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00:00 12. Any uh children left behind better run out otherwise get trapped.
00:07 Serious Bible study. So Sunday school is on. Let's start with a word of prayer. Lord, we ask that you speak to us this
00:14 morning. Help us to understand your word and that your word will command us. Your word will encourage us. Your word will
00:20 build us up. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. Along with your bulletins, there
00:25 will be a form that's basically a response to social concern ministry. Uh
00:32 we would like everybody in church to take at least one of these areas where you could come and see what God is doing
00:38 in these various areas of social concern so that you might be touched. Um we'll collect it at the end of the service. Um
00:46 and uh and let that form be your response to God's word this morning.
00:52 Start off with the word of God and um Romans chap 12 verse 1. I appeal to you
00:59 therefore by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and
01:06 acceptable to God. The operative word here is I appeal to
01:12 you therefore. Word therefore brings a whole new world
01:17 view. Here we've studied 12 chapters or 11 chapters of Romans telling you about
01:23 the mercies of God. And therefore, at the end of it, you you just can't sit there and blink. You actually have to
01:29 have a response. You to learn to build your life on something. This is a Sun newspaper some time ago, last week. Big
01:37 headlines, null and void. There's a big decision made in our courts. Uh why?
01:43 Well, if you read further on, there's a lady called Indira Gandhi and her two or three children who were unilaterally
01:51 converted to Islam faith without her permission and they struggled over this
01:57 for a long time. This was a decision that would have big ramifications on our nation. uh and justice Lee Sweang ruled
02:05 that the children had not converted because they hadn't done a certain pronouncement and therefore such an act
02:12 was unconstitutional. He further added it was against natural justice. It was against the UN
02:18 convention on the protection of women. It was against article 11 of the Malaysian constitution. These are the
02:24 reasons that he put forward. So therefore the decision of the conversion
02:31 is null and void. We all have to build our lives on something. The word
02:36 therefore tells us we need to build our lives on something. Here Paul is telling them that I appeal to you therefore
02:43 brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. When Jesus Christ comes to
02:50 us, he comes to us and he tells us therefore because of what I have done,
02:57 these are the things I require. In 2009, there was this building in China and uh
03:03 it was uh obviously the architects was not as good as ours here
03:10 because if you look at the building, it just fell over and uh you look further on these are the u foundations and you
03:18 look further on in the foundation, they all broke off to and and there's one thing you notice in the foundations. I
03:24 think the artic architects would notice there's no rebars. That means they build
03:31 the whole thing without any metal rods going through. It's all concrete so it's brittle and the wind blows or something,
03:36 it falls down. And basically what Paul is saying, you can build your life on
03:42 basically two things. You can build your life on the mercies of God. The fact that God died on the cross for you,
03:48 justified you, redeemed you, gave you hope of glory and his peace. Or you could build your life on the things of
03:55 the world which are quite shoddy and which will not last very long. How are
03:60 we going to build our lives? So we build our lives on the mercies of God by offering our lives in the obedience, offering our gifts and offering our
04:07 love. Let's look at the passage. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as
04:13 a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. So
04:18 here we are going to bring our bodies. And are we going to bring our bodies like the ancient sacrifice? Ancient
04:24 sacrifice are bulls and goats and sheep as uh pastor Joshua described. You you
04:30 bring the whole bowl and basically you take your knife and you slit him yourself. He dies and and that blood
04:38 supposed to atone for your sin. It's very odd because now you have got a living sacrifice. What does God mean by
04:46 a living sacrifice? That means you sacrifice yourself. Uh you're still alive but something you give up. And why
04:54 does he say a body? Why does he use your body? Well, basically the body is because in in in in Greek culture the
05:00 body is looked down upon. It is your mind, your spirit that is important. And Paul is just saying that you need to
05:07 come to God not to just give your mind. You know, you come on Sunday morning, you just focus on God, pray and that's
05:12 it. It doesn't affect you at all. He wants all of you. You don't have to atone for your sin anymore. The Christ
05:20 on the cross has atoned for the sin. You don't give up your body again and again, but you give up your life and you serve
