God's Will and The Church - Jeff Ryan - 3TC Podcast - 10/27/2024 Three Timbers Church's Podcast

Jeff Ryan discusses the importance of confessing sins and seeking forgiveness, highlighting Romans 3:23. There is a fleeting nature of fame and a lasting impact. Yet, the lasting impact for followers of Christ is living a life pleasing to God. Every believer has a unique gift to contribute.

Transcript

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Welcome to the three timbers podcast. We hope this will encourage and uplift you today. One of the perceptions I know that I had for a long time when I wasn't a part of the church was that people who went to church had their life together, right? We can laugh about that now, but that's a perception that a lot of people have, and we all fall short. Fact, the Bible tells us, in Romans, 323, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I don't know about you, but I have fallen short of God's glory this week. And what we want to do is we want to take a moment within the context of worship, and we want to confess our sins. We want to quietly go before the Lord. We want to bow our heads. We want to close our eyes. We want to confess those sins that we know and God knows, and the sins that God knows that we don't even know that we committed. And then we want to read together the joy that God gives us in forgiveness. So let's take a minute and let's just silently go before God and confess our sins. Let's pray, Father God, we come before you, not as perfect people, but flawed people, people who sin, and Lord, no amount of good works can make up for that. It is only through the body and blood of Jesus that that happens. And so Lord, we are so grateful that you forgive us, Lord, as we confess what you already know. So Lord, I pray that we would confess these sins and be free, Lord and not carry them with us, because, Lord, you have forgiven us. You are faithful and loving. And Lord, we ask this in the name of Jesus. And now let's read these words together in joy. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Friends, that is good news, and I hope that good news brings joy to your heart, that we are forgiven and before we hear God's word, pray with me again, Father, thank You for Your word. It is a lamp unto our feet. I pray Lord that You would speak through me and despite me, I pray Lord that your word would comfort those who need comforting, convict those who need convicting, and encourage us all, Lord to live out our faith. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen, one of the things that I am fascinated by, and maybe you are fascinated by, this, is the constant pursuit of attention or fame that so many people want. We see so many people, whether they're social media people or YouTubers or celebrities, that just want to be known. They want to have some sort of impact on our world today. And you watch and it's like a roller coaster, because one moment, they're at the top of the roller coaster, and in the blink of an eye, they are at the bottom of the roller coaster, and we forget all about them. And I think that if you're going to have an impact, I think that impact has to outlast your life, because fame and popularity, it comes and goes. But you know you have an impact is when after you have passed, people are still talking about it, and let me give you a few examples of people who have had a lasting impact. Let's think of Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks had a seminal moment in the civil rights movement by not giving up her seat on a bus. How about Marie Curie? Discovered radioactivity X rays. Not only was she the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She won it twice. How about Harriet Tubman, who helped with the Underground Railroad and getting slaves to freedom. How about William Shakespeare, we still read and perform his plays today. Dr Martin Luther King, we continue to celebrate his legacy. How about Thomas Edison, he created the light bulb. How about Henry Ford and the automobile industry? So you understand the point that I'm making. All of these people had an impact, and it out lasted their life. And one of the people that I found fascinating in doing some of this research was Sir Isaac Newton. Sir Isaac Newton was a mathematician as well as a physicist, and one of the things that he is known for are Newton's law. And Newton's first law says that a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless an outside force moves it. And I find that theory very fascinating, because I think that whole concept connects directly to how we are called to live as the people of God, as the church, how we are to live out our faith and not be at rest. See if we want to experience God, not just know of God or have knowledge of God, but if we want to experience God, then we can. Be a body that is at rest. So we're going to read today something from the book of Romans. So we want to encourage you to open up your Bibles to Romans 12. If you don't have your Bibles here, we hope that you have a Bible app. If you are a guest with us, we're so grateful that you're here. But we really want to teach biblical literacy. So we always encourage people bring your Bible, bring it on your phone. So as you read the Word of God, the Word of God reads you. So we're going to read Romans 12, the first eight verses. I'll be reading from the NIV version. And it says this, Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is His good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me, I say to everyone of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you want, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For 