Spiritual Gifts: Service After Surrender
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Spiritual Gifts, pt. 1
“Service after Surrender”
Rom. 12:3-8
After WWII ended, a group of German students volunteered to help rebuild an English Cathedral in London. It had been severely damaged by bombing. They did well w/ most of the Cathedral, except 1 statue that had been shattered into many pieces…a marble statue of Jesus Christ. It once stood, w/ Christ in a standing position w/ arms outstretched. The inscription under it read, “Come unto me.” They were able to find and reconstruct all of the statue, except for the hands, which had been completely demolished. And so, when finished, they had a statue of Jesus w/ outstretched arms, and no hands.
They couldn’t decide what to do…make new hands? Or leave it as it was. They decided to leave it be…and you can go to London today and see that marble statue of Jesus standing there w/ no hands…but the inscription they DID change…it now says, “He has no hands but ours.”
That is the truth that is being taught in Rom. 12.
When Jesus was here on earth, He ministered in a physical body…but since He has returned to heaven, He has ministered thru a spiritual body…the body of Christ…the Church!
v. 5 “members”=body parts! He has no hands but ours!/feet/voice
And our first obligation to the Lord is complete surrender! That’s why vv. 1-2 are attached to 3-8. God cannot use us in the body of Christ until we make a complete surrender of our gifts to Him.
This involves:
Total dedication
v. 1 This is the language of the OT priesthood. The priest would make a “drink offering”…they would make a certain mixture and pour it upon the altar. Which is what we are to do w/ our life…lay it on the altar.
Radical Separation
v. 2 Don’t allow your life to be poured into the world’s mold. Our goal is not to be a weird-o, just not to be like the world…and the closer we move to the end of the world, the more a true, separated believer will be thought of as radically different.
That’s why the media refers to us as the radical right wing…they don’t mean it as a compliment…but we should take it that way!
Inner Transformation
v. 2 Salvation begins as an inside job. We will never change outwardly for real until we change inwardly. Your behavior will not be altered unless your thinking has been altered. Your appearance won’t be one that will glorify God and draw others to Him until there’s a change beneath the surface. And that’s what we focus on here at GBC. We don’t try to impose a certain look on people…what you see is a reflection of what they are on the inside…so we do well to focus on the inner man.
All 3 of the above are summed up by: “complete surrender”
It will do us no good at all to deal w/ spiritual gifts…to think about what our gifts are, until we have grappled w/ this issue of complete surrender.
Because surrender and service always go together. The 2 cannot be separated. It’s impossible to be surrendered to God, and not be busy serving Him. You cannot be a living sacrifice, and be lazy and indifferent toward the ministry of the church. Talk is cheap. We can talk about total dedication, radical separation, inner transformation, but the proof is in the pudding. If it doesn’t lead you to service, to have a ministry, then it isn’t real! Worship should lead us to service…devotion should lead us to our duty! (it’s possible to have the latter w/out the former,... next page »
Video Illustrations on: Gifts
Comments
June 24, 2009
7. Charles Worth says...
it matters not if the story in the introduction is true or an amalgamation of stories. It gets the point across without risking the sincerity or reputation of scripture.
March 9, 2009
6. Jerry Watts says...
While the statue story certainly is an amalgation of many stories, there is a picture of the "handless Jesus statue" on the web. Thanks for your message.
February 14, 2009
5. John Scoggins says...
The sad part about the statue story is that it is a legend, not a true story. No one knows where the cathedral is (Enland or some other part of Europe?). No pictures are available. It''s an amalgamation of stories. We need to be careful about these kinds of things.
November 12, 2008
3. Donald Rapp says...
Great introduction. It is so important for people to understand that we are all apart of the body and all need to exercise our gifts so that the Body can grow.
