Use What You Have
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
Romans 12:3
When I was a new Christian, I attended a church that had “opening exercises” at the beginning of each week to kick off Sunday School for all ages. I don’t know if they did this drill because kids were present, but each week we would have a memory verse, and anyone could take a turn reciting it out loud. We were in the book of Romans, and we were memorizing a verse a week from chapter 12. One of the first weeks I was in church, this verse was the one we were memorizing. Wanting to fit in and be a part of the congregation, I tried to learn the verse. I memorized it, but what did it mean?
“For by the grace given to me…” First, we learn that ministry is always motivated by grace and empowered by grace. Grace is not a mere impersonal force, but it is the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ working in our lives through the Holy Spirit. Christ lives his life in us and through us. The empowerment that we receive for ministry is the person of God working in our lives. The Christian life was not meant to be lived in our own strength undergirded by our own power. In humble dependence, we are to seek Christ and yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit so he will use us for his glory.
“I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think…” Here is a struggle that every parishioner and pastor alike faces. Often we look down on others and have an inflated view of ourselves. We begin to believe our own press release! When I was at my first church as a pastor, I oversaw the “Concert and Conference” series every winter. I would receive press releases and CDs from musicians hoping to be booked at our church. When I read these press releases I wondered, “Why have these people never been discovered?” Then I listened to the CD, and I wondered no more! We need to be careful we don’t think too much of ourselves. There is also the danger of thinking too little of ourselves! We can negate the grace of God and disparage the gifts that God has given us by ignoring or not using the gifts he has given. Gifts were meant to be appreciated and used and if we think too little of ourselves our gifts lie dormant collecting dust on the shelf.
“…but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” When we use the word “sober” we often think of it in opposition to drunk. It makes sense, but the word basically means to think clearly or to have sound judgment about yourself. We need to be honest with ourselves. We need to know our strengths and our weaknesses. None of us is good at everything. We all have areas that we need to improve, and we have areas we will only be proficient at best. In other areas we excel. Further, God has given us different measures of gifts. Just because we are great in one area, it does not make us an expert at every area. A person may be the MVP of the NFL but that does not mean he is an expert at infectious diseases (just saying). A child psychologist is not the best person to weigh in on issues of the Greek and Hebrew text (unless he has also become a linguistics scholar). God has assigned us a measure of faith. Some people are just more gifted that we are. Some people will excel greater in an area than you or me. We don’t need to be the best in the world, we are to be the best we can be based on the gifts God has given us.
Paul concludes, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…” (Romans 12:4-6a) God has given you gifts. Use then in the power of the Holy Spirit to build one another up and reach the lost to the glory of God.
