Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Just Do It

by Dave Wilkinson

Romans 12:6-8

May 30, 1999

Martin Pike, a retired pastor in Dallas writes: "I wish I knew what makes them tick. They are a strange breed, these folk. They are the backbone of every congregation in the world. It is not so much what they do that makes this true, but what they are. Without them, I am convinced, the very heavens would fall.

"Who am I talking about? I am talking about people who would be surprised to discover that their name was on my mind. They not only do not think more highly of themselves than they ought to think, but, in fact, seldom talk of themselves at all. They do not put themselves down, nor do they envision themselves as the object of the admiration of others.

"They make their contribution to the church with such consistency that they seldom appear to be doing anything special. Whatever their role happens to be, they quietly and without fanfare go about it. They never "sleep in" on Sundays. When the offering plate is passed they know what it is. When a stranger appears they greet him or her, with genuine warmth, because they feel themselves to be at home. They know about turning switches on and off, locking and unlocking doors. They know where the garbage cans are, who has the key to the Coke machine, and where the reset button is if the kitchen lights fail. They know how to set up a table and where to find the liquid detergent. If there is a spill the location of the mop is not a mystery. In worship they sing, pray and listen. In committee, group and class meetings they participate. I wish I knew what makes them tick."

Now I suspect that Pastor Pike knows what makes them tick -- that these people have discovered and are using the gifts God has given them in the way God wants them to be used.

There is a lot of discussion and teaching in the church today on spiritual gifts -- what they are, how they are identified and how they are to be used. Sheri recently finished a great adult class which was partly focused on spiritual gifts. We also spend time introducing the biblical teaching about gifts at each new member class. I am preaching about it today because it is where we are in this preaching series from the Letter to the Romans.

Listen to God’s word through Paul from Romans 12:6-8.

Did you see the movie "Groundhog Day"? Bill Murray wakes up to the sound of "I’ve Got You, Babe" only to live the same day over and over again. You might feel like that this morning because I preached on the same exact passage last Sunday — like the guy who complains that every time he goes to church. The pastor is talking about Easter.

Last Sunday we looked at spiritual gifts and their place in the church in a general way. This morning we are going to look at what God’s word says about some specific gifts in this text.

Spiritual gifts are mentioned several times in the New Testament. Ephesians 4:11 seems to give the most basic list: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor/teachers. This is the way 1 Corinthians 12:28-30 starts too, but then it moves from what seems to be offices in the church to specific functions like working miracles, healing, helping, administering, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues. Romans 12:6-8 has a bit of both. First Peter 4:11 has only service and speaking.

Nineteen gifts are mentioned in the lists, but the number is not absolute. Different words may describe the same gift, as with serving and helping, and there are probably gifts that could be mentioned but are not. Seven gifts are mentioned in Romans 12:6-8 and these are the ones we will look at today.

First is prophesying. In 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 Paul tells us this is one of the best gifts of all. He says it is a gift that we should desire to have very active in the life of our church. Today, however, there is a lot of debate about what this gift means, how it is to be used, and whether or not it is even available to the church in our modern era.

In the early church the role of prophet stood beside the role of Apostle as foundational gifts. The prophets were seen as the conduits of new truth from God to His church. This was an essential role before the completion of the written scriptures. Now some believe, and I agree, the role of prophet, in this "new information straight from God" sense is no longer with us. Since we have the completed Old and New Testaments, we no longer need it. The Bible is the recorded testimony of these inspired people.

But a prophetic gift is not only one of revealing brand new truth. It is also a gift of taking the truth that God has already given and helping it jump off the page into people’s lives. The word we translate "prophet" comes from a root word in Greek that means "to cause to shine." It refers to the ability to take the Word of God and make it shine. John Calvin describes prophecy as "the peculiar gift of explaining revelation."

Paul says something very important about the use of this prophetic gift. He says that prophecy is to be used "according to the proportion of the faith." The New American Standard Version and the New International Version say "according to the proportion of his faith" but that’s not what the text says. It says that prophecy is to be done "according to the proportion of the faith." Other translations say it much better -- "If your gift is speaking God's word, make sure what you say agrees with the Christian faith." (GWT) or "The person who has the gift of prophecy should use that gift in agreement with the faith." (NCV).

