Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / How a Renewed Mind Thinks │ Msg 2944

Transcript

How a Renewed Mind Thinks │ Msg 2944 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:01
Speaker 1: You'll find both an outline for the morning message in
0:05
Speaker 1: your worship folder, as well as a covenant of commitment.
0:10
Speaker 1: In a moment, after I read for you the scripture,
0:13
Speaker 1: we will read together the covenant. I want to read
0:20
Speaker 1: for you from Romans chapter 12, verses 3 through 8.
0:31
Speaker 1: If you have your Bible, please turn to Romans 12,
0:34
Speaker 1: verse 3. And in honor of our Savior and in
0:40
Speaker 1: respect for his word, may we stand for the reading
0:44
Speaker 1: of God's truth together. For through the grace given to me,
0:53
Speaker 1: I say to everyone among you not to think more
0:57
Speaker 1: highly of himself than he ought to think. but to
1:03
Speaker 1: think so as to have sound judgment, as God has
1:06
Speaker 1: allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as
1:11
Speaker 1: we have many members in one body, and all the
1:15
Speaker 1: members do not have the same function, so we who
1:19
Speaker 1: are many are one body in Christ, and individually members
1:26
Speaker 1: one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according
1:31
Speaker 1: to the grace of Given to us. Each of us
1:35
Speaker 1: is to exercise them accordingly. If prophecy. According to the
1:42
Speaker 1: proportion of his faith. If service. In his serving. Or
1:48
Speaker 1: he who teaches. In his teaching. Or he who exhorts.
1:56
Speaker 1: In his exhortation. He who gives with liberality. He who
2:02
Speaker 1: leads with diligence. He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. May
2:12
Speaker 1: God honor the reading of his word and may he
2:15
Speaker 1: be exalted as we live it out from day to day.
2:23
Speaker 1: Just about nine years ago in mid-October, we met for
2:26
Speaker 1: the first time as a small group in one room
2:31
Speaker 1: not knowing each other. Some of you were among the
2:35
Speaker 1: group that met then. We had no idea what God
2:40
Speaker 1: might have in mind. There was no thought then of
2:43
Speaker 1: Stonebriar Community Church. We simply met around God's word together.
2:49
Speaker 1: And as time passed, it became obvious that there was
2:53
Speaker 1: a unity and there was a sense of destiny in
3:01
Speaker 1: our gatherings and a year later as we were by
3:05
Speaker 1: then meeting at the local community college we had begun
3:10
Speaker 1: to see what God wanted to do in our midst
3:16
Speaker 1: and we were all then as well as to this
3:20
Speaker 1: day amazed. It occurred to me that first anniversary that
3:25
Speaker 1: it would be good to have some kind of covenant
3:27
Speaker 1: that should declare our commitment to the things that matter.
3:33
Speaker 1: So I sat down and wrote out the covenant, and
3:36
Speaker 1: we read it on that first anniversary and have read
3:38
Speaker 1: it since. This is our commitment. On this ninth anniversary,
3:43
Speaker 1: it is important that we reaffirm our commitment to our
3:46
Speaker 1: church's ministry. In reading and thinking through these statements, let
3:51
Speaker 1: us give ourselves anew to the high and holy calling
3:55
Speaker 1: of modeling these words in a world that is increasingly
3:59
Speaker 1: more in need of truth, forgiveness, love, and grace.
4:05
Speaker 2: We, the congregation of Stonebriar Community Church, Frisco, Texas, are
4:11
Speaker 2: committed to the essential calling and tasks of a local
4:15
Speaker 2: church as set forth in the Holy Scriptures. Our commitment
4:20
Speaker 2: is firm and sure, unchanged by the passing of.
4:23
Speaker 1: Time, This building has been erected to the glory of God.
4:32
Speaker 1: Everything that occurs within these walls is to be done
4:35
Speaker 1: for his greater glory. We declare this to be our
4:40
Speaker 1: essential goal as an assembly of Christians. The proclamation of
4:48
Speaker 1: our message will continue to rest on the infallible Bible.
4:52
Speaker 1: We openly declare our complete trust in its truths, our
4:56
Speaker 1: confidence in its commands, and our hope in its promises.
5:00
Speaker 1: Without reservation, we embrace the Bible as our inerrant guide
5:06
Speaker 1: in faith and practice. Since our inception, the person of
5:14
Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ has been preeminent. We shall continue
5:18
Speaker 1: to acknowledge him as Lord of the Church, deserving of
5:24
Speaker 1: our unreserved devotion, obedience, and praise. As believers in the
5:36
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, we shall meet regularly in these facilities
5:39
Speaker 1: for worship, instruction, fellowship, and expression. Our desire is to
5:46
Speaker 1: sustain these objectives and priorities through the energizing work of
5:50
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit so that the lost are made aware
5:53
Speaker 1: of the good news of our Savior as well as
5:56
Speaker 1: our Christian witness and and the saved are equipped to
5:59
Speaker 1: live authentic, pure lives, both within and outside these walls.
6:04
Speaker 1: We also commit ourselves to the vision of reaching the
6:08
Speaker 1: whole world and to God's plan for raising up workers
6:11
Speaker 1: for His world mission program. This place will continue to
6:22
Speaker 1: be dedicated to helping the hurting, encouraging the discouraged, assisting
6:29
Speaker 1: the anguished and ministering to the sick, the aging, the forgotten,
6:36
Speaker 1: the abused, the grieving, and the dying. We shall neither
6:42
Speaker 1: lose our compassion nor conduct ourselves in pride as we
6:45
Speaker 1: open our doors to those who turn to us for
6:48
Speaker 1: strength and counsel. We shall guard ourselves against complacency and indifference.
6:55
Speaker 1: We understand that we are to be more willing to
6:57
Speaker 1: give than receive, to accept rather than reject, to love
7:02
Speaker 1: and nurture the needy rather than judge, and show preferential
7:06
Speaker 1: treatment to a select few. Because we are serving Christ
7:21
Speaker 1: in a day of eroding values, We publicly declare our
7:25
Speaker 1: commitment to this nation we love, to the preservation of
7:30
Speaker 1: human life, to the support of marriage and marital fidelity,
7:35
Speaker 1: to the home and family unit, to the distinct biblical
7:39
Speaker 1: roles of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and children.
