Discovering The Will of God In The Church
Title: Discovering the Will of God in the Church
Part: 22 of 27 Romans Series
Reading: Romans 12:3-21
Introduction
I'm going to read some verses in a moment from Romans 12, I'm going to read Romans 12: 3-10. And Paul writes there,
For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you: do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 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 have different gifts according to a grace given to 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 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. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love."
And this comes as you know, as part of the very practical section in Romans, when Paul having taught us what it means to be reconciled to God, cleansed justified in dwelt by his holy spirit. Now in these last chapters talks about the practical outworking of this in our lives and our society. And chapter 12 began, which you looked at last occasion,
Romans 12:1, "I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy offer your bodies as living sacrifices."
And he tells us why,
Romans 12:2, "Then you'll test and approve what God's will is, his good pleasing and perfect will."
And having said, presenting your body to him is the means of discovering the will of God. He then goes on to talk about the will of God in certain very important areas. In the rest of chapter 12, he talks about discovering the will of God in the church, which is what we're going to talk about today. And then in chapter 13, discovering the will of God in society, which we'll talk about on the next occasion. Discovering the will of God in the church. You see, very often when we talk about the will of God for our lives and one the marvellous things that scripture affirms is that God does have a will and a plan for our lives.
But we tend very often to think of God's will in very personal and individualistic terms. In other words, we consider the will of God having to do with things like, what career should I follow? Who should I marry? Where should I live? Should I become a missionary or not? What is the will of God? What about my family?
These are things we consider as being where the will of God is applicable. And of course, that is true. We may live with certainty that God does have a will for the details of our personal lives. And we're promised in Proverbs 5:6,
"In all your ways, acknowledge God. He will direct your path."
That's a marvellous fact. But our relationship with God is not simply a private affair between you and God.
In fact, privatizing the Christian life can be one of the biggest mistakes we can make. And one of the biggest causes of stunted growth in our spiritual lives, because the Christian life is not just between God and me. I am saved individually. I come to Christ as an individual, but it's between God and me, and God and me and you, and God and me and the church as a whole, and God and me and society, and God and me and you and the church and society and the whole world.
We're not just isolated you in your small corner. And I and mine that when we come to Christ, as individuals, we are told by Paul in 1 Corinthians, he baptizes us by his spirit, into the body of Christ, which is the church.
And this is a vital part of the Christian experience that we must understand and live in the good of. Now, I want to talk very practically about this, this morning. I want to talk about things that Paul states in these verses.
First, we'll talk about the fact that the church is to be characterized by community. And we'll see what he says about that. Secondly, the church is to be characterized by humility. We'll see what he says about that. And thirdly, the church is to be characterized simplicity, and we'll see what he says about that. Now, I'm going to disproportionately talk about the first point.
So please don't think that when I say secondly that we're going to go as long again, twice over because we won't, and it's not because I'm being undisciplined in my first point. It's because I have most to say about this point that the church is to be characterized by community.
Church is to be Characterized by Community
And I mean that in a very particular way, Romans 12:4-6, Paul says, "as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function." That's the illustration of the human body there. "So in Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others, we have different gifts according to the grace given us."
And the picture uses here is the church is like a human body. And although the body has different members, fingers, toes, nose, ear, arms, etc, and these different parts of the body exercise a different function. Nevertheless, we are one body.
And so, he speaks to the fact, there is diversity in the church of Jesus Christ. And there is unity in the church of Jesus Christ, diversity of gifts, unity of purpose. He stresses the diversity in Romans 12:6, we have different gifts. So we're different. He stresses the unity in Romans 12:5, "in Christ we who are many form one body, each member belongs to the other."
So if we're different, we're also dependent on each other. None of us function alone. You see the church of Jesus Christ according to the New Testament is not a club for like-minded Christians who have little better to do on a Sunday morning. So let's all go to our religious club, called the church, arrive on time most of us, leave on time and do it again next week.
No, that is not the biblical picture of the church. It is right and necessary and convenient to join together like this. But you are the church on Monday, the church on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 24/7.
And the church is made up of men and women, boys and girls who are different. There's a credible difference right through this building this morning. And yet we are incorporated into one body where therefore we are connected with each other and serving one overall sense of purpose and function.
And I wanted us to try to understand what that involves this morning. Every one of us needs to find out our small part in the big picture. The picture is very big. The part you and I as individuals play is relatively very small, but the big picture is dependent on the small details of our lives and our functions and our ministries, because every one of us here this morning is somebody whom God has called, equipped, and gifted to fulfill a particular function.
You see, let look at these two aspects. First of all, in the body, we are different from each other. Let me talk about that. And then how that we are dependent on each other. First of all, that we are different from each other. You see, every one of us is unique and we have different gifts and abilities. Now, sometimes there is the idea that there are certain people who have spiritual gifts and certain people who don't. I was browsing through a book that I picked up in a second-hand bookstore just the other day. And it is a year's volume of a weekly Christian magazine published in 1890 in Britain. So it's over 100 years old.
In fact, I got about 20 of these volumes. The bookstore didn't recognize any value to them. So I got them cheap, but they're actually brilliant resources and great articles. I was intrigued by an article, written 1890, entitled, The Holy Spirit And Women. I thought, intriguing. It began by saying something like this, and I’ll paraphrase it. It said, it has for many years, been understood that spiritual gifts are given to clergymen within the church. And that God endows them with spiritual gifts to enable them to fulfill their functions as clergy, but for a number of years now, it says, it has also become recognized that God also gives spiritual gifts to lay men.
Now, the big question says in this article, does God give spiritual gifts to women? Now this is only just over 100 years ago, incredible that this was the thinking back in those days, even. And it goes on based on a passage in Acts 2:17,
"I'll pour up my spirit on all flesh, your young men and your women will prophesy" et cetera.
And it so takes examples of general William Boo's salvation army, which had begun a few years before, which used a lot of women in ministry. But although this is just over 100 years ago, this idea that there were certain select people who receive spiritual gifts, there is still that subconscious sense amongst many of us who are Christians.
