Let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you again for the privilege that we have to be able to come and worship you. We pray, Father, that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that are easily molded, Lord God. We pray that your word would have the authority and power over our lives as it ought to.

Help us to understand and to apply your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As we've been studying Romans chapter 12, we started in verse 1 where Paul says, "In view of God's mercy." In light of his mercy and by the authority and the power given through us by his mercy to present our body as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual act of worship.

So our reasonable response to God in view of our salvation is to worship him. And then it says in verse 2, "The application of that is not to conform to this world but be transformed by the renewal of our mind so that we may test and may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect." So verse 3 and verse 8 basically is an application that specifically we are told to transform our mind, not to be conformed but to transform by renewing of our mind.

So starting from verse 3, he'll go into details of what that looks like. The first application of that. So this morning we're going to look at three separate principles that we see about sanctification in application within the context of the body of Christ. But before we even get into it, I want to give you the whole summary of what we're going to be talking about.

So I'm going to tell it to you now and then I'm going to repeat it later. So if you happen to fall asleep in the middle, at least get the beginning and get the end. So that's the... I'm just going to tell you ahead of time. Sanctification, Paul has been stating starting from chapter 1 through chapter 11, it happens when we confront the glory of God and we are humbled and it leads us to repentance.

Repentance is the key to our salvation. Christ offered himself as a living sacrifice for us and he took on our sins upon himself. So when we are confronted by the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can either say, "I don't believe in that," and walk away from that.

Or when you're confronted by that, it causes you to recognize your own sins and repent. And as you know, the word repentance, metanoia, literally means to change your mind. So repentance in justification isn't just, "I did something Tuesday or Thursday or I have this act or a particular aspect of my life I'm repenting." Justification happens when you recognize that there is a sin nature in you.

That the way you view the world, the way that you view what is right, what is wrong, creation, purpose, death, life, all of it was tainted by this world. So when you're confronted by the gospel of Jesus Christ, you repent. Your mind is changed. But for some reason, when we come to sanctification, we think, "Well, we've done that.

We've humbled ourselves and we've repented." And the rest of it is hard work trying to get closer to God through our works. Now there's an aspect of it where it is true, where it does require our labor, it does require our commitment. But again, this is the summary of what we're going to be talking about this morning.

Justification happens when we humble ourselves before God. Sanctification begins when we humble ourselves before man. Let me say that again. Justification happens when we humble ourselves before God. Sanctification begins when we humble ourselves before man. So it begins with humbling ourselves, and then we continue by humbling ourselves. And that's exactly what Paul is saying in verse 3 to verse 8.

So typically, we can get into this and look at the different gifts and how they all fit in together, and we are going to talk some about that, but I want to give you a bigger picture and understand it in the context of how the Jews probably would have heard what he was saying.

So the first thing that we want to look at is sanctification requires thinking soberly of ourselves, first and foremost. Sanctification requires thinking soberly of ourselves. He says in verse 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." Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, 15-16, that though he was being used to plant churches, many people are coming to Christ.

He says to Timothy, his protege, training the young pastor, he says, "This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost." Paul, even though by this time he was more than a decade into his conversion, he planted maybe dozens and dozens of churches, revelation was coming through this man, and obviously he was bearing much fruit in God's kingdom, yet he never forgot.

He never forgot who he was. So he says, "I am the worst of sinners." He doesn't say, "God didn't save me because I had so much potential and because I was a Pharisee among Pharisees and because he was already probably somewhat famous, and so God thought, 'Man, this man could be useful for me.'" Instead, Paul recognized the very reason why he was saved and made an apostle was exactly the opposite.

It was because he was the worst of sinners. The whole purpose, for the purpose of putting him on a pedestal, not to highlight him, but to highlight God's mercy. That if God could forgive him, if God could save him, the worst of sinners, and he really was the worst of sinners.

Remember, he was responsible for the first martyr in the church. He was willing to go and drag Christians into court and even kill them. So when he confronts Christ on the road to Damascus, Jesus himself says, "Why are you persecuting me?" He doesn't say, "Why are you persecuting my people?" He says, "Why are you persecuting me?" So apostle Paul was responsible for all that.

