Goodbye To Individualism - Goodbye (Week 1)

👋 Goodbye Individualism!

This week, we begin a brand-new series called Goodbye! 

We say goodbye to living life for ourselves and hello to a life centered on Christ, connected to His people, and committed to serving His body. Watch as Pastor Andrew Strand takes us through this week’s message, Goodbye To Individualism, as we kick off this new series!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning, man. It's good to be here with you today. We are uh kicking off a new series today, and we are gonna be in the book of Romans today, and also over the next few weeks. And so if you have your Bible, uh, we're gonna be in Romans chapter 12. I want to welcome those of you who are joining us online today. And in this series, we are going to be exploring uh how the Apostle Paul gives us a vision for a new type of community, and he gives us a formula uh today for what that new kind of community uh will look like. And uh in this series, we are going to explore this idea of saying goodbye to a few things in our life that are not real good for us. The first thing that we're gonna explore today is saying goodbye to individualism. Next week uh we'll dive into the idea of saying goodbye to comparison, and finally, we'll wrap up this series uh by saying goodbye to vengeance. And you know, I was thinking this week about um the incredible country that we live in. I I would not choose to live anywhere else in the entire world than in the good old US of A. We just celebrated 250 years of America. Some of you spent uh three or four months mortgage payments to celebrate that. My dog, thank you for that, by the way. Uh, but you know, there are so many amazing things about this country, so much opportunity, uh, so much prosperity, so much blessing. And as I mentioned, I would not want to live anywhere else. Uh, but the shadow side of what America has and can produce in people uh is a toxic discontentedness. Come on, West Texans, right? It's easy to feel that way. It's also uh something that uh America, I think, has produced over the years is a thirst for vengeance when we feel that we have been wronged or attacked, and certainly uh it has produced a me first mentality. We live in a culture and a time uh where there is a fostering of the celebration of self, and we've reached, I think, a fever pitch of an unhealthy fixation of self. And you know what I'm talking about. This is built into our everyday vernacular. Uh, here in West Texas, we see lots of self-made millionaires, we see uh maybe an extra focus on self-care. Come on, somebody, treat yourself. We see uh a rise of self-awareness and self-expression. There are uh self-help books uh and self-help sections in our bookstores, and of course, my very favorite, the selfie. But there is a an unhealthy focus on self at times. And I have to just wonder if this is the view for human flourishing that Jesus had. In fact, I I don't think it is, it's certainly not the way that he lived his life, because of course the way of Jesus is to deny, say it with me, yourself, and to take up your cross and to follow him, to consider others better than who? Yourself. Yeah. To love your neighbor as yourself. And so uh I think of this week as I was studying this out, I thought about um the pastor Joseph Hellerman in his book When the Church Was a Family, he describes it this way. He says, uh, we in America have been socialized to believe that our own dreams, goals, and personal fulfillment ought to take precedence over the well-being of the group, our church or our family, for example, to which we belong. The immediate needs of the individual are more important than the long-term health of the group. This is interesting. This is what uh social scientists have coined the term radical individualism. And today uh we're gonna explore Romans chapter 12, specifically verses 3 through 8, uh, that are gonna help us understand how do we combat this kind of mentality? How do we live in this kind of new community that the Apostle Paul lays out? And then he gives us a formula for how in the world we are going to say goodbye to individualism and say hello to community. And so here's the formula that he lays out for us through Romans chapter 12, verses 3 through 8. He says, first of all, we must think clearly and rightly about ourselves as members of God's kingdom. Number two, he says we must be united to spiritual community, and then finally, uh, he says that we must be aware of and be using our spiritual gifts. So would you please stand with me in the honor of the reading of God's word? We're gonna be in Romans chapter 12, starting in verse 1. It says this it says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and then you will be able to test and approve what is God's what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. 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. 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 of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, I want you to read this with me. Let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service and serving, to the one who teaches in his teaching, 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. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. You know, some of you uh may be familiar with the story of St. Anthony the Great. Uh, he was born in 251 A.D., and uh he had grown up in a Christian household, if you will. He had grown up with uh parents who valued faith, taught him uh the scriptures from a young age. Uh and when he was 20 years old, uh in 271, uh his parents had passed away, and so he vowed to move out to the Egyptian desert uh and live an ascetic life and devoted himself to prayer. Uh but word got out about St. Anthony, uh, and after uh a number of years, people began to show up. He was living in this ancient Roman fort, and people began to show up uh and would not leave him alone. And here he was uh trying to live this devoted life to God. He was trying uh to devote his life to prayer, and people kept showing up and they wouldn't leave him alone, kind of like some of you. You have a three or a four or a five-year-old who wherever you go, there they are. You go to the bathroom, somehow they jimmy open the bathroom block. You don't even know how they do it, right? But this is what St. Anthony's experience