That there's certain people that God calls and equips and gives gifts to. And there's certain ones of us to whom he doesn't. When I was a young Christian, I genuinely thought there were a few special people that God liked and equipped and used. And I wasn't one of them nor likely to be one of them. I generally thought this.
The best I could do was support those God was using, listen to them, help them, encourage them, that could never expect that God might use me for anything. But I discover of course the New Testament teachers, they can be complete opposite of that, that every single one of us has been gifted.
Each of us has one body many members. These members don't all have the same functions. So in Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to the other as we have different gifts. It is a universal statement about, the Christian, who's part of the church.
Now the fact that we have different gifts does mean that sometimes we get the idea that some gifts are a little more important than other gifts. Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 12, when he speaks about this issue and in 1 Corinthians 12:14-15, at 1 Corinthians 12, he talks about how that one part of the body may think itself to be less significant than another part of the body. Let me read you what he says. He says,
" The body is not made up of one part, but of many. Now, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body."
Now says, Paul, there's some controversy here between the foot and the hand. The foot looks enviously at the hand and says, the hand seems to have a much better time than I do. It seems to have a much higher profile than I do, therefore I conclude says the foot, I'm not important. This is Paul's illustration.
Now the stomach illustration because feet have a hard time compared to the hand. I mean, a foot is wrapped up in a sock first thing in the morning, shoved into a shoe. It's dark down there. It gets humid down there. The hand is having the fresh air all the time.
People shake you by their hand, they never shake you by the foot. You put a ring on your finger. You don't put a ring on your toe. Maybe you do, normal people don't. You wash your hands six times a day, wash your foot once a month. I understand why Paul says the foot can say, because I'm not a hand, I'm not as important, people take fingerprints, never take toe prints. And then he says, gives another example, 1 Corinthians 12:16,
“ If the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body. Not for reasons ceases to be part of the body”
There's a controversy assessment between the ear and the eye.
I understand that the ear could well, think, the eye is much more significant. People look you in the eye, they don't look you in the ear. And so Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:17," if the whole body were an eye where would the sense of hearing be?"
I mean, just imagine if the whole body were just a big eyeball. Just an eyeball rolling down the sidewalk. What would a big eyeball be useful for? He says, of course the body is not a big eyeball. The eye is necessary, but the eye cannot fulfill its functions without the ear. He says, suppose the whole body was just an ear. That's in 1 Corinthians 12:17, where would the sense of smell be? I mean, you imagine if the body was just a big ear, like a piece of bacon sitting on the floor, how could it function?
And Paul is saying this because he's saying in that context to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 12, where he says that. He's saying, because some of you who have been born again of the holy spirit, you've been incorporated into the body have begun to think that you're not significant, or you're less important. But as he says in verse 18 and 1 Corinthians 12: 18, he says, in fact,
“God has arranged the parts of the body every one of them just as he wanted them to be.”
Why is the body balanced and their different parts and functions? Why does the church of Jesus Christ have many different gifts within its community? Because God arranged it that way, he says.
That's why never envy somebody else's gift and think that they have something, which makes them more important and never look at somebody else and think, well, they don't have my gift, they're not as important because we're talking about the function of the whole body and the whole body needs every part of it to be functioning.
Now, here in Romans 12, Paul lists seven different gifts that he specifies. We have different gifts, he says in Romans 12:6,
"According to grace given to us, if a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it. If it's serving, let him serve if it's teaching, let him teach, encouraging, let him encourage. If it's contributing the needs of others, that is financial giving, let him do it generously. If it's leadership, let him do it diligently. If it's showing mercy, do it cheerfully.”
Now of course, this is not an exhaustive list in any sense at all, of spiritual gifts, but he just gives some representative gifts, some public ministry gifts, teaching prophesy leadership, some practical ministry gifts, serving, giving, some personal ministry gifts, encouraging, showing mercy.
In fact, there is no exhaustive list of spiritual gifts than in the New Testament. I can find 22 different things described as being gifts, spiritual gifts, but there is no single comprehensive list. And I don't think we can make those 22, the definitive list, because there are many things not mentioned that are spiritual gifts.
We recognize God equipping people for different things. For instance, there's never any mention of counselling is a spiritual gift, but we know find well that there are people who are very gifted to draw alongside a minister to the people in a unique way. There's no mention of anything to do with music as being spiritual gift.
Basically, I think spiritual gifts are the means whereby we are equipped to address need, and there can be a whole variety of need that isn't necessarily specified in scripture, but we are different. We need to see ourselves in 3D. We are different by divine decree. That’s the reason why you accept yourself exactly as you are with both your strengths, which God has given you and your weaknesses, which God has also given you.
Because where God has made you strong in one area, he's left you weak in another, that's by divine design. So we are mutually interdependent on one another, but that's the first point there that we are different from each other. We're also dependent on each other. He says in Romans 12:5,
"In Christ, we who are many form one body, each member belongs to the other. And each member of the body is needed by each other member and needs each other member because we cannot function in isolation."
Any more than the human body can function in its individual parts in isolation. It is dependent on every other part. Let me illustrate this. I remember one day I was walking along the shores of Lake Constance, which is on the border between Switzerland and Germany.
I was alone. I was chewing over a message I was going to be speaking in an hour or twos time after that. And as I was walking along the Lakeside, something happened and I wanted to describe to you what happened to my body? First of all, my ears picked up a message, which came from about 100 meters out on the lake. And the message was something like this, heeeelp, glug, glug, glug. My ears, pick up the message. Send it to my brain. My brain sent the message to my neck, neck turn. And my neck turned. My brain said to my eyes, eyes focus, my eyes focused. What can you see? My eyes send back the message. There's a hand and an arm sticking out of the water.
My brain did a quick calculation. If there's a hand and an arm sticking out of the water, there's probably a body attached to the other end. So my brain said to my eyes, eyes, can you see the body? Can you see the head? My eyes trained, send the message back. No, I can't see the head, just the hand and the arm. My brain did another quick calculation. That's why he said “glug, glug, glug” at the end, he's drowning. Having assessed the situation, my brain sent a message to my legs, legs, run and help. And so my legs began to run, jumped on the water. Two other people got their first fortunately, because he fought with them, but we eventually got him in and lay him down and pumped what seemed like gallons of water out of his chest. And the guy was okay, which is a relief.
