In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'How Faith Is Externalized,' based on Romans 12:3-8, he highlights the essence of spiritual gifts and their role in the local church. Brown emphasizes that the church is a relational environment, vastly different from an entertainment center, where spiritual gifts such as prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and showing mercy are exercised for the edification of the body of Christ. He articulates that these gifts, given by God's grace, should be actively used, reflecting a life transformed by the gospel. The sermon underscores the importance of each member's contribution to the church's culture, which is rooted in faith and intimacy with Jesus Christ. Brown warns against the church becoming an impersonal program-driven institution and advocates for a culture of face-to-face, relational interactions. He further explains that being 'in Christ' is foundational to developing a genuine Christian culture, where believers are interconnected, and their inner life is expressed through their service and love for one another.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, find verse 3. Our focus is Romans 12, 6 through 8, but we'll start reading in verse three to pick up the flow of what the apostle is trying to teach the church in Rome. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. 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. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

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 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, He who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray.

Lord, come and feed your sheep, come tend your lambs, nourish this vine and cause this to grow Lord that you would come and teach us your ways in the church that you have established in the world and this local church, amen. Please be seated. So Romans 12 is a brilliant description of the culture of a local church. It explains the relational fabric of a church, what it looks like when the people of God are bound together in Jesus Christ. And it's very clear, the church is not a spectator sport.

It's not like going to a movie, it's not like going to a lecture, it's not like going to a concert. It's actually highly relational, it's very personal, and this is a very important matter to discuss at this time in the history of the church when the church has kind of become an entertainment center and that's what people are kind of looking for and they gather and then they scatter immediately and the relational aspects seem to not be very prominent. But in Romans 12 you have the design of the culture of a church and there are seven gifts mentioned in Romans 12. And of course, this is not an exhaustive list. But basically what the gifts of the Spirit are it's simpler than you might think.

It's the kinds of things that people do with one another. That's what the gifts of the Spirit are. And this is the first mention of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. You find other lists in Ephesians 4 and 1st Corinthians 12 verse 4 through 11. You find another list in 1st Peter 4.

But the Roman church was like every other church. It's like our church. We need exhortation. We need parameters. We need to be instructed on the way to go in the life of the church.

And so Romans 12 is really showing what a renewed mind looks like, what happens to a person when they've really embraced the gospel, which was communicated in the first 11 chapters of Romans but but we we learned that local church life arises out of a reception of the gospel first of all and then the people doing what the gospel requires, and that is to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. In other words, your life is no longer your own. You are presented to God and your life in the local church is also not your own. And we all end up in local church life with all kinds of misconceptions, preconceptions, and even right conceptions about what local church life should look like. And, but Romans 12 really rescues us from whatever wrong thinking we might have.

And it also corrects us, it stimulates us, it encourages us, it really sets the vision again and says, wow look at this, look at this culture that I'm creating in my churches. It's the most beautiful culture. And so it begins with presenting your body a living sacrifice. It's no longer being conformed to this world but being transformed by the renewing of your mind. As a result of that you don't think more highly of yourself than you ought.

That's in verse 3. And So there's this picture of what happens to a person individually, but then it explains what it happens to them relationally in the life of the church. And what you find is this vigorous, this loving, this expressive life in the local church. And everybody has a different part and everybody's made differently and they have a different contribution to one another and the aggregate whole creates this world of love in the church and it's a very beautiful thing. Now there's something about these verses in verses six through eight that I just want us to recognize it right off the bat.

These are activist verses, okay, and the translators tried to capture this in the words referring to the gifts, let us use them. In other words, go for it. In other words, use what you have. And so that's why you have this, it's kind of strange language, look at it. If prophecy, then let us prophesy.

Or ministry, let us use it in our ministry. In other words, if you've got it, use it. If he who exhorts in his exhortation, if you've got that, then use it. Don't keep your mouth shut. He who gives, go for it.

Do it with liberality. If you're leading, do it with diligence. If you're showing mercy, do it with cheerfulness. In other words, do it. Go for it, actually, is really the sort of the thrust of these words.

You know, contribute. Do the stuff, you know. Don't hold back. Don't be a person, don't hang to yourself. Don't hang out with yourself when you're in the body.

You know, the Apostle Peter said it like this in 1 Peter 4 10, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. In other words, you're a steward of what God has given you. Whatever wisdom, whatever truth, whatever energy, you're a steward of that energy and God has designed you to steward that energy into your local church. But he continues, he says, if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability that God supplies.

