Investment of our talents on a ministry team exposes us to the spiritual gifts that we have been given by Jesus in a way that moves us toward a growing relationship with Jesus...

At the church where I serve, we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled Invest. During this series, we are going to discover how investing our time in a community group, our talents on a ministry team, and our treasure in a way that reflects the generosity of Jesus results in us experiencing a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus.  And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands in a way that results in us investing in these environments so that we can move on a spiritual journey that results in us taking the next step in our relationship with Jesus, regardless of where we currently are at in our relationship with Jesus. 

This week I would like for us to look at the second of the three ways a person who is involved in a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus will invest their lives in. I would like for us to look at how consistently investing our talents serving God by serving others as a part of a ministry team will result in a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus. To do that, I would like for us to look at a section of a letter that is preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Romans.  

And in this section of this letter, we see Paul reveal several aspects of how investing our talents serving God by serving others as part of a ministry team will result in a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus. However, to understand what the Apostle Paul is going to communicate to us, we first need to understand the context of this section of the book of Romans. So to do that, let’s look together at Romans 12:1-2:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

To fully understand what Paul is communicating in theses verses, we first need to understand what Paul means when he uses the word therefore. With the word therefore, Paul is pointing the readers of this letter to what he had previously said in the letter. In the previous section of the book of Romans, in Romans Chapter 9-11, Paul revealed to the readers of his letter the reality that the fact that God is right is revealed by how God has intervened in the history of the Jewish people.

At the end of Romans 11, Paul broke out in worship over the immeasurable depth of God’s wisdom and knowledge. At the end of this chapter, Paul proclaimed that for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever Amen. In other words, everything comes from God; everything comes through God; and everything is for God; now that is pretty comprehensive.

With that context in mind, Paul begins this section of his letter by strongly appealing and urging the members of the church at Rome to respond to the fact that God is right. In light of the God’s response of rescue from selfishness and sin through Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection; In light of God’s activity through the history of the Jewish people, God has been revealed to be right. And the fact that God is right should result in a response from His followers.

Paul then reveals exactly how followers of Jesus should respond God’s rightness and response of rescue: “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” When Paul use the phrase “spiritual service of worship” this phrase refers to a carefully thought through act of worship. As followers of Jesus, we are to respond to God’s transformational activity in our lives through Jesus Christ by living in a way that is worthy of God as an act of worship to God that is pleasing to God.

Paul’s point is that God responded to our selfish rebellion and rejection of Him by sending His Son Jesus, who offered His body to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful life so that God could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. And in light of what Jesus has done for us by offering His body as a sacrifice for us, we should thoughtfully respond by offering our lives as His followers in a lifestyle of worship worthy of God.

But not only are we to offer our lives as His followers in a lifestyle of worship, Paul explained that we are not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Paul here is revealing the reality that, as followers of Jesus, we are not to model ourselves after the times we live in by embracing the faulty worldviews and cultural conventions that are around us. Instead, as followers of Jesus, we are to allow God to change our fundamental character, so that we may grow and mature in our relationship with Jesus and be able to determine what God wants our lives to be focused and centered on.

In the rest of the book of Romans, Paul unpacks for us what a life that is offered to Jesus in a lifestyle of worship and that is being transformed into a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus looks like. And in Romans 12:3-8, we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to how investing our talents serving God by serving others as part of a ministry team will result in a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus.

And that timeless truth is this: Investment of our talents on a ministry team exposes us to the spiritual gifts that we have been given by Jesus in a way that moves us toward a growing relationship with Jesus. The timeless reality that that individuals who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus Christ consistently invest their spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities in a selfless way to serve others.

And because of this reality we have set as a goal that everyone who attends City Bible Church would be investing their talents serving God by serving others as part of a ministry team. We feel strongly about this goal because we believe that transformational spiritual growth occurs when we are leveraging the spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities that God has given us in a selfless way that serves others. We encounter God as we use the spiritual gifts we have been given to help others encounter God. We experience God’s transformational activity in our lives as we help others experience God’s transformational activity in their lives.

However, to invest our talents on a ministry team in a way that exposes us to the spiritual gifts that we have been given by Jesus in a way that moves us toward a growing relationship with Jesus requires three things. Tomorrow we will look at these things together...