7:45
Speaker 1: With equal vigor, we commit ourselves to ministering to adults
7:49
Speaker 1: of all ages, to single persons, to single parents. to collegians,
7:56
Speaker 1: to the youth, and to the children as well. It
7:58
Speaker 1: is our firm conviction that this local body be a
8:01
Speaker 1: place that holds high the dignity of each individual as
8:05
Speaker 1: we hold forth the unchanging principles of scriptural truth. As
8:17
Speaker 1: we carry out these commitments, we confess our own humanity
8:22
Speaker 1: Being imperfect creatures with depraved natures, we realize that our
8:27
Speaker 1: dependence on our God must be total, not partial. We
8:31
Speaker 1: therefore commit ourselves to keeping the unity in this congregation,
8:36
Speaker 1: to the discipline of prevailing prayer, and to the filling
8:40
Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit. We are committed to the financial
8:44
Speaker 1: support of this ministry and to a spirit of humility, transparency,
8:49
Speaker 1: and grace. as our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated during his
8:54
Speaker 1: earthly life. And together, these commitments we make to the
9:06
Speaker 1: glory and praise of our God, in the name of
9:10
Speaker 1: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
9:21
Speaker 1: Our Father, it is one thing for us to say
9:24
Speaker 1: these things and to put them into print. It's another
9:27
Speaker 1: thing entirely to live them out. May we be doers
9:34
Speaker 1: of the word, not hearers or speakers only. May our
9:40
Speaker 1: lives model that life of Christ in this desperate and
9:46
Speaker 1: hostile world. May your name be lifted up and exalted
9:52
Speaker 1: as a result of the way we live. How we think.
9:59
Speaker 1: The way we rear. our families the way we conduct
10:03
Speaker 1: ourselves in a lost and dying generation these gifts are
10:09
Speaker 1: yours and we give them with hearts full of gratitude
10:14
Speaker 1: in the name of our Savior Jesus the Lamb who
10:18
Speaker 1: has taken away the sins of the world pray and
10:21
Speaker 1: everyone said you may be seated there are times it
10:29
Speaker 1: helps to have a word picture in your mind when
10:31
Speaker 1: you're approaching a book of the Bible or a letter
10:35
Speaker 1: in the New Testament it occurred to me this past
10:38
Speaker 1: week that a good word picture for the letter to
10:41
Speaker 1: the Romans would be a crossword puzzle where you work
10:46
Speaker 1: both vertically and horizontally and in the project. The first
10:52
Speaker 1: 11 chapters of the letter to the Romans are for
10:57
Speaker 1: the most part vertical in nature. They speak often of God,
11:02
Speaker 1: of the work of God, as he reaches his great
11:07
Speaker 1: arms of mercy and love into the ranks of humanity
11:12
Speaker 1: and by his grace selects people like you and me.
11:16
Speaker 1: And as we trust in his Son as Savior, He
11:20
Speaker 1: gives us the righteousness of Christ. He declares that we
11:25
Speaker 1: are righteous, as righteous as his son. And we, therefore,
11:30
Speaker 1: in gratitude to him, again, out of a vertical gratitude,
11:36
Speaker 1: we live out our lives to please him. We have
11:38
Speaker 1: a peace with God. We have a relationship with God.
11:43
Speaker 1: We begin to develop a walk with God for his
11:46
Speaker 1: great glory and purpose. Even in chapters 9, 10, and 11,
11:51
Speaker 1: where the Jews are brought into focus, and we learn
11:55
Speaker 1: of our being grafted into that vine, and by His grace,
11:59
Speaker 1: Gentiles being included in this family of God. Again, we
12:04
Speaker 1: are grateful to Him, and our focus is vertical. When
12:08
Speaker 1: you get to chapter 12, all the way through chapter 16,
12:13
Speaker 1: it seems as though the focus turns from the vertical
12:17
Speaker 1: to the horizontal. We learn in these last five chapters,
12:22
Speaker 1: 12 through 16, something of how we relate to one
12:28
Speaker 1: another who are in the family of God. Understanding our role,
12:33
Speaker 1: our gifts, the purpose for which we are left on
12:37
Speaker 1: this earth, and then how to relate to one another
12:40
Speaker 1: in harmony and love and compassion and mercy and forgiveness
12:45
Speaker 1: and always grace. The turning point in these two focuses
12:53
Speaker 1: would be at Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2,
12:58
Speaker 1: where Paul urges us, almost as if he's on his knees, saying,
13:04
Speaker 1: I beseech you, I urge you, by the mercies of God,
13:10
Speaker 1: that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Remember last
13:16
Speaker 1: time we were together, we talked about the role of
13:20
Speaker 1: being believers who place ourselves, our bodies, on the altar.
13:26
Speaker 1: By that, the symbolism includes the senses that characterize our physical,
13:33
Speaker 1: emotional lives, as well as the organs, literally our eyes,
13:39
Speaker 1: our ears, our mouths, our vocal cords, our hearts, if
13:44
Speaker 1: you will, our stomachs. our whole being to God. Some
13:48
Speaker 1: of us have more to offer to God than others,
13:50
Speaker 1: don't we? We lay ourselves before the Lord and as living,
13:54
Speaker 1: not dead or dying, but as living sacrifices, we conduct
14:00
Speaker 1: ourselves for his great glory and for his purpose. But
14:06
Speaker 1: all of that happens because we have the mind that's
14:10
Speaker 1: been renewed or is being renewed. Actions occur because there
14:16
Speaker 1: are right thoughts. And right thinking begins when the mind
14:21
Speaker 1: has been renewed. And if I were to put verse
14:24
Speaker 1: 2 into simple everyday language, I would say, as we
14:29
Speaker 1: are transformed in mind, we begin to see life through
14:33
Speaker 1: God's perspective. We handle trials as Christ would handle them.
14:41
Speaker 1: We deal with difficulties. as Christ dealt with difficulties. We
14:46
Speaker 1: approach the challenges that hit us and sometime cut our
14:51
Speaker 1: legs out from under us as Christ handled the challenges
14:55
Speaker 1: in his life. All of that ties into how we think.
15:00
Speaker 1: Thinking correctly starts, of course, in the mind. To break
15:07
Speaker 1: patterns of the way we were taught to think is
15:11
Speaker 1: a big part of the work of the Holy Spirit.
15:14
Speaker 1: Look how the verse reads. Do not be conformed to
15:18
Speaker 1: this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
15:26
Speaker 1: mind so that you may prove what the will of
15:29
Speaker 1: God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
15:35
Speaker 1: In this world, we are barraged constantly with temptations in
15:39
Speaker 1: four great areas. Fortune, fame, power, pleasure. Nothing innately wrong
15:48
Speaker 1: in any of the four. Nothing wrong with a great
15:50
Speaker 1: amount of money. Nothing wrong with fame. Nothing is wrong
15:56
Speaker 1: with influence and power or even with pleasure. God has
16:01
Speaker 1: given us all things richly to enjoy. However, from the
16:05
Speaker 1: world's perspective, it will twist those things and turn fortune
16:10
Speaker 1: into greed. or make fame a dominating force where we
16:15
Speaker 1: take advantage of, even abuse others. We take power that
16:21
Speaker 1: we're given and we run over others, and pleasures become
16:26
Speaker 1: nothing but sensual pursuits that fulfill the sexual drives of
16:31
Speaker 1: our minds and our lives. When we begin to think
16:35
Speaker 1: with renewed minds, we address the fortune, fame, power, pleasure
16:40
Speaker 1: temptations wisely. as Christ would do. It occurs to me
16:46
Speaker 1: when I'm reading verse 2 of Romans 12 that we
16:50
Speaker 1: need a parallel passage out of 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
16:55
Speaker 1: Please turn over there. Just a couple of letters to
16:58
Speaker 1: the right. You'll get through first and then come to
17:01
Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians. Notice chapter 10, which addresses the mind of
17:06
Speaker 1: in verses 3, 4, and 5. I want to suggest
17:09
Speaker 1: to you that the fortresses and the towers and the
17:13
Speaker 1: imaginations and the words used by the apostles, speculations, all
17:18
Speaker 1: have to do with those things in our minds that
17:22
Speaker 1: had been long-standing ways of thinking. And it's the work
17:26
Speaker 1: of the Spirit of God to come through and destroy
17:30
Speaker 1: those things that had been in place all this time.