And that's really key to Romans 12 because Paul uses different language to talk about this same idea. Let him do it with the strength that God supplies. In other words, God must supply it. This is not something you put on. This is not faking it till you make it.

This is actually having something that's real that comes from God and you're expressing it in the church of Jesus Christ. And it's a picture of people exercising the good things that they have with one another. You know, Paul told the Colossian Church, he said, whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, not unto men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. So, on the one hand you have these commands to exercise your gifts, on the other hand you have sort of the source of the gifts and you'll see you have an outline in front of you I just want to talk about that the source of it Peter says you know serve according to the strength that God supplies Paul speaks speaks of the very same thing with a little bit different language.

And what he's saying is that the life of the church arises out of the faith of the people in the church. It begins really with intimacy with Jesus Christ. If there's a real relationship with Christ, then there will be a real Christian culture. What God is doing in the world is he's creating a culture through his church. You know if you want to save Western civilization the first thing you should do is turn to Jesus Christ and be saved and then spend the rest of your life building up the only institution that Jesus Christ established in the world, and that is the Church of Jesus Christ.

Save civilization, build up the local church. This is how God is working in the world. But it's a very relationally intensive world. It's not a program intensive world which the American modern church is addicted to its programs and as a result the relational elements are lost or nearly lost. It's a face-to-face intensive.

It's not a remote intensive life. And frankly, I mean we live in an online world where there's there's more and more disconnection with people. The social media world just continues to press humanity into impersonality. And people feel like, they say things online that they could never say in someone's face. But God actually drives you to face-to-face relationships.

And this is the brilliance and the beauty of a local church. And I've talked at length over the years of just how remarkable the culture of a local church is. There's nothing like it. The commands that God gives to his people are the most life-giving, happifying, blessed commands that any people have ever received. I don't care what company you go to and the great culture that they have, there's nothing like the way that the culture of a local church is meant to be.

And frankly, it can be disruptive to people's lives because often the culture in their head and the culture they've been living isn't all that hot of a culture. And so God gives you commands to take you out of your culture zone and into God's culture zone. And so it can be very disruptive to be taken out of your comfort zone. But the Bible does that. The Bible is constantly lifting you to a better world, to a better kingdom, and he does that in his church.

And I just don't know of any culture that is superior to a local church culture. So it begins with faith, but it assumes that we have been grafted into the body of Christ. We spent the whole time last Sunday talking about the church is the body of Christ, and we are members of that body and they're diverse and we're all connected and it's so critical that we understand the church as a body. It's the premier metaphor of the church, the body of Christ, but what's so critical to understand, here's what I don't want us to miss. To be a part of the body of Christ means that you were placed in Christ.

That's the language of Romans 12. It has enormous implications. We are one body in Christ. And that's so pivotal because that tells you where the life of the body comes from. It comes from Jesus Christ.

It doesn't come from creating some cool expression of a gathering of people. It really comes from Jesus Christ. The heart of the church is the heart of Jesus Christ. And so to be in Christ is really the beginning of the creation of this culture. If you want to create this culture, then intimacy with Jesus Christ is the very first thing that you should understand.

Now this phraseology in Christ is very richly displayed across scripture. In 1st Corinthians 1, 4 we receive grace in Christ. In Romans 3, 24 we receive our redemption in Christ. In Galatians 2, 17 we are justified in Christ in Ephesians 4 32 we have forgiveness in Christ in Romans 8 1 there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus We have eternal life in Christ in Romans 6 23. God supplies all of our needs in Christ in Philippians 4 19.

To Be in Christ means not only do you have life, his life in you, but you have life in the body of Christ because every person who's a member of the body of Christ has Christ. That's why the Christians were slanderously called in the first century, Christians. It was a slanderous term. Oh, here come the little Christ's. Yeah, the little Christ's, you know.

It's actually not a bad thing to call Christians because that's actually what they're hoping to continue to trajectory toward. So our usefulness is found in Christ. So we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Now that's in verse five of Romans 12. So what does this mean?

It means that there is this underground spring of life in every believer. There's a wisdom from God that resides in the heart of the believer. There's an inner strength that believers have, there's this source of life in the heart of a believer and that's really the foundation. Now the Apostle Paul, he speaks of this reality, this power as coming from Christ, but then he also, in verse five, he uses a little bit different way to say a similar thing. As God has dealt to each one a measure of faith, having then gifts according to the grace that is given to us.