But the point is this, supposing my ears worked well. Heard the sound, help, glug, glug, glug. My brain worked well. Turned my neck, focused my eyes, got the information. There's a hand. There must be a body. That's why he said, “glug, glug, glug”, he’s drowning. Legs run. And suppose my legs said, no, I didn't come for a swim this morning, I came for a walk. Then my ears might still work well, my eyes might work well, my brain might function, my neck muscles might function, but I'm totally useless in responding to the situation if my legs say, no, I'm not going to go and swim.
And therefore, if I elect to opt out of asking God, what is it you want me to do? And doing it. It's not just me who may be restricted as a result, but the rest of the body is unable to function as fully as it might as a result.
You see, there are two big dangers in the church of Jesus Christ. There are those who think they're insignificant and unimportant and therefore they conclude everything can continue without me. I don't need to be involved in what God is doing in his agenda in our world and through our church. I don't need to be involved in supporting missionaries, serving God in some distant part of the world. I'm unimportant in all of this. That's one big mistake.
Another big mistake is that those who think they are sufficient and can go it alone. That somehow, they don't need other people, but we do need other people. We do need this sense of interdependency upon each other as the human body does. And what is important is not the individual role that we may play because those roles will differ. What matters is the overall function that is being accomplished through the body.
I remember once I was invited to speak at a well known Bible college in North America for their Spiritual Emphasis Week. And when I arrived there on the campus, they gave me their program for the week and it involved one morning. They asked me if I would come in a little earlier before the chapel, which I would normally speak at maybe at 8:30, and would I be willing to meet with the support staff at that college? They had a coffee time and a devotional time. Would I be willing to speak at that? I said, “I'd love to.”
When I arrived, they showed me to the staff room, which was in the basement. Now on the first day, I'd met with the faculty in their room, which was on the second floor, nice and airy, big windows, coffee machine walking away in the corner, down here in the basement. The only light was at the top of the wall. There was just an arrow window along one side. And through that window, you could see the feet of students coming into the college because the main entrance was just along beyond it. The furniture looked as though it had come from various sources, none of it seemed to match. Maybe people who had bought some new stuff, gave the old stuff to the Bible college and said, yeah, let's put it in the staff room.
As the folks came in, the groomsmen, the cleaners, the caterer’s, kitchen staff, secretaries, I looked around the room, some lovely people there, but there were several people there who looked as though they hadn't got a lot of self-respect. And sometimes people display that in all kinds of manner. And I felt, God, lay my heart something I should say to them. And I said to these folks when it was my time to talk, I said, you are aware that this Bible college is well known throughout the world. It's one of the best. There are students here today who will serve God on the mission fields of the world. They become pastors and evangelists and in years to come, many of them will look back on their time here as one of the most important periods of their life.
Many of them will quote their professors. They may write letters to them and say, thank you for what you taught me and the influence you've had on my life. And they may write those letters five years, 10 years, even 20 years from now, because that influence will still be felt by them. But it may well be that some of you will never ever get a letter from the students. May well be in six months of leaving, they would've forgotten your name. It may even be, if you were to meet some of these students on the street this afternoon, they wouldn't recognize you. And it may be that you feel you're not important. It maybe you feel that you are in the B team, if not the Z team.
I said, I don't know which of you here cleans the washrooms, but I've been to them and they're clean. Thank you. God is pleased with that. I don't know which of you work in the kitchens here, but I've eaten lunch here this week and the food is good. Thank you. God is pleased with that. I don't know which of you work out in the grounds, but the flower bed outside the front end is beautiful. God is pleased with that.
You're important in God's reckoning, every bit as important as anybody else who plays any role in this college, I'll tell you that. Because the next day I was walking down the corridor and there was one of the cleaners and she had one of these big wide brooms and as she was pushing it down the corridor, her head was down and I stepped over it and I said, good morning. And she looked up and said, oh, it's you? And I said, yeah, it's me.
She said, I'm glad I've seen. Let me tell you something. I said, tell me, she said a week last Monday, I gave in my notice, I went to the office and said, I'm going to finish after two weeks. I said, why do you do that? She said, because I don't enjoy my work. I said, what do you do? She said, will I clean as I'm doing this morning? She said, after you spoke, yesterday, I went back to the office, I said, you have anybody for my job yet? And they said, no, we haven't. She said, can I have it back? And the person said, why do you want it back? She said, God likes the way I clean the washrooms. And he does, because that college could not function well with dirty washrooms, dirty buildings, unkept grounds outside.
You see, we see in most things, as in this church, you see on a tip of an iceberg, you have no idea, the vast majority of the iceberg is under the water and people don't see it. You notice every Sunday morning; this church is clean. We have goblins that come every Saturday night and do that. Do you notice the temperature is right? I'll tell you why, because you notice it when it isn't, once in a while, it's nearly always right. How did that happen?
Many of you have dropped your children off this morning in nurseries, and you've come here without any need to be concerned about them. And that people who have given up time to not be here because they're serving and their folks who are given up in some cases, years and years to serve your children. And that's important.
You wouldn't believe how many hours board members of this church and different committee members and council members meet to discuss and talk and work through issues. You wouldn't believe how many hours every month is given to people who've got full-time jobs elsewhere, but they do. Along for the day when normality in this church and every church will be the normality of the first church where Acts 2:46 says,
"Every day, they continue to meet together in the temple courts, and they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts."
Now the equivalent of meeting together in the temple courts is what we're doing here this morning. Meeting as part of a big group and enjoying the fellowship and friendship of a big group.
That is a vital ingredient in what goes on, but they didn't just do that in Jerusalem. In Acts 2, it says, they also met together in homes
“Broke bread in their homes together."