He had so much hatred for Christ and his people. So when Paul says he's the worst of sinners, he recognizes that God had every right to crush him. On that road to Damascus, Jesus could have easily said, and humanly speaking, well-deserved, "Who are you to persecute me and to kill my people?" And then instead of blinding him and converting him and using him, God could have easily crushed him.

Paul never forgot about that. And that's why he says, "Timothy," this is a trustworthy saying, "that he saved me because I was the worst of sinners." Why is he telling this to Timothy? Because Timothy is being trained for ministry. And he's telling Timothy to have a sober judgment about himself.

Now we may look at that and falsely apply, well, God is saying that we should recognize ourselves as the worst of sinners and every once in a while I'll hear somebody say, "My name is so-and-so, the worst of sinners." And I know they mean one, I don't mean to judge their intent, but it just doesn't come off right because it almost sounds like there's a competition as to who recognizes who's the worst.

It's like, "No, I'm the worst of sinners." No, I am the worst of sinners. Are you kidding me? I am the worst of sinners. I am the worst of sinners. I am the worst sinner in the universe. There's nobody who's worse than me. It just doesn't sound right because I don't think we really truly believe that.

We say that because we think that that's what Paul means when he says, "Don't think of yourself so highly." So we kind of deliberately try to lower ourselves and by lowering ourselves we're kind of indirectly raising ourselves. It just doesn't sound right. It's just false humility. That's not honest.

And I don't think that's what Paul is saying here either. He's saying don't look at yourself higher than you ought, but to think of yourself soberly with right judgments. In other words, he's not saying, "Don't say, 'Oh, I'm the worst. I'm no good. I can't do anything.'" It's, "Oh, could you help out at church?" "No, I'm illiterate.

I can't do anything." You know what I mean? "I don't know how to read. I don't know how to think. I have no gifts. I have nothing." It's like, "Oh, I'm so godly." That's not what Paul is saying here. Paul is not saying here not to think of yourself highly and say, "You're worthless.

You're no good. You're wicked. You're a worm." And sometimes we express ourselves that way. You don't really mean it, but you think that that's what it means to be godly. That's not what he's saying at all. He says don't think of yourselves higher than you ought, but to think of yourselves soberly with correct judgment.

What does he mean by that? To think how God sees us, the way God views us. I think the perfect example of that, when Paul introduces himself in most of his letters, he says, "I'm Apostle Paul," and then he says, "The bondservant of Jesus Christ." And the word literally means slave of Jesus Christ.

So when you think of the word slave, automatically it's a title of humiliation. During that period of time, I mean, to be a slave, obviously you had no right. You couldn't own property. If your master decided to kill you, they could. I mean, you had no rights, no legal rights.

So when Paul says, "I am a slave of Jesus Christ," the title in and of itself is a title of humility. But he says, "I'm a bondservant of Jesus Christ." That's just like saying, "I'm a cook." Oh, you're a cook? It's okay. "For the president." "I'm the secretary." Oh, you're a secretary.

"Of the United States." So those two terms come together. It is a title of humility, but because it's connected to the United States, it's a title of honor. So when Paul says, "I am a slave of Jesus Christ," it is both a statement of humility and it is also a statement of honor.

That's what Paul means when he says in Philippians 4.13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It would be wrong if Paul said, "I can do all things." Do you know what kind of training that I've had? You know what kind of success I've had? You know what kind of education?

I know the law better than anybody else. That's not what Paul is saying. Neither is he saying, "Oh, don't ask me. I'm so low. I'm the worst of sinners. I can't do anything. I can't lead people. I can't share the gospel. I know nothing. I have nothing to offer the church.

I'm so humble." That's not what Paul is saying either. He says, "I can do all things through him who gives me strength." So Paul sees himself and the power that he's been given, not in and of himself, because he was connected to God. Romans 8, 37, "Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." For whatever the reason, we think that whenever we learn about Christ and his glory and what he expects of the church, our natural response is, "We're such failures.