05:27 him. This is how Paul uses this analogy. If you look in Philippians 1, it is as
05:33 it is my eager expectation of hope that will I will not be ashamed that with full courage as now always Christ to be
05:40 honored in my body whether by life or by death. For me to live is Christ to die as gain. If I'm to live in the flesh, it
05:46 means fruitful labor, yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. For so for for
05:52 Paul, giving up his life as a his body as a living sacrifice is to serve, to
05:58 labor fruitfully. Uh 1 Corinthians 6, do you not know your body is a temple of
06:04 the Holy Spirit whom you have from God and you are not your own? You were bought with a price to glorify God in
06:11 your body. In the context of this verse was about sexual immorality. You don't sleep with someone else who is not your
06:17 partner. Why? Because you use your body to glorify God. Having sex within the confines of your marriage. Uh Hebrews 13
06:25 through him. Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is a fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
06:33 Do not neglect doing uh uh good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. He describes in
06:39 Hebrews the sacrifices are the sacrifices of your lips. The fact that you stand up, you worship with your
06:45 lips, you sing and that is also a sacrifice. So basically what Paul is
06:50 saying your life needs to be given to God under
06:55 new management. We come because of the mercies of God. We have to be under new management. All
07:01 of our lives need to be under the management of God. But the problem is
07:06 like you, you and I and all of us, we want to be free to pursue our own
07:12 happiness. Isn't it very hard? You know, how am I going to The biggest struggle for Christians today is that yeah, I know I had to give my body to Christ and
07:18 give all my desires to Christ. But, you know, first thing I wake up, I'm thinking about my daughter computer
07:23 game. I'm thinking about my dating. I'm thinking of something else. And it's so hard, isn't it? Uh I I you know, under
07:30 new management, it's so difficult. I'm so used to running my life the way I want to. Why should I give it up? I I I
07:36 I really want to be free. Isn't the whole idea is to be free to have liberty, life and pursuit of happiness.
07:42 I mean that's what it's about. Some countries constitutions are actually based on that. Um this is
07:50 a Greek philosopher a few hundred years before Christ and he put out this idea
07:55 that you actually can't be free. No one is completely free. If you live for wealth, you are a slave to wealth. If
08:02 you live for morality, you're a slave to the law. If you live to please people, then you are a slave to the people whom
08:08 you wish to please. He says, if you really want to be free, but in real life, no one is actually free. Let me
08:16 give you a an example from a song in Oliver Twist. Can I have the song?
08:24 This is a song by Nancy who is a a lady in Oliver Twist story who's been abused
08:30 by this man called Bill Sykes. And uh despite the multiple abuses in his
08:35 hands, she refuses to leave him. She he is the love of his life. No matter how
08:40 often he beats her, she still continues. And why
08:46 [Music] doesn't work? Never mind.
08:52 It does.
09:15 Okay. Doesn't matter. Let's move on. Does it work or not?
09:28 Can you play it? Then then you put it on just the sound is good enough. No need
09:36 movie. So just sound is fine. That's all I ask. No. Okay, never mind. Let's move on. I was going to tell you that the
09:42 lady stayed with Bill Sykes. no matter how awfully she had been abused. And you you recall from the song, the younger
09:50 people won't recall is the older people watch Oliver Twist. She sings, "As long as he needs me, I know where I must be.
09:58 I'll cling on steadfastly as long as he needs me." And she ends the song by saying, "If you are lonely, then you
10:05 will know. If somebody needs you, then you love them." So she's saying that if
10:10 you have a love vacuum in your heart, when someone comes along with a promise of filling that vacuum, you you have to
10:16 give yourself to them no matter how badly they mis abuse you. So everyone
10:21 has this vacuum in their lives and it depends what they feel in their vacuum. So for for Nancy was this Bill Sykes.
10:27 Bill Sykes is at her emotional center of her life and she has this person fill up her life and without this person uh she
10:34 can't go on. And so basically um to be really free we can't really be free
10:41 because like uh it's too late N can can you switch off that thing please please
10:47 we can't say that we are truly free we are our own spiritual authority because you are naive in the real world all of
10:53 us have some idol which we worship something that we
10:58 actually live for. Martin Lloyd Jones describes a couple
11:06 when they're dating. If you think you're really free, when you're dating, what happens that you you
11:12 actually go through a ritual where you exchange information about each other, especially young people. Oh, you like
11:20 Harry Potter shows. Oh, I like it, too. Or you like to bake. My son actually bakes.