And the equivalent of that is the small group. And they're all kind different small groups that meet in different ways. This is how the church of Jesus Christ is to be characterized by community where we are different, but we are mutually dependent, and we serve one another.
Church is to be Characterized by Humility
But secondly, and rather quickly, we are to be characterized by humility as well as by community. In Romans 12:3, Paul says,
"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment."
Now, twice in that sentence, he talks about thinking about yourself. And he says, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. In other words, he warns against inflated thinking about yourself and whilst guarding against inflated thinking about yourself, he calls for sober thinking about yourself, rather think about yourselves more soberly with sober judgment. Now, what is a soberly estimation about ourselves?
A soberly estimation of ourselves is recognizing that I may have gifts, which are only one part of the larger body. I'm a cog. I'm an ingredient in a big picture. I need to serve that big picture. I like the way Paul opens the book of Romans in the opening verse, he introduces himself. Paul is servant of Christ Jesus he says, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.
Now there's humility there. I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. That's my primary identity Paul says, but along with that humility, there is confidence that I am called to be an apostle. Yes, I'm a servant, but I have a sense of being divinely called a divine call from heaven to be something on earth, to be an apostle. And so, you find Paul exercising his apostleship in a spirit of humility, but in a spirit of confidence.
So when he is called upon to rebuke those churches, was his apostolic responsibility. They were moving away from the truth he did so without any hesitation, not because he was lording it over them, but because he was serving them, according to the calling God had given to him.
So there's this coupling of humility and confidence, that Paul exercises and shows. And we need to serve whatever our capacity with humility but understand soberly God has given me this particular response or whatever it is, and to carry it through with confidence, this is where God has put me and to which God has called me. Now what's the best way to find your gift? Well, I want to suggest to you, the best way to find your gift is by getting busy in serving God. Now I know you can go through all kinds of introspective test papers or whatever they are. And those may be helpful at some stage, but I know people who've told me as a result of that, they have certain gifts that they've exercised in their life. I think the best way to discover your gift is by getting busy.
When I led the Bible school in England, this was one of the exciting aspects of it. We get our students involved in serving God. And again, and again, and again, they would say, well, I can't do that. How'd you know? “Well, I just know.” But have you ever done it? “No.” Well, you don't know, do it. And then if you can't, that's fine, you've learned that. I taught a guy here in Toronto just a few days ago as a student with us about 10 years ago. And he was sent to preach, and he'd never preached in his life. And he came back to the person who had organized the plan and said to him, look, I can't preach. And he said, well, how do you know? He said, well, I just don't feel I can. Well, go and try. “But I'm not confident.” Well, that's okay.
Just trust God. I'll help you prepare a message. If you like, you get some ideas, come, I'll help you put it together. So that's what he did. And the day before he was due to preach, the student came and said, look, I just can't do it. He said, you know why you can't do it? Because you're too proud that's why. You scared you're going to fail. Is that right? He said, well, I am scared of that. Well, that's the pride. Do it, and if you fail, fail. Then we'll know, it's not your gift. That guy right now is a full-time preacher based here in Toronto, because he discovered God can use me.
I learned to preach with three friends initially four of us, all in our late teens. We wanted to reach young people in the city near which I lived. We went into some of the coffee bars of young people used to hang out and tried to engage them in conversation. And then we decided we'd try and preach on the street on the Saturday afternoon. And we got permission to do so. And none of us knew how to preach, but we just got up and began to talk. And the best place to learn to preach is in the open air because nobody's polite in the open air. If what you're saying, doesn't make any sense, they keep walking. So we made it a challenge to each other. Let's see how we can get people to stop. And we count, how many people each could get to stop and then how long they would stop for.
And if they to move away, have to throw in someone like, let me tell you a story and you begin a story. So they stop to hear the story. And then if you're wise you'd stop halfway through and say, before I finish the story, let me tell you… da, da, da. Then you'd bring your other point.
In one sense, anybody can preach to a polite congregation. People in church are very polite, they learn how to sit at the right angle and they get their heads to the right tilt. And they look as though they're awake and they... You have no idea whether they're listening or not.
That's why most Saturday afternoons we'd go into the city of Lancaster from the Bible school of Cape Murray when I was there, and we would have students take open air meetings. It was great for them. That's where men learned to communicate the gospel to folks and many other ways too, by getting involved in serving people.
Spiritual gifts are all about serving people, not about personal fulfillment. Well, this fulfills me, therefore I will do it. They're all about serving the needs of other people and meeting the needs of other people. When that remains our goal and our focus when the time comes that it's time to stop what you're doing. And that time comes for all of us in all situations.
When the time comes to stop, if your motivation is your self-fulfilment and self-sense of significance, then you're going to struggle when it comes to stop. But if your motivation is serving, when it comes time to stop here, you say, that's fine. Let me move and serve in another capacity. But it's the overall building up of the body that is the objective. And so the church of Jesus Christ is characterized by community. The church has to be characterized by humility and thirdly, and very quickly the church has to be characterized by simplicity from Romans 12:9-21. Paul gives 25 exhortations that are very, very simple and straightforward. And these represent the dynamics of an effective church.
I'm going to finish this by reading them to you. Look at Romans 12:9,
“ Love must be sincere.” Is that difficult?
“Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” Is that difficult?
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Is that difficult?
“Never be lacking in zeal. Keep your spiritual purpose serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, Patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need, practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and don't curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position, do not be conceited. Do not repay evil for evil," et cetera.
He finishes:
“Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Challenge to us
This isn't rocket science, is it? This is basically caring about other people. And as we consciously care about other people and we serve each other and as a church, we serve the world. As we reach out to the world in this atmosphere of love and mutual respect and joy and patience and kindness, these are all include in those words.
We have what is described here and pictured here as a marvellous community and not that community is called. I'll tell you; it's called the church, where every part is seeking to be involved in fulfilling its role that the overall purpose of God's agenda in our world is being fulfilled. As only as you and I are willing to be committed to God's agenda for his church and to be a participant in it. That we go on growing spiritually, because you can stunt your growth by simply having a relationship with God, that's God and me.
