 Welcome everyone to class. Thank you Zalutoli, Jeffina and Anita for joining class this morning