17:33
Speaker 1: time through our secular lives and rebuild them as Christ
17:37
Speaker 1: would have them rebuilt. Look at 2 Corinthians 10.3. Though
17:41
Speaker 1: we walk in the flesh, stop right there. We conduct
17:45
Speaker 1: our lives in the flesh. We drive our cars. We
17:49
Speaker 1: go to work. We deal with life. We handle difficulties.
17:55
Speaker 1: We relate to others. We solve problems. We address issues.
18:02
Speaker 1: In a flesh sort of way, we do it with
18:04
Speaker 1: our hands, with our minds, and even with our emotions
18:07
Speaker 1: and our wills. Though we walk according to flesh, the
18:12
Speaker 1: real battle is not of the flesh. It is not visible.
18:16
Speaker 1: It is invisible. See how he reads, how he writes?
18:19
Speaker 1: We do not war according to that same flesh. Now
18:24
Speaker 1: he explains that. For the weapons of our warfare are
18:30
Speaker 1: not of the flesh. but divinely powerful for the destruction
18:37
Speaker 1: of fortresses. I want to suggest these fortresses are long
18:41
Speaker 1: standing habits of thought. At least that's one way to
18:46
Speaker 1: view this. The warfare that goes on is in the
18:49
Speaker 1: mind where the spirit of God comes to terms in
18:53
Speaker 1: our minds with long standing ways of thinking. Could be negativity,
18:58
Speaker 1: could be lust. It could be greed. It could be
19:02
Speaker 1: a power-hungry mentality. But the Spirit of God goes to
19:06
Speaker 1: work dealing with divine power in the destruction of fortresses
19:12
Speaker 1: that have been erected in our minds. Go further in
19:15
Speaker 1: verse 5. We are destroying speculations. There's another category we'll
19:20
Speaker 1: not get into. In fact, every lofty thing raised up
19:26
Speaker 1: against the knowledge of God. How... eloquent as that, raised
19:32
Speaker 1: up against the knowledge of God. And here's our goal.
19:35
Speaker 1: We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
19:42
Speaker 1: If you were to ask me the goal of a
19:44
Speaker 1: believer as it relates to the mind, it is to
19:47
Speaker 1: come to the place where every thought is captive to
19:51
Speaker 1: the obedience of christ the lofty things that have stood
19:55
Speaker 1: up so long and tall in our minds have been
19:58
Speaker 1: removed some of them we learned from our parents they
20:02
Speaker 1: weren't correct most of our parents met well But what
20:07
Speaker 1: we learned from them was not God's way of dealing
20:10
Speaker 1: with things. Some of them were. So those stay in place.
20:15
Speaker 1: Some of the things we learned in education, some of
20:18
Speaker 1: them in our days in university, or maybe in graduate work,
20:22
Speaker 1: where we began to build a system of thought that
20:26
Speaker 1: filled our minds through which we interpreted life and by
20:31
Speaker 1: which we dealt with life. The whole point, back in
20:35
Speaker 1: Romans 12, turn back to verse 2, is that we
20:38
Speaker 1: not be conformed to life in those towers, in the
20:42
Speaker 1: realm of speculations and all those fortresses, but to allow
20:47
Speaker 1: the Spirit of God to renew our minds. I love
20:51
Speaker 1: the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases the Corinthian passage. Listen to
20:55
Speaker 1: these words. The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there.
21:01
Speaker 1: The world doesn't fight fairs. but we don't live or
21:05
Speaker 1: fight our battles that way. The tools of our trade
21:09
Speaker 1: aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing
21:14
Speaker 1: that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God
21:20
Speaker 1: tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against
21:27
Speaker 1: the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion
21:31
Speaker 1: and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
21:38
Speaker 1: Love the way that reads. Our goal is to bring
21:41
Speaker 1: a new structure of thinking as we deal with life.
21:47
Speaker 1: This is part of Christian maturity. This is part of
21:49
Speaker 1: training ourselves to think correctly. And as you're in the
21:54
Speaker 1: process of rearing your children, it's a part of teaching
21:57
Speaker 1: them how to do it. It's all part of that. Now,
22:01
Speaker 1: With all of that as a background, let's understand when
22:05
Speaker 1: we come to verse 3 down through verse 8, we
22:09
Speaker 1: are turning a corner toward the horizontal as we begin
22:14
Speaker 1: to see things correctly. So I suggest for our time
22:19
Speaker 1: together today, verse 3 talks about thinking correctly about ourselves.
22:27
Speaker 1: Verses 4 and 5 have to do with thinking correctly
22:30
Speaker 1: about others. In the body of Christ. And then six
22:36
Speaker 1: through eight. Thinking correctly about spiritual gifts. We'll come to
22:41
Speaker 1: the last two in a moment. Let's start. With ourselves.
22:46
Speaker 1: Thinking correctly. About ourselves. Look at his initial command. Through
22:55
Speaker 1: the grace given to me. I say to everyone among you.
23:01
Speaker 1: That includes you. That includes me. Our name is all
23:05
Speaker 1: over everyone among you. I say to every believer not
23:10
Speaker 1: to think more highly of himself or herself than he
23:15
Speaker 1: or she ought to think. Let's stop right there. What's
23:19
Speaker 1: the command all about? It's about guarding against arrogance. In fact,
23:29
Speaker 1: I find it very and in fact intriguing that in
23:33
Speaker 1: one verse, the apostle uses the same root word to
23:39
Speaker 1: think four times. He renders it, I say to everyone
23:44
Speaker 1: among you not to think, there's the first one, more
23:48
Speaker 1: highly of himself than he ought to think, there's the second,
23:52
Speaker 1: but to think, there's the third, so as to have
23:56
Speaker 1: sound thinking, there's the fourth. In two of the four,
24:00
Speaker 1: there are prefixes that deepen the meaning of the word.
24:04
Speaker 1: For example, this word froneo, P-H-R-O-N-E-O, froneo, has as a
24:11
Speaker 1: prefix huper. We get our word hyper from it. So
24:16
Speaker 1: let's use that. I say to everyone not to hyperthink
24:19
Speaker 1: about himself. In other words, don't think more highly. Don't
24:25
Speaker 1: think of yourself as above anyone else. Don't super think.