11:27 And and whatever the the person tells you, you you understand what they like and
11:34 you don't like and suddenly you suddenly like all the things they like and you don't like the things that they don't
11:39 like. And all this is done amazing is voluntarily done. You know your mother
11:46 asks you to bake or so scream and crawl and whatever it is no chance. All the
11:51 girlfriend has to say I like to bake.
11:56 off day. can do uh and and and can you say you're really free actually to be re
12:03 and then you ask a pe person who is in love do you really feel free you know I mean there are soaring happiness
12:09 especially is that love is reciprocal isn't it but you don't realize that even in that reciprocal love you actually
12:16 have control over each other you're actually submitting to the law of the wife or the girlfriend or the
12:22 significant other and even when you're sign submitting yourself to that law, it
12:28 doesn't feel bad because it's made of love. And so when Jesus Christ comes
12:33 into our lives, it's like that, isn't it? When you're submitting to his law because he's infinitely wise, he's
12:40 infinitely loving, he's infinitely kind, he who he wants all that is best for you and he wants to come into your life. And
12:48 it's a love relationship. You need to feel as if you're with your girlfriend. That you're doing things in order to
12:53 please him because he died for you. And the whole problem with us in the kingdom
12:59 of God is that we struggle sometimes to to to to follow what God wants. And then suddenly
13:05 something comes and then we decide, you know, it's okay. I believe that I should tell the truth all the time. But when
13:12 the fellow doesn't want to give me my CF in my building, so I pay a bribe or tell
13:18 a lie. Why? Well, because I've got all these principles, but in the end,
13:23 happiness is the most important thing to me. So, we're conflicted, isn't it? We want to serve God. We want to stand for
13:29 truth. We want to be righteous. On the other hand, when when the temptation comes, we we move off because we want to
13:36 pursue happiness. But you actually think you really can't pursue happiness.
13:41 Timothy Keller pointed out if you look at uh the biatitudes. The biatitudes are all about happiness.
13:49 A very interesting fact. If you look, happy are those who know they are spiritually poor. The kingdom of God
13:54 belongs to them. Happy are those who mourn. God will comfort them. Happy are those who are humble. They will receive
13:59 what God has promised. Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires. Happy are those who are
14:06 merciful to others. You know happiness is a derivative function mathematics. It
14:14 is not a primary goal. If Jesus Christ never say happy are those who pursue happiness.
14:21 You are happy because you pursue something which then results in you
14:26 being happy. If you are to pursue happiness and righteousness, it's okay.
14:32 If you pursue righteousness, you get happiness. But you pursue happiness alone alone you will actually get
14:37 neither righteousness nor happiness. A very simple thing in our life. So therefore if we are always chasing
14:44 happiness uh it will not result. You actually have to give your life to something that will actually bring
14:50 happiness and meaning. And Jesus said yes pursue righteousness. Pursue the kingdom of God and then you'll be
14:56 blessed and you'll be happy. Now how do we if we decided we're going to give our lives in obedience? How do we do that?
15:01 We do that by not being conformed to the world which mean follow the pattern of the world but instead we need to be
15:07 transformed. We need to be transformed and and the difference between transform
15:12 and conform is transform is actually in the passive tense which means you don't
15:18 change yourself. You cannot transform yourself. You actually be transformed by somebody else which is God. A young
15:25 child was telling her mother, you know, um I noticed that whenever I take a bud
15:32 and I try to make the flower come out, and I've done this before. You you peel peel it, what happens? All the petals
15:38 come out and they all fall down to the ground. Very bad. I can never do it. But when God does it, he does it from the
15:45 inside out. He does it by himself naturally. And that's how the transformation of our
15:52 lives and our minds occur for this to come naturally. If we force God's law as
15:57 an external device upon our lives and I was brought up in the church when I was young I was baptized when I was young
16:03 confirmed when I was 12 years old in the Catholic church and all I had in the last seven years of my life was
16:08 basically an external set of laws imposed upon from outside forcing me to do stuff and you know like petals in the
16:15 in the in in the flower I fell apart and I really hated God. But if it's done from inside you, you change your mind,
16:23 you change your heart and how you think about it. So So the the scripture changes your mind, transforms your mind.