We're no good. We're just no good. We're the worst of sinners. We can't. You're so good, and we're no good. We're just wretched sinners. We're no good, no good, no good." And then we create this environment where we think true maturity is a bunch of weak people who never succeed, always sins, but God always forgives the end.

Is that what he is saying when he says, "Do not think of yourself higher than you ought"? But he's saying, "No, think of yourself soberly from God's perspective, from what he sees." See, 2 Corinthians 10, 12, it says, "But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding." The problem with our self-esteem or our arrogance is always comes because we compare ourselves with each other.

And it doesn't take a whole lot for us to become proud. It doesn't take us a lot. You walk into a room, and you're a little bit taller than everybody else. You don't say it, but you feel it. You feel dominance. You go to the gym, every other guy is lifting 160 pounds, and you got two plates on.

That's right. You don't say it, but you feel it. Recently, I just read that UC Irvine has bypassed UCSD in ranking. I don't hear anything. You didn't say it, but you felt it. I know. And then there's UCLA graduates in here, it's like... And then the Berkeley people won't even enter the conversation.

They don't need to. You already know. And Stanford, don't come to our church. They're too good for us. It doesn't take a lot for us to become arrogant. It really doesn't. You don't have to be so much greater than the next person. But when we compare ourselves with ourselves, you have either two things.

Either one, you think you're better than everybody, and then you become proud. You read a little bit more, you're a little bit more fit, you're a little bit taller, you're a little bit better looking, your hair's straighter than somebody... It doesn't take a lot. Or the other end is low self-esteem.

I'm unworthy, I can't, I don't make as much money as these people, I haven't been as successful, I can't do this, I can't do that. That is just as wrong. Because we're seeing it from the eyes of the world, what we have learned from the world, to value ourself based upon comparing with other people.

So pride and self-focus can manifest in pride and also false humility. That's not what Paul is saying. Paul is saying not to think of yourself highly than you ought to think. In other words, besides what God says of you, but to think of yourself soberly. And that's why you look at James chapter 4, 6, God said, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." I mean, the perfect example of that is Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman.

Nicodemus comes to Christ, you know, and he's afraid about his reputation. He's sitting up on the mountain because he's climbed this mountain and he's an expert of the law and everybody's looking up to him because he's the moral example of Israel. He comes and he's concerned about his reputation.

If I come and talk to him, what are my friends are going to say about me? So he comes proud, even though he might be the Messiah. You could see the pride in him and Jesus yanks him down from his mountain. And he says, "You have to be born again." It's like, how can the man be born again?

You're right, you can't do it. It has to be of the spirit. Well, how do I do that? It's not up to you. The spirit comes and goes where it goes and no one knows. In other words, it's completely up to him. It's completely up to him, he has nothing to do with you.

And he basically yanks him off that mountain. And then here's this woman in Samaritan chapter 4, she's concerned about his reputation. Aren't you afraid what they're going to say? You're talking to a sinner, a Samaritan woman? She said, "Go bring your husband." And then she recognizes, "I'm a sinner, I don't have a husband." And he engages her and he actually reveals himself to her and tells her, "I am that Messiah." And that's exactly what it means.

In James chapter 4, 6, he opposes the proud, he humbles the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. There's a reason why Ephesians 2, 8, it says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves, so that no one may," what? "Boast." So the whole point of justification was to humble us.

To humble us so that we could see ourselves from God's perspective. So again, he's not calling us to be like, "Oh, I'm nothing, I can't be useful." Paul says, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." It's because of him, it's because of our connection to him.

So when we compare ourselves with ourselves, either you become arrogant or you start having low esteem and say, "Oh, woe is me." And then either way, you become useless in the kingdom of God. But when we see ourselves in the eyes of God. See, if you were a slave, if you were a slave without this connection to God, that would be the worst thing to call yourself.

You had absolutely no right. But because you are a slave of Jesus Christ, every single one of us, no matter how successful you were, when you came into church, we all had level ground. Every single one of us comes to God as wretched sinners in need of his mercy.

