You’re Not Special but You’re Needed – Romans 12: 3-8

Red Village Church Podcast

Audio Transcript

Morning. Wes always gets the most applause, so I’m not surprised. Well, welcome to Revelage Church. My name is Rob Fisher. I’m one of the elders here. We have Aaron Jozwaks, our regular preaching pastor, but myself and the lay elders, we try to get in here a couple of times a year. And, yeah, it’s just time for me to do it. So happy to be here.

You know, every time I preach, I’m just reminded that it’s just a grind. I’m struck at how much labor it is just to wrestle with the Bible and kind of work through the emotions and the burdens that come when you genuinely are wrestling with God, convicting you of your sin as you work through a text. So my thanks to Aaron, who’s just taken most of the weight of this usually.

I heard recently that, over an extended period of time, I think a discerning congregation is going to start to know the spiritual life of the pastor, perhaps as well as he does or even better, because they can see how this person is working out. The Bible says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, but it’s also about working out the text through their own lens.

Similar to that, I’ve preached on a similar passage to what we’re going to talk about today a few years back; it was in First Corinthians. This is just a topic that I’ve been wrestling with for multiple years. So when I get the opportunity to preach, I usually say, “Hey, I’ve just been thinking about this topic a lot, this passage a lot.” And so, Lord willing, I’ll understand it better by the time we’re done preaching it.

With that being said, we’re going to be in Romans 12 today, specifically Romans 12:3-8. So we’re taking a little bit of a break from Hebrews. It says this:

“For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

So let’s pray, and then we’ll dive into it.

Lord, we come, first of all, just grateful and thankful to you for giving us the Bible. We’re grateful that it says that this is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that we may be complete and equipped for every good work. So we ask for that now. We’re grateful that, you know, when we humbly and rightly examine your Word, your Word examines us. It challenges us, convicts us, and points us to Jesus as our Savior. We’re grateful that we have Jesus as our grounds for standing, righteous and justified before a holy and just God.

So, Lord, once again, I am just a sinful man handling holy and inspired words. I just ask that you would work mightily, that you would work beyond my own limitations, and that your Spirit would move. This would be for the good of your church and for the advancing of your kingdom. It’s in Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

We always want to be thoughtful readers and discerners of the Bible. So we start most sermons here by at least minimally thinking about the context of the text and what’s going on around the passage that we’re examining, just so we can fully understand it.

As the title of this book suggests, this passage is part of Paul’s letter to the early church in the city of Rome. It was written by Paul, who converted to Christianity shortly after the death of Jesus. Prior to that, he was a zealous persecutor of the church, seeking out Christians in service of Jewish leaders who wished for the Christian faith to be eradicated. He had a miraculous conversion and was used by God as a traveling missionary. God used him to plant and establish many of the early churches. A lot of these letters to the early churches went on to become the New Testament. They were initially letters to churches and disciples that he made while he was traveling.

Here specifically, Paul is writing to the believers in Rome. He had not been to Rome yet; he ends his life in Rome, but he had heard of what was going on in the Roman church. Therefore, he wrote to them.

From early on in this letter, we can see his main purpose in writing to the Romans. In chapter one, verses 16 and 17, it says, “For I’m not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, and as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.”

So that’s the main point, right? His main goal is the righteousness of God revealed in faith and showing the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—first to the Jew, then also to the Greek. The book of Romans serves as instruction in such a way; the first 11 chapters or so address what the church should be believing about the power of God for salvation and the righteousness of God being revealed.

Initially, he addresses what is theologically correct in that first part, and then he’s going to pivot to the more practical side of life, starting where we’re looking at today in chapter 12. In chapters 12 through 14, Paul shifts to lay out what the everyday implications look like for what he’s been writing in the first 11 chapters. At the end of Romans, he’s going to summarize what he’s been doing and what he wants to do in the future.

So we’re picking up right at the beginning of what Paul is talking about—how believers are to be living. The structure of this passage is specifically pretty basic; it’s just exhortation and illustration. You can see this very obviously as we read. So we’re just going to work through this verse by verse.