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 though many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. If it is serving, then serve. If it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement. If it is giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to sow mercy, do it cheerfully. This is the Word of God. Paul, the author of the book of Romans, to the church in Rome, has been reminding the Church of all that God has done for them, how God has redeemed them, how God has saved them. And he's also reminded them that many of the Jewish people had rejected Jesus as the Messiah. They did not believe that he was the Messiah, and because they rejected Jesus as the Messiah, that opened the door for the Gentiles to be able to come in, to be a part of the body of Christ. So when Paul says the word here, if you look at verse 12, verse one, he says, Therefore, what Paul is talking about is the mercy and the grace and the goodness that God has for all of us in redeeming not just us, but obviously opening up the door for the Gentiles to become a part of the body of Christ. And so Paul is encouraging. He is imploring the church, he says, Because of God's mercy, because of God's grace, your response needs to be that you give all of who you are to God and every possible way, and the way that that Paul places it, or says it is that we need to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Now he's not saying, offer your physical bodies, though, we should use our bodies to glorify God that represents our whole life. Our whole life should be a living sacrifice to God everything that we do so not just coming to church, that means going to the grocery store, that means going to your job, that means driving down the road. Anything that encompasses our life needs to be done for the glory of God. Needs to be a living sacrifice to God. And if you just hear that this morning, that should change how you look at your job. It should change how you look at your neighbor. It should change how you look at that person who cuts you off in traffic. Our whole life needs to be a living sacrifice to God. Now Paul says it needs to be done this way. It needs to be holy and it needs to be pleasing to God. So what Paul is saying that a way that you and I need to live our life is we need to live a holy life. What does the word holy means? It means to be set apart. It needs to be we're different than the rest of the way that the world lives. So we need to live a holy life separate from the culture, okay, but we also need to live a life that's pleasing to God. So here's the translation that I would give you. We need to live our life on God's terms, not ours. And for many people, that is uncomfortable, but that's how we're called to live. We're called to live the way that God calls us to live, not the way that we want to live. And the example that Paul uses is that we are like a branch that was broken off a tree and is like a wild olive branch just laying on the ground. And somehow that branch has been picked up and it has been engrafted into a tree and. Is healthy that is blossoming with fruit. So we didn't get to be a part of the tree, but now we are engrafted. And in that example, think of it like this, the tree didn't need that branch. The branch needs the tree. We understand right? The branch needs the tree. We need God. God engrafted us, Gentiles, into the body of Christ, and so we need to live a life that is holy, that is pleasing, that is different than the rest of the world. And Listen to how Paul responds when other people who weren't Jews coming to Christ, but Gentiles coming to Christ. Listen to how he responds to that in Romans 11, he says, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, How unsearchable is judgments in the paths beyond tracing out who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor, who has ever given to God that God should repay them for Him and through Him and for Him, are all things to Him be the glory of God. And what Paul was saying is, because of the glory of God and the mercy of God, that people can have a new righteousness, that people can stand before God not based on their own merits, but based on the grace of God that he has engrafted us in. And so there are very there are three specific ways that Paul is saying, because of this good news of God's mercy, how we need to live our life. We talked a little bit about the first one, right, that we need to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Everything we do has to be holy and pleasing to God. Doesn't have to be pleasing to us, but it has to be holy and pleasing to God. The second thing that Paul says is, Don't be conformed to the world. Don't be conformed to the world. And transform your thinking from seeking your will to God's will. Now those two second and third ones, they can be radical to a lot of people. That basically says we need to not let the culture tell us how we should live or how we should think. In fact, we need to transform our thinking. We need to absolutely pursue God's Will versus our will. And I want to stop for a second and talk a little bit about how the culture has influenced us. We are a culture that loves to consume. We have a consumer mindset. We consume TV shows, we consume movies, we consume sports, We consume food, we consume we stream. We consume a lot of things, and when those things that we're consuming don't give us what we like or enough of it, we'll stop consuming here and start consuming over here, we have a tendency to look at all things as, what do I get? What's in it? For me, why should I do this? You know, we have