Why Should I Serve?
- Because God HAS DONE SO MUCH FOR ME . (Rom 12:1)
- Because God WANTS ME TO GROW . (Rom 12:2)
- Because God HAS GIFTED ME . (Rom 12:3-8)
God has gifted me with the ability/abilities to:
Guest Speaker - Laylor Brown
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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00:00-00:07
God, thank you so much for this opportunity I have to come before your people and proclaim your word, Lord.
00:07-00:08
What an awesome privilege.
00:08-00:11
Help me to take that very seriously this morning, Lord.
00:12-00:16
I pray that every single word that comes from my mouth would be from your Holy Spirit and not from me.
00:16-00:20
I pray you bring glory to yourself and impact everyone's lives in this room this morning.
00:21-00:22
God, we need your help.
00:23-00:25
In Jesus' name, amen.
00:27-00:29
This passage shows us why we should serve.
00:29-00:32
So ask yourselves this morning, why should I serve?
00:33-00:38
Well, first, this passage shows us that we should serve because God has done so much for me.
00:39-00:40
God has done so much for me.
00:41-00:49
Paul begins this passage by calling his readers to give all that they have to God in light of all that has been done for them through Jesus.
00:49-02:23
He says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God." So whenever you see a "therefore" in the Bible, you have to back up a couple of verses what was before the therefore. So before he commands his readers to do anything, Paul first points back to what God has done for them in the past. He spends the first 11 chapters of his letter to the Romans showing them their sinfulness and how Jesus saved them from the darkness of their sins. You know, God had done so much for them through the death, the resurrection of Jesus. He put all their sins and the punishment for those sins upon Christ. He set them free from the power of sin. He adopted them into his family and he promised that nothing could separate them from his love. In light of all this, Paul calls Christians to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. You know in the Old Testament, animals were sacrificed upon the altar and killed to cover the sins of the people. And these small sacrifices pointed forward to the day when a greater sacrifice would come to once and for all take away the sins of God's people. Jesus came to this earth to be the ultimate sacrifice. So we don't have to offer God dead sacrificial animals anymore because Jesus took our sins and our punishment upon Himself.
02:25-02:31
As Christians, God still calls us to make a certain kind of sacrifice.
02:31-02:49
We're not called to offer dead animals to Him anymore, but our lives to Him as a living sacrifice. Christians are to present every part of their lives to God and to sacrifice their time, talents, and treasures for Him. This is the offering.
02:49-02:53
This is the sacrifice that is pleasing to our God.
02:56-03:36
You may translations call this our spiritual act of worship, but a better translation is actually reasonable act of worship. It makes sense that we would give everything to the One who gave us everything. It's only reasonable that we would sacrifice all that we have for the one who sacrificed everything for us. It's only reasonable. Now I want you to imagine a teenage father and his son right now. So the father has always provided for his son. He's taking care of him. He's shown him how to be a man of God. He spends a lot of time with his sons by with his son by taking him to movies, to baseball games, hockey games.
03:37-03:56
Every Saturday he takes him out to lunch and they have deep conversations about the Lord and about their lives. And this father has done so much for his son over the course of his life. He has blessed him in so many ways. And the father never really asked anything from his son except for one thing. He asked him that once or twice a week he would take care of the yard and do some yard work.
03:57-04:11
Seems pretty reasonable, right? It seems, yeah, after all that what the father has done for his son, it seems reasonable. He asked his son to make sure the weeds are pulled and the grass is mowed. Whenever the father tells his son to do this, his son He drags his feet. He complains.
04:13-04:17
So one day the father is trimming trees out in the front and he's like, you know what?
04:17-04:21
I think I'm gonna get my son to clean up these branches. So he goes in the house. He's calling for his son.
04:21-04:27
He can't find him anywhere. He looks at the basement. He looks at the family room, the kitchen, his son's room.
04:28-04:31
Nowhere. He's getting really confused and really frustrated. Where's my son? Where did he go?
04:33-04:37
So after about 10 minutes of searching he finds his son hiding under his desk in the office.
04:39-04:43
Because he knew that his father would ask him to do yard work and he didn't want to do any yard work.
04:45-04:48
So was it wrong for the son to do this? I want you to answer. Was it wrong for him to do this?