Title: Discovering the Will of God in the Church
Part: 22 of 27 Romans Series
Reading: Romans 12:3-21
Introduction
I'm going to read some verses in a moment from Romans 12, I'm going to read Romans 12: 3-10. And Paul writes there,
For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you: do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 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 have different gifts according to a grace given to 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 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. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love."
And this comes as you know, as part of the very practical section in Romans, when Paul having taught us what it means to be reconciled to God, cleansed justified in dwelt by his holy spirit. Now in these last chapters talks about the practical outworking of this in our lives and our society. And chapter 12 began, which you looked at last occasion,
Romans 12:1, "I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy offer your bodies as living sacrifices."
And he tells us why,
Romans 12:2, "Then you'll test and approve what God's will is, his good pleasing and perfect will."
And having said, presenting your body to him is the means of discovering the will of God. He then goes on to talk about the will of God in certain very important areas. In the rest of chapter 12, he talks about discovering the will of God in the church, which is what we're going to talk about today. And then in chapter 13, discovering the will of God in society, which we'll talk about on the next occasion. Discovering the will of God in the church. You see, very often when we talk about the will of God for our lives and one the marvellous things that scripture affirms is that God does have a will and a plan for our lives.
But we tend very often to think of God's will in very personal and individualistic terms. In other words, we consider the will of God having to do with things like, what career should I follow? Who should I marry? Where should I live? Should I become a missionary or not? What is the will of God? What about my family?
These are things we consider as being where the will of God is applicable. And of course, that is true. We may live with certainty that God does have a will for the details of our personal lives. And we're promised in Proverbs 5:6,
"In all your ways, acknowledge God. He will direct your path."
That's a marvellous fact. But our relationship with God is not simply a private affair between you and God.
In fact, privatizing the Christian life can be one of the biggest mistakes we can make. And one of the biggest causes of stunted growth in our spiritual lives, because the Christian life is not just between God and me. I am saved individually. I come to Christ as an individual, but it's between God and me, and God and me and you, and God and me and the church as a whole, and God and me and society, and God and me and you and the church and society and the whole world.
We're not just isolated you in your small corner. And I and mine that when we come to Christ, as individuals, we are told by Paul in 1 Corinthians, he baptizes us by his spirit, into the body of Christ, which is the church.
And this is a vital part of the Christian experience that we must understand and live in the good of. Now, I want to talk very practically about this, this morning. I want to talk about things that Paul states in these verses.
First, we'll talk about the fact that the church is to be characterized by community. And we'll see what he says about that. Secondly, the church is to be characterized by humility. We'll see what he says about that. And thirdly, the church is to be characterized simplicity, and we'll see what he says about that. Now, I'm going to disproportionately talk about the first point.
So please don't think that when I say secondly that we're going to go as long again, twice over because we won't, and it's not because I'm being undisciplined in my first point. It's because I have most to say about this point that the church is to be characterized by community.
Church is to be Characterized by Community
And I mean that in a very particular way, Romans 12:4-6, Paul says, "as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function." That's the illustration of the human body there. "So in Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others, we have different gifts according to the grace given us."
And the picture uses here is the church is like a human body. And although the body has different members, fingers, toes, nose, ear, arms, etc, and these different parts of the body exercise a different function. Nevertheless, we are one body.
And so, he speaks to the fact, there is diversity in the church of Jesus Christ. And there is unity in the church of Jesus Christ, diversity of gifts, unity of purpose. He stresses the diversity in Romans 12:6, we have different gifts. So we're different. He stresses the unity in Romans 12:5, "in Christ we who are many form one body, each member belongs to the other."
So if we're different, we're also dependent on each other. None of us function alone. You see the church of Jesus Christ according to the New Testament is not a club for like-minded Christians who have little better to do on a Sunday morning. So let's all go to our religious club, called the church, arrive on time most of us, leave on time and do it again next week.
No, that is not the biblical picture of the church. It is right and necessary and convenient to join together like this. But you are the church on Monday, the church on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 24/7.
And the church is made up of men and women, boys and girls who are different. There's a credible difference right through this building this morning. And yet we are incorporated into one body where therefore we are connected with each other and serving one overall sense of purpose and function.
And I wanted us to try to understand what that involves this morning. Every one of us needs to find out our small part in the big picture. The picture is very big. The part you and I as individuals play is relatively very small, but the big picture is dependent on the small details of our lives and our functions and our ministries, because every one of us here this morning is somebody whom God has called, equipped, and gifted to fulfill a particular function.
You see, let look at these two aspects. First of all, in the body, we are different from each other. Let me talk about that. And then how that we are dependent on each other. First of all, that we are different from each other. You see, every one of us is unique and we have different gifts and abilities. Now, sometimes there is the idea that there are certain people who have spiritual gifts and certain people who don't. I was browsing through a book that I picked up in a second-hand bookstore just the other day. And it is a year's volume of a weekly Christian magazine published in 1890 in Britain. So it's over 100 years old.
In fact, I got about 20 of these volumes. The bookstore didn't recognize any value to them. So I got them cheap, but they're actually brilliant resources and great articles. I was intrigued by an article, written 1890, entitled, The Holy Spirit And Women. I thought, intriguing. It began by saying something like this, and I’ll paraphrase it. It said, it has for many years, been understood that spiritual gifts are given to clergymen within the church. And that God endows them with spiritual gifts to enable them to fulfill their functions as clergy, but for a number of years now, it says, it has also become recognized that God also gives spiritual gifts to lay men.
Now, the big question says in this article, does God give spiritual gifts to women? Now this is only just over 100 years ago, incredible that this was the thinking back in those days, even. And it goes on based on a passage in Acts 2:17,
"I'll pour up my spirit on all flesh, your young men and your women will prophesy" et cetera.
And it so takes examples of general William Boo's salvation army, which had begun a few years before, which used a lot of women in ministry. But although this is just over 100 years ago, this idea that there were certain select people who receive spiritual gifts, there is still that subconscious sense amongst many of us who are Christians.