this consuming mindset that says, If I don't get something, why should I do something? And sadly, that is the mindset that has come inside the church. So many people have a mindset of saying, Well, what do I get from being a part of the church? Do I get the kind of music that I want? Do I get the kind of preaching that I want? Do I get the kind of seats that I want? Do I get the kind of snacks that I want? Do I get the kind of location that I want? Do I get the kind of time that I want? And we can become all about consuming and not what God has called us to be. And that's what I think Paul is addressing here. And so I think what Paul is saying here is we need to ask a different question. Remember, if we don't want to let the world conform us, and we need to transform our thinking. I think the question that Paul is asking here is not, what do I get from being the church, but what can I give to being a part of the church? We often say, What can I get? I think what Paul is saying here is we should look at the church and say, What can I give? What gifts do I have? What talents do I have? What has God given me? How can I give what God has given me and give it to the church and say, I want this to strengthen the church so that it can fulfill the kingdom mission that God has given the church, right? The church is not a building or a destination. The church is the people. It's you and me. And so the question is it? What do I get when I go to church? The question should be, what am I going to give when I go to church? How am I serving? How am I using my time and my talents and my gifts? We need to be less about consuming and more about pursuing. We're called to pursue people, to disciple people, to let people see God work through us. But how can we pursue when all we do is consume? And that's what Paul is saying, We've got to change our thinking. What's the definition of insanity, to do the same thing again and again and. Different result. It's insane, right? Paul is saying we've got to think differently, and when we think differently, we live differently, and when we live differently, we have a kingdom impact, and we experience God. Paul uses the analogy that we are one body, and we all have a function. We all have a role. Paul says that we are connected you and I are connected to one another, and we're connected to other churches, and we're connected to people all across the world, because there is one body. And what do we know about a body? It is living, it is active, and it is dependent, right? We are the body of Christ. We are alive, we are connective, and we need to be active. And so what Paul is saying here is we can't let that consumer mentality. We've gotta change our thinking. We've gotta change how we live if we want to experience God, we can't be a body that is not in motion, because if we're not in motion, if we are at rest, we will stay at rest unless an outside force moves us, and that outside force is the gospel, that when the gospel gets a hold of Your heart. It changes you. Changes the way you think. It changes the way you live. It changes how you look at your life. The Gospel transforms us, and I want you to think about this when you are fully healthy and your body is working the way it should, that your eyes, your ears and and all the parts of your body are working, and right now they are, because if you're here, you and I are functioning. Our body is working. But we all know what it's like when our body isn't working, when a bro, when a bone is broken, or we've got a pinched nerve, or we've got sickness or illness, we're not as strong as we want to be. We're not as strong as we can be if one part of our body is not functioning the way that it should. And so think of that in the church context. Think if everybody who's a part of the church said not what can I get, but what can I give? And if everybody in the church was using the gifting that God gave them, whether you think you have a gift, you do. Whether you think it's an important gift, it is. If everybody in their church is using what they have, how much stronger would the body be? We can look at all of the ills of our world and our culture, and we can bemoan this, that and the other thing, but the church, the big C church, all of the Church of the world. If we were all functioning at maximum capacity, we could change the culture. We think the culture should change. We need to change. We need not to conform to this world, but transform our thinking through the renewing of our mind by saying, Lord, I want to pursue your will, and your will begins with me not consuming but me saying, Lord, what can I give to strengthen your church? What can I do to strengthen the kingdom? Message, I looked at this text and I thought it was funny, because I thought of body building. Obviously, I used to be a bodybuilder. Most of you know that. But when, when people are building their bodies, they don't just work out their arm, you don't see people walking around with just a ginormous arm, and the rest of them not worked. You don't see somebody with one leg that is huge and one leg that is really, really skinny. Because when you work out, you work out the whole body. Why? Because you want to have strength in your whole body. We need to have strength in our whole body, the church. And that means everybody has to say, How am I contributing to the strength of the Body of Christ? I get made fun of all the time when my family gets in the car with me and we plug my phone in, because I listen to a lot of instrumental music. I love instrumental music. I just, I do, and I think I love it, because when you have a beautiful orchestra and