I’m not just getting picky here. It’s a vital point — and one that is of central importance as we look out on a world and even a church with an abundance of false teachers. The point is that there is a fixed limit to the exercise of the prophetic gift. Even an inspired prophet is bound by prior revelation. He is not to teach anything contrary to "the faith" that has already been delivered to the saints. In Galatians 1:8, Paul applies this strict test to himself -- insisting that even he has to conform to this standard of revealed truth. "Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!"

In other words, Paul would not have made a very good Mormon. The Mormon’s take pride in the claim that they have a living prophet — and are up front in the assertion that their living prophet is free to declare anything that he wants to declare even if it contradicts the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrines and Covenants, and every preceding Mormon Prophet from Joseph Smith on down. This is why the Mormon Church has proved so flexible on changing inalterable truth -- the teachings on polygamy and racism for example -- to suit the new mood of the day. In the words of one Mormon leader: "The truth is whatever President Woodruff said -- unless President Kimball says it differently."

Paul has no use for that kind of unchecked prophetic authority. He states flat out that anyone who is called to teach must be rigidly disciplined so as not to go beyond what God has actually revealed in Scripture. Our task up here is to teach you the Word of God -- but only the Word of God.

Paul says: "If you have the gift, use it." Now this is actually the key to this whole passage. Paul is not defining gifts in Romans 12. He’s encouraging their use. He’s says to us "Just do it!" If you have the gift of making scripture shine, then let it shine. Just do it.

He says the same thing about the next gift. He says, "If your gift is serving, then serve."

Service is a beautiful gift. Many people have it. It is the word from which we get our word "deacon." It is to serve as an usher -- to do banking or baking or building on behalf of the church. It is to make the practical, essential stuff happen which — if it didn’t happen — would cause the whole church to stumble.

I like what a pastor named David Steele writes about people with the gift of service: "Here's an eternal truth they ought to teach in seminaries; a pastor is wiser to pray that the next church membership class will have two retired guys with pickup trucks than one tithing millionaire.

"Working guys with pickups know how to make things, but they don't have a lot of time. Retired guys have time, but don't necessarily know how to use their hands. But show me a retired guy with a pickup and you know this fellow not only can fix stuff but also has the needed tools hanging in his garage."

Steel writes: "Believe me, my heart skips a beat, and a prayer of thanksgiving leaps from my lips, when one of those pickups pulls up outside my office. I know that before the sun sets, the toilet will work, the leak will be found, the sprinkler will be fixed, the door rehung. Guys like that deserve a beatitude of their very own."

I agree with what Steele writes. To all of you who have the gift of service and use it, "Thank you, Thank You, Thank you." You have a tremendous gift!

Paul then writes: "If your gift is teaching, then teach." Teaching is different from prophesying. Prophecy is aimed more at the heart and the will. Teaching is the ability to instruct the mind -- to help people grasp the truths of Scripture.

Now if you have the gift of teaching, we’ll be delighted to help you find a place to teach. Talk to Valerie Renville about the Sunday School. You make the call and ask "What’s available?" Now you may be invited to use your gift but don’t wait for our invitation. Paul says, If you have this gift, don't wait for someone to ask you to teach. Put yourself forward. The church didn't give you these gifts. The pastor didn't give you these gifts. God gave them to you. And it is your responsibility is to put them to work.

Paul then turns to encouragement. Encouragement has become a rather weak word for us. It means little more than giving someone a slap on the back and saying "Attaboy," Good job" or "Well done." But when we study the use of this word in the Bible, we find it is much more than this. The Greek word appears 107 times in the New Testament. It is the same word used of the Holy Spirit and His ministry in John 14-16. The Greek is parakletos, which literally means "one who is called in alongside another to help out." If we put this thought into our passage, we get something like "Let the person who has the gift of getting alongside another person to help him or her, really do it. Let him stand by his friend and really help him."

Encouragement was the gift that Barnabas had. He was called "the son of encouragement," which is what the name Barnabas means. His name was Joseph, but no one called him Joe; they called him Barney. In the stories of Barnabas in the Scriptures he is always found with his arm around someone's shoulder, encouraging him, comforting him, urging him on. This is a marvelous gift in the church.