But that's not where we end. That's where we were. We were the worst of sinners. We have sin nature. It doesn't matter how successful you were, how much you've read, and no matter what it is that you've done, at the core of who we are, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But as a result of that, as a result of it, God forgave us and made us what? Our source of pride is not your achievement, is not how you look, what school you came out of, and what the world says about you. Our source of pride and confidence is what?

Is Christ. That I am able to call him my Abba Father. I am co-heirs with Christ. That's where my boasting is. That's why Paul says, "I boast in my weakness, because in my weakness, he is strong." So our title, in and of itself, is humiliation. But when we're connected to Christ, it's a source of great strength.

So that's what Paul means. First, we need to have a proper view of ourselves. Our thinking needs to change, that we don't apply what the world says into our Christian lives. Secondly, sanctification requires humbling of ourselves, recognizing our unity. Our unity. First four and five. 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.

Now as a Gentile, which all of us are, when we read this passage, certain things are naturally are more emphasized. We think about the diversity. We think about the diversity, we think about the oneness, and we're the body of Christ, and how we ought to support one another, and all of that.

And all of that is true, but I want you to think like a Jew. Jew in the first century, if he heard this, how he would have understood this? What would have been his first emotional response to this? To say that we're all one. Think about who is in the church.

Think about who is in the church. So if you were a Jew, and you heard this, how you would have responded? Again, Paul says in Ephesians 4, 4-7, "There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift." We as Gentiles read that and say, "That's awesome. One God, one faith, we're all one together." The reason why Gentiles hear this and we say, "Great, because we weren't in the kingdom. We were the outsiders.

We were the peasants. We didn't have the Old Testament. We didn't have the sacrifices. We weren't privileged." So when a Gentile hears this, "Great, we were the ones who are far off and he brought us." But imagine if you were a Jew. You were the owners of the kingdom.

You had the law of God. You've been practicing the commandments for hundreds of years. You have the promises. You have the patriarchs. And then you're entering in, and again, it didn't take a whole lot to fill the Israelites with pride. They were proud that they were children of Abraham.

Remember that conversation that Jesus has with the Jews in John chapter 8? He says, "If you abide by my truth, you will be my disciples and you shall know the truth. Truth shall set you free." And then they react like, "We're children of Abraham. Why would you even say that we need to be set free?" They got offended.

Because it was a source of pride that they were Jews, descendants of Abraham. But that didn't end there. Even within the Jews, compared to the rest of the world, it was a source of pride. But even within the Jews, they had a hierarchy of which tribe that they belonged to.

So the most prestigious tribe, obviously, were the tribe of Judah. And then the second most prestigious was the tribe of Benjamin. And then you had the other 10 who fell out and joined the rebellious kingdom, the northern kingdom. But if you happen to be, whatever tribe you are, whatever history, good or bad, you had, there was a source of pride.

So they say, "Well, we're a tribe of Benjamin, a tribe of Judah." And then even within that system, you had the Pharisees, you had the Sadducees, you had the Zealots, you had the different sects in the group where there was a source of pride. So the most prestigious within the different groups was the Pharisees because they were obedient to the law.

They were considered the moral examples of Israel. So if you happen to be a member of the Sanhedrin among the Pharisees, I mean, you were the cream of the crop. That's why Paul says in Philippians 3, 4, "For we are circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God in glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." And the reason why he says that is because he's talking to people who are putting confidence in their flesh.

These Judaizers are saying, "You don't know. I mean, we know the law. We have all of this. We know the theology. You know, these Gentiles are coming in and we're going to be equal? How can we possibly be equal with somebody who's been studying and trying to obey the law for hundreds of years with these Gentiles who were just a few days ago, were at the Temple of Artemis?

They were worshiping idols, sacrificing pagan worship, and now they're in the same church and we're the same?" See, if you were a Jew and you heard what Paul was saying, you wouldn't have, your initial response would have been like benevolence, like, "Oh, great. We're all together. You know, we're Gentiles.