16:29 This is a um Good Morning America co-host called Robin Roberts who was recently diagnosed with leukemia and she
16:36 actually went through chemotherapy and this is what she had to say about chemotherapy. It can change the journey
16:42 is as much about the mind as it is about body thoughts. Thoughts are so powerful. You got to be able to change the way you
16:49 you think in order to change the way you feel. She got over the awful consequences of chemotherapy. I mean,
16:55 how how do you feel good about chemo, you can't feel good about chemo, but you feel if you change the way you think,
17:02 then you change the way you feel? James 1 says, "Count it all joy when you meet
17:08 trials of various kinds." You know the testing of your tri faith produces steadfastness steadfastness of its full
17:14 effect that you may perfect and complete lacking in nothing. You change the way you think. If you look in psychology in
17:20 cognitive behavioral therapy by Arthur Ellis what they do in psychology is to change the way you think because if you
17:26 change the way you think you change the way you feel and when you change the way you feel you change your behavior. So
17:32 the thinking is important. So we our minds need to be renewed um by the word
17:38 of God. There are two things you can actually ex impose an external set of
17:44 laws. For example, never avenge yourself, forgive your enemies. Or you
17:49 could look in Romans 9, it goes down uh 12 looking down further. It says, "Leave the wrath to God for it is written,
17:56 vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord." And we don't pay back evil for evil simply because we believe with
18:03 our minds though the Bible tells us that the debt is going to be paid one day. God is going to take care of that. So
18:10 therefore, it's okay for us to forgive. We'll forgive also because we've got a parable in Matthew 18 about the un the
18:17 the unforgiving servant. God forgives him of his debt. He doesn't forgive the one who owes him and so therefore he's
18:24 cast out. See, we can forgive our enemies simply because Jesus forgave us.
18:30 So, basically, it's learning to understand how our bodies work because
18:36 our bodies are created by God. In fact, if you look at uh the Mayo Clinic, they've actually studied the benefits of
18:42 forgiveness, healthier relationships, less anxiety, lowers your blood pressure, fewer symptoms of depression,
18:48 lower risk of alcohol and substance abuse. This is how we're created. And the Bible tells us precisely and we
18:55 understand that whatever the the Lord tells is not an external set of rules imposed upon us. It's how we are to live
19:02 our lives and which slowly we have a progressive and and gradual way in which
19:07 we think and when we the way our thinking changes then our lives are transformed. So we change our value
19:15 system. This is the old value system where we have personal security, financial security, health and
19:21 well-being being the number one, safe nets against accidents, the new paradigm, righteousness, love
19:29 for others, service, gospel, obedience. These are the new values which we take upon our lives. We encounter our
19:35 culture, we either adapt to it or we confront it. Um, you know, Australian
19:41 doctors recently wanted the government to ban the slapping of kids, physical
19:48 abuse of kids, well, physical correction of kids. They did a study and they and
19:54 they actually appealed to government say, you know, if you actually whack your dog, you can be put in jail. But
19:59 you whack your child, you don't get put in jail. So therefore, they want to pass a law. Now is should we pass a law that
20:06 prohibits us from physical discipline of children? Do we confront this culture? If you look at the history of
20:13 Christianity in ancient Greece, children were more than beaten. They were left to
20:18 die. They were abandoned especially if you were female. Um and and it was the
20:24 Christians who confirm their mind confronted that culture and
20:29 got the governments of the day to change. They started orphanages. They started hospitals for children. Uh and
20:36 and and basically raised up their dignity. So we need to confront that. If you look at education,
20:43 education was only the purview of the elite in ancient societies. Only a few monks and very rich people could study.
