Peter Barnes | Romans 12:3-5
SERMON NOTES
EVALUATING OUR GIFTS
(Romans 12:3-5)
– Christians have gifts not prizes they have earned.
1. Assess your gifts with humility.
– 12:3; this is the age of self-esteem. But the problem is really pride (see Rom.11:18)
– Eph.4:7; John 3:30; Hendriksen: ‘Don’t fancy yourself to be Mr BIG!’
2. Assess your gifts with sobriety.
– 12:3; we can do a lot of damage if the wrong people are given the wrong tasks.
– four of the Cambridge Seven who went out to be missionaries in China in 1885 thought that the Holy Spirit would give them the language without their having to learn it. Hudson Taylor had to set them straight.
3. There are many functions in the one body.
– 12:4-5; see 1 Cor.12 for more details.
– there is a reason for this – see 1 Cor.12:7
– both unity and diversity