So it's good for us, for a Jew who invested all their time and energy and money to elevate themselves to say, 'No, you guys are all the same.'" It probably didn't hit them the same way. Paul says to them, "If you want to go head to toe with me, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless." But he said all of that that he had achieved, and every single thing that he says here wasn't in the context of chasing money, it wasn't in the context of idol worship, it was in the context of worshiping God and obeying and studying the scriptures and applying the scriptures, even though he got it all wrong.

All of that, in light of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, it was rubbish. So when he says, "First recognize that we are all one in the body of Christ," it is a call to humility, that the gospel, it humbles the haughty and it raises the humble. That's what he means that we're one.

That's why in Galatians 3, 28, it says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek." That's great for the Greeks, because the Greeks never sacrificed. Greeks were outside, they were far. But he says to the Jews, "No, we're the same. There is neither slave nor free." Imagine if you're in the church and you used to be a slave owner, and then one of your slaves is sitting in the church, and then Paul says, "You're the same." How can we be the same?

I own this guy. I could do whatever I wanted. I paid for him. And then now we're in the church and he's my brother? There's a whole letter written to address this issue, Philemon. But that's what the early church was like. You had these guys who studied the scripture, Old Testament, and applied it, and all of a sudden a tax collector is there teaching them about the kingdom of God.

And he says, "You guys are the same." If you were a slave, slave, that's great news. If you're a slave owner, like what? Everything that I've achieved out there, all the honor and prestige that I had up there, all of that means nothing here? Yes, that's exactly what he is saying.

That is exactly what he's saying. You know, it's strange that you and I live in a culture where if somebody has great honor over there, they're multimillionaires or sports figures or movie stars, and all of a sudden they convert and they become a follower of Jesus Christ, and then they become leaders in the church.

Because we're applying whatever honor and achievement that they had here, and then we're applying it in the church. And again, there's a whole letter written about that too in the book of James. They're honoring the people who are rich and putting them in the front seats and how that dishonors God.

That's exactly what Paul was saying here. He says, "Slave or free, there is no male or female." Christianity gets a bad rap. It's like, "Oh, you know, male chauvinist pigs. Apostle Paul saying that, you know, wives submit to your husband." And I remember one of the earliest weddings that I officiated, again, they're not here, so I can say it.

I remember, and I didn't know the wife that well, you know, it was just somebody that I knew and I decided to, okay, I'll officiate. And I didn't get to meet them until about three days before the wedding, and we were going over the vows. And she said she refused to say submit.

She said, "It's not romantic. I don't want to create this environment in the wedding." And she said, "I refuse." So that's interesting. You know, I was a young pastor at that time and I don't have a lot of experience. I was kind of wrestling with what I do. I don't want to ruin their wedding, but at the same time, it's going to go against my conscience.

And so I prayed about it, and the next day I contacted the guy that I knew and I said, "I can't officiate your wedding." He said, "I'm going to help you find somebody, you know, but I can't officiate your wedding." You know, because what I'm asking you to do is to quote scripture.

And if you can't quote scripture, it bothers my conscience. I can't come before God and say, "God, the Lord blesses this wedding when I know in my heart you're refusing his lordship in your life." We get a bad rap because you say, "Well, you know, Christianity, it puts women in one place or whatever." But it's Christianity that gave equality among men and women.

The reason why the world has this knee-jerk reaction against leadership and submission is because of this worldly principle of if you have more money, if you're in a higher position of power, you're more valuable. But the kingdom of God is completely different. You have God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

They're all one of the same equality. And yet, each one of them functions to serve one another, glorify each other. So when we put men in leadership and women to submit, automatically wrong. But is that sense of wrong coming from the kingdom or is it coming from the other kingdom?

We would never tolerate if a rich person comes in and giving them honor. We would actively say, "That's not right." If somebody is better looking, somebody has more money, we know innately that's wrong. But why do we apply that principle when it comes to the order of creation? And I want you to think about it this way.