20:50 But the influence of Christian culture was such that everyone would get um
20:56 education. They would started in monasteries and later on Harvard, Yale,
21:02 Cambridge, Oxford all of them were started by Christians. Hum there was
21:08 humanitarian reform. Slaves, lepers, women all because Christians decided
21:14 that they would be transformed in their minds and confront or adapt to culture.
21:22 This is Andrew Carnegie at one stage, one of the richest men in the world,
21:28 also a Christian. Um, he worked hard, got a lot of money, gave a lot of money
21:34 to charity. Francis Schaefer thought of a different paradigm. He said that I wonder if the
21:41 influence of Christians upon the world might not be better if people like Andrew Carnegie were not to were to pay
21:47 their workers better. Imagine if you paid your workers better and made less profit, your impact upon the world would
21:55 be even greater, isn't it? Well, something to think about. But that's an example of if you actually give your
22:01 life as a sacrifice by the transforming of your mind and mean you allow scripture to transform the way you think
22:08 about society. obey. What is the meaning of life? What makes a man or woman great? How you responds to an uh uh to
22:15 an offense? What determines a person's worth? What do you do with your retirement? How would you spend $1 million if I gave you that? You see, the
22:23 gospel must come and it must act as a sie in every area of your life. And
22:29 that's how you offer your body as a living sacrifice,
22:34 not just on Sunday. Now, how do we build our lives on the mercy of God? Second thing is on offering our gifts, right?
22:40 This is our gifts that we have. We all have gifts. There are no consumers in
22:46 this church. A lot of people sitting down here 600 over people or 500 people uh and and you often say only 15% of the
22:53 church actually serves which is actually an anomaly. In Paul's economy, everyone
23:00 has a gift. There are no consumers. There are no spectators. Um here you look for the grace given to me. I say to
23:08 everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think with sober judgment
23:14 each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned sober judgment. So
23:19 when you serve you need to serve not thinking too highly of yourselves. You
23:25 know there was a recent article in BBC there were too many managers in the
23:31 world. In Britain, there are about 100 times more managers now than there was
23:36 100 years ago. Why? Because everybody wants to be a manager. If you want to be, if you're conductor nowadays, they
23:43 call you trained manager. If you're a technician, they call you IT technician, IT manager. You know, nobody wants to
23:52 serve. Everybody wants basically to lead because of this idea that the boss snaps
23:57 the the cable, you run. But that's not how Christians think about service.
24:03 Every gift is g assigned by God. Every gift is given by the grace of God. We
24:10 can't be arrogant simply because it's all given to us. So we can't have Joanne
24:16 Yo come up here and say, "Oh, my my guitar was sorry guitar. Sorry. My violin's really good because I thought
24:23 of it all myself." She can't do that because the fact that she could play guitar. Sorry.
24:29 violin is because God gave her the gift. You can only stand and say, "Why didn't you give me? Why I must give her?"
24:36 But each one is given sovereignly by God. They differ according to the grace given. For as one body, we have many
24:44 members as members do not all have the same function. So we though many are one body in Christ. So in Christ, we are
24:52 created in Christ. Our unity is created in Christ. And yet individually we are members of one another having gifts that
24:59 defer according to the grace given to us. Let us use them you know. Uh so basically our individual identity as God
25:06 has created me to be cannot be known except in serving you as I rely on Christ. So unless you use your gift you
25:13 know if Joanne doesn't come up here and play the violin you'll never know that
25:20 she could play the violin real well. She see the things that gifts given you
25:25 to define your function and your identity in the body of Christ. This is Nick Vichek who is a pastor. I always
25:33 wonder what's that thing sticking in the bottom. You know, right? He doesn't have any hands and legs. But actually when he
25:40 when he jumps about ah you can see there's a leg. All right. Now when that
25:45 part of the body works then you can identify that body part of the body in
25:51 relationship with the rest of the body and so therefore we actually find our function when that part of the body
25:57 works. He recently got married and now got children and you know other parts of the body also work.