That there's certain people that God calls and equips and gives gifts to. And there's certain ones of us to whom he doesn't. When I was a young Christian, I genuinely thought there were a few special people that God liked and equipped and used. And I wasn't one of them nor likely to be one of them. I generally thought this.
The best I could do was support those God was using, listen to them, help them, encourage them, that could never expect that God might use me for anything. But I discover of course the New Testament teachers, they can be complete opposite of that, that every single one of us has been gifted.
Each of us has one body many members. These members don't all have the same functions. So in Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to the other as we have different gifts. It is a universal statement about, the Christian, who's part of the church.
Now the fact that we have different gifts does mean that sometimes we get the idea that some gifts are a little more important than other gifts. Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 12, when he speaks about this issue and in 1 Corinthians 12:14-15, at 1 Corinthians 12, he talks about how that one part of the body may think itself to be less significant than another part of the body. Let me read you what he says. He says,
" The body is not made up of one part, but of many. Now, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body."
Now says, Paul, there's some controversy here between the foot and the hand. The foot looks enviously at the hand and says, the hand seems to have a much better time than I do. It seems to have a much higher profile than I do, therefore I conclude says the foot, I'm not important. This is Paul's illustration.
Now the stomach illustration because feet have a hard time compared to the hand. I mean, a foot is wrapped up in a sock first thing in the morning, shoved into a shoe. It's dark down there. It gets humid down there. The hand is having the fresh air all the time.
People shake you by their hand, they never shake you by the foot. You put a ring on your finger. You don't put a ring on your toe. Maybe you do, normal people don't. You wash your hands six times a day, wash your foot once a month. I understand why Paul says the foot can say, because I'm not a hand, I'm not as important, people take fingerprints, never take toe prints. And then he says, gives another example, 1 Corinthians 12:16,
“ If the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body. Not for reasons ceases to be part of the body”
There's a controversy assessment between the ear and the eye.
I understand that the ear could well, think, the eye is much more significant. People look you in the eye, they don't look you in the ear. And so Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:17," if the whole body were an eye where would the sense of hearing be?"
I mean, just imagine if the whole body were just a big eyeball. Just an eyeball rolling down the sidewalk. What would a big eyeball be useful for? He says, of course the body is not a big eyeball. The eye is necessary, but the eye cannot fulfill its functions without the ear. He says, suppose the whole body was just an ear. That's in 1 Corinthians 12:17, where would the sense of smell be? I mean, you imagine if the body was just a big ear, like a piece of bacon sitting on the floor, how could it function?
And Paul is saying this because he's saying in that context to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 12, where he says that. He's saying, because some of you who have been born again of the holy spirit, you've been incorporated into the body have begun to think that you're not significant, or you're less important. But as he says in verse 18 and 1 Corinthians 12: 18, he says, in fact,
“God has arranged the parts of the body every one of them just as he wanted them to be.”
Why is the body balanced and their different parts and functions? Why does the church of Jesus Christ have many different gifts within its community? Because God arranged it that way, he says.
That's why never envy somebody else's gift and think that they have something, which makes them more important and never look at somebody else and think, well, they don't have my gift, they're not as important because we're talking about the function of the whole body and the whole body needs every part of it to be functioning.
Now, here in Romans 12, Paul lists seven different gifts that he specifies. We have different gifts, he says in Romans 12:6,
"According to grace given to us, if a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it. If it's serving, let him serve if it's teaching, let him teach, encouraging, let him encourage. If it's contributing the needs of others, that is financial giving, let him do it generously. If it's leadership, let him do it diligently. If it's showing mercy, do it cheerfully.”
Now of course, this is not an exhaustive list in any sense at all, of spiritual gifts, but he just gives some representative gifts, some public ministry gifts, teaching prophesy leadership, some practical ministry gifts, serving, giving, some personal ministry gifts, encouraging, showing mercy.
In fact, there is no exhaustive list of spiritual gifts than in the New Testament. I can find 22 different things described as being gifts, spiritual gifts, but there is no single comprehensive list. And I don't think we can make those 22, the definitive list, because there are many things not mentioned that are spiritual gifts.
We recognize God equipping people for different things. For instance, there's never any mention of counselling is a spiritual gift, but we know find well that there are people who are very gifted to draw alongside a minister to the people in a unique way. There's no mention of anything to do with music as being spiritual gift.
Basically, I think spiritual gifts are the means whereby we are equipped to address need, and there can be a whole variety of need that isn't necessarily specified in scripture, but we are different. We need to see ourselves in 3D. We are different by divine decree. That’s the reason why you accept yourself exactly as you are with both your strengths, which God has given you and your weaknesses, which God has also given you.
Because where God has made you strong in one area, he's left you weak in another, that's by divine design. So we are mutually interdependent on one another, but that's the first point there that we are different from each other. We're also dependent on each other. He says in Romans 12:5,
"In Christ, we who are many form one body, each member belongs to the other. And each member of the body is needed by each other member and needs each other member because we cannot function in isolation."
Any more than the human body can function in its individual parts in isolation. It is dependent on every other part. Let me illustrate this. I remember one day I was walking along the shores of Lake Constance, which is on the border between Switzerland and Germany.
I was alone. I was chewing over a message I was going to be speaking in an hour or twos time after that. And as I was walking along the Lakeside, something happened and I wanted to describe to you what happened to my body? First of all, my ears picked up a message, which came from about 100 meters out on the lake. And the message was something like this, heeeelp, glug, glug, glug. My ears, pick up the message. Send it to my brain. My brain sent the message to my neck, neck turn. And my neck turned. My brain said to my eyes, eyes focus, my eyes focused. What can you see? My eyes send back the message. There's a hand and an arm sticking out of the water.
My brain did a quick calculation. If there's a hand and an arm sticking out of the water, there's probably a body attached to the other end. So my brain said to my eyes, eyes, can you see the body? Can you see the head? My eyes trained, send the message back. No, I can't see the head, just the hand and the arm. My brain did another quick calculation. That's why he said “glug, glug, glug” at the end, he's drowning. Having assessed the situation, my brain sent a message to my legs, legs, run and help. And so my legs began to run, jumped on the water. Two other people got their first fortunately, because he fought with them, but we eventually got him in and lay him down and pumped what seemed like gallons of water out of his chest. And the guy was okay, which is a relief.