instruments all playing at the same time and hitting the right notes. It just it moves me, and I really love it. And I think that's that's what God wants for his church. He wants each of us to to play our part, to to do what we do. So we create this beautiful, beautiful sound that has a kingdom impact. But in order to do that, we have to live in a way that is holy and pleasing to God, we've got to change our thinking and not be transformed by the world. And when you take a big macro look at the book of Romans, I want you to understand what Paul has been doing here, chapters one through three about our sin and misery. You. Right? We just had a confession of our sin. Paul talks about that, and then chapters three through 11 are about our deliverance from our sin and misery that has been opened through Christ. And now what we're in is how to respond to God's mercy, and what, what Paul is saying here, as we read here in verses three through eight in particular, is, how are you using the gifts that God has given you? He's saying, take an inventory of the gift that God has given you, and are you using it? And I know the first thing that a lot of you are thinking right now is, well, I don't have a gift. You do? You have a gift. You may not be impressed with your gift, but God gave you a gift. God gave you something of his. He gave it to you. You didn't create it. You didn't manifest your gift. God had a gift, and he says, I want to give it to you. Now, if you and I get a gift on our birthday or at Christmas, we don't go, No, I don't want it. You're like, Give me that. God has given us a gift. He's given every believer a gift. And what Paul is saying is, you've got gifts. How are you using those gifts? Now, I think Paul breaks these up into two categories. I think he breaks it up into a public category of gifts, and what I would say private category of gifts. So the public would be this prophecy, teaching exhorting. So let's say that those are out front gifts. Those are gifts where people are talking, okay, but then there are also private gifts. He says, Those are serving, contributing, leading and showing mercy. Those don't always have to be out front, but those are so critical. Now, we have a tendency to love to compare our gifts to other people, and we tend to think that some gifts are more important than other gifts, and they're not. They're not. You have to have the smallest part of your body working in order for you to be healthy, just like every part of the human body has to be working, and they're all connected, and they're all important, because if one isn't, then we're not as healthy as we should be. Every part of the body of Christ, the church has a gift, has to use that gift for the church to be as healthy as we're called to be. And by the way, these are not like suggestions. These are commands. We are commanded to use our gifts. Now that's different thinking. Paul said we have to not be conformed to the culture. The culture says your gift isn't important, that your gift won't make a difference, that you're not called to vocational ministry. That's a lie. We're called to use whatever gift God has given us to bring Him glory. Like you. I can read the news and go we are not in a good place. You can become very discouraged when you read the news and you hear the news, and you can say, I feel like we're in a dark place, and we may be going to a darker place. And we can complain about it, and we can wring hands about it. But what we really need to do is remember that we are the flashlight in the darkness for the world. The Church is the hope of the world, and the only way the flashlight works to shine into the darkness of our world and the lives of so many is if everybody is using their gifts, that's when you experience God. You experience God when you say, God, I know you've given me a gift. I am going to use it God to your glory, and I'm not going to compare it to somebody else, and I'm not going to demean it and think it's not from you. I'm going to use my gift. Do you know what a privilege it is to get a gift from God? I mean, it's great to get gifts from one another, but God has given you and I a gift, and what you're saying is I don't want it now. I want to say something, and I want you to hear it with love, and it's going to be hard for you to hear this, but this is what God's Word says, that if you and I knowing that God has given us a gift, and now you know it. If you never knew it before, you know it now. If we say, Yeah, but I'm not going to do anything, what you're saying to God is God, I don't think you're that important. You're rejecting God's grace, you're rejecting God's provision. You're rejecting that God loves you and that God has given you a gift to use for His glory, and when you reject that, then you miss out on experiencing God. Who doesn't want to experience God. When our friend Susie was here from Florida, one of the things that I talked to Susie about was this great. Pizza Place, and Susie, like me, has all kinds of food allergies, and I would talk to her about it, and I would talk to her about and I would talk to her about it, and finally, she said, Well, we should go. And so we went, and we took her to this, to this pizza place, and she had this deep dish Chicago pizza that was gluten free, and she loved it. Why did she love it? Because she experienced it. It wasn't good enough for me to just tell her about it. It wasn't good enough for her to just think about it. She had to experience it. And once she experienced it, it was wonderful. We need to experience God through the application of the gifts that we have, and so often we think using our spiritual