26:08 So unless we exercise our gifts in the body, we will never discover our true
26:14 identity and purpose in Jesus Christ. I'm a Christian. I come, I sit there every day here and I'll just hold on fold my hands and you do no
26:21 participation in church. Your gift is not used. That you will never discover God's plan for you. You will never
26:27 discover how God has created you to be part of his wonderful kingdom. You know,
26:33 this is a a book by CS Lewis called Four Loves. Uh, and it tells a story of three
26:41 men, Jack, Charlie, and Ronald. And and they had great fellowship with each other and and and they loved each other,
26:49 and they brought out the best in each other. And one day Charlie died and Jack
26:55 was very upset, very sad. He only had Ronald left. And he said to himself,
27:02 "Okay, Charlie died, but I have more of Ronald to myself. No need to share him
27:09 with Jack uh with with Charlie already." And as time went on, he actually realized as Sus Le wrote that he saw
27:15 less of Ronald because there was a part of Ronald that's only present when
27:21 Charlie is around. You see, each of us have an interacting
27:27 effect on each other. When your wife is around, it brings a certain aspect out of you. When your daughter is around, it
27:33 brings a little tenderness that's out of you. When your son is around, it brings another masculinity out of you. And only
27:39 in the context of a family, when you see the father, mother, brother, sisters, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and the
27:45 everybody else come, each one brings a aspect of the personality out. And I cannot know the true you unless I see
27:51 you in the family. And if you guys don't come up and you don't function according to what God has
27:59 created you to be and exercise your gifts, your personality, your little quirks and your little problems as well,
28:05 then you don't bring out the best in each of us and we are as a body a little
28:10 less, richer, a little poorer. If prophecy in proportion to our faith
28:17 is service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exalts in his exhortation, the one who
28:22 contributes in generosity, one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
28:32 Uh um John Piper writes on this passage
28:38 on the nature of spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are a fruitful form of
28:43 love. You see, when you use your spiritual gift, it's a form of love. One
28:50 doesn't use it because you love yourself. You use it in order to love other people. And when you love other
28:57 people, it produces spiritual change and fruit in their lives. How what the difference between the fact that you've
29:02 got natural gifts and spiritual gifts? There are two differences. And the first
29:07 of difference is that Piper says that the spiritual gift produces fruit in the
29:14 one in whom you've used that gift on. Now if you say you're a great Bible teacher, everybody goes
29:20 home and their lives are not changed. They're just entertained, then that's not a spiritual gift. If you
29:26 have gift of encouragement and the person uh after whom you've encouraged
29:31 supposed to have encouraged actually doesn't grow in Christ gets worse or if your gift of serving and after you serve
29:37 your takita or something happens and you didn't treat the person right he gets more upset he walks away he doesn't grow
29:43 that's not a spiritual gift a spiritual gift is a fruitful form of love spiritable form of love that over time
29:50 builds up other people so if your gift builds up other people then it is a spiritual gift. Uh this is um Rick
29:57 Warren. He said, "God gave me a gift, not for me, but for you. And God gave
30:04 you a gift, not for you, but for me. If you don't use your gift, you're depriving me. If I don't use my gift,
30:10 I'm robbing you." So, we come and we and and we when we interact with each other, we produce all sorts of different fruit.
30:16 You know, this one, you know, produce mango, this one durian. And unless you have each other's gifts,
30:24 uh we won't grow. Uh we deprive each other. You know, each one is unique. Um
30:29 each one has received a gift. This is u South America and it was a Linda, a lady
30:36 called Linda Oley who um basically was a missionary at Rio de Janeiario. And one
30:44 day she went on a mission trip. She's already a missionary. and she went to fortaza right up the tip there and
30:50 shared with the congregation there and she shared her life that all her life she wanted to be a missionary um and and
30:58 serve the Lord but she married a husband that didn't like this idea and for years and years and years she struggled with
31:05 her calling and he forbade her to go anywhere and but one day he he had
31:11 divorced her and finally she was free she went out as a missionary at the age
31:16 of 50 years of age and she went to the streets of Rio de Janeiro serving kids
31:22 there bearing fruit there and when she shared her testimony
31:28 a lady came out of the congregation and she was the pastor's wife
31:33 and she was stunned she says look because of what you shared it was precisely the problem I was struggling
31:39 into my heart and so therefore my husband wants to be a missionary he wants to go out of the country I didn't
31:45 want to let him and so therefore because of what you shared God has spoken to me
31:50 and she went. You see each of us have a unique gift, unique set of circumstances
31:57 in your life. Unless you share, unless you practice your gift, you will deprive
32:04 others in going forward. Dear Suim, she's sitting down there.