In other words, the gifts of the Spirit arise out of faith and God gives a measure of faith to every person. And you know last week we said first of all, faith is a gift of God, but faith is also something that you grow. That's why the disciples said, Lord increase our faith. They're like every real believer. They want their faith to increase.

So faith is also this foundation, this underground inner world, this secret treasure that creates the culture of the church. It is presenting your body as a living sacrifice, it is having faith, and it is being in Jesus Christ. And this, I'm belaboring this point because I want to take us in a really important direction, and that is the life of this church, the life of any local church, is really only an expression of the inner life of the other members of the body. I mean you really met what you do with your heart, what you do with your faith, whether it's strong or weak, what you do with the Lord Jesus Christ privately, that's actually what creates the life of a church. And so we should not take one another so lightly to live any way we want.

But we ought to be a people, quietly, privately, building our faith. Jesus Christ talked about abiding in him and he said that if you abide in him you'll bear fruit. That's the same thing. To grow your faith, to be in Christ, to abide in Christ. Now in John 15, he speaks of this.

He says, John 15, 4, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit." And then he says this, For apart from me you can do nothing. For apart from me you can do nothing.

How often when we gather, we recognize that we are sort of apart from him. It's so critical that we cultivate our intimacy with Jesus Christ as the first measure to build up the body of Christ. I'm gonna quote J.C. Ryle, he talked about this. To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with him.

To be always leaning on him, resting on him, pouring our hearts out to him, and using him as our fountain of life and strength, as our chief companion and best friend. To have his words abiding in us is to keep his sayings and precepts continually before our memories and minds and to make them the guide of our actions and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior. So this life, all of these expressions of gifts, All the things that people do in the body, they arise out of faith in Jesus Christ as a result of abiding in him. And that's another way to say this is Life in the church is just not something you create externally. All of us are dependent on one another in the body of Christ because we are members of one another.

And I hope I hope that helps us to see how important we all are to one another in the body of Christ. In the same way that the hand can't say to the foot, I don't need you. In the same way the ear can't say to the eye, I don't need you. But what we need in one another is the fullness of Jesus Christ and abiding in him. And that's why the church is actually a real culture.

It's not just put on that social revolutionaries put together to create the coolest expression of a people gathering together. That's the worst thing you can do in the church. But the best thing you can do in the church is seek Jesus Christ and become like him. And then bring him to one another. So, I mean in saying that, I recognize that we often go through ups and downs in our life with Christ.

I was reading something that a pastor from the 1800s wrote. He wrote a very sobering description of a church culture that needed revival And there are times when a church needs revival in its culture. And I don't think we should act like, I don't think we should think too highly of ourselves and not think that there's not some necessary revival, you know, in our own lives. But, and he described what this looks like. What does it look like when a church is in need of revival?

And I'm just gonna read, I'm gonna paraphrase some of the things he said. He says, people who've long heard the gospel and have become careless and overconfidence sets in. And in their overconfidence, they neglect the Word of God. He says a church is in need of revival when all things temporal are filling your mind. A church is in need of revival when every question you're interested in has nothing to do with your own soul.

You're just so adept at discussing all these controversial matters, but not much care about your own soul. If the people have become careless in purity, i.e. The internet, careless in doctrine, careless with the tongue, careless in discipline. He says a church is in need of revival if there's a coldness that has cast itself into the heart of the people, if there's little love in the fellowship, if there's grieving of the spirit, if there's inconsistency in coming to church, if there's little care for the gatherings, if there's little care for the prayers and the preaching and the fellowship of the church, he says these are signs that the church needs to be revived or someone in the church needs to be revived. So on the contrary what you have here is this diligence and generosity and liberality of our use of our lives in the church, in the local church.

And so he's really calling the church to spring into action and to be revived. Apparently the Roman church needed to hear this. So he says, as these gifts, let us use them. If you have received a special gift, employ it like 1st Peter 4 10 says. So let's go through these seven gifts that are listed.

We're just going to bounce through each one of them. And I think what I'd like us all to do is just ask how might I be a source of some of these blessings? And am I particularly gifted? Am I particularly outfitted for this particular thing? You'll find that that many of the things here all Christians do at one level or another.

There are 15 gifts mentioned in the New Testament, some say 19 gifts, I'm not sure. But this list is not an exhaustive list the lists of the gifts are not exhaustive they are selective and they really describe the way that the Spirit of God works in your heart in relationship with other people. This is what it looks like, okay? And so he begins with prophecy. If prophecy, let us use it in our prophesying.