04:49-05:11
Yeah, because it was only reasonable that the son would do this small thing for his father who had done so much for him. It only made sense that the son would do yard work for his father who had sacrificed so much for him. For those of you who are wondering, I am the son in this story. Let's I'll justify myself after service if you want to talk about it.
05:12-05:16
So we laugh at this story, but we all do the same thing with God all the time, don't we?
05:18-05:23
God has done so much for us, and he calls us to serve him and sacrifice our lives for him.
05:24-05:25
We make excuses.
05:26-05:27
We complain.
05:28-05:29
We say we don't have time.
05:31-05:40
Listen, God has saved you from shame, guilt, a life of meaninglessness, and an eternity away from Him in hell.
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It's only reasonable that you would give everything you have for Him.
05:46-05:51
So please, brothers and sisters, let's stop making excuses and failing to honor our God.
05:51-05:58
Let's present our entire lives to Him as a living sacrifice, every single day.
05:59-06:06
We should serve God with all that we have and all that He has given us because He has done so much for us.
06:08-06:09
So why should I serve?
06:10-06:12
First, because God has done so much for me.
06:12-06:14
Second, because God wants me to grow.
06:15-06:30
Paul continues by writing, "Do not be conformed to this world, "but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." You know, as Christians, we cannot and should not try to conform to the beliefs in the values of the culture around us.
06:30-06:40
Conforming to the world means looking and acting exactly like everyone around you, instead of living how God has called you to live in his word.
06:41-06:48
Sadly, so many people who call themselves Christians in this country look exactly like everyone else.
06:48-06:54
They just want to blend in with the world around them, and they don't want to stick out as different whatsoever.
06:55-07:11
These people who call themselves Christians and support things that God speaks against in his word, such as living together before marriage, sex before marriage, homosexuality, messed up views of gender roles, and the list goes on and on and on.
07:13-07:22
The most relevant example that I could think of regarding Christians conforming to the thoughts and values of this world is the transformation of Bruce Jenner into Caitlyn Jenner.
07:22-07:23
Has everybody heard about this?
07:24-07:27
You pretty much can't own a TV go on the internet without hearing about this, right?
07:28-07:33
So Bruce Jenner is an Olympic gold medalist who struggled with his identity for years.
07:33-07:36
He always felt like he should have been born a woman.
07:36-07:41
So after years and years, he finally decided he was gonna make that transformation and become a woman.
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So he had a lot of surgeries done, he took a lot of medication to look like a woman.
07:47-07:57
I've had many people ask me my opinion on this matter, and I tell them that what Bruce/Kaitlyn is doing is wrong It's tinful and against God's Word.
07:57-08:01
It's completely against God's design for men and for women.
08:01-08:04
God created men to be men and for women to be women.
08:04-08:09
He didn't create us with an option as to what gender to identify ourselves with.
08:10-08:14
Whenever I tell people my biblical conviction about this, they say, "Taylor, that's so mean.
08:14-08:15
Don't you want Bruce?
08:15-08:21
Don't you want Kaitlyn to be happy?" My answer is yes, I do want him to be happy.
08:21-08:23
And I know this won't make him happy.
08:23-08:24
to make Him miserable.
08:25-08:27
I love Him and I want what's best for Him.
08:27-08:29
I know this isn't it.
08:30-08:38
No matter what He does to make Himself look like a woman, He's always going to be a man in the eyes of God no matter what He does.
08:39-08:44
I've heard so many people who call themselves Christians say, you know what, it's not a big deal.
08:44-08:46
If it makes Him happy, He should do it.
08:47-08:55
They want to fit in and conform to this world so badly that they ignore God says in His Word about men and women.
08:56-08:59
Or at the Supreme Court decision about gay marriage last week.
08:59-09:03
I was stunned by how many Christians in my life celebrated this on Facebook.
09:04-09:13
I'd see so many statuses filling out my newsfeed saying finally, love has won and all of you who disagree need to change because you're hateful and you're mean.
09:15-09:16
I was absolutely stunned.
09:17-09:25
You know, so many Christians want to look cool, hip, and relevant They loosen their grip on biblical standards and try to conform to this world.
09:26-09:30
They grab onto things that God speaks against in His Word.
09:31-09:47
But Paul says here that if we want to be true followers of Christ, who serve God with our entire lives, we must reject conforming to this world, and instead grow in our faith by being transformed by the renewal of our minds.