32:11 Good friend of mine. uh we knew her when her husband uh had cancer and died a
32:18 couple years ago. And Sima always laments to me, you know, when she she
32:23 was just new at our church. I know I'm so old. I don't know what to do, you know, how to serve God. I'm so old and
32:29 God has nothing to do with me because I'm I'm I'm too old. I can't do very much. But you see Suim today, she's not
32:36 only going to visitation and visiting people who are perhaps older and sicker than she is. She's even gone to mission
32:43 trip and half of you haven't gone or she's gone and been chased by the police.
32:48 She's even she's a fantastic maths teacher and her old age. I caught a picture of her two weeks ago. She's
32:54 teaching the Indians uh along with many other first Baptist uh uh people here
32:59 who are teaching the Indians. You know, it produces spiritual fruit. The fact that pastor Rama and a few of them
33:05 actually went out to do street feeding caused the Indian church to almost double in size in you know less than one
33:10 month double in size you know the the application of these gifts make a
33:16 difference in people's lives and I see so many of you reaching out to uh orangly kids teaching our teenagers um
33:23 so spiritual gifts a fruitful form of love the most practical form of love the
33:31 other thing that Piper says is that faith uh the spiritual gifts are rooted in
33:36 faith and faith is rooted on the grace of God. For the me the grace
33:43 given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than you are to think, but to think with
33:49 sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned. Having gifts to defer according to
33:56 grace, let us use them in prophecy in proportion to our faith. So basically
34:02 Piper is saying the difference between spiritual gifts and the normal gift is that the normal gift you will tap into
34:09 your intrinsic talent. Spiritual gift is different. You tap
34:15 into the grace of God by the eyes of faith because you rely on the strength
34:20 of the Lord not on the strength of your own gifts. You then tap into your the
34:25 grace of God through faith. That's how spiritual gifts work. That's why you have spiritual gifts varying in
34:32 proportion. Therefore, if for example, as your faith increases, the clarity of your vision of Christ increases. You can
34:38 show Christ to others. Your words will be more lucid, more compelling, more
34:43 illuminating. If you treasure Christ's worth more, therefore, when you actually exercise your gift, you will exercise
34:50 with greater passion because of Christ's value. If you trust God's purposes of
34:55 promises of help more, then when you use your gift, you use it with greater confidence, boldness, courage. Your your
35:02 faith will be rugged and durable. And when you actually strike out, you will strike on bigger
35:08 things, take bigger risks. Why? Because your faith is bigger. So we serve in
35:15 proportion to our faith. In proportion. Which means therefore we we can't fake
35:20 it. If we fake that we have a bigger gift than what we are. Some of us can preach like that. Some of us can preach
35:26 a lot better. Some of us so so trouble is that on stage and and when you work
35:31 in church you try to make yourself bigger than what you are. You try to fake it and all the energy is gone into
35:37 faking it. Uh Paul is saying you need to be real. All of us have different levels
35:44 of spiritual gifts. Even you look at the preachers who preach in this church, they all have different levels of skills
35:50 and according to their proportion of faith. And so therefore, we need to be authentic. And how do we grow? Not grow
35:57 the skill. You know, you actually grow the faith. When you grow the faith, then you'll be able to speak and use your
36:04 gifts with the authenticity that is because of your faith in Christ which has been built up over the years. So
36:10 that's how spiritual gifts work which are different from uh physical gifts.
36:16 Lastly, remember it's how you use a gift. The one who contributes in
36:21 generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with
36:26 cheerfulness. Each of these gifts are administered in a particular attitude.
36:33 When you administer your gifts in church, when you're serving, when you're helping each other, smile. Don't say oh,
36:42 you know, I've seen some people when they serve, you know, better not be usher because uh people want to turn
36:48 around really go to church, you know, hard enough to drag myself out on Sunday and I see the face and I walk away. I
36:53 mean, what's the point? If you serve, serve with cheerfulness, with zeal.
