to differences in body
condition
• church a ‘body' not a corporation
Changed by God's Rich Grace
• power theme throughout Romans: gospel of Jesus
God's power to save (1:4,16)
• offer body parts as instruments of righteousness,
controlled by God (6:13; 8:2,9)
• offer bodies ‘in view of God's mercy': Gentiles
benefitted from Jews' resistance (12:1; 11:11,25-36)
• not CONformed to world's pattern, but TRANSformed
in mind (12:2)
Rightly Evaluating Oneself
• used to comparing ourselves, from picking teams to
applying for jobs
• Corinthians upbraided for boasting about gifts,
disorderly worship (1Cor 4:7; 14:26)
• have sober judgment rather than conceit (12:3)
• spiritual gift inventories assist in evaluation
• members of body are interdependent, work together
(4f)
"Just Do It!"
• apply gifts to prophesy, serve, teach, encourage,
etc. (6-9)
• how carried out important: generously, diligently,
cheerfully
• relationship between gifts [charismata] and grace
[charis]: ‘gracings' of Jesus to touch others' lives
• tools from heaven to ‘finish the job' in war with
the enemy
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