was. And uh after a number of years, uh he felt the conviction and began to understand that this life that he had been leading, he became known as the father of monks, he became known as one of the earliest desert fathers, but eventually these people kept showing up and were living in caves around this fort that he uh had established himself in. And when he came out uh to this community, it ended up becoming one of the greatest Christian communities uh in all of history. You see, ultimately, Anthony realized that we were not meant to live this life alone, and that we need community, and that we need people, that he had spiritual gifts that he could impart to other people, and that he couldn't do that in a aesthetic lifestyle. The apostle Paul, just uh 200 years before the life of Anthony, uh, he was writing to a group of people, the early Roman church, and so he writes this letter uh that is an incredible theological work. In fact, the first two-thirds of the letter of Romans is uh mostly theology. But as he flips to the last third of the letter, it's sort of more orthoproxy. It's more how do we actually live this life out? And he is writing to a group of people, both Jews and Gentiles, uh, who are having some TMZ level drama. I mean, these people are having all kinds of relational issues, and so he writes this vision for a new kind of community, and he gives them this beautiful formula after uh after we see Romans 12, 1 and 2, where he describes because of the mercy and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, because his blood covers our sins and he makes us right with the Father, he has reconciled us. This is good news, isn't it? He's redeemed us, he's renewed our relationship with the Father. And so because of this, we are called to live our lives as an offering. Everybody say offering. We're called to live our lives as an offering to him. In fact, this is the best kind of worship that you can give him: a life devoted to him and to others around you. We are called to be careful to not conform to the pattern of this world, but instead, our mind is to be transformed through the grace of Jesus. And through this, through this, God lays out his plan for us. We'll return to Romans 12, 1 and 2 all throughout this series. But today, as we explore uh how to say goodbye to individualism, I think verses 3 through 8 really give us this incredible formula. Here's what verse 3 says, just to recap it. We read it a minute ago. It says, 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. You see, the first thing that we see for uh this formula for a new community is that we have to think clearly. We have to think rightly of ourselves or as members of God's kingdom. Here was the problem, and I think this is the problem in the early Roman church, but all it's also the problem here in West Texas in the 21st century is that many of us, and I see this all the time, I meet with a various number of people in the role that I get to uh serve in here at mid-cities, is that there's kind of two groups of people, and this doesn't, of course, uh capture everybody, but there is uh two groups of people that often are in the church. There are those who are prideful and arrogant and overconfident people, but then there's also a second group of people, people who are insecure and apprehensive or lacking in confidence. And Paul addresses both kinds of groups of people here. He says, both of these kinds of groups of people produce individualism, it produces an individual mindset. Those who think, I got this, I don't need anybody else, I can carry all this on my own. And Paul says, don't be that way, don't think too highly of yourself. It causes a fracture in the community. But there's also some of us in here who fall into this second group of people, those who are insecure, those who are apprehensive, those who maybe because you grew up in a family of origin who spoke a lot of things over you, you began to believe those things. You thought, I don't have anything to contribute. I I can't contribute to uh the community of faith because I I have nothing to offer. And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. He says you need, in verse 3, he says you have to have sober judgment. Now I know what y'all are thinking when you hear the word sober, you're thinking of the opposite of that. You're thinking of uh what it means to be drunk, what it means to be inebriated, and of course, uh to think soberly, really it is uh the opposite of being inebriated. It means to think clearly, it means to understand who you are as a son or daughter of the most high God. Somebody say amen today. Because a son, as a son or a daughter of the most high God, let me tell you, you have amazing things to offer this church. You see, the lie is that I am not good enough, that I don't have anything to offer. The lie is that I'm all alone or that I'm a loser. And some of us have believed this kind of lie, and it has uh kept us as an individual, it has kept us away from community, it has siloed us off. But let me tell you the truth today. You ready for the truth? I said, Are you ready for the truth? Yeah, the truth is that you are highly valued by your heavenly daddy. He created you with a purpose, he created you with gifts, and he loves you more than you will ever know today. In fact, some of you haven't been in church for a while, and you need to hear that today. I can just sense that. Your heavenly father, he values you, he knows all the stuff that you've walked through, but he's got incredible gifts that he has given you, and it has uh walking in this individualism uh for far too long has siloed you off. But today is the day that ends. Somebody say amen today. We have to think rightly and we have to think soberly. But to do this, we have to daily be renewed in our mind. This is where we go back uh to verse two, where we say where he says that we have to uh not conform to the pattern of this world. This is what the world does around us, but no, when we are in the word daily, when we are sitting at the feet of Jesus daily, when we are letting him speak affirmations over us, guess what happens? We know who we are in the kingdom of God. We got a little swagger to us, don't we? Yeah. And so today I want to just challenge some of you. Maybe some of you uh have found yourself walking in pride. And you you can