“Don’t Limit God With Man’s Limitations”
Theme: Our Service to God
Text: Romans: 12:1-21
Prop: Every Christian has the responsibility of service
Trans: Don’t let the mind of man dictate our service to God.
INTRO: I’ve been preaching at this church now for going on 10 months and I think I’m finally getting comfortable with being here. With preaching every Sunday, teaching Sunday school and doing all the other things that have to be done. Yet I must admit that coming up with a sermon each and every week is a difficult thing to do at times. It’s has taken me a while and some might say a long time to get comfortable.
In the last church I ministered at it took me around 4 to 5 months to get comfortable and to really start ministering. When I went to serve in that church I didn’t have to move, it was only 15 miles from my house. I did have to go from my home church and go to that church obviously, but it wasn’t a really big thing by a lot of people’s standards. However it took me a while, it was my first ministry and I really didn’t know what to do so it took me about 4 to 5 months to really get going. Once that happened the ministry I was doing really got going as well. The youth group started to grow, Maria and I got to know the kids on a more personal level and we really began building relationships.
Those relationships are ones that still continue today. We have kids from that youth group still call us up just to talk with us. They e-mail almost every week, and they have told us time and time again that they miss us and that they really want us to come back. To be honest with you we have been tempted to go back. Only a few months after we were here one of the elders there called us up and asked us to come back as well. It was and has been very tempting to do just that.
But I think about what it took here. I think about all the people that I talked with and about how they encouraged me to come to Leonard. They said that this church would be perfect for me. Many told me that I was not going to school to be a youth minister that I was going to be a preaching minister and this is what I needed. I thought to myself, yes that’s true and if I’m ever going to get better at preaching that I needed to get to a church where I could preach each and every Sunday.
Well I’m here and I have done just that, I’ve preached each and every Sunday. It’s been hard at times, but the hardest thing has been adjusting to living here. Not the ministry so much, but that we left all of our friends behind, we left our home, the kids left their school and we had to start all over in those respects.
Well, I started out by saying that I have been here for going on 10 months now and that I think I’m finally getting comfortable here. I know it has taken me a while and I feel that I need to apologize for that, I am sorry. But as I said with my last ministry when I got comfortable is when it really started to take off. Within the time I was at my last ministry the church had around 25 additions with around half of those being by baptism. That was only in a span of 10 months.
Is that what I expect here? No! Is that what you expect here? No! Is that what the professors at Central Christian College expect here? No! And is that what others around this area expect here? No! Do you know why I can say that? It’s because that is what I have heard ever since I came here. Don’t expect that church to grow! Don’t expect that there will be a lot of additions. Don’t expect it to grow by leaps and bounds. You might get additions from the children in the families that already go there, but not more.
When I first came here I accepted that. I said ok then all I have to do is maintain this church. Preach on Sunday, teach Sunday school, call on those who are sick and in the hospitals, do funerals and just do all those things that a maintaining minister does.
Do you know what I’ve found out? I found out that I don’t want to be that maintaining minister. I’ve found that if I’m that maintaining minister, I’m not happy. I’ve found that I have to be more. I found God nudging me, kicking me and sometimes slapping me. Do you know what He is saying? He’s saying, Mark, why have you listens to men? Why have given yourself to man’s limits? The reason your not happy is because you have allowed yourself to live by and do ministry by mans standards and not Mine. Live and do ministry by My standards, do things according to My expectations and I will lead you and give you a vision for the church. He has done just that.
The vision I have for this church doesn’t involve only me though. The vision includes everybody who is a part of this church. And I want to help you get the vision as well.
Now we’ve come to the Scripture I mentioned earlier. This Scripture talks about the church. Paul was writing this to the church in Rome and it is a good example of what the church should be today. Yes there are many sermons in this whole chapter, but I’m only going to get one out of it today.
READ ROM. 12:1-21.
We are talking about serving the Lord in the church.
PROP: Every Christian has the responsibility to service. And the following points are how we need to go about that to make this church grow.
I. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Vs. 11
The first point comes from verse 11, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep you spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”
Have we done that? Have we lost that zeal, that fervor? We need that to be able to keep fresh. And what are we suppose to keep in? In serving the Lord! Look with me at the 1 verse of this chapter. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship.”