24:32
Speaker 1: Don't overthink. It's a statement against conceit and arrogance. How
24:42
Speaker 1: does that come out? How does that work its way out? Well,
24:45
Speaker 1: a number of ways. People who are conceited focus on
24:50
Speaker 1: how much they have done, and they love to tell you.
24:54
Speaker 1: How well-educated they are, and they will frequently drop whatever
24:58
Speaker 1: degree they have, in case you haven't heard in the
25:01
Speaker 1: last three or four hours. They're there to remind you again.
25:04
Speaker 1: How intellectually gifted or how quick-witted. How much money they make.
25:08
Speaker 1: How strong they are. How far they've traveled. Why they're
25:12
Speaker 1: the best qualified to get something done. How they're more gifted,
25:16
Speaker 1: and often it comes out more sophisticated. how they're better
25:21
Speaker 1: read or wider read and better trained, more handsome, more beautiful.
25:29
Speaker 1: You've been around it. They love to drop names. A
25:33
Speaker 1: great place for this to happen is at pastor's gatherings.
25:38
Speaker 1: It's amazing. You'd think most of them knew Charles Haddon
25:42
Speaker 1: Spurgeon personally. It's remarkable. If not that, they've hung around
25:46
Speaker 1: with George Bush privately. Rule mentioning the jobs they've done
25:53
Speaker 1: or the things they've accomplished or size of congregation. That's
25:57
Speaker 1: always one of those bragging points. You're in a career.
26:00
Speaker 1: You're in a world. You're in a kind of work
26:04
Speaker 1: where you've come across that sort of thinking. Somebody wrote
26:08
Speaker 1: a little piece that helps put everything in perspective. Sometime
26:12
Speaker 1: when you're feeling important, sometime when your ego is way up,
26:15
Speaker 1: Sometime when you take it for granted that you are
26:17
Speaker 1: the prize-winning pup, sometime when you feel that your absence
26:21
Speaker 1: would leave an unfillable hole, just follow these simple instructions
26:24
Speaker 1: and see how it humbles your soul. Take a bucket,
26:27
Speaker 1: fill it with water, put your hand in it up
26:29
Speaker 1: to your wrist. Now pull it out fast, and the
26:32
Speaker 1: hole that remains is the measure of how much you'll
26:35
Speaker 1: be missed. Following our second morning service this morning, a
26:43
Speaker 1: fellow walked up to me and he said, I heard
26:45
Speaker 1: a great motto this past week. He said, it's a
26:49
Speaker 1: very simple one, but you'll remember it. The cemetery is
26:52
Speaker 1: full of indispensable people. You're on your way there, whether
26:59
Speaker 1: you want to admit it or not. You've got to
27:01
Speaker 1: put your pants on one leg at a time and
27:04
Speaker 1: a half dozen other cliches you've heard most of your life. Please,
27:08
Speaker 1: no arrogance. We can't stomach much more of it. Furthermore,
27:13
Speaker 1: it's very unattractive for any of us to feel we
27:17
Speaker 1: are something special. Now, when you hear that, you think, well,
27:20
Speaker 1: what I ought to do is look humble. I need
27:24
Speaker 1: to be lowly. So that's why it reads, don't think
27:28
Speaker 1: of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but
27:30
Speaker 1: put yourself down a lot. Look lowly. Grovel. Become a
27:34
Speaker 1: human doormat. No, doesn't say any of that. It says,
27:40
Speaker 1: don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think,
27:42
Speaker 1: but think so as to have sound judgment. The word
27:51
Speaker 1: means reasonable. Have a reasonable assessment of who you are.
27:58
Speaker 1: That's how to think correctly about yourself, meaning you have strengths.
28:03
Speaker 1: To deny them is to deny the truth. You have gifts.
28:09
Speaker 1: To know what your gifts are and to carry them
28:12
Speaker 1: out is a part of your obedience, your calling. To
28:16
Speaker 1: act like you don't have such gifts is not at
28:19
Speaker 1: all attractive, and it isn't humble. Martin Lloyd-Jones tells of
28:25
Speaker 1: an experience he had at the train while waiting for
28:28
Speaker 1: his train. A man walked up to him and said, oh, Dr. Jones,
28:32
Speaker 1: I am just a chimney sweep in the house of
28:35
Speaker 1: the Lord, worthless to the core. Let me carry your suitcase.
28:39
Speaker 1: I am a nobody and you are a man of
28:41
Speaker 1: great gifts. Dr. Jones saw right through that nonsense and
28:45
Speaker 1: didn't deal too kindly with him. In fact, as I recall,
28:48
Speaker 1: he said, you know, I think you're right. That's a
28:52
Speaker 1: wonderful way to bring them down, isn't it? When they're
28:54
Speaker 1: trying to look lowly, you agree with them. Well, you
28:58
Speaker 1: don't have to go that far. We had a young
29:00
Speaker 1: man who lived with us for a few months that
29:03
Speaker 1: his favorite line to us to impress us was, I
29:05
Speaker 1: just want to be a servant. I just want to
29:08
Speaker 1: be a servant. I just want to serve you and Cynthia,
29:12
Speaker 1: whatever it may take. So I'd ask him to do
29:14
Speaker 1: some things and he'd say, well, now here's another way
29:17
Speaker 1: we might go about it. I'd say, wait, I thought
29:19
Speaker 1: you were going to be a servant. I know. And
29:20
Speaker 1: he didn't want to be a servant. He wanted to
29:23
Speaker 1: look like a servant. He wanted to talk like a servant.
29:27
Speaker 1: When you have a proper assessment of yourself, you serve
29:30
Speaker 1: without calling attention to it, but you don't do it
29:33
Speaker 1: because you're a nobody. You have an eternal soul for
29:37
Speaker 1: which Christ died. You will be rewarded for your good
29:41
Speaker 1: works done in the power of the Spirit. God set
29:45
Speaker 1: his affection on you as he saved you and called
29:49
Speaker 1: you into his family. You're not a worthless nobody. You're
29:53
Speaker 1: not a worm of no value. He's not saying that.
30:01
Speaker 1: He said, don't think of yourself more highly than you
30:04
Speaker 1: ought to think, but have a good assessment of yourself.
30:10
Speaker 1: Think correctly about yourself. He moves from there into our
30:15
Speaker 1: relationship with other believers. Verses 4 and 5 sounded first
30:20
Speaker 1: like a tongue twister. Did you get that when I
30:23
Speaker 1: read it earlier? Listen to this. For just as we
30:25
Speaker 1: have many members in one body and all the members
30:27
Speaker 1: do not have the same function, so we who are many...
30:30
Speaker 1: are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.
30:33
Speaker 1: Sounds like those ads you hear on the radio where
30:35
Speaker 1: at the end they tell you 15 things that aren't
30:37
Speaker 1: good about the product, but it's like, and you miss it.