Verse three says, “For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

There are a few things in this verse that I want to unpack specifically. First of all, this is a classic Paul introduction. He’s making his appeal by the grace given to me, which is similar to how he starts verse one of chapter 12. In verse one, he says, “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God.” Again, he’s starting his exhortation by appealing to the work that God has done for him on his behalf.

If you read much of Paul’s work, you’re going to see that this is a super common method for him. Most of his letters begin something like, “Paul, an apostle of Christ, called by the will of God.” It’s a very simple statement, and it’s very easy to overlook, but I think it’s really worth noting. It’s important because Paul places high importance on this due to the frequency with which he employs it.

For us, much of a long and faithful Christian life is going to be found in doing the small and simple things correctly time and time again. So I think it’s important to pick up these small and simple things that Paul does consistently in his introductions.

Time and time again, Paul starts his exhortations not by appealing to himself or his accomplishments, but by appealing to God’s calling in his life and what God has done. First Corinthians starts this way: “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.” Second Corinthians starts, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Galatians states, “Paul, an apostle not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.” Then in 2 Timothy, Paul writes, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise that is in Christ Jesus.”

So, all that to say, and I didn’t even look that hard; I just did a skim. When Paul starts his exhortation by saying, “By the grace given to me,” he’s summarizing and reminding himself and the recipients of the right order of things. Again, so much of a long and faithful Christian life is about constantly resetting our priorities.

I long for and pray for a time when we don’t have to be so weighed down by our distractions, but this is the reality of life on earth after sin entered the world. As we think more about how Paul is starting this exhortation, I want to remind us why we do the same. We have a similar structure to almost every corporate gathering, whether it’s our business meetings or our Sunday morning gatherings. When we gather corporately, we read the Bible, we pray for specific things, and we might do an evidence of grace. We sing songs about the attributes of God and what he’s done for us. After that, we preach from the Bible, and we remind ourselves of our need for the gospel when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.

Just tying this back to the passage—where we’re only through the first half of the sentence—it is important. Paul starts this passage by saying, “For by the grace given to me, I say this.” It’s a very simple introduction, but Paul uses it often because it’s wildly important; it reminds the author and the recipients of the right priority of things. The right priority is God and what God has done, because God is sovereign.

If we have anything, it is from God and because of God. The struggle of correct priorities is a great summary of most of the sin we struggle with and minister against. Even in this very simple introductory line, Paul aims to get our priorities straight by putting God first in what God has done first. I think that’s just an example we all need to emulate in that very simple introduction.

Moving on here, the other thing to note is that Paul is addressing everyone, so no one gets to tune this passage out. Everyone has to listen in and consider what Paul is about to say.

As many of you know, my own dad has been pastoring for almost 40 years now. When your dad’s the pastor, you’re just going to know more than you want to know. You’re going to hear more stories than you want to hear. It was good training in some ways, but we just have a lot of stories.

In the church and culture I grew up in, it was very similar to Red Village in some ways and very different in others. There was oftentimes an invitation, or somebody would come up during the invitation, or someone would come up after the service and say, “Brother Mitch,” that’s my dad, “that was a great sermon today. I think that was just what this other person needed to hear.” It happens like once a quarter, if not more often.

Assuming the best about these people, maybe there was someone in the congregation who really didn’t need to hear this other thing from the pastor that day. But what was often the case was that this person was so excited about the other person hearing this message that they failed to recognize their own sin as it relates to the text in the passage.

Knowing everybody’s propensity to shift blame and think of ourselves as more innocent than we are, Paul has this in mind, and he calls this out. He’s saying, “This is for everybody.”

There are certainly a variety of gifts and aspects of living a Christian life. There’s variety within the church, and people have different strengths and weaknesses, and we’re going to talk about that more shortly. To a certain extent, there are going to be passages that should convict certain people more than others. But in this passage, there’s no way to escape that everyone is included.