And I believe in this context, he's talking about the life in the body of Christ, and he's talking about speaking forth the word of God in this context, speaking the word of God in the local church. He's not talking about the apostolic role of writing scripture, That's not what he's talking about. It's a very different thing. He's not talking about predicting the future, which often was the case with Old Testament prophets. Most of the prophets were not speaking predictively.

They were speaking prescriptively. They were identifying sin in the culture. I'll read what Matthew Henry said about this gift. It is not meant of the extraordinary gifts of foretelling things to come but the ordinary office of preaching the word. That's what I think he's talking about.

To warn the people concerning sin and duty and to be their remembrancers concerning what they ought to do. And this is revealed in the Holy Scriptures in the New and the Old Testament. So I think that's what he's talking about. He who prophesies speaks edification. That's what 1 Corinthians 14.3 says.

John Murray says it like this, the prophet when he speaks God's word is not to go beyond that which God has given him to speak in the word of God. And we who speak the word of God, we don't make up new things, we don't say the Lord told me unless it's written in the Word of God, we do not go beyond Scripture. We speak the faith that was once delivered by the apostles. That's the preaching that we do. And so while what I'm doing now is classified in this category of preaching, every mother, every father is involved in preaching the Word of God.

We do this with one another. We quote scripture to one another in our personal relationships. We counsel one another with the Word of God. So there are many levels at which this I think is manifested in a local church. When we get together, the best thing we can do is speak about the word of God to one another.

It's what we need the most, actually. In fact, our gatherings on the Lord's Day are dedicated really to that very thing that we would gather together. It's a day of delight, delighting ourselves in the Lord. And Isaiah 58, he says, It's not the time to speak your own words and do your own ways. Speak the words of God.

That's how Isaiah talks about it on the Lord's Day. We should prioritize the speaking of the Word of God on the Lord's Day. We have a marvelous opportunity to do that every Sunday when we have our fellowship meal. We're together almost forever on Sunday, and we have a lot of time to talk to one another and minister to one another. We should take advantage of that.

And then the next thing that people do is ministry. Now this is a word that's often translated, serving or service. It's the word, we get our word deacon, and some have said, well, he's just talking about deacons here, but I don't think he's just, I think he is both talking about deacons and also serving one another in the local church because there are commands to all believers to deke, to be deacons, to serve. And you know, this happens through hospitality. Like for example, Phoebe in Romans 16, 1 and 2 was a servant of the church in Centuria.

Martha served Jesus in Luke chapter 10 and then Jesus reminded her not just to serve but also to listen. Joshua says as for me in my house we will serve the Lord. That means as an act of worship he was going to deploy his life for the help of Israel. Isaiah said here am I send me for what? To serve.

There's so many ways that we serve one another. Do you remember the story? Peter had a mother-in-law and she had a fever. She got sick and Jesus came in and healed her of the fever and the Bible says that immediately she arose and served them. It's the same word.

She was she was ministering. In Philippians chapter 2 you have this remarkable person Epaphroditus who Paul says was my fellow brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier. And he said that he served me. Epaphroditus served Paul. You have the ministry of the women in the New Testament.

There were many women that served the ministry of Jesus Christ. So you have this idea of serving. Jesus said the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. This is a explicitly Christian way of living, is to serve other people. And the church is reflecting the spirit of Jesus Christ when she's serving one another.

That probably takes us back to do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. But the truth is we've actually been brought into service to one another. So the church reflects Jesus Christ when she serves one another. These are the kinds of things that happen. You can call them gifts, you can call them whatever you want, but they're the kinds of things that are upwelling in the hearts of people because their faith and because their connection with Jesus Christ, because they're abiding in Jesus Christ, which is really the heart of the life of a church.

And then teaching. This one exists in all the five lists of the gifts of the Spirit. And I think that it refers to two types of teaching. It's the formalized teaching in the local church where you have men who are set aside by the congregation to preach and teach the word of God. And they dedicate themselves to the work of preaching.

It's actually hard work, it's exasperating work. And what he's saying is, teaching, teach, don't neglect the gift. Don't act like you don't have time to do it If you if you have that capability Then you should exercise it You know during during our gatherings. We have lots of opportunities to teach one another across the table standing in line. There's this wonderful prophecy in Isaiah 54, all your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

God brings his people into an environment of teaching and preaching. The only reason we're doing this, the way we're doing it right now, this strange thing called preaching, the foolishness of preaching, It's actually not the very best communication methodology. Like we could do way more riveting things than having somebody like me stand up here, okay? But what God has prescribed for the church is for preaching. So that there's personal knowledge, personal interaction, They're real people with real families and real situations and there's a connection.