We are supposed to give everything to God. Give our bodies as a sacrifice. That means give everything. Give everyday, every breath, every step, every drink of water, every piece of food, every dollar, every blink of the eye, and every thought to God. God doesn’t but put limitations on what we are to give, He just says give.
Now lets move on down in the Scripture to verse 6ff. In these verses He tells us that each of us has something to give. Earlier He said give everything, now He says this: “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”
You see God not only wants what you have already, but once you are a Christian He gives you more. You see it says “according to the grace given us.” And we’re not under grace until we’re under the cross. We all don’t have the same gifts when it comes to serving the Lord and He gives this list of some of the gifts that have been given.
ILLUS. When I got back into the church I didn’t think I had much to offer. Before, when I went to church, when I first became a Christian, I didn’t give much at all. Matter of fact I felt like all I did was take from it. I didn’t know anything and therefore I had to be taught and I didn’t have any money. I couldn’t give in offerings and at times I had to ask for money from the church to live on.
I wasn’t going to go back to church, I thought, until I was able to give something. And I didn’t go back until I was at least able to give money in the offering plate. I thought that was all I could do, until I was asked to do some things. I would always say no I couldn’t do that and most of the time they would leave me alone. It wasn’t until one time when the preacher was persistent that I did something. I was nervous, I was scared and I really didn’t want to do it, but I did and it was great. I found that even though I was nervous and scared that God could use me in other ways than to just give money. Ever since that time I have tried new things, I have put myself out of my comfort zone and put myself where I am not comfortable. Sometimes when I have done that it hasn’t worked out the way I would like it, but I know enough now not to give up and that God still wants me to try.
You see God gives you gifts and He says use them. When you use them He will give you more. It doesn’t say I have given you "a" gift now use it. It says “gifts”. You may think you only have one gift, and you know what, that may be true. But use that gift and you will be given more. Luke 19:25 says: “…I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.” Use the gift given you or loose it in other words.
Folks I want this church to grow, God wants this church to grow, and I know that you want this church to grow. Verse 4ff of our text says: “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” We are one body and this one body must serve God using the gifts given to us. Collectively as a church, as the body of Christ we have been given gifts. If we use them we will be given more, if we don’t they will be taken away.
This church, like any church has two directions it can go. We are just like any other church. Just like Southeast Christian Church in Louisville KY who has several thousand members and just like the first church I supply preached at where they had 7 people for their worship service. We can either grow or we can die. We can either use this church to glorify God in this area and grow, or we can use it to maintain what we already have and suffer a long and agonizing death. We need to use it or loose it.
II. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer
The second point today comes from verse 12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
1st, “Be joyful in hope.” I think what He is telling us here is be joyful in the vision I have given you. Be joyful in the work I have set out for you to do.
Now I’m speaking from experience here and I think that a lot of you can understand by the experiences you have had. Being joyful all the time when you have set out to serve God is not always easy. Sometimes it’s real work, isn’t it? Sometimes you don’t want to do it, you don’t want to work on the lessons that you have to teach for Sunday school this week. You don’t want to organize the event you said you would do. You don’t want to work on picking out the songs for this weeks service and don’t want to work on learning new thing. The Sunday school lesson gets put off until Saturday night or maybe you even decide to wing it on Sunday morning. You see serving God is not always easy.
ILLUS. But God says be joyful, yeah right God we say. You try to do this, you try to work with the people I have to work with, we might say. Be joyful? Yeah right God, now you tell me how.
2nd, Now look what He does, the very next thing He says is be, “patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
ILLUS. Keep up the work my servant! He says. I know it’s hard, I know you are frustrated. Believe Me, He says, I know what it is like working with those people, I have done it for generations. I have told them over and over again what to do and they keep turning away. You are frustrated? He says. From the beginning, even from the Adam who I created out of My Own hands and who I breathed the breath of life into, man has been sinning against me. I’m am frustrated! But I am patient, so that more may come to repentance.
Stay patient my servant in this affliction and as you continue to serve Me! Be faithful in prayer. Talk to Me, God says. Tell Me all about it and I will help you through the tough times and guide you to the good.
III. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
My 3rd point today is in verse 21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
You see I’ve learned something in the time that I’ve been in the ministry and more so the time that I have been a Christian. That is that evil can come in all sorts of ways. Not long ago on the night of the 5th Sunday Rally, Ginger came up and she read several things. One of those things she read dealt with the Devil, I think what she read was called “If I Were The Devil”. It talked about what the Devil would do in the world to corrupt it and keep people from knowing God. In the end the whole point of the reading was that in order for that to happen the Devil would just allow things to keep going the way they were.
In serving God, people have become complacent, we have become lazy. We have said to ourselves that other people can do that, or not right now. I’m not to that point in my life to do that. I can’t go out and tell others about Christ, that’s not my gift. I can’t teach Sunday school, I can’t help in that play, I can’t organize that event, I can’t help with that program. And you know what, we can’t. Any do you know why, because we are stuck on “I” and not stuck on “God”.
We allow the Devil to do his work in our lives. We allow ourselves to not do this or not do that. God doesn’t say you can’t, but God says you can. God says nothing is impossible with Him, God says that you can do all things through Him who strengthens you. The Devil says you can’t, you’ll fail, you’ll be embarrassed, your not good enough, you have to many sins in your life, you have to be perfect before you can do that.
God will not allow the Devil to overcome you, He not allow him to give you that attitude, if you are diligent in His service and if you are diligent in your study and prayer. You see once you are a Christian you are God’s. You belong to God and the Devil will not be allowed to harm you. And he will not be allowed to tempt you into not doing those things. You see in 1 Cor. 10:13 it says: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
We must remain in God and He will remain in us, we must stay steadfast in our hope, stay steadfast in our service, for as it says in Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” The only way the Devil has any power over us is if we let him. And we let him when we are not diligently in our service to God. We let him when we become complacent with the world around us and we think that God can’t use us to serve Him.
The 2nd verse of our text says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
In that reading that Ginger did about the Devil, the Devil is counting on you conforming to the pattern of this world. But God says, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Then you will approve of God’s will, you will be able to test God’s will and you will find that it is good and pleasing and perfect.
Folks the will God has for you is perfect. And if you use the gifts He gives you in His service then you will be living that perfect will. He has given to each of us gifts to use in His service. He says that if you don’t use them you’ll loose them. The Devil is waiting and wanting you not to use them. Don’t let that happen. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
CONCLUSION: Folks I started out this sermon by talking about me. By talking about my life. Talking about how it has taken me a long time to get adjusted here. How I can’t be happy being a maintaining minister. How I need to be an evangelistic minister. I don’t know if that is what you were looking for when you hired me or not. But I do believe that God has put me here. That God has a purpose for me here and that I’m not going to let that be limited by my limitations or any mans limitations.
I also know that it is God’s will that this church is here, that God put it here and that He has a purpose for it here. We can’t allow God’s purpose to be limited by the mind of man. With God there are no limits. I have a vision for this church and I believe that God has given that to me and I want to help you catch that vision as well.
We need to transform our minds, offer our bodies, our everything to God. Use the gifts God has given us without limitations. And make this church a powerful witness for God.
INVITATION: I know that this sermon was not really directed at the non-Christian, for I know that there are not many non-Christians here, there may not be any. But now let me turn to the non-Christian for a minute. If you are not a Christian, what are you waiting for? God is calling you today to make that choice for Him.
If you are a Christian and I now most of you are, if not all of you. Then this is an invitation to you as well. But if your not a Christian, then we ask that you come forward when we sing our invitation song so we can talk with you and help you with the steps you need to take to be a Christian and to get you started in your service to God. You may be to that point where all you need to do is confess Christ before men and be immersed in Christian baptism. Won’t you do that during this invitation time?
If you are a Christian this invitation time is for you to pray for someone to make that choice to serve God, someone here this morning and for those in our community and area, and for you to renew your dedication to God and His service. Pray, I don’t care if I’m the only one singing. Don ‘t go out of God’s house this morning without a renewed dedication to serve God, to use the gifts given you to help this church grow and God’s kingdom to grow in this community.
Stand and sing.