09:49-09:50
How do we renew our minds?
09:50-09:52
What are some ways that we can renew our minds?
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Does anybody have anything?
09:55-09:56
Reading your Bible, right.
09:56-09:57
Anything else?
09:59-09:59
Praying, right.
10:00-10:06
So yeah, being in prayer every single day, going to church, these are ways you can renew your mind.
10:06-10:13
But the greatest way to renew your mind is reading and meditating upon the Word of God.
10:14-11:07
put, you will not be a living sacrifice and serve God the way you are supposed to if you do not spend time reading your Bible and allowing your mind to be cleansed, to be renewed by the Word of God. Life transformation only happens when we spend time in God's Word. I've never met a Christian who grew, matured, and became an awesome servant of God without spending hours and hours and hours within the pages of this book. It's just not possible. There are no shortcuts. We don't realize how brainwashed we get with the beliefs of this culture through TV, movies, social media. We need these beliefs to be removed from our minds and replaced with the teachings and values that God speaks about in this book.
11:09-13:03
Every couple months my wife Kate tells me that I had to clear out all the things from my closet in my drawers I don't wear anymore. She tells me, "Listen, we're gonna take everything, we're gonna put it in a bag, we're gonna take it to Goodwill because I'm sick of seeing it." And against my will I go through all my stuff and I take out all the shirts that don't fit me anymore or they just aren't in style anymore or maybe I have a lot of deodorant stains on them. Guys, you know what I'm talking about. I'll find stuff I haven't worn since sixth grade in my closet and I'll put it all in a bag and you know Kate magically makes it disappear somehow. So usually after this type of cleansing, Kate takes me to the mall or to Target so I can buy new clothes right and I'm always I always resist her when she tells me to do all this stuff but once I do it I'm really happy that I did it right I'm really happy that I got these new clothes because they fit me better they look better and I just feel better in general but before I can buy these clothes I have to clear out all the junk in the old clothes which fill my closet. You know, in a much greater way, we need to renew or clean out our minds by getting rid of all the junk which fills our minds so we can then replace these useless and worldly things with the truths of God's Word. We have to clear out our minds to make room for what God says. Paul promises in this passage that when we daily attempt to cleanse our minds, renew our minds, we will then be able to discern the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. Let me ask you, is Paul saying here that if we spend time in God's Word, in prayer, and in church, then God will show us our futures for our lives like a Magic 8-Ball? He'll show us who to marry, he'll show us what career path to choose, he'll show you everything you need to decide. Is that what he's saying here? He'll show you his individual will for your lives.
13:04-13:05
No, that's not what he's saying.
13:05-13:14
He's saying that if we renew our minds, then we will know how to live a life that is honoring and pleasing to our God.
13:15-13:20
We'll be able to discern what kind of life God wants us to lead.
13:20-13:27
A life of sacrifice where we use all of our gifts, all of our talents and abilities to serve Him and His church.
13:30-13:36
So, if you truly want to be a living sacrifice to God, spend time in your Bibles this week.
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Make time this week to spend a significant amount of time in God's Word.
13:42-13:49
Maybe start the reading the Bible in a year plan, or take two or three books of the Bible that you'll study intensely throughout the summer.
13:49-13:51
Join one of the small groups here.
13:51-13:52
Join a Bible study.
13:53-13:58
Even if you are busy, I know most of us are busy, you have to make time for the Bible.
13:58-14:00
and you cannot afford to ignore it.
14:01-14:16
I want you all to discover your gifts and how God has called you to serve Him and His church, and this will not happen unless you remove the junk that fills your minds and replace it with the things of God.
14:17-14:21
We must renew our minds if we're going to serve God well.
14:23-14:24
So why should I serve?
14:24-14:26
First, because God has done so much for me.
14:27-14:29
Second, because God wants me to grow.
14:29-14:33
And finally, because God has gifted me.
14:34-14:35
God has gifted me.
14:36-14:43
So Paul opens this section by reminding us that we're called to sacrifice everything for Jesus in light of all that He has done for us.
14:43-14:47
He then moves forward by saying that we're called to live a life of service.
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And to do this, we must reject the ways of this world and accept the things of God through His Word.
14:53-15:08
And Paul closes out this section saying that God has not left us unequipped in our mission to serve Him, but that we have all been gifted with different abilities and talents that are to be used to glorify Christ and to help other people.