Which is harder to do? To call somebody, to love somebody sacrificially to the point that even if they curse you out, even if they're slandering you, to not only tolerate it but give them your best. Or support somebody that despite no matter what you do, despite everything that you've done, that they're going to forgive you and cover over that and just honor that person.

Because that's exactly what it says in Ephesians 5.22. We look at the word submit and say, "Oh, how dare you? This is archaic. What kind of a church is this?" And yet if you read it carefully, it's saying for the husband to be like Christ who gave up everything.

For who? For sinners. For blasphemers. He demonstrated his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, he loved us. So if there's any knee-jerk reaction, kingdom-minded person is like, "What? Love my wife unconditionally? How dare you? What kind of a church is this? Why would you ever call perfectly righteous people who've done nothing wrong to sacrifice everything for a sinner?

Why would you do that? What kind of a church is this? That's archaic. Who would apply this?" But we don't respond to it that way. It's the fallen world. It's fallen paradigm that we apply to the church. That's why we have this knee-jerk reaction because the word submit automatically we have this sinful attitude toward it.

But if you see the Trinity, the beauty behind how each one takes their role and supports one another, and that's what was supposed to be reflected in the home and in the church. So when he says there is no difference, yeah, it's the same guy who says there is no male or female, it's the same guy who tells us the order of the church and order of the home.

There is no male or female. The female wouldn't have a problem with this. It's the male that would have had a problem with this. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. So when he calls us to be one, it's calling to shift our paradigm to think that in the kingdom of God, we're all equal.

We're all sinners who are saved by the grace of God. There's no one should be walking into the church thinking that I'm better than other people. Number three, sanctification requires humbling ourselves by serving one another. Thirdly, sanctification requires humbling ourselves by serving others. One, again, just to review, we humble ourselves and see a proper view of ourselves as God sees us.

Secondly, we humble ourselves by recognizing the unity that we are all the same, same body. And thirdly, we humble ourselves by actively serving one another. So sanctification is not just having right thinking, but right thinking that's leading to right application. Verse six, "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith." Let me stop right there.

Whatever gift it is that you have been given, it says first and foremost, you didn't earn it, right? So to envy something that you didn't earn or to say, "Well, that's not fair. That's not..." It's basically you're not questioning the church. You're not questioning other people. You're questioning God.

He says, "In proportion to the faith given to you by grace, if service in our serving, the one who teaches and is teaching, the one who exhorts and exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal and the one who does the acts of mercy with cheerfulness." God calls us in our sanctification not to simply, "Well, I've studied the word of God and I know this and I know the intricacy of theology." We really want to be sanctified.

He says, "Serve one another." You cannot love God and hate the church. You can love the church and not love God. That's very easy. But you cannot love God and not love the church. And let me give you an example of that. You know, I could rip on my kids.

Sometimes I get frustrated, "Oh, they're so selfish. They don't do this and they don't do that." But if somebody else joins in, it's like, "Yeah, yeah, our felt selfish." Or maybe you're saying, "Yeah, my mom doesn't do this. My mom doesn't do that." Yeah, what is wrong with your mom?

It doesn't sit well with you. Because even when we're complaining, I mean, we shouldn't be complaining, but even when we're complaining, we're complaining in the context because we love them. Maybe you don't get along with your siblings or maybe you don't have the best relationship with your parents, but deep inside, if something horrible happens to them, you react differently because they're your mom, they're your dad, they're your kids.

There is a base of love. And did you earn that? Did you work toward that? No, because they're yours. They're innately. That's what he is saying, that we're all part of this one body. It's just that we don't recognize it. You can't love God and say, "I don't want the church." God gave us and put us into the church and all he said, "If you want to love God," what did he say?

"Love your neighbors." The most tangible way to express the love for God is to love your neighbors, to serve them in uniquely whatever gifts that God has given you, to humble yourselves. There aren't certain people, "Oh, you're gifted with serving, but I'm gifted in leadership. So I delegate and I tell people." God called every single one of us to humble ourselves and serve one another because we're equal.