But the point is this, supposing my ears worked well. Heard the sound, help, glug, glug, glug. My brain worked well. Turned my neck, focused my eyes, got the information. There's a hand. There must be a body. That's why he said, “glug, glug, glug”, he’s drowning. Legs run. And suppose my legs said, no, I didn't come for a swim this morning, I came for a walk. Then my ears might still work well, my eyes might work well, my brain might function, my neck muscles might function, but I'm totally useless in responding to the situation if my legs say, no, I'm not going to go and swim.
And therefore, if I elect to opt out of asking God, what is it you want me to do? And doing it. It's not just me who may be restricted as a result, but the rest of the body is unable to function as fully as it might as a result.
You see, there are two big dangers in the church of Jesus Christ. There are those who think they're insignificant and unimportant and therefore they conclude everything can continue without me. I don't need to be involved in what God is doing in his agenda in our world and through our church. I don't need to be involved in supporting missionaries, serving God in some distant part of the world. I'm unimportant in all of this. That's one big mistake.
Another big mistake is that those who think they are sufficient and can go it alone. That somehow, they don't need other people, but we do need other people. We do need this sense of interdependency upon each other as the human body does. And what is important is not the individual role that we may play because those roles will differ. What matters is the overall function that is being accomplished through the body.
I remember once I was invited to speak at a well known Bible college in North America for their Spiritual Emphasis Week. And when I arrived there on the campus, they gave me their program for the week and it involved one morning. They asked me if I would come in a little earlier before the chapel, which I would normally speak at maybe at 8:30, and would I be willing to meet with the support staff at that college? They had a coffee time and a devotional time. Would I be willing to speak at that? I said, “I'd love to.”
When I arrived, they showed me to the staff room, which was in the basement. Now on the first day, I'd met with the faculty in their room, which was on the second floor, nice and airy, big windows, coffee machine walking away in the corner, down here in the basement. The only light was at the top of the wall. There was just an arrow window along one side. And through that window, you could see the feet of students coming into the college because the main entrance was just along beyond it. The furniture looked as though it had come from various sources, none of it seemed to match. Maybe people who had bought some new stuff, gave the old stuff to the Bible college and said, yeah, let's put it in the staff room.
As the folks came in, the groomsmen, the cleaners, the caterer’s, kitchen staff, secretaries, I looked around the room, some lovely people there, but there were several people there who looked as though they hadn't got a lot of self-respect. And sometimes people display that in all kinds of manner. And I felt, God, lay my heart something I should say to them. And I said to these folks when it was my time to talk, I said, you are aware that this Bible college is well known throughout the world. It's one of the best. There are students here today who will serve God on the mission fields of the world. They become pastors and evangelists and in years to come, many of them will look back on their time here as one of the most important periods of their life.
Many of them will quote their professors. They may write letters to them and say, thank you for what you taught me and the influence you've had on my life. And they may write those letters five years, 10 years, even 20 years from now, because that influence will still be felt by them. But it may well be that some of you will never ever get a letter from the students. May well be in six months of leaving, they would've forgotten your name. It may even be, if you were to meet some of these students on the street this afternoon, they wouldn't recognize you. And it may be that you feel you're not important. It maybe you feel that you are in the B team, if not the Z team.
I said, I don't know which of you here cleans the washrooms, but I've been to them and they're clean. Thank you. God is pleased with that. I don't know which of you work in the kitchens here, but I've eaten lunch here this week and the food is good. Thank you. God is pleased with that. I don't know which of you work out in the grounds, but the flower bed outside the front end is beautiful. God is pleased with that.
You're important in God's reckoning, every bit as important as anybody else who plays any role in this college, I'll tell you that. Because the next day I was walking down the corridor and there was one of the cleaners and she had one of these big wide brooms and as she was pushing it down the corridor, her head was down and I stepped over it and I said, good morning. And she looked up and said, oh, it's you? And I said, yeah, it's me.
She said, I'm glad I've seen. Let me tell you something. I said, tell me, she said a week last Monday, I gave in my notice, I went to the office and said, I'm going to finish after two weeks. I said, why do you do that? She said, because I don't enjoy my work. I said, what do you do? She said, will I clean as I'm doing this morning? She said, after you spoke, yesterday, I went back to the office, I said, you have anybody for my job yet? And they said, no, we haven't. She said, can I have it back? And the person said, why do you want it back? She said, God likes the way I clean the washrooms. And he does, because that college could not function well with dirty washrooms, dirty buildings, unkept grounds outside.
You see, we see in most things, as in this church, you see on a tip of an iceberg, you have no idea, the vast majority of the iceberg is under the water and people don't see it. You notice every Sunday morning; this church is clean. We have goblins that come every Saturday night and do that. Do you notice the temperature is right? I'll tell you why, because you notice it when it isn't, once in a while, it's nearly always right. How did that happen?
Many of you have dropped your children off this morning in nurseries, and you've come here without any need to be concerned about them. And that people who have given up time to not be here because they're serving and their folks who are given up in some cases, years and years to serve your children. And that's important.
You wouldn't believe how many hours board members of this church and different committee members and council members meet to discuss and talk and work through issues. You wouldn't believe how many hours every month is given to people who've got full-time jobs elsewhere, but they do. Along for the day when normality in this church and every church will be the normality of the first church where Acts 2:46 says,
"Every day, they continue to meet together in the temple courts, and they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts."
Now the equivalent of meeting together in the temple courts is what we're doing here this morning. Meeting as part of a big group and enjoying the fellowship and friendship of a big group.
That is a vital ingredient in what goes on, but they didn't just do that in Jerusalem. In Acts 2, it says, they also met together in homes
“Broke bread in their homes together."
