We have been talking about a number of positions we have in Christ, and these great gifts that the Lord has given us. Those positions have included dying to sin, being made alive to Him, being the prisoner of the Lord, and being the slave of the Lord. We are switching directions just a little bit today. We are going to talk about the fact that we have been gifted by the Lord to serve Him. That is something some Christians struggle with. They don’t realize that they are gifted. They don’t understand where they fit in with the body of Christ and they don’t know how to come alongside to minister, and often have a hard time coming along doing that. In four different New Testament books we find that we have been gifted by the Holy Spirit for ministry to other people. We find those particular passages in: Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4, and 1 Corinthians 12-14. All those passages deal with the fact that we have been gifted.
What we have in Romans 12 is a summary of these. I think it would be helpful for us to look at these gifts. It says in Romans 12:3, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he out to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” He starts off by calling us to humility. Don’t think of yourself as higher than you ought to think. In our world, people are concerned about bad selfimages. Scripture never is concerned about that, instead Scripture is always talking about pride and arrogance. So, he tells us to first humble ourselves before the Lord and not think more highly of ourselves than we should.
Romans 12:4 says, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” He is talking about the body of Christ. There are many parts of the body of Christ. As many Christians as there are around, they are part of that body. If we are talking about a local church, which I believe he is because only in a local church can we really function in this way, then there are many members of a local church, and each has a unique position . . .