Maybe in your company, you're the big shot. Maybe wherever you are, you're the manager. You're the guy who's telling other people. When you come to church, we're all the same. We're all the same. We are to humble ourselves. If we're actively going to give our life as a living sacrifice, which is a reasonable act of worship to God, everyone who has been given, which is every single Christian, is to use that to serve other people.

Remember in John chapter 21, when Peter is being restored, he said, "If you love me," and he says, "Of course I love you." Remember what Jesus' response was? "Then feed my sheep." He didn't say, "If you love me," "Of course I love you," "Then write me a letter." That's not what he says.

No, "Then feed my sheep." He says that three separate times. The very last thing that Jesus tells his disciples before he goes to the cross, what did he tell his disciples? Humble yourself. Serve one another. The one who is the greatest in the kingdom of God is the one who serves.

Unlike the world, or the world knee-jerk reaction is the one who is being served is the greatest. But in the kingdom of God, the one who serves is the greatest. That's the last formal lesson he gave to his disciples. It is when we begin to apply the worldly wisdom and worldly paradigm into the kingdom of the church where the church goes into chaos.

And that's what he means. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We need to start thinking like kingdom people, recognizing who we are through his eyes, not through your eyes, not through your friend's eyes, not through your partner's, but through his eyes.

We are more than conquerors. You know what this means? Like every single one of us, there's not a single one of us, including myself and any of the leaders who have been given all the gifts. In the church, whether you are a small church or a larger church, every single one of you, no matter how mature you think you are, there are certain areas of your life are not as good as certain people in this church.

Some of you are really good with discipline. You're really good with discipline. You're always a student. You're always high achiever. You do what's right to do, but you have no compassion. You have no compassion. You're always bitter and angry toward people. And then some of you are really good at serving.

You're always in the background serving and cleaning. You're really good at it. You're always the first one. But you're so stingy. You're not generous. You just hold on to your time and your money for dear life. Some of you are good at praying, but you hate reading. Some of you are really good at theology, but you hate serving.

There's not a single one of us who can stand and say, "I'm better than you at everything." There's not a single person here. And so what happens is God has distributed the gifts, and then you're doing your work, and then you're in the kitchen working, and you want to serve God.

And then eventually you start grumbling inside, "How come nobody is helping me?" And then you're saying, "How come they're all outside?" And the people who are outside serving the snacks, and they're serving. And then as they're serving, how come nobody's outside? They only want to work inside because it's shaded.

Here we're under the sun, so nobody's serving here. And then the people who are in the nursery, it's like, "Wow, the kids are acting up. All they want to do is serve in the kitchen, but they don't want to help with the kids." And the people who are in the prayer rooms, "We're praying for revival, and all these guys do over here is talk about theology.

And the guys who are in theology, they're reading their scripture, and we're getting to deep things of God, but they're never helping out with anything else in the church." And you've got people who are out feeding the homeless people, but they don't care about people in the church. And so you have various gifts in the church, and everybody's doing their thing, and everybody thinks that everybody ought to be doing what I'm doing.

Whatever I'm good at is what everybody else should be doing. And so you ruin what you're doing. So instead of giving it to God as an act of worship and inspiring other people to be better, you start saying, "Why aren't you good at this?" And usually what happens when somebody starts pointing fingers, "How come you're not good at this?" Somebody who's praying, "How come you don't do this?

How come you don't do that?" And again, these are all things that we all ought to disciple each other and be challenged by. We're not saying that somebody who's praying should never study the Bible, or somebody studying the Bible should never pray. We're just saying if we approach sanctification by, "What is wrong with you?

Be more like me," what is the initial response you always get? "Well, look at you. You're going to point that flashlight at me. Let me take that and point it at you and see what is wrong with you." Now you've got a bunch of people comparing. UCI is better than UCSD.

Oh, UCSD. UCLA. Berkeley. Stanford. And then you've got the other people who didn't go to the UC. It's like, "Oh, it's me. I can't do anything." And then that's the environment that you create in the church. And we're not worshiping God. You know, typically when we think of discipleship, we think it's like one person discipling another person.