In a Peanuts cartoon some years ago, Linus is taking heat from his crabby big sister Lucy and her friends for his new found calling -- patting little birds on the head. The distressed birds would approach, lower their little feathered pates to be patted, sign deeply, and walk away satisfied. It brought Linus no end of fulfillment -- in spite of the flack he took from the others. "What’s wrong with patting birds on the head?" he wanted to know. " "What’s wrong with it? No one does it!" Linus said, "I do it!"

If your gift is encouragement, please don’t stop. If it is embracing, demonstrating warmth, compassion, and mercy to feathers that have been ruffled by offense and bruised by adversity, for goodness sake, don’t stop. If God made you a "patter" then keep on patting to the glory of God and the health of His church.

Then there is the gift of giving or contributing. Did you know that was a gift? Now all Christians have the role and the obligation to give of their financial resources with a Biblical standard of a tithe or ten percent. But there are some people God intends to give much more. These are people God has designated as conduits of major resources into the life of His body. Sometimes these are people with the Midas touch. They just can’t seem to help but make money. And the purpose is that they take a good portion of that increase and invest it is the ministry of the church. If you have that gift, use it! It is part of the way God calls you to function in the body of Christ. If you have this gift and give in this way, you will discover that you have more and more to give. The New American Standard text says, "If you have the gift of giving, give with liberality." That is not quite an accurate translation. What Paul is really saying is, 'Let him give with simplicity." It means without ostentation, without calling people's attention to it. I heard of a guy who stood up in a meeting and said, "I want to give $10,000 anonymously." You can't give that way if you have the gift of giving. You give with simplicity, without making a big deal out of it. Just give the gift as unto God and delight in the opportunity to be used by the hand of God.

Charles Swindoll writes: "My life has been crossed by people who have had the gift of giving. Maybe yours has too. When I was a student at Dallas Seminary, God used a man in my life and in the lives of ten other fellows at the school at the same time. Howard Kane chose to underwrite our tuition. Absolutely unsolicited. Every time tuition came due, there was a check in the mail.

"I remember one time he came to Dallas and got all eleven of us together and said, ‘I want to take a drive downtown.’ After a sandwich, he took us to a men’s store. Inside he suited us up in new suits, new sports coats, one fellow after another. He sat there and just beamed! He was happier than we were. He wasn’t that wealthy; but there was something inside of him (it’s called a spiritual gift) that was not satisfied until there was an outlet for that gift. "

Next Paul turns to leadership. Specifically, that word means "leading meetings." It comes from a root which means "to stand up before others." If you have that gift, there are all kinds of meetings waiting to be led. But when you use it, Paul says, do it with diligence. That is, don't wing it. Do it thoughtfully; think it through in advance. Make yourself ready for it and use the meeting to its fullest purpose so you don’t waste people’s time. The gift of leadership is a great gift.

Then, finally, Paul mentions the gift of showing mercy. I delight in the people of our church who have the gift of showing mercy. Paul's point here is that this should be done cheerfully, not begrudgingly and not grumpily. If you are called to wash someone’s feet, you don’t complain and you don’t say, "Okay, stick your dumb old stinky feet in the bucket." Show your mercy with a grin. The Greek word is hilarioteti, from which we get our word hilarious. Paul says that if you have a gift of mercy, do it -- and smile about it.

You are a part of the body of Christ. You may not be the brain. Actually, Christ is the head. But, if Christ's body is to function the way He wants it to function, you are a significant part of making that happen. Please do not minimize your importance. You may be the ear that can eloquently listen or the tongue that can eloquently speak Yours may be a heart with a special compassion for others, Yours may be feet that go far, carrying the news of Christ's message. Allow yourself to be amputated from the body, and you won't be a whole lot of good. We could have a whole room full of feet, piled high, dismembered from the rest of the body. Nothing is going to get anywhere very fast. Connectedness is what is important, faithfulness in doing that which is your function, your gift, your ministry.

Paul told Timothy, "Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you" (2 Timothy 1:6). That is exactly what you should do. You have a gift. The rest of the body needs it. Scripture makes it clear that you will be held accountable for what you do with it. "Just use it so that one day you will hear Jesus say, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness" (Matthew 25:21, 23).