acknowledge that. You can think back on a time that you led your business in pride. Maybe you can think back on a time that you led uh your family and you went, man, I I was a little bit prideful in that area. If that's you today, man, just simply repent and say, God, I don't want to live that way anymore. But some of us have walked in this uh the this kind of underdog mentality for far too long. I remember the first time Jim LaFoon prophesied over me, it was almost 20 years ago. And I remember him talking about some of these things. I remember feeling myself getting a little bit more confident. I remember uh feeling myself going, oh no, he has given me gifts, he does have a purpose for me. And I remember getting into that community and beginning to exercise some of those things. And today, some of you are going to begin to walk in some of the things that God has always had in your life, but you just have a walk down them. Somebody say amen today. See, the second part of the formula that we see, we see this in uh this is in uh verse 3b. It says, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Maybe some of your translations put it this way the faith that God has distributed to each of you. And this is not so much like an amount that he's talking about here. In fact, the word that is used is the word metrion. It means where or it's where we get our word meter, and it's this idea that the measure, I love the way that the great Tim Keller puts it. He says this, he says, the measure by which we evaluate ourselves is the gospel we believe. That's where we put our hope, that's where we put our faith. He goes on to describe it a little better. I think he says, all of you have been given your saving faith in Christ crucified, and that is how you are able to measure yourself. Because in the gospel, when we are in Christ, we are all the same. No matter what your background is, or your abilities, or your lack of talent in one area, or your ability in another area. God loves us all equally in Christ. The lie is that we are individuals, but the truth to combat that is that we must be united to spiritual community. We must be united to spiritual community because I love the way that N. T. Wright, the great New Testament scholar, he describes it this way: he says, Grace is not meant for a stagnant lake, but to flow out to others. The things that you have are not just for you, they're for your family, they're for your uh your small group that you are involved in. It is not just to stay stagnant, it's not just to be a lake. No, it's meant to be a river that flows out to other people. You know, uh in college I worked as a backpacking guide for a couple of summers up uh in Colorado. And um, man, it was so fun getting to see all of this beautiful creation. We would often take uh college kids out or high school kids and junior high kids out into the backcountry. And often what we would see, what would happen over the course of the weeks that we would take these kids out is they would come in uh and it would be a group of kids who kind of knew each other. They they might, you know, have spent a little bit of time together, but it was fascinating to watch over the course of the week how relational walls would break down. And here's what we would often see is that kids would come in and they would be thinking with an individual mindset. They would only be worried about what they wanted to do, they would only be worried about uh what was happening to them. But after uh all of the nature that we would see and the physical strain of carrying everything that you needed for the week, after uh working as a team for a few days together, often what would happen is we would see kids that would come in as enemies would eventually become really good friends. Kids that would come in only thinking about what they wanted to do would eventually begin to think about the needs of the group, and they would go home with real community. They would go home with real relationships that would lead to real life transformation. You see, we have to be united to spiritual community. Some of you are connected uh to some community, but it's not spiritual community. Some of you are connected uh to some people that actually aren't even good for you. But the apostle Paul he says we need to be connected to spiritual community. Look at this in verse 5. He says, So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to who? All the others. We don't belong just to ourselves. There actually, there are many of us, but we all are a part of one body. Now, some of you have been to a concert out here. Who in here has been out to a concert uh at the Wagner Noel? Anybody ever been to a concert that we're sure. Well, uh I think about how uh there are different concerts that come there. I think about how uh maybe an orchestra, maybe some of you have seen an orchestra, and there's all of these amazing instruments. There are woodwinds and there uh are strings and there are horns and there are percussion, and they all are playing some sort of individual note, individual music, but when they come together and they begin to put this beautiful music together, the conductor is there leading them, and you hear all of the harmony, and you know that it only works together if they're playing the right notes. I think about how Paul uses this image here of the body that we all need each other. And some of us, maybe we think of ourselves, ah, I'm just a I'm just a finger. I'm just an elbow in the body, I'm just the big toe. But let me just tell you, every single one of us plays an important part in the body of Christ. We're all connected. There is not a single person that is here today that is siloed off. I love the way that he describes the Apostle Paul describes this in Ephesians chapter 2. He says, For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You see, you all have a purpose. You all play a part in the body of Christ. And let me tell you, you were designed by an intelligent designer. He gave you a temperament, he gave you abilities, he gave you a personality, and the reason for that is so you can say goodbye to individualism, and you can say hello to community. The third and final uh part of this formula that he lays out here for this new kind of community is that we are aware of and using our spiritual gifts. Now, some of you are