I mean, that is one of the methods that we could use to do that. But you know the beauty of the church is we disciple each other. We disciple each other because some of you are so compassionate. You are willing to drop everything. If somebody gets sick, you don't think about money.

You don't think about time. Your life falls apart when somebody gets sick. You go running. You're by their bedside. You're there in the morning and night. You pick them up and like, "Wow." And I watch some of you guys in the way that you just have compassion. And that disciples me.

You don't need to tell me that. I've watched your life and that disciples me. I need to be better at that. Some of you guys are volunteer captains. Any time I say, "Hey, we need—" I'll do it. "Hey, we need more people." I'll do it. "We need more people." I'll do it.

So you know like 14 different community groups, 14 different—I mean, you just love to serve. You know, and sometimes we go, "Hey, calm down. Just pick a couple and just be faithful at those stuff." I remember when we were going through that one week before we came in here and it was kind of like giving birth.

It was like nine months of labor and then we thought we were going to have a C-section and then it just normally—normal birth happened. Remember, some of you guys know what I'm talking about, right? You guys came out here and some of you guys were here till four in the morning, went to work, came back.

Were here till four in the morning, went to work and came back and swinging hammers. And I was praying behind the scene, "Please God, let nobody get hurt." But my heart was so full because you guys—I mean, there's some of you guys who are just good at serving. I mean, just beyond my comprehension.

Some of you guys are so good at administration, you know. And whenever you're in charge of something, just everything runs better. And I'm just so encouraged by that, that you guys are detail-oriented and you just want to be excellent at everything that you're doing, you know, because that's not me.

I'm more the big picture guy constantly. So if the big picture is okay, I don't worry about the details. But I need detailed people in my life. And so when I watch that, I get discipled. I get discipled by the various gift in the church and the way that you guys are serving God because it rebukes me, it encourages me, and it challenges me all at the same time.

And I'm discipled in the body of Christ. It doesn't have to be one person meeting up with one person. Now that's a method. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I think there's benefits to that. But the beauty of the church is God has given various gifts. So if you're only being discipled one person to another person, that one person has all kinds of flaws too.

That one person doesn't have all the gifts. So you're not going to learn everything from that one person. You're going to learn something from that person, but not everything. He gave the body of Christ and he distributed the gifts so that we may humble ourselves, recognize what we're good at, use it as an act of worship, and when we worship God through the gifts that God has given us, we disciple each other.

So some of you guys who are good at mercy, that challenges the church. That stirs us up. And a lot of times it doesn't require a movement. A lot of times it's just one person. One person who is just so faithfully serving God and worried about the homeless and the orphans and how that just begins to spread.

Not because they're complaining, not because of some movement, it's just they watch that person's life and it's like, "Yeah, I need to do that too." Some people are just good at evangelism. And you just faithfully evangelize. You're just faithfully constantly telling your coworkers to come and sharing the gospel and asking for prayer.

And because you're worshiping God through those gifts, other people in the congregation are like, "Wow, that's something that I need to work on." And it challenges me, encourages me. Instead of putting you down, it encourages me. So we disciple one another with the various gifts that God has given in the church and all in the process of humbling ourselves.

We humble ourselves in justification. We humble ourselves in sanctification. So let me conclude what I promised you. What I started in the beginning, let me finish with the end. So if you remember anything of today's, this morning's passage, remember this. Justification happens when we humble ourselves before God. Sanctification begins when we humble ourselves before man.

Let's take some time to pray as our worship team comes up. Again, I want to encourage you that as you heard the Word of God, apply it specifically. What is an area of my life that I'm using either as an excuse because I'm better than other people or I'm, you know, like I got nothing to offer.

And so either way, we're not thinking ourselves soberly. Think specifically how should I apply today's Word into my life. So let's take some time to pray and ask the Lord, "Search me in normalcy. If there's any hurtful ways in me, how can I apply this in a practical way?" So as our worship team leads us, let's take some time to pray.