30:42
Speaker 1: This is not a tongue twister at all. This is
30:45
Speaker 1: all about the body. Think first of the human body.
30:51
Speaker 1: Each one of us is made up in a human
30:53
Speaker 1: body with many parts, a number of organs, none of
30:58
Speaker 1: them seen. And the limbs that we have are different.
31:03
Speaker 1: They serve different functions. They're different from what the fingers do.
31:07
Speaker 1: And the fingers work is different from what the toes do.
31:11
Speaker 1: All of us, though we have many parts, really are
31:14
Speaker 1: made up of one body. And this body, if it
31:17
Speaker 1: functions correctly, works in harmony with itself. If the arm
31:22
Speaker 1: no longer works, it's called a stroke. And it is
31:27
Speaker 1: of no help in the body. In fact, it in
31:30
Speaker 1: many ways, sort of gets in the way of the
31:32
Speaker 1: body as we try to go about our work with
31:35
Speaker 1: the part of our bodies that work. The whole point being,
31:39
Speaker 1: every part of our being is important and the renewed
31:43
Speaker 1: mind remembers that. What is true of the human body
31:47
Speaker 1: is true of the body of Christ. There is no
31:51
Speaker 1: such thing as an unimportant, devalued member in the body
31:56
Speaker 1: of Christ. Though as we will see, there are some
31:59
Speaker 1: gifts that are more public and prominent than others. No
32:03
Speaker 1: gifts are of greater importance than another gift. We'll get
32:08
Speaker 1: to that in a moment. What this seems to emphasize
32:11
Speaker 1: is three particular things about the body. First, the importance
32:15
Speaker 1: of unity. It works together. So it is in the
32:20
Speaker 1: body of Christ. Second is diversity. Variety. Have you noticed
32:26
Speaker 1: how much God loves variety? I mean, compare the deer
32:33
Speaker 1: to the alligator. Just for an example, compare a zinnia
32:40
Speaker 1: to an orchid. Compare a little yellow canary to a parrot.
32:47
Speaker 1: Just simple little illustrations and God made them all. I mean,
32:52
Speaker 1: compare the catfish to Is there anything uglier under the
32:55
Speaker 1: water than a catfish compared to a sleek marlin slipping
33:01
Speaker 1: through the water about ready to be caught on my line?
33:06
Speaker 1: Different as they can be, but they're all part of
33:08
Speaker 1: the fish species. So it is in the body, the diversity.
33:14
Speaker 1: God loves it that way. He made it that way.
33:18
Speaker 1: And mutuality. We care for each other. We notice each other.
33:23
Speaker 1: We relate to each other. One of us hurts, the
33:26
Speaker 1: other one hurts too. One of us is weeping, the
33:29
Speaker 1: other one cares. One is laughing, the other rejoices with them.
33:34
Speaker 1: This is all part of mutuality. So we have unity, diversity, mutuality,
33:40
Speaker 1: and it all works together. I remember years ago playing
33:46
Speaker 1: sandlot football as a kid, and I was running out
33:50
Speaker 1: for a pass, and I turned and was looking toward
33:52
Speaker 1: the passer, and my leg dropped into one of these
33:55
Speaker 1: holes where these big sprinklers pop up. I like doing that. Sprinkler. Anyway,
34:07
Speaker 1: it wasn't doing that part. It was just down there
34:09
Speaker 1: like a landmine. So I turned and I'm running. I
34:13
Speaker 1: run into that hole and I sprained my ankle so badly.
34:20
Speaker 1: It swells up. That ankle hurts so bad that when
34:25
Speaker 1: it came time for bed, I went to bed and
34:29
Speaker 1: my body felt it so much. It stayed up all
34:32
Speaker 1: night to keep my ankle company. Knowing how much my
34:35
Speaker 1: ankle was hurting. So I couldn't say, it's just my ankle,
34:40
Speaker 1: it's not my head. Everything else is great, it's just
34:43
Speaker 1: my ankle. Well, you ever gotten a little pebble in
34:48
Speaker 1: your shoe? You think it's that big. And you check
34:53
Speaker 1: it out, it's a little tiny, looks like the top
34:55
Speaker 1: of the head of a pen. Or a splinter. A
34:59
Speaker 1: splinter in your finger. All you have is a paper clip.
35:02
Speaker 1: You're digging in there to get that splinter out. It's
35:05
Speaker 1: just a splinter. I mean, you try to work on
35:09
Speaker 1: your computer with a splinter in your finger, you can't
35:11
Speaker 1: do it. What's wrong? The body works together. So it
35:15
Speaker 1: is in the body of Christ. That's why such stark
35:20
Speaker 1: independence is not healthy. We relate to each other. Hold
35:24
Speaker 1: your place and go to Philippians 2. There's another grand
35:28
Speaker 1: section that you need to tie in with Romans 3.
35:34
Speaker 1: Philippians 2, beginning at verse 2, make my joy complete
35:39
Speaker 1: by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love,
35:42
Speaker 1: united in spirit, there's unity, intent on one purpose. Next verse,
35:48
Speaker 1: do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility
35:56
Speaker 1: of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.
36:02
Speaker 1: Do not merely look out for your own personal interests,
36:07
Speaker 1: but also for the interests of others. Some of you
36:12
Speaker 1: have middle schoolers. That could be your life's verse these
36:17
Speaker 1: days as you're talking to your middle schoolers. Why? Because
36:21
Speaker 1: life is all about them. The thing I've loved about
36:25
Speaker 1: Kanakuk Camp is Joe White, the leader, who's a wonderful guy,
36:31
Speaker 1: Has come up with a motto that's so great. And
36:33
Speaker 1: everybody that goes through Kanakuk learns it. And they come
36:35
Speaker 1: home and they tell their mom and dad all about it.
36:38
Speaker 1: It's called, I'm third. I'm third. Parents love it when
36:45
Speaker 1: kids come home from camp saying, I'm third. What does
36:49
Speaker 1: that mean? God's first. Others are second. I'm third. I
36:55
Speaker 1: was in traffic the other day and an SUV came
36:58
Speaker 1: around me. They had obviously been to Kanakuk. Had all
37:01
Speaker 1: the stuff on the, and on the back in great
37:03
Speaker 1: big letters were, I'm third. This guy was switching in
37:07
Speaker 1: and out of traffic. I thought, you forgot, you forgot.
37:15
Speaker 1: That's why I never put any stickers on my car. Absolutely.
37:20
Speaker 1: No fish, none of that stuff. No cross, just an
37:24
Speaker 1: old ugly chrome bumper. That's all I need. I'm third.
37:28
Speaker 1: All based on Philippians chapter 2 and Romans chapter 12
37:33
Speaker 1: verses 4 and 5. Where we being many are one
37:39
Speaker 1: body in Christ. But don't miss this. We are individually
37:44
Speaker 1: members of one another. Listen to me. You're a believer.
37:52
Speaker 1: That person sitting next to you that you just met
37:55
Speaker 1: as we began our service today You're a member of
37:58
Speaker 1: his life, of her life. You just learned her name.