brand new uh to church and you're like, I don't know what you're talking about. We see in other parts of the scripture in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul lays out this idea that every single believer is given various spiritual gifts. That there are some of us that have uh one gift, they don't have another gift. I think that Jesus probably had all of the gifts, right? And Paul says this he says, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, and then what does he say? Let us sit on them. Let us never exercise them. No. He says, Let us use these gifts, because your spiritual gifts have a purpose in the body of Christ. But here's what I often find uh in a church, especially the size of big cities, there's kind of three categories of people. There's some of us who just simply don't know our spiritual gifts, and so we're not really using them because we are not aware of them. We don't know that we have the gift of exhortation, and so we don't ever use it. Some of us don't even know that we have the gift of mercy, so we're not going to visit people in the hospital because we don't even know we have that gift. Some of us uh we've always had uh like a tendency to be generous, but we don't actually realize that that's a gift of generosity. Some of us in here uh have never used our gift of teaching, or maybe we've accidentally used it, but we don't really realize that it's a spiritual gift. That's the first group of people. The second group, can I just pick on a few people in here today? Is that okay? Is those of us who are just sitting on our spiritual gift. We know, we know what our spiritual gift is, but we've kind of retired from using our spiritual gift. We're like, nah, I know I'm a great teacher of four-year-olds, but I did that a long time ago. I I know that I have a gift of generosity, but this in this season of my life, I'm not gonna use that gift. If that's you today, it's time to get back in the game. It's time to start exercising uh those spiritual gifts. See, some of us are in that third category and we're operating in those and we're thriving because this is one of the ways that God uses us in the kingdom of God. We have to be aware of and be using our spiritual gifts. And so if if that's you today, if you find yourself in one of those first two categories, let me just encourage you. Uh, if you don't know your spiritual gifts, come to next steps. Come to next steps. That is one of the best ways. Come to 101, 201. We'll teach you about your spiritual gifts, we'll help engage you in a spiritual community, get into a group. One of the best ways to do that is just by grabbing this little card in the back of the chair and just saying, Hey, I want to be a part of a group. You can drop it in the little receptacle on the way back. It will help you get connected to a spiritual community, and then on top of that, you can exercise those spiritual gifts. So here's what Paul lays out. He lays out this idea of spiritual gifts, and here's what uh I think he kind of breaks it down here into a few different categories: speaking gifts, prophecy, teaching, exhorting, knowledge. He goes on. Here there's another group, leading gifts, it's government, administration, wisdom. And then finally, we see serving gifts, giving, mercy, hospitality, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. Listen to me. He says, let us use them. In this new vision for a spiritual community, this formula that he lays out here, it is for the church. It is for God's kingdom to flow through you. And so if you have the gift of mercy or if you have the gift of uh of prophecy, uh, I want to encourage you to step out and begin to use those, to exercise those in a spiritual community. And so to say goodbye, just to recap today, to say goodbye to individualism, we see that this uh this formula that he lays out is that first of all, uh we must think clearly and rightly about ourselves as members of God's kingdom. Number two here is that we must be a part uh and be united to spiritual community. And then number three here is that we must be aware of in using our spiritual gifts. You know, as we come to uh a close today, I want to go back to uh Joseph Hellerman. Uh, and I think he displays this idea that is so helpful for us. Here's what he says when speaking about the early church. He said, people did not convert to Christianity solely because of that the early Christians believed, uh, but they converted because of the way in which the early Christians behaved. It was their life, it was the way they um gave to each other and walked in spiritual community, the way that they used their spiritual gifts, the way that they encouraged each other and exhorted each other. I think it was uh the way that they had heard about, and some of them maybe had even seen Jesus live in this way. Because we serve a relational God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We we serve uh Jesus Christ who uh had modeled, effective community. And so today I want to just end with three questions that I hope will challenge us. The first one is this am I too high or too low on myself as a follower of Christ? Second one is um, am I really connected to community or am I siloed off from real community? Or number three, uh is do I know my spiritual gifts and am I using them? So as we prepare to uh dismiss today, I want to ask you to stand with me. If you find yourself um answering any of those questions in your mind saying, man, I really need to get connected. I really need to reach out to somebody today. I need to maybe send a text or a phone call. I need to uh fill out this communication card so I can get connected to a group here at Mid-Cities. We'd love to help you. Say goodbye to individualism and hello to community. Let's pray. God, I thank you today for uh your goodness and your mercy. God, thank you that you are a God of relationship. God, that you have given us this um incredible opportunity in a church like this to be connected to other believers, to use the spiritual gifts that you have given us. And so, God, for those of us who have been sitting on it for a while and not using it, Lord, I pray that uh you would help us to find a place to exercise those gifts. God, we thank you today for your incredible love and your incredible mercy. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.