Using Our Gifts - Part 1

Using Our Gifts, Part 1

Romans 12:3-8

We’ve already talked about presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God.   We talked about not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds.   We saw that there is no middle ground, if we do not become transformed by the renewing of our minds we will be conformed to the world.   This morning I would like to continue in our study of this chapter beginning at verse three and continuing through verse 8.   Please turn there with me now.

Romans 12:3-8 – “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.”

It has been said that even the brightest people use only about 11% of their brains capacity.   When I think about that particular statistic I realize how many use much less than that!   It makes one wonder, what kind of place would this world be if we all used more of our brain?   What if we used 100%?   Certainly it would be a different world.

I wondered, if we get by as well as we do by using only this small portion, what if we could access all there is to access in the human mind and put it to use?   Then I thought about that in terms of God’s word as well.   If we do as well as we do using only small portions of the resources that God has placed before us, (what Paul describes here as gifts), what could we do if we used more of what He has given us?   What would it be like if we would use, to the full extent, the gifts that God has given us as individuals?   I strongly suspect that things would be different.