15:10-15:38
Paul writes, "I say to everyone among you to not 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 calls each and every one of us in this room today through this passage to use our renewed minds, to use our cleansed minds to realistically evaluate how God has gifted each and every one of us as individuals.
15:39-15:51
God has gifted each of us as His children with a different measure or proportion of spiritual gifts and abilities that must be used so we can fulfill our specific role in the body of Christ.
15:53-16:00
We must evaluate ourselves soberly or a more modern way to say it would be realistically discover what these gifts are.
16:01-16:10
But Paul says we must not think too highly of ourselves which means that we must not think we're gifted at everything and we don't need anybody else.
16:12-16:17
Some people in this room, you may be living a very prideful life and you don't even know it.
16:18-16:24
Some of you in this room this morning may be thinking to yourself, here to harvest don't appreciate me. They don't understand all that I do here.
16:25-17:07
You know, I don't know what would happen to this church if I left. This whole church would fall apart. I don't know what would happen if I left. I can tell you what would happen if you left. The church would go on without you, right? You know, Jeff and all the members here would miss you. They would feel your loss and it might be difficult for a while, but someone else would step up to take your place. It wouldn't be like if you left that Jeff would just throw his hands up in the air saying, "Well, we had a good run until so-and-so left. I guess I'm just gonna go look for a ministry job in the wanads." No, that's not gonna happen. Even though you're important, even though God has gifted you, you must realize that you have limitations and that you need other people. You're not gifted at everything.
17:08-17:47
Some people need to hear that. But some of you have the exact opposite problem, which I have. You think way too lowly of yourself and you don't think God has you at all. You falsely believe that you have nothing to offer the church and you aren't good at anything. You always have pity parties for yourself. I'm an expert at this. I do this all the time. You may think you're being humble, but you're actually being very prideful and very sinful, just like the people who think way too highly of themselves. Because by believing you're not good at anything, you're calling God two things. You're first calling God a liar, because God God promises us in his word that he has gifted each and every one of us.
17:48-17:58
So you're making him a liar when you say, "God hasn't gifted me." Second, you're calling God a bad creator because you're saying that God made a mistake with you.
17:58-17:58
And you know what?
17:59-18:01
God doesn't make mistakes.
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So according to Paul in this passage, it's not realistic to believe that God hasn't gifted you.
18:08-18:20
So if you can't realistically evaluate yourself because you have a bad view of yourself, you a bad self-image, please talk to Jeff, please talk to someone in your life who loves you and they can show you what spiritual gifts have been given to you.
18:21-18:25
Please don't walk out of here believing that God has left you giftless.
18:27-18:52
Paul goes on to say, "Whereas 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 of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. You know, Paul was saying that each and every one of us has a certain part in the body of Christ. We have a specific function.
18:53-20:08
You know, the body wouldn't be able to work very well if every single part had the same function, right? In the same way, the body of Christ will not be effective or accomplish the mission of God to spread the gospel if Christians do not realize their specific place, their specific role in the body of Christ. There are no useless body parts and every single part serves an important function. You know, our pinky toes seem very important when everything's going well, but I've met people who've broken their pinky toe and their whole life is just thrown into chaos, right? Who's ever broken their pinky toe? Anybody? Yeah, your whole life has just changed, right? When the smallest part of the body isn't doing its job, the whole body suffers. When any one of us in the body of Christ chooses to not do their part, the whole church suffers. The whole church suffers. You may be able to live and function without certain parts of your body, but you won't be able to function to the best of your ability. You know, it's not ideal to live life without legs, but it's possible and many people do it every single day. I guarantee you These people want nothing more than to have the use of their fully functioning legs back.
20:10-20:14
With our physical bodies, we want every part working as they were intended to.
20:14-21:08
In a much greater way, God wants the body of Christ. He wants every single part working as it was intended to work. As I said before, the church will be able to function without certain members of the body helping, but it will not function as well as it could have with every single part working as it's supposed to. For Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North to function to the best of its ability every single one of you in this room needs to be serving this church and using their spiritual gifts to help this church. Christianity is not a spectator sport. Get off the bench and into the game. You maybe help out by ushering or being part of the hospitality or assimilation team. Help with the group that tears down and sets up. If you're If you're musically gifted, talk to Darren, the worship leader, and he'd be happy to help you plug you into the band up here.