It's a physical interpersonal connection. You know the church it was never designed to be one talking head but to be an interactive community where the shepherds know the sheep and the sheep know the shepherds as best they can. And then you have exhortation and or it's also can be translated encouragement. So not just prophecy, not just ministry, not just teaching, but exhortation. By the way, this term is the same word that the apostle uses in the first verse in Romans 12.

I beseech you therefore brethren. He's urging the church. The church is a place of exhortation. We live in a world where people don't like exhortation. Like if you exhort somebody, a lot of times people will say you should apologize to him for exhorting him, but the truth is the church is the place of exhortation.

And again this assumes personal interaction. It requires that you know one another. This word appears a hundred and seven times in the New Testament. It means to entreat or to console. It can mean comfort as well.

It has to do with advising one another if needed or pleading with one. Have you ever had to plead with another believer? Have you ever felt like it was right for you to bring correction to your brother? Have you ever thought it was right to comfort your brother? That's a very very common need in the church People of God need comfort And so this this word brings together that whole range.

You know there was somebody in the early church who was who was really good at that his name is Barnabas. His name means son of encouragement. You know what, there are some people that they're just, that's all they can do is encourage you. It's pretty nice actually. We need people like that in the church, and often people need it from us in the church.

In Acts chapter 14, we find the apostle Paul strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith saying we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God so he says the one who exhorts in his exhortation in other words if there's a need for exhortation there's a need for exhortation, do it! Go for it! You know, don't hold back. In Titus chapter 2, the older men are supposed to exhort the younger men. The older women are to admonish or exhort the younger women.

This is how it's supposed to be. The older voices are actually very necessary. Okay? Yes, you do need the boomers. You do.

Because the older are meant to exhort the younger and there's actually a reason for that. Paul said, exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters. So the exhortation can take many forms that from correction to comfort and encouragement. Because sometimes you need to weep with those who weep and sometimes you need to rejoice with those who rejoice and sometimes you need to correct the wayward. That's life in the church.

And then you have giving. And it's funny the way that the word that the apostle uses, It indicates kind of an intensification. The word giving is dittami. This is meta-dittami. Like, you know, give, like really give.

You know, don't give stingily. If you're giving, give big, you know. There are examples of this in the Bible. I think he's talking about giving of financial resources. You know, and hey, in our church covenant, these elements are all in our church covenant.

Every one of them, including the giving one. Like if somebody stops giving in the church, they're actually sinning against God. Because there's a command to give. This is, you know, particularly for a person who, you know, who has resources and can give a lot, I think that's part of what he's talking about here. But giving is the normal life of the church.

And then leading, he who leads in his leading, this means the management, the government of the church. It means to stand before others, that's what leaders do. They stand before others and they say, take that hill, let's go. What leaders do is that they define the target and they say, this is the bullseye, this is where we're headed, This is what we should do in this church. And there are different seasons of churches.

They need different things at different times. And you need leaders. Everybody's not a leader. But at the same time, fathers and mothers are leaders. You know, older siblings can be marvelous leaders in their families.

There are lots of different ways that leadership takes place. He says, he who leads with all diligence. And the word actually implies speed. In other words, don't just let things go on. You know, leaders often have to say stop, we're not doing this anymore.

We're going to go in a different direction. That's what leaders have to do. That's what fathers and mothers have to do all the time. Children, we're going to stop doing this, okay? Circle the wagons, we're changing the culture of this family, okay?

This culture is going in the wrong direction. That's what mothers and fathers are supposed to do. They're supposed to stop the freight train that's headed off the cliff. It's what leaders do. Now this is actually an attack against procrastination in leaders.

You know there are two dangers for leaders. One is moving too fast and the other is moving too slow. And it's difficult to figure out which way to go from time to time. But leaders have to decide. Somebody has to decide.

Fathers and mothers have to decide. They're being given authority. You know in the in the Church of Jesus Christ, God invests authority into elders. It's just the way God designed it. He didn't invest authority in deacons, he didn't invest authority, the same kind of authority in the local church.

There is a kind of authority that the church has, but the Bible is very distinct that the congregations should submit to their elders. That doesn't mean their elders are perfect. It certainly doesn't mean that. But there's a way that the government of the family and the church and the state operate.