Romans 12:3 (NKJV)
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
I want to encourage everyone under the sound of my voice, even including myself to live this scripture out.
We all are accomplished people in Christ and the more that we accomplish we will have to fight against the very human temptation to look down our nose at people.
It shouldn’t be easy for us to do this but pride goes before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18 (NKJV)
18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Pride: the quality or state of being proud: inordinate self-esteem: CONCEIT
Haughty: blatantly and disdainfully proud: having or showing an attitude of superiority and contempt for people or things perceived to be inferior
It’s our flesh.
Our inner nature drives us and causes us to puff and think that our particular ministry is better than someone else’s. It causes us to think that because I am doing this particular ministry, I am more special that someone who isn’t doing what I am doing.
It’s our inner nature that causes us to have an inside voice that says my gifting is better than someone else’s.
I believe that God is bringing this out now because of the anointing that he is bringing. He doesn’t want the enemy to trip us up with “How Great We Are!”
Cause we really aren’t that great.
A story… Everyone is Important.
During Mark’s first month of college, the professor gave his students a pop quiz. He was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until he read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?” Surely this was some kind of joke. He had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would he know her name? He handed in his paper, leaving the last question blank.
Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward the quiz grade. “Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They each deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say ‘hello’”. Mark never forgot that lesson. He also learned her name was Dorothy.
Everyone in your life is everyone just like the people you give importance to.
Let’s continue with Romans… so let’s just tie this thought together again with verse 3.
Romans 12:3-8 (NKJV)
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
The lesson in this passage of scripture is that whatever your gifting is, it should be used for the Glory of God.
We should use it with the measure of faith that is given to us so that we can accomplish the task that is assigned to us.
Our perspective should be one of serving others…
One day a man said to God, “God, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.”
God showed the man two doors. Inside the first one, in the middle of the room, was a large round table with a large pot of stew. It smelled delicious and made the man’s mouth water, but the people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.
They were holding spoons with very long handles and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.
The man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. God said, “You have seen Hell.”
Behind the second door, the room appeared exactly the same. There was the large round table with the large pot of wonderful stew that made the man’s mouth water. The people had the same long-handled spoons, but they were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.
The man said, “I don’t understand.”
God smiled. It is simple, he said, Love only requires one skill. These people learned early on to share and feed one another. While the greedy only think of themselves… [Author unknown]
Your gift should not be used to feed yourself.
Your gift should not be used to build your sense of self-worth, your sense of accomplishment, your sense of fulfillment, your sense of value.
Your gift was not designed to feed you. It was designed to feed others.
You should be getting what you need from the Father… not your gift…
Watch people when God is using them they are ok but when God is not using them they can’t function.
This shouldn’t be.
John 2:1-4 (NKJV)
2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
Jesus never used His anointing to fulfill an inner lacking that He had.
He was loving and He was firm. He was not seeking His own Kingdom.
He did not have pride or haughtiness in Him. He was just minding His own business.
A servant is not greater than his master refers to a very powerful concept that Jesus lived.
Jesus believed that He was here to serve.
When you approach ministry from Jesus’ worldview you will walk through some of the most dangerous aspects of being in the ministry, you will stay out of pride.
Jesus worldview was that He was sent here to this earth to demonstrate the character of God.
John 13:1-5; 12 - 17 (NKJV)
13 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you [a]know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Jesus had the attitude of a servant.
Think about this, how could the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, squeeze Himself into the form of a man, walk around on this earth and not one time did Jesus say, “Hey look how anointed I am?”
Not one time did Jesus look down upon us with disgust and disdain in His heart toward as if to say, I don’t know why My Father is wasting His time on these peasants?
If Jesus is our master, and we are His servants, shouldn’t we have the same world view as Jesus?
Jesus took His disciples feet into His hands and embraced them. Sheep poo, spit, dust, dirt, toe jam, all of that and He still embraced them.
He wasn’t rough with them. He happily served the disciples.
He didn’t rub Judas’ feet harshly or wash his feet any less than He washed the other disciples’ feet?
If the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is our master, then shouldn’t we carry His same way of doing things.
You have a three-foot spoon in your hand and it’s for the purpose of feeding others.
God is working with His people to bring a greater level of unity.
That can only occur when we stop manifesting the fruits of our flesh.
The need to be seen, the need to be served are manifestations of our flesh that cause the enemy to be glorified instead of God.
Unity will come when we start seeing each member of the Body of Christ as unique and important.
There are people who are called to the Nations, that doesn’t make them anymore important than those who are called to Corporate America.
Those who are called to Street Ministry are not more important than those who are called into the 4 walls.
We must strive at destroying our flesh in this area because this is not being a servant to Jesus.
When we have attitudes that show we think we are better than others we show the attitude that we are greater than Jesus our master.
Mark 2:18-22 (NKJV)
18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
Look at the level of disunity that we have been fighting since Jesus came to this earth.
John the Baptist’s disciples, the pharisees disciples were coming against Jesus’ disciples.
There was no recognition that John the Baptist’s disciples were called to do something different than the Pharisees disciples were called to do something different, than Jesus disciples were called to do something different, and different than Jesus’ disciples.
That different calling did not make any of them less valuable to God nor did it make their purpose not be what God had intended for it to be.
Modern day times, One Church comes against another Church.
1 Corinthians 12: 12-27 (NKJV)
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
In order for their to be true unity we must get this within our Spirits.
I like how he shows that there are many members.
It doesn’t matter where you are positionally in the Body, you are still apart of the Body.
And because you do your part doesn’t make my part less than your part.
You may feel a call to go out on the streets. I may not feel that call. I’ll slip you a $20 bill.
Whatever souls you reap for God are attributed to me as well.
I may not have $20 to slip to you but I say an occasional prayer for you as the Spirit leads me.
Whatever souls you reap for God are attributed to me as well.
Why? Because we are a apart of the Body and we need each other.
Vice versa. We are called to support one another in whatever way the Lord leads you to support.
One body, one unity… all Spirit.
1 Samuel 30:1-10; 17 - 25 (NKJV)David’s Conflict with the Amalekites
30 Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, 2 and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. 3 So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. 6 Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was [a]grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?”
And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”
9 So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Brook Besor, where those stayed who were left behind. 10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so weary that they could not cross the Brook Besor.
17 Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. 19 And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all. 20 Then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock, and said, “This is David’s spoil.”
21 Now David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary that they could not follow David, whom they also had made to stay at the Brook Besor. So they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near the people, he [a]greeted them. 22 Then all the wicked and worthless[b] men of those who went with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except for every man’s wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart.”
23 But David said, “My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us. 24 For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.” 25 So it was, from that day forward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.
This principle was true in David’s day and it remains true today.
The Body of Christ needs to fix its face. Drop the attitude about how great they are go on and finish the race.
1 Corinthians 12: 27-31; 13: 1 - 13 (NKJV)
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
This all goes about are you greater than your Master?
Your Master would not have an attitude, he would be serving.
The best way to serve is to love.
13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.