“We Are God’s Workmanship”
Sunday, March 11, 2012 Las Vegas Church of the Nazarene
Reaching People with the Transforming Grace of Jesus Christ
Romans 12:1-8 Place Your Life Before God
1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
3I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.
6-8If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. Love from the center of who you are…
We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
...to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the
body of Christ may be built up. Ephesians 4:12
Pillar #1 Every believer is a minister
Every believer isn’t a pastor, but every believer is called into ministry. God calls all believers to minister to the world and the church. Service in the body is not optional for Christians. In God’s army, there are no volunteers – He has drafted all of us into service.
Saddleback Community Church
Every Christian is:
created for ministry (see Ephesians 2:10),
saved for ministry (see 2 Timothy 1:9),
called into ministry (see 1 Peter 2:9-10),
gifted for ministry (see 1 Peter 4:10),
authorized for ministry (see Matthew 28:18-20),
commanded to minister (see Matthew 20:26-28),
to be prepared for ministry (see Ephesians 4:11-12),
needed for ministry (see 1 Corinthians 12:27),
accountable for ministry, and will be
rewarded according to his or her ministry (see Col. 3:23–24).
Pillar # 2 Every ministry is important
There are no “little people” in the body of Christ, and there are no “insignificant” ministries. Every ministry is important.
God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be… The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. 1 Corinthians 12:18-22
Pillar #3 We are dependent on each other
Not only is every ministry important, every ministry is also intertwined with all the others. No ministry is independent of the others. Since no single ministry can accomplish all the church is called to do, we must depend on and cooperate with each other.
We must work together. Our culture’s preoccupation with individualism and independence must be replaced with the biblical concepts of interdependence and mutuality.
Pillar #4 Ministry is the expression of my S.H.A.P.E.
SHAPE is an acronym to explain the five elements (spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences) that determine what a person’s ministry should be.
How God Shapes You for Ministry
Spiritual gifts
Heart
Abilities
Personality
Experiences
Ø Each of us was uniquely designed, or shaped, by God to do certain things. Wise stewardship of your life begins by understanding your shape.
Ø You are unique, wonderfully complex, a composite of many different factors. What God made you to be determines what He intends for you to do. Your ministry is determined by your makeup.
Ø God has been molding and shaping you for ministry since you were born.
In fact, God began shaping you before you were born:
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous- and how well I know it. You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Psalm 139: 13-16 LB