The inclusion of everyone is explicit and important to notice because this is a passage about how the church exists together as a unit. If we’re going to be a unit, everybody is included here. Despite whatever you may think of yourself or someone else, there’s no person who’s not affected by sinful thinking as a result of the Fall. No one has the authority to claim that they are above the following exhortations.

I’ll reread a part of what verse three says: “I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.”

Here we have the action that Paul is calling people to. He gives both the negative and the positive forms, obviously, the negative being what not to do, and the positive being what to do. Back to this idea we spent some time talking about earlier regarding the necessity to consistently reset our priorities.

If you’re doing what Paul does, if you’re consistently reminding yourself and others of who God is and what he has done for you, then at first glance, it seems that Paul shouldn’t need to make this clear command in the negative form. But again, there’s a lot of wisdom in just doing the basic things right. One of those basic things is just to have a clear and honest self-assessment.

When I was working out the initial framework of this sermon, I told Aaron and Jay separately over text that the title of this message was going to be “You Are Not Special.” Jay replied, “This would be a very uplifting message for the start of the Christmas season.” His exact text was “lol, very Christmassy.”

But the idea of not being special is a fairly common thread of pastoral wisdom. It comes up in conversation more often than you might expect. The roots of that, at least within Red Village, came when we were fundraising for the building we’re in now. The state-level denomination sent a guy out here to help churches purchase buildings and work them through the steps and talk through fundraising.

He said, “We’ve worked with X amount of churches, helped them raise Y dollars, and there have been Z properties purchased. Based on this breadth of knowledge, we can say that if your church giving is this, you’re going to be able to raise about this much.” Someone in the meeting said, “Well, I think we have a very generous congregation and a very generous network. I think we might be able to do more.”

The guy just stopped the meeting and said, “No, you’re not special. Everybody thinks they’re special.” Especially if you’re in a church plant and you’ve got this entrepreneurial spirit, you think you’re above the normal curve, but you’re probably not. Aaron has used that line on me a few times. I needed to hear it, and he did so recently. That’s okay; we need to hear it.

If you ever get the pastoral advice from one of us at Red Village that you’re not special, we’re not doing it to be mean. We’re doing it out of love and painful experience from ourselves. There are plenty of times we need to hear that we need to think less of ourselves. We need to think sober-mindedly about ourselves.

Thinking about this from Paul’s perspective is important. Where we sit in history now, we have the advantage of knowing a lot about Paul through general history and what he wrote in the book of Romans and throughout the New Testament. We have a fairly large knowledge base on where Paul went and what he did.

I only mention this because when we look at Paul’s life as a whole, we can see that if there was anybody who had a good reason to think highly of himself, it might be Paul. Prior to coming to know Jesus, he was fairly accomplished. He writes this in Philippians 3:4-6: “Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”

So, this was Paul before he had an encounter with God on the road to Damascus. Prior to conversion, he was trained in the right schools, went to the right places, and was the Hebrew of Hebrews. But then he was converted, and he had an even more prolific life for the cause of Christ. He had his priorities set and was doing great things.

He takes three amazing missionary journeys, establishes much of the early church, and writes a huge portion of the New Testament. At the time of writing this letter to the Roman church, he was actually at the tail end of his life and ministry. Honestly, if anyone had anything to boast about in worldly or Christian standards, it was certainly Paul. He was a very accomplished man.

But Paul, as we continue to read in Philippians 3:7, says, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of knowing Christ.” Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of knowing Christ.

I’ve already mentioned Paul’s default introduction of himself. He’s elevating the work of God in his life rather than anything else. When we look for an example of how to live a life that’s marked by not thinking too highly of yourself and by thinking soberly of yourself, I think a great place to look is just at the life of Paul.

Now, moving on, let’s talk through the second section of the passage. Verse three is just the exhortation; he’s laying out what to do. This is what you do: by the grace given to me, this is for everyone. Don’t think too highly of yourself; think with sober judgment of yourself.