gifts is about aptitude. It has nothing to do with aptitude. It has everything to do with attitude. There's a difference between aptitude and attitude. Attitude says, God, I will give you the glory. I will use my gifts. Lord, I'm not going to compare them. I know that you chose me to give me this gift, Lord, and I'm going to have the right attitude. I'm not going to conform to what this world says. It tells me I shouldn't, and I couldn't. I'm going to seek your will and not my my will. Lord, see, that's an attitude. Aptitude says I can't. Aptitude says I'm not good enough. Aptitude says I'm not comfortable enough. Attitude leads to application. Aptitude leads to apathy, and that was when a body stays at rest. That's when a body stays at rest. Newton's law, a body at rest will stay at rest unless an outside force moves it. Consider what Paul is saying here in Scripture, as that outside force. Consider today, that outside force, God has called us to use our gifts, and when we use our gifts, you know, who know who benefits? First God, God is glorified. Have you ever given somebody a gift and when they open up, they're so excited, they're so joyful. How good does that make you feel when you give somebody a gift and they're like, Wow, thank you. This is awesome. I love this. God is just there, like man, I hope they open it. I hope they open I hope they use their gift. I've given them the so gift, and when they open it, they're going to love it. So number one, God benefits when you use your gift. Number two is church. His Church benefits when everybody opens up their gifts and goes, Look what I got, look what I got, look what I got. The church becomes an instrument of change. The church changes the culture. Instead of letting the culture change the church, we are able to impact the world with the hope of Jesus, but we gotta open up our gift. Third, other people. You want other people to know the hope of Jesus, let them see you experiencing God by using your gift. You want people to see the glory of God in your life. Let them see you using your gift. People will say, how? Why? Say God just gave me this gift and I'm using it, other people will be impacted more by what you do than what you say. When we use our gifts, it impacts other people in the most powerful and profound way you want to change the world, use your gift. Use your gift. Celebrate the diversity of gifts that is in our world. Don't use your gift just once. Use it every day. However, if you can encourage go encourage somebody tomorrow. Go encourage somebody today. Paul says, if your gift is this, then do it. You a team, whether that's an athletic team, or whether that's a work team, or whatever team that is needs one thing to be successful team players when everybody knows their role and accepts their role on the team and then executes their role. The team is going to be successful. But if some people don't accept their role and don't execute their role, the team is not going to be as successful as it could be. We are the body of Christ. We are connected. We are alive. We are called by God to use our gifts. We are not called to this passive piety. We are not called to be spectators. We are called to be participants in our own life and in using the gifts that God has given us. You. I believe, and I think Scripture backs this up, that God has given each of us a specific gift at a specific time in our life, in a specific place. That place is here, that time is now. That person is you. God has you here at this time for a reason, and God has given you a gift right now to help his church. The question is, what are you waiting for? What's holding you back? Because if it's about him, it shouldn't hold us back. If it's about us, we'll find a reason not to. So I want to encourage you. I want you to experience God when you use your gifts, and they're all important, just as every body part is important, no one body part is more important. The other, no one gift is more important. The other when you use your gifts, you will experience God. And there's something different about just talking about a really good pizza to eating a really good pizza. We want to experience God. Use our gifts, amen, as our worship team comes back up, let's take a minute just to pray together. Father God, we come to you. We confess to you, Lord that we have not always used our gifts. Father, we confess that sometimes our thinking has been conformed to be of this world, which tells us, why should you do that? What do you get from that? Sometimes, Lord, the world tells us that we should pursue our wants and not your will, Father, I pray that right here, right now, in this place, and on this day, Lord, we would say no more that we would say, Lord, You have given me this gift, and I'm going to open it today, and I'm going to use this gift that you've given me, Lord, because I want to give you glory. I want others to be impacted, and I want the church to be the strongest that it can be, so that the church can have an impact. Lord in the world being that bright light into the darkness to give people hope to know Lord that you are sovereign, you are in control, and you are not done, I pray Lord that we would not get caught up in comparing our gifts to others, but Lord, we would get caught up that you have given us a gift, Father, we love you, and we pray Lord, that You would work in us so the Lord, we may bring you the glory that you deserve. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen, thank you for joining us for more information about three timbers, church ministries and services, visit three timbers.org. We would love for you to join us in person. You.