38:03
Speaker 1: You're members. You're together. And all down the row where
38:09
Speaker 1: you're sitting, you're together. This reminds me of two warnings
38:14
Speaker 1: I need to take the time for. A little sidebar. Ding.
38:18
Speaker 1: A little sidebar here. Change the subject for a moment.
38:23
Speaker 1: Guard against extreme individualism. If there is one weakness in
38:28
Speaker 1: the independent Bible church movement, it's the cultivation of this
38:34
Speaker 1: independent spirit. Nothing wrong with thinking as an individual. There's
38:40
Speaker 1: everything right about that. But don't think of yourself as
38:44
Speaker 1: the only one on the block or the only one
38:47
Speaker 1: on the beach or worse, the only one in the church.
38:52
Speaker 1: You're one. And the church doesn't revolve around you. May
38:57
Speaker 1: I say, I'm one. It doesn't revolve around me. You
39:04
Speaker 1: don't have your seat. You have, hopefully, a seat. But
39:11
Speaker 1: if they got there before you did, you can't move
39:15
Speaker 1: them over saying, I've had that seat for seven years.
39:18
Speaker 1: This is my seat. Please. Isn't it funny how we
39:24
Speaker 1: like the same seat? People always wonder, How does the
39:27
Speaker 1: pastor know I wasn't there last Saturday? Well, you dodo,
39:30
Speaker 1: you sit in the same seat for eight years. Even
39:32
Speaker 1: I could get that. Give it up. How about parking space?
39:43
Speaker 1: Just be grateful there's a space. Guard against extreme individualism.
39:48
Speaker 1: Here's the other warning. Guard against pedestalizing anybody. I don't
39:54
Speaker 1: care how gifted. I don't care how influential. I don't
39:58
Speaker 1: care how helpful they've been in your life. They don't
40:01
Speaker 1: deserve a pedestal. One deserves the pedestal. And he'll never
40:06
Speaker 1: let you down. He has no feet of clay. He's
40:10
Speaker 1: never done wrong, thought wrong, or acted wrong. He's the savior.
40:16
Speaker 1: He's the head of the church. No one else is
40:19
Speaker 1: the head of the church. Christ. Read widely. Don't read
40:26
Speaker 1: just the books of one author. Think broadly. Think beyond
40:33
Speaker 1: the one who taught you the most. Teach yourself that
40:38
Speaker 1: there are many voices that come with many helpful insights
40:45
Speaker 1: into the scriptures. Certainly, we're to be selective and discerning,
40:51
Speaker 1: but guard against making one your only source of spiritual information. Now,
41:01
Speaker 1: when we have a renewed mind, we think correctly about ourselves,
41:04
Speaker 1: not arrogantly, but with a reasonable assessment. Second, we think
41:08
Speaker 1: correctly about others. God first, others second, us third hand.
41:14
Speaker 1: We guard against individualism to the extreme and unrestrained pedestalization
41:19
Speaker 1: of individuals. Now, the third, we think correctly about spiritual gifts.
41:24
Speaker 1: And when I use those words, I realize that some
41:26
Speaker 1: of you have never in your life heard about spiritual gifts.
41:29
Speaker 1: I also know that others of you have been taught
41:32
Speaker 1: this subject for hours. So my task today is to
41:36
Speaker 1: address the subject so that everybody's on the same page.
41:39
Speaker 1: So let's begin with the definition, just to make sure
41:42
Speaker 1: we understand what I mean. by spiritual gift. A spiritual
41:46
Speaker 1: gift is an extraordinary ability given to each believer by
41:51
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit that enables us to perform a function
41:57
Speaker 1: with ease and effectiveness. You got it? It's an extraordinary
42:05
Speaker 1: ability given to each believer. That's you too. That's you too.
42:12
Speaker 1: Most of us have more than one gift, an extraordinary
42:15
Speaker 1: ability given by the Holy Spirit that enables us to
42:19
Speaker 1: perform a function with ease and effectiveness. In the Bible,
42:24
Speaker 1: there are four lists of such gifts. You want to
42:29
Speaker 1: make your own study of them? Here is one of them,
42:31
Speaker 1: here in Romans 12. Another is in Ephesians 4, another
42:36
Speaker 1: in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, and Lastly, there's another
42:41
Speaker 1: list in 1 Peter 4, 10 and 11. But the
42:44
Speaker 1: list we're looking at offers a sample of seven gifts.
42:48
Speaker 1: In fact, if you read along with me a few
42:49
Speaker 1: minutes ago, you heard the naming of these seven gifts.
42:56
Speaker 1: Look closely. Let's just sort of click them off one
42:58
Speaker 1: after another. One, he mentions prophecy. Since we have gifts
43:04
Speaker 1: that differ according to the grace given to us, if
43:07
Speaker 1: prophecy is according to the proportion of his faith. Strictly speaking, prophets,
43:13
Speaker 1: before the Bible was complete, spoke ex cathedra. They spoke
43:18
Speaker 1: under divine inspiration without error. They were the Oracle of God.
43:24
Speaker 1: When a prophet came and spoke God's truth, you could
43:28
Speaker 1: count on it. That's because there wasn't a completed set
43:31
Speaker 1: of scriptures. Now that we have the Bible complete, there
43:35
Speaker 1: is no need for such a prophet. God speaks like
43:40
Speaker 1: no other individual could speak today. His word speaks without error. Now,
43:46
Speaker 1: you could use the word popularly, as many people do.
43:50
Speaker 1: They refer to a preacher as a prophet. What do
43:53
Speaker 1: they mean by that? Well, that's often used to describe
43:57
Speaker 1: a person who communicates truth about our times in penetrating
44:02
Speaker 1: and convicting ways. They have the ability to address specific
44:07
Speaker 1: issues of our culture, and they sort of cut through
44:10
Speaker 1: it like a hot knife through butter. They offer insights
44:14
Speaker 1: and understanding. They often are people of great passion and
44:18
Speaker 1: deep conviction. So in that popular sense, a person could
44:22
Speaker 1: be called one who has prophetic kind of gifts, but
44:26
Speaker 1: not in the sense of telling the future or in
44:28
Speaker 1: speaking without error. There's a second one mentioned here in
44:32
Speaker 1: verse 17. Seven, it appears, if service in his serving.
44:36
Speaker 1: This is called the gift of helping or the gift
44:39
Speaker 1: of serving. It's the word from which we get our
44:42
Speaker 1: word deacon, serving. Now you say, compared to a prophet
44:47
Speaker 1: or compared to a teacher, who would want to have
44:49
Speaker 1: the gift of helping? Well, let me encourage you. Mark 10,
44:54
Speaker 1: 45 says, the son of God did not come to
44:57
Speaker 1: be ministered to, but to minister. Same Greek word, diakoneo.