In verses 4 through 8, he’s going to illustrate it. I’ll read these verses again just to get ourselves up to speed. Romans 12:4-8 says this:

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

Paul is using the body, the physical human body, as an illustration here. If we look across the entirety of Paul’s work, this is not an uncommon use. In fact, the last sermon I preached was from 1 Corinthians 12, where he talks about the body as well. I think it’s such a useful illustration because we are people; we have bodies.

When we get sick or when we get older, the reality and blessing of having a healthy and functioning body becomes more real to us. This illustration of your body working is unique in the sense that we can all relate to it because we’ve all had to work through some sickness or discomfort in our bodies.

As I was thinking about this, we’ve been in Madison for about ten years now. Ten years ago, as a young, recent college graduate, I was a bit more spry than I am now. My body doesn’t bounce back from mistreatment like it used to. I used to frame houses, and about five years ago I was carrying a steel beam on a sheet of ice, and I slipped and hurt my back.

When I say it out loud, I realize it was a bad idea, but it seemed like the best and fastest idea at the time. I still finished the workday, and I was sore for a week, but then I just kept going.

A couple of years ago, I messed my back up again while writing a sermon. I had more desk time than usual, and I sat the wrong way. I wore bad shoes to preach. In the span of five years, I went from hurting myself framing to hurting my back by sitting and standing the wrong way.

Everybody’s going to have their own story like this, right? Your body is a reminder of the painful reality that when your body isn’t working, when something’s not working, then it’s all not working.

The reason I share this is to remind you that each of our contributions—every member of the body—contributes to a healthy church. We’re either a healthy body or we’re not. The remainder of this text is devoted to how the different gifts in different parts of the body contribute to the overall function of the body and how the different gifts of the church body contribute to a healthy and functioning church.

For the sake of time today, we’re not going to go over all the specific gifts listed in the passage. That might be another sermon, but we’re going to spend some time just talking about the importance of the diversity of gifts and the necessity of using those diverse gifts towards the end goal of serving the church and advancing the gospel.

The more sermons I write, I’m struck by how none of this is really new news. It’s kind of obvious, but it doesn’t mean it’s not necessary to say. As I’ve matured, Lord willing, one thing that has surprised me about leadership and specifically shepherding a church is how much of our ministry comes down to establishing and holding people accountable to foundational truths and the behavioral expectations of those foundational truths.

It seems to me as I read the Bible that establishing and holding those foundational truths is a key piece of pastoral leadership. That being said, the fact that any organization needs its members to show up and contribute how they can is not a new idea; it’s a super obvious one.

The world is rife with metaphors for this. I could go sports or music. It’s crazy. But it’s still an idea that is necessary to repeat because if any parts of the body stop working or stop showing up, then the body ceases to be healthy.

Every so often, speaking of illustrations, we joke about banning certain illustrations from the pulpit because they get used so often. I’m running the risk of that right now, but I’m going to take the risk just to remind you how much human capital it takes for the basic functions of Red Village Church on a Sunday morning and beyond.

When we first moved into the building, I don’t know how I got the responsibility, but it was my job to ensure that no volunteer roles overlapped and that we spread out our volunteer load evenly without burning our members out for our Sunday services.

That being said, it was a challenge to do. I don’t miss the task. I don’t know who does it now, but you should say thank you to those people. Wes and Kate will text you on a Thursday just reminding you to show up, so make sure you say thank you to those people as well.

Here are the roles needed for just a standard Sunday morning service at Red Village Church:

– One person on check-in
– Three people in the nursery
– Three people in the toddler room
– Three people in the pre-K room
– Three people in the first and second-grade room
– Two greeters and one person in the kitchen

That’s about halfway there.

– One person on security
– One person on slides
– One person on the soundboard
– Usually, about four people on the music team
– Two people to serve the Lord’s Supper and count the offering
– One person to lead the pastoral prayer and lead us in the Lord’s Supper
– One preacher (who might not be that great)

And then there are roles that are not on Planning Center. I was thinking about this: Scott Carlson comes every Saturday and adjusts the thermostat; you would notice it if he didn’t. Tia is always at the welcome table every week. We usually have two or three people at the pre-service prayer. It’s not an official role, but it’s something we think is very important.

