Motivational Gift - Part 5

Motivational Gifts – Part 5

By Pastor Gary Wayne

After spending 4 sessions looking at the motivational gifts, I want to draw our attention to the context where Paul wrote about these gifts.

Let’s start with the context of the book of Romans.
Have you ever encountered the tension that different views of Biblical doctrine can produce between different Churches? (Eternal security, Tongues, Baptism, Communion, Rapture, etc.)

What was Paul's purpose in writing to the church at Rome?
Up to this point, Paul had not been to Rome yet. But He was VERY aware of the people he was addressing. His heart in writing Romans was primarily pastoral. He was writing to churches made up of real people with real problems, real worries, real struggles, and real questions.
There were two main groups of Christians in Rome: Jewish Christians, who observed Jewish ceremonial practices, and Gentile Christians who didn’t have that culture. They were organized into different house churches.
Jewish Christians who had participated in the communion meal held in the Gentile Christian house had caused a tense relationship between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians.
Paul understood the situation and wrote the letter to both the Jewish and the Gentile Christians in Rome to persuade them to build up a peaceful and close relationship between their house churches.

Paul spends 11 chapters talking about man’s ruined condition with no hope and God’s incredible answer with Salvation.

Text: Romans 12: 1, 4-6a, 9-21
Ver.1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, (NIV)
I beseech you, I plead with you, I appeal to you, I exhort you…

Ver.4-6a

Right after talking about the motivational gifts, Paul launches into sharing urgent instructions from Paul’s heart for how to function as a part of the body of Christ. (BIGGER PICTURE) The great thing about this section is that whether we understand our unique gifting or not, this applies to you and me regardless.

Paragraph Title: Behave Like a Christian
Ver.9-21 Ver.9 - Let love be without hypocrisy. Love must be sincere. Don’t just pretend to love others. Let love be genuine. (Not a used car salesman.)

We receive these gifts at conception, and they greatly steer our lives, but there are also other STRONG contributing factors that affect how we live.

A HUGE one is whether I become a Christian, then allow the Holy Spirit to change me to become like Jesus.
I believe that even if I have major flat spots with my gifting, and if I don’t even begin to understand how other giftings relate, the more like Jesus I become, the more balanced I become in my gifting, and He helps me to operate in the other giftings as well.

Some of the Major things that can shape our giftings are:
Parenting – Even though you might not be gifted in an area, if your parents are, they can shape how you think in that area.
Your birth order.
Your maturity, or immaturity.
Your gender.
The culture and time frame your grew up in.

The one I want to visit the most is woundedness.

Depending on your gifting, the depth and length of time you were wounded, it can greatly impact how you operate in your gifts.
For instance - One of the weaknesses of the gift of mercy is that they can be easily wounded.
So we now have a person gifted in mercy intended by God to bring the power of that gift to the body, now operates TOTALLY different from their giftings.
They become hard and insensitive, looking down on “weak people” with disdain.

Our enemy the devil does everything he can do to hurt you and cause you to operate independent from: your gifting, from being mature, from follow Jesus, from being an asset to the body, being plugged into ministry.

For me as pastor, the #1 area I feel passionate about in ministry is to help see wounded people become free.
My heart longs to see this body healed from brokenness and operate in this gathering body, in this city like what Paul is speaking about.
To BE the church, not just attend church.

The power of the Holy Spirit in you is more than enough to do the work all by yourself. But when we gather together in unity, His Kingdom comes, His will is done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Ro 12:6 “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…”