45:04
Speaker 1: He came to serve. Jesus demonstrated the gift of serving
45:07
Speaker 1: throughout his ministry. If I may say it this way,
45:11
Speaker 1: you are in your helping just like Christ. You're serving
45:17
Speaker 1: in ways behind the scenes that enable the body to
45:20
Speaker 1: function well. A few examples. Assisting teachers in the ministry
45:27
Speaker 1: of teaching. Ministries of music. The playing of instruments, the
45:33
Speaker 1: singing of songs, being a part of a choir, serving
45:37
Speaker 1: in that capacity, helping with construction, doing nursery work, parking
45:42
Speaker 1: lot attendance, along with that is the gift of courage,
45:46
Speaker 1: I might add. Ushering is a gift of serving. Clerical duties,
45:52
Speaker 1: you would never have an outline if it weren't for
45:54
Speaker 1: the gift of helping. Individuals who were gifted to put
45:57
Speaker 1: things like this into print to make sure there are
46:01
Speaker 1: worship folders every Sunday, to make sure that the place
46:04
Speaker 1: is clean. Custodial work, transportation assistance, technical work and audio
46:11
Speaker 1: visual and the value of that. You realize if the
46:14
Speaker 1: lights went out in this room, we would be in
46:16
Speaker 1: complete darkness. There is no outside light. You realize if
46:20
Speaker 1: this microphone weren't on and appropriately dialed up, blended correctly
46:25
Speaker 1: with this room, You couldn't hear what I'm saying from
46:28
Speaker 1: about the fifth row back. Some of you thinking, what
46:31
Speaker 1: a blessing that might be. But that's another subject. Serving
46:35
Speaker 1: in a technical way, how important that is in the
46:38
Speaker 1: body of Christ. That may be your gift. So he says,
46:41
Speaker 1: if it's service, then serve. How about the teacher? Verse 7.
46:47
Speaker 1: He who teaches in his teaching. This is the ability
46:50
Speaker 1: to communicate revealed truth with clarity and ease and effectiveness.
46:57
Speaker 1: Teachers have a way of lifting print off the page
47:00
Speaker 1: and blending them into our lives, helping us grasp with
47:04
Speaker 1: understanding truth that we would otherwise overlook or miss. Every
47:11
Speaker 1: one of us could name teachers that have impacted our lives.
47:15
Speaker 1: Sometimes teachers become mentors, and that's the finest level of teaching.
47:22
Speaker 1: Someone who rubs alongside your life and helps shape you
47:26
Speaker 1: into the person You were meant to be teaching at
47:29
Speaker 1: its best. Then there is exhortation. You see that word?
47:33
Speaker 1: He who exhorts in his exhortation. This is the ability
47:37
Speaker 1: to drive home truth. This is an appeal for action. Now,
47:42
Speaker 1: some preachers have the gift of exhortation. They have the
47:45
Speaker 1: ability to confront wrongdoing, to deal with sin, to address indifference.
47:52
Speaker 1: And when you hear an exhorter, you feel like he's
47:54
Speaker 1: been reading your mail. When you're around an individual like this,
47:59
Speaker 1: you think, man, they know every dark place of my life.
48:03
Speaker 1: But wait a minute. Exhortation is not just about the negatives.
48:08
Speaker 1: Parakaleo is the word. It means to call alongside. That's
48:12
Speaker 1: the word used for the Holy Spirit. So this is
48:15
Speaker 1: a word for comforting others. This would be the gift
48:18
Speaker 1: of counseling. How valuable is that gift in the body
48:23
Speaker 1: of Christ? If you have never been in great emotional
48:26
Speaker 1: need and never had the need to talk to someone else,
48:29
Speaker 1: you can't imagine the benefit. But if you're ever there,
48:31
Speaker 1: you can't put a price tag on how much they
48:33
Speaker 1: can add to your life. It's part of the gift
48:36
Speaker 1: of exhortation. And how about this next one in giving?
48:40
Speaker 1: While all believers are instructed to give and to be generous,
48:43
Speaker 1: this is a person who has an extraordinary sense of
48:47
Speaker 1: need and is prompted to give beyond the normal measure.
48:52
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're rich people. Oftentimes they're not the rich people.
48:57
Speaker 1: And sometimes the giving is done with time and energy, expertise.
49:05
Speaker 1: When Cynthia and I were at the Wycliffe Translators headquarters
49:08
Speaker 1: in Orlando not long ago, we heard stories of people
49:12
Speaker 1: who had given large gifts. Their names weren't mentioned, but
49:16
Speaker 1: their gifts were. Translation stations have been built. Church structures
49:22
Speaker 1: have been built in difficult and lonely, destitute places. The
49:29
Speaker 1: giver is the wind beneath the wings of the visionary.
49:33
Speaker 1: The giver is the one, the one with the gift
49:36
Speaker 1: of giving, gives for the right reasons. has a great motive.
49:41
Speaker 1: She and I were in seminary. By my second semester,
49:46
Speaker 1: first year, we got word that a man had decided
49:50
Speaker 1: to pay for our tuition. This was a man with
49:53
Speaker 1: the gift of giving. And he not only paid for
49:56
Speaker 1: our tuition for every semester from then all the way
49:58
Speaker 1: through our four years at Dallas Seminary, he paid for
50:02
Speaker 1: 16 other students as well. You don't know his name.
50:06
Speaker 1: He told me to never call his name publicly. But
50:10
Speaker 1: you never knew that till I told you that. I
50:13
Speaker 1: decided my third year to sit down and write him
50:15
Speaker 1: a lengthy thank you letter. And I just wrote, dear Mr. So-and-so,
50:20
Speaker 1: I want to tell you how much your gift means.
50:21
Speaker 1: And I really wrote it carefully and I mailed it
50:23
Speaker 1: to him. He wrote, he sent me back that letter,
50:26
Speaker 1: wrote on it, said, stop writing me letters about my giving.
50:30
Speaker 1: You study. That's why I'm giving you these gifts. Isn't
50:34
Speaker 1: that good? It's the last letter of thanks I wrote him,
50:38
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. You keep writing letters, I'm not giving. Okay, man,
50:42
Speaker 1: I'm not going to write anything. When you have the
50:45
Speaker 1: gift of giving, you're not looking for your name in bronze.
50:48
Speaker 1: You're not looking for the building to be named after you.
50:51
Speaker 1: Though sometimes that does occur. Nothing wrong with that. But
50:54
Speaker 1: the whole point is that's not your motive for giving.
50:58
Speaker 1: You're giving because you love the project and you want
51:01
Speaker 1: to give for that special need. Now look at showing mercy.