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Find a way to serve this church.
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Find a function in the body of Christ.
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Paul closes out this passage by laying out several spiritual gifts such as teaching, encouragement, generosity, leadership, and acts of mercy.
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Paul also talks about other spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, 7-10, in 27 through 30.
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Maybe you have the gift of encouragement.
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You have the ability to say the right things at the right time when people are really struggling.
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Maybe you have a servant's heart.
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You love to serve others in tangible ways.
21:44-21:46
You love to give them gifts when people are going through a hard time.
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You love to do acts of service for people who really need it.
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Maybe you have the gift of discernment and wisdom.
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You know when you're hearing false teaching.
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You know when you're hearing a lie.
21:56-21:59
And you can point to the truth in any specific situation.
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You're very wise, people come to you when they need an important life decision to be made because you can weigh out the consequences of certain decisions.
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Maybe you have the gift of teaching and you really enjoy using this gift to help other people understand God's Word better.
22:16-22:20
Whatever it is, we all at least have one spiritual gift.
22:21-22:26
I can absolutely guarantee you that not one single person has every single spiritual gift.
22:27-22:28
It's just not possible.
22:28-22:29
No one has all of them.
22:30-22:36
No one can go through this passage and say, acts of mercy, got it, teaching, got it, faith, got it, oh wow, I'm on a roll, I got it, I got it, I got it.
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It's just not possible.
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Which means, even the most gifted person in the body of Christ needs other people.
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So, I need you, and guess what, you need me.
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We all need each other if we're going to accomplish the mission that God has given us.
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So please, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.
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This will lead to you being very prideful, very arrogant, rude to other people, and you'll ultimately become very alone.
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Don't think too lowly of yourself and don't trick yourself into believing that God hasn't gifted you.
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Spend time within the passages that I have mentioned and evaluate yourself so you can discover your spiritual gifts.
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As you've all noticed, there is a section at the bottom of your outline that says, "God has gifted me with the ability/abilities to blank." And in this blank, I want you to write out the gift that God has entrusted to you.
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And please keep this outline with you throughout the next couple weeks.
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Guys, put it in your cars.
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Ladies, put it in your purse.
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Tape it up to your mirror at home so you can see it every single day and remember how you can serve the church. I don't want to see any blank outlines this morning. If I see you walking around with a blank outline, I'm going to grab you. I'm going to help you fill this out. If you need prayer in a certain area of your life, please come to the front during the last song. Our elders and members of our prayer team would love to pray over you. And if you're having a difficult time figuring out what your gift is, please talk to myself, talk to Jeff or one of the elders after the service. Jeff and the elders here would love nothing more than to come alongside you and help you figure out what your spiritual is. Please, as children of God, do not insult your father by believing that you have nothing to fill this blank with. God has given you something to fill in this blank with. God doesn't make mistakes. He doesn't make junk. He created you with a certain purpose and a certain gift to use to glorify Him and help other people. God has called all of us in this room to serve him, to serve the church and unbelievers around us. He has equipped us to fulfill this mission.
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God, I thank you so much for what you've done here in this room today. I pray that every single person in this room would recognize how you have gifted them, Lord.
25:10-25:15
I pray that no one would walk out of this church today believing that they have nothing to offer the body of Christ.
25:16-25:22
I pray that people in this room wouldn't think too highly of themselves and they also wouldn't think too lowly of themselves.
25:24-25:39
God, you've called us in your word to be a living sacrifice, to offer everything that we have for you because you've done so much for us, because you want us to grow, because you have gifted us.
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God help us to renew our minds this week by being in your word, being in prayer, being around other believers.
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God help us to remove the things from our minds that are worldly and help us to replace them with the things of God.
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God, we so desperately, desperately need you.
25:58-26:03
Help us to figure out how you've called us to serve the church so we can glorify you and help other people.
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We love you and we thank you for all that you do for us.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Romans 12:1-8
Do you see examples of conforming to the world in your own life? How can you fight against these things and work to renew your mind?
Which do you struggle with more: thinking too highly of yourself or thinking far too lowly of yourself? Why are both of these harmful and destructive?
What spiritual gifts has God given to you? How can you use those gifts to serve at Harvest and help others around you?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another and the development of each person's spiritual gifts.