And the equivalent of that is the small group. And they're all kind different small groups that meet in different ways. This is how the church of Jesus Christ is to be characterized by community where we are different, but we are mutually dependent, and we serve one another.
Church is to be Characterized by Humility
But secondly, and rather quickly, we are to be characterized by humility as well as by community. In Romans 12:3, Paul says,
"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment."
Now, twice in that sentence, he talks about thinking about yourself. And he says, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. In other words, he warns against inflated thinking about yourself and whilst guarding against inflated thinking about yourself, he calls for sober thinking about yourself, rather think about yourselves more soberly with sober judgment. Now, what is a soberly estimation about ourselves?
A soberly estimation of ourselves is recognizing that I may have gifts, which are only one part of the larger body. I'm a cog. I'm an ingredient in a big picture. I need to serve that big picture. I like the way Paul opens the book of Romans in the opening verse, he introduces himself. Paul is servant of Christ Jesus he says, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.
Now there's humility there. I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. That's my primary identity Paul says, but along with that humility, there is confidence that I am called to be an apostle. Yes, I'm a servant, but I have a sense of being divinely called a divine call from heaven to be something on earth, to be an apostle. And so, you find Paul exercising his apostleship in a spirit of humility, but in a spirit of confidence.
So when he is called upon to rebuke those churches, was his apostolic responsibility. They were moving away from the truth he did so without any hesitation, not because he was lording it over them, but because he was serving them, according to the calling God had given to him.
So there's this coupling of humility and confidence, that Paul exercises and shows. And we need to serve whatever our capacity with humility but understand soberly God has given me this particular response or whatever it is, and to carry it through with confidence, this is where God has put me and to which God has called me. Now what's the best way to find your gift? Well, I want to suggest to you, the best way to find your gift is by getting busy in serving God. Now I know you can go through all kinds of introspective test papers or whatever they are. And those may be helpful at some stage, but I know people who've told me as a result of that, they have certain gifts that they've exercised in their life. I think the best way to discover your gift is by getting busy.
When I led the Bible school in England, this was one of the exciting aspects of it. We get our students involved in serving God. And again, and again, and again, they would say, well, I can't do that. How'd you know? “Well, I just know.” But have you ever done it? “No.” Well, you don't know, do it. And then if you can't, that's fine, you've learned that. I taught a guy here in Toronto just a few days ago as a student with us about 10 years ago. And he was sent to preach, and he'd never preached in his life. And he came back to the person who had organized the plan and said to him, look, I can't preach. And he said, well, how do you know? He said, well, I just don't feel I can. Well, go and try. “But I'm not confident.” Well, that's okay.
Just trust God. I'll help you prepare a message. If you like, you get some ideas, come, I'll help you put it together. So that's what he did. And the day before he was due to preach, the student came and said, look, I just can't do it. He said, you know why you can't do it? Because you're too proud that's why. You scared you're going to fail. Is that right? He said, well, I am scared of that. Well, that's the pride. Do it, and if you fail, fail. Then we'll know, it's not your gift. That guy right now is a full-time preacher based here in Toronto, because he discovered God can use me.
I learned to preach with three friends initially four of us, all in our late teens. We wanted to reach young people in the city near which I lived. We went into some of the coffee bars of young people used to hang out and tried to engage them in conversation. And then we decided we'd try and preach on the street on the Saturday afternoon. And we got permission to do so. And none of us knew how to preach, but we just got up and began to talk. And the best place to learn to preach is in the open air because nobody's polite in the open air. If what you're saying, doesn't make any sense, they keep walking. So we made it a challenge to each other. Let's see how we can get people to stop. And we count, how many people each could get to stop and then how long they would stop for.
And if they to move away, have to throw in someone like, let me tell you a story and you begin a story. So they stop to hear the story. And then if you're wise you'd stop halfway through and say, before I finish the story, let me tell you… da, da, da. Then you'd bring your other point.
In one sense, anybody can preach to a polite congregation. People in church are very polite, they learn how to sit at the right angle and they get their heads to the right tilt. And they look as though they're awake and they... You have no idea whether they're listening or not.
That's why most Saturday afternoons we'd go into the city of Lancaster from the Bible school of Cape Murray when I was there, and we would have students take open air meetings. It was great for them. That's where men learned to communicate the gospel to folks and many other ways too, by getting involved in serving people.
Spiritual gifts are all about serving people, not about personal fulfillment. Well, this fulfills me, therefore I will do it. They're all about serving the needs of other people and meeting the needs of other people. When that remains our goal and our focus when the time comes that it's time to stop what you're doing. And that time comes for all of us in all situations.
When the time comes to stop, if your motivation is your self-fulfilment and self-sense of significance, then you're going to struggle when it comes to stop. But if your motivation is serving, when it comes time to stop here, you say, that's fine. Let me move and serve in another capacity. But it's the overall building up of the body that is the objective. And so the church of Jesus Christ is characterized by community. The church has to be characterized by humility and thirdly, and very quickly the church has to be characterized by simplicity from Romans 12:9-21. Paul gives 25 exhortations that are very, very simple and straightforward. And these represent the dynamics of an effective church.
I'm going to finish this by reading them to you. Look at Romans 12:9,
“ Love must be sincere.” Is that difficult?
“Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” Is that difficult?
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Is that difficult?
“Never be lacking in zeal. Keep your spiritual purpose serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, Patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need, practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and don't curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position, do not be conceited. Do not repay evil for evil," et cetera.
He finishes:
“Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Challenge to us
This isn't rocket science, is it? This is basically caring about other people. And as we consciously care about other people and we serve each other and as a church, we serve the world. As we reach out to the world in this atmosphere of love and mutual respect and joy and patience and kindness, these are all include in those words.
We have what is described here and pictured here as a marvellous community and not that community is called. I'll tell you; it's called the church, where every part is seeking to be involved in fulfilling its role that the overall purpose of God's agenda in our world is being fulfilled. As only as you and I are willing to be committed to God's agenda for his church and to be a participant in it. That we go on growing spiritually, because you can stunt your growth by simply having a relationship with God, that's God and me.