51:05
Speaker 1: He ends with that one. That's not the least, but
51:08
Speaker 1: he ends with that one. Showing mercy with cheer. This
51:11
Speaker 1: is the extraordinary ability to sense the need of those
51:14
Speaker 1: who are hurting and to know what to say and
51:17
Speaker 1: how to say it and when to say it. These
51:21
Speaker 1: are people who are masters at hospital calls. They are
51:26
Speaker 1: wonderful in dealing with the dying. They know how to
51:30
Speaker 1: address those who are deeply, deeply hurting. My dear longtime friend,
51:40
Speaker 1: now gone, Joe Bailey, he and his wife survived the
51:43
Speaker 1: deaths of three of their boys, if you could imagine,
51:47
Speaker 1: Danny and John and Joe. One of them died when
51:52
Speaker 1: he was 18 days old following surgery. Another one died
51:56
Speaker 1: when he was five of leukemia. One died at 18
52:01
Speaker 1: from a sledding accident and a mild battle with hemophilia.
52:07
Speaker 1: Joe ultimately wrote a book called The View from a Hearse.
52:12
Speaker 1: Love that book. Mine is dog-eared. The pages are coming
52:16
Speaker 1: out of it. It later was named The Last Thing
52:21
Speaker 1: We Talk About. I like the first title. View from
52:25
Speaker 1: a Hearse. Joe writes, Sensitivity in the presence of grief
52:31
Speaker 1: should usually make us more silent, more listening. Don't try
52:37
Speaker 1: to prove anything to a survivor. An arm about the shoulder,
52:41
Speaker 1: a firm grip on the hand, a kiss. These are
52:45
Speaker 1: proofs grief needs, not logical reasoning. I was sitting, torn
52:52
Speaker 1: by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God's dealings,
52:58
Speaker 1: of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He
53:00
Speaker 1: talked and talked constantly. He said things I knew were true.
53:05
Speaker 1: I was unmoved. except I wish he'd go away. He
53:10
Speaker 1: finally did. Another came later and sat beside me. He
53:16
Speaker 1: didn't talk. He didn't ask leading questions. He just sat
53:21
Speaker 1: beside me for an hour or so, listened when I
53:24
Speaker 1: said something, prayed simply and briefly, and left. I was moved.
53:32
Speaker 1: I was comforted. I hated to see him go, That's
53:39
Speaker 1: the gift of showing mercy. If you've got that gift,
53:46
Speaker 1: don't hold back. There's a broken heart in every pew.
53:52
Speaker 1: There's a needy life nearer to you than you would ever,
53:56
Speaker 1: ever imagine. When I began to think with a renewed mind,
54:02
Speaker 1: what difference does that make? Initially, get this, it breaks
54:07
Speaker 1: the habit of groupthink. I'm no longer as impressed by
54:11
Speaker 1: what everybody else is saying and thinking, or even what
54:14
Speaker 1: the majority is saying. I start thinking like Christ, like
54:20
Speaker 1: the scriptures. It breaks the habit of groupthink. The second, continually,
54:25
Speaker 1: I reap the benefit of seeing what others fail to see.
54:30
Speaker 1: I've given a discernment that's missing in this world. I'm
54:35
Speaker 1: not so given to panic. I don't rush to judgment.
54:42
Speaker 1: I'm calmed rather than panicked. That continually is a benefit
54:47
Speaker 1: of a renewed mind. Ultimately, others are influenced to start
54:51
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. I challenge all of us to
54:56
Speaker 1: realize who we are in Christ. To respect others for
55:02
Speaker 1: what they are and what they add to the body.
55:08
Speaker 1: And ultimately to understand and value the spiritual gift God
55:12
Speaker 1: has given you and those around you. Especially those gifted
55:16
Speaker 1: in ways you're not. I want us to bow our
55:20
Speaker 1: heads together and I'd like us for just a few
55:22
Speaker 1: moments to sit quietly before the Lord. You've listened very
55:27
Speaker 1: patiently and there's been a lot of information. Perhaps it's
55:33
Speaker 1: a right moment to have you do a little evaluation.
55:41
Speaker 1: You find yourself starting to be conformed to this age,
55:45
Speaker 1: surrounded by pretty influential people, or maybe the majority where
55:50
Speaker 1: you work that think like the world thinks. You sort
55:54
Speaker 1: of feel pretty distant from the things of God. This
56:02
Speaker 1: message today is designed with you in mind. This is
56:06
Speaker 1: a great opportunity for you to say, perhaps as a
56:08
Speaker 1: student in school, I'm going to start thinking for myself.
56:14
Speaker 1: By God's grace, I'm going to let the Lord guide
56:16
Speaker 1: me from his word. I'm going to stop paying so
56:20
Speaker 1: much attention to what other people say or think. I'm
56:26
Speaker 1: going to start operating my business more like Christ would
56:29
Speaker 1: if he were in charge. Start thinking about myself in
56:35
Speaker 1: a way that honors him and diminishes my own importance.
56:40
Speaker 1: deflates my ego. I'm going to quit referring so much
56:45
Speaker 1: to what I've done and things I'm good at. I'm
56:51
Speaker 1: going to start taking into consideration others' strengths. And maybe
56:57
Speaker 1: it's your prayer today that the Lord would guide you
56:59
Speaker 1: to know what your gift is and then you begin
57:01
Speaker 1: to exercise it. I mentioned as we began the service
57:06
Speaker 1: our prayer room and it's open for you. Any of
57:10
Speaker 1: you who wish to have someone to meet with, someone
57:14
Speaker 1: who has a gift of showing mercy, they know how
57:18
Speaker 1: to listen. They respect you when you talk. They can help.
57:24
Speaker 1: If you've never trusted in Jesus Christ, that's plan A.
57:30
Speaker 1: Go there first. Father, I'm grateful for the joy of ministry.
57:38
Speaker 1: I thank you for the privilege of serving you in
57:41
Speaker 1: the capacity of my gifts. What an honor it is
57:45
Speaker 1: to do it, to have been able to do it
57:47
Speaker 1: all these years. How grateful I am for the way
57:52
Speaker 1: you use your word, first in my own life and
57:56
Speaker 1: the lives of other people. I thank you for these
58:00
Speaker 1: who are such faithful doers of the word, not just hearers.
58:06
Speaker 1: Pray that your name would be exalted, that this church
58:10
Speaker 1: would grow deeper, more in love with you, with one another.
58:16
Speaker 1: That we would never be guilty of graduating from our ranks,
58:20
Speaker 1: the ego-centered, the conceited, the arrogant. That we would release
58:27
Speaker 1: to this lost world people who know their way and
58:32
Speaker 1: conduct themselves in the power of the Spirit. Thank you
58:37
Speaker 1: for each one who models that and how much we
58:39
Speaker 1: all learn from them. Now, Father, dismiss us with your
58:43
Speaker 1: blessing and favor as we give you gratitude for our
58:49
Speaker 1: time together in worship. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
58:54
Speaker 1: In his sweet name, everyone said. Amen.
59:03
Speaker 3: The preceding message, How a Renewed Mind Thinks, was copyrighted
59:07
Speaker 3: in 2007, 2010, and 2012. the sound recording was copyrighted
59:13
Speaker 3: in 2025 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are
59:17
Speaker 3: reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is
59:22
Speaker 3: strictly prohibited.