36:58 Don't scold one another. You let God skull. You don't have to skull, right? Because you see, we hardly scold you
37:04 from the pulpit because we leave God. Vengeance is mine. I will repay. God says, "So the pastor doesn't have to or
37:11 the elder doesn't have school anymore. It's all God, right? So serve with zeal,
37:16 with cheerfulness." Let me have the team up, please.
37:21 Let me end this sermon by looking at the first
37:27 verse. And the first verse is extremely
37:32 important. This can all remain theory.
37:39 Unless you look at the first verse. And if you look at the first verse,
37:49 it says, "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of
37:54 God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,
37:60 which is your spiritual worship." You know, Paul can command you.
38:06 [Music] Paul can insist. He could have used the Greek imperative to say this must
38:12 happen. But he used the word appeal. Appeal in
38:17 Greek is paraco. Parah means come alongside.
38:22 Calo is called call. You know mothers always call their
38:28 children, hey come down for dinner. M the child will be playing a daughter and
38:34 says oh in a minute mom the minute turns to five hours then you scream calm down for dinner.
38:41 Imagine a mom that's different. He comes up to you sits next to you when you're
38:46 playing your daughter and says son [Music]
38:53 dinner's ready come down. I wonder the response will be
38:60 different. I don't know. I hope so.
39:05 But but when Jesus when Paul says I paracleo you means I come alongside
39:14 next to you and I bring you my blooded hands. I bring you my palms, my feet. I bring
39:21 you my blood as you have participated and I'm asking you this morning to give
39:28 up your life. I'm not asking you to be nailed in the cross. I'm asking you to
39:34 because of what I've done, I've given you my whole life.
39:39 The only logical worship is to give up your whole life and to serve him.
39:47 [Music] Let's sing this. [Music]
39:57 Please arise [Music]
40:04 when I satey [Music]
40:10 the wonderous God [Music]
40:16 of worship Prince
40:22 of glory die
40:28 my richest gain.
40:34 I count by [Music]
40:40 and contempt [Music]
40:46 on all my pride.
40:53 [Music] Oh, Lord,
40:59 [Music] that I should
41:05 [Music] saving the death
41:11 [Music] of Christ my God.
41:20 All of this
41:25 that shall be more.
41:32 I sacrifice [Music]
41:37 them to his blood.
41:43 See from his head,
41:50 his hands, his feet.
41:55 Sorrow and love [Music]
42:01 flowing go down. [Music]
42:08 It has such love [Music]
42:13 and sorrow need
42:19 all comfort [Music]
42:25 so rich. Let's pray.
42:33 Lord, we come before you as your people. And this morning, we just want to
42:38 concentrate on one thing that comes out from your word that you appeal to us by the death of
42:47 your son Jesus Christ. The anguish, the suffering, the pain that is suffered on
42:53 the cross that you can come to us, each one of us this morning, and you can confront us in our lives. Lord,
43:01 you have done so much. We have done so little.
43:06 Father, Lord, we pray your spirit confronts each of us. That we give up
43:11 vain things, that we give up the pursuit of our own happiness, that we give our lives to the
43:19 only thing that will make us truly happy. That means we fall at your feet and to serve you as your servants.
43:26 Father Lord, use our gifts, use our bodies, use our lives, use our
43:32 personalities, use our whole being. Take us as a sacrifice.
43:38 We don't want to hold anything back. Father Lord, I would pray for all of us this morning that as we sit down
43:44 afterwards and before we leave, we will take that form for social concern. We
43:50 will have a fruitful form of love. will tick at least every single one of us
43:56 that there is not a single person in this church who does not want to serve. Not a single one of us in this church
44:02 who does not want to show love and to be obedient to your call.
44:07 We ask this for Jesus sake. Let's sing the last one together with really loud.
44:13 The whole rail
44:19 of natural [Music]
44:33 small [Music] love How are
44:43 so divine
44:48 defense my soul
44:54 He bounds my soul.
44:60 He bounds my soul.
45:06 I got my own.
45:11 [Music]
