Diversity From Unity - Spiritual Gifts [Sermon]

Annapolis, Maryland, USA

September 2024

Romans 12:3-8 (ESV)

3 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. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

1. Who I Am Alone

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time, I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking of is Pride.  - CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, “The Great Sin”

2. Who We Are Together 

a. There Are Many Parts with Different Functions

b. The Parts Are Parts Of Each Other

3. What We Do Together 

a. Use the _____

b. Lead with _____

c. Serve with _____

d. Gifts and ______

Acts 21:8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

2 Tim 4:5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Ephesians 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,