That is 31 people needed to pull off a standard Sunday morning service at Red Village Church. I don’t even think we’re that extravagant; we’re kind of a basic Sunday service in many ways. There are a lot of churches that put in a lot more infrastructure than what we do.

I counted last night, and we have 84 members at Red Village Church. If 31 of them are serving, that means 37% of our members are needed to contribute in some way on a Sunday morning just for the basic functioning.

I also did a rough count of all the behind-the-scenes roles. We have the Village Kids support team, a building committee, a finance committee, people who put on Breakfast Club, and a ton of other ministries that I don’t even know how to organize. I think that’s probably going to take about 45 to 50% of our membership to pull that off.

With that hopefully vivid reminder of what it takes for Red Village Church to function, I want to state clearly that it is God’s design for a healthy church to have a variety of gifts that serve the church. God’s good design for a healthy church is seen by living out this command for each member to contribute their gifts towards the common goal.

As I was thinking about this, I sometimes wonder if I try to do too much. I think about it often. Can you imagine what a mess Red Village Church would be if everybody was like Rob Fisher? Imagine what a mess it would be if everybody was like you. Feel free to discuss that with your spouse on the drive home.

It’s kind of a real-life hypothetical question. If you want to try to live this up, just go ahead and start something. I’m kind of living through the painful reality right now of being solely responsible for your wins and losses. When you start something on your own, you’re getting the immediate feedback on whether you’re succeeding or not.

I once heard a comedian say that stand-up comedy is the most immediate meritocracy that there is. It’s just you, the crowd, a stage, and a microphone. You’re either going to get the laughs or not. There’s no middle ground.

When we think about the necessity of needing each other to function as a church, I want you to consider how vulnerable it would be for you to be completely on your own to know and understand all the aspects of a faithful Christian life. I just don’t think it can be done.

Let me try to wrap this up for you and give you some ideas to take with you. I joked earlier that the sermon title was going to be “You Are Not Special,” and it’s partially true. We aren’t really into sermon titles around here, anyway. But if I were to summarize the main points, I’d say you aren’t special, but you are needed. I think that’s the heart of this passage.

So that’s our first main point: You’re not special, but you are needed. When we say that you as an individual or as an individual aren’t special, I don’t mean that you or the church can’t accomplish amazing things. It does mean, however, that no matter what we do or accomplish, we have to realize that the only thing we can boast in, that we should boast in, is the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

On your own, you’re not special. The only thing that makes you special and that you have to boast in is Jesus Christ. As I was thinking about this, I couldn’t get this modern hymn, “My Worth is Not in What I Own” by the Gettys, out of my head. It says, “Two wonders here that I confess: my worth and my unworthiness, my value fixed, my ransom paid at the cross.” I think that sums it up.

Our next point is this: You are needed. Even though I’ve tried to sabotage any sense of self-worth by repeating that you’re not special, it’s still important to know that you are needed. Living as a godly and faithful Christian church requires everybody to show up and contribute through the gifts God has given them.

The second point is that when you use your gifts with humility, it builds the kingdom of God. Using your gifts humbly builds healthy, thriving, engaging, and flourishing churches.

I joke about what a mess it would be to be in a church where everyone was just like you. I said that to get some laughs at the absurdity of that notion, but anyone with a shred of self-honesty should understand that it would really be a terrible position to be in.

Similarly, a church that is marked by boastful service is also bound to fail in advancing the gospel and being a healthy church. The diversity of gifts working together inevitably brings some strife and division because we’re still living in a sin-filled world. Different people have different gifts and skills, and we’re eventually going to come into conflict.

It may not be a major conflict, but there’s certainly going to be some disagreement. That disagreement is okay, so long as both parties can agree that what is most important is Christ and what he has done to save sinners.

My dad has been pastoring for almost 40 years, and I discuss this with him often. You’re getting a lot of Mitch Fisher and Aaron Jozak stories today. For all but about five years of my life, I was either in a church pastored by my dad or pastored by Aaron. So if you need someone to blame, start there.

My dad has often said that pastoring is the most rewarding job in the world if it weren’t for the people you have to deal with. I shared this once with Aaron, and he said, “Yes, but without the people, we don’t have a job.”

I just say all that to illustrate that church life is not always going to be marked by joyful joint service with each other. However, a church grounded in godly humility can thrive. A church where there is this cancer of self-importance and pride, if that sits untreated, will result in a bunch of gifted and talented people constantly fighting with each other because they’re doing the opposite of what Paul lives out and what he says: “Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought.”

You have these gifts; we have to serve. Use them with humility. So those are the two main points: You’re not special, but you are needed. Secondly, use your gifts humbly to build the kingdom.

I’ll give you a couple of application points that will probably be future sermons as we continue this series. I just like simple application imperatives, so I’m going to make these as simple as I can.

The first point of application is: Show up. The second point of application is: Humbly contribute.

It may or may not surprise you, but as I think back on a lot of issues of pastoral care that we as an elder team have administered over the years, most of the issues have had this precursor of people withdrawing from the church community at large. Maybe they’re physically present, but they are emotionally, relationally, and spiritually elsewhere.

Complete withdrawal or lack of contribution usually seems to be the first warning sign that something is not right. It’s so important to be present and contributing. Show up; humbly contribute.

Now, just a quick side note here. If you’re with us today and you’re not a Christian, I know this has been a lot of insider talk, and I imagine it’s like visiting your in-laws for the first time, where there’s all this shared common knowledge and experience that you kind of understand but don’t fully. You have to fill in a lot of blanks.

If you’re not a believer with us today, there are two things I want to point out. First of all, I hope and pray that you saw that even we as Christians have to continually preach Christ and Christ crucified to ourselves. Even after we confess Jesus, we have to continually work to humbly submit to Christ as our Savior, not to anything else that we have done as our Savior. We would hope and ask that you would do the same thing.

Second, if you’re not a Christian with us today, I hope and pray that you come to understand that you do have gifts and talents from God. You can use those to build toward things of godly eternal value or to build up earthly wealth, which will eventually be eaten by moth and rust.

There are myriad passages we can address this specifically, but I think often about how my kids were given a toddler Bible that has the parable of the rich fool in it. This comes to mind when I think about this. This is from Luke 12:15-21. Jesus says:

“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” He told them a parable saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.'”

But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

The message in that parable is for those who don’t yet know Christ, but it’s also for Christians and non-Christians alike. The question it begs is this: Are you using your gifts and talents to build up treasure for yourself or treasure for God? Are you using your gifts and talents to build up earthly value or building eternal value through God’s church?

Let me wrap this up. I’ve been a little longer-winded than I usually am today, but I think it’s a really rich passage, so I’ll wrap it up now. Again, the action commands of this passage are twofold: First, show up. Second, humbly contribute.

When we show up and humbly contribute, we’re living out the model that Paul lays out for a healthy church. We’re being active, contributing members who are grounded in the gospel of Christ. We rightly understand that all we have is a gift from God.

That’s all for today. I’ll pray, and then we’ll do the Lord’s Supper.

Lord, again, we’re grateful for your Word. We are humbled and somewhat puzzled that you’ve laid it out to be that you use faulty and imperfect men to spread your message. We simply ask that your message will be far more impactful than anything I have said.

Lord, help us to rightly respond to this passage and live differently because of it. Help us to humbly and joyfully think of ourselves rightly, and help us to humbly and joyfully show up and serve our church and community with the gifts you’ve given us.

We’re grateful for Jesus. We’re grateful that knowing our worth and our righteousness is only in Jesus truly grounds us in humility. It’s in Jesus’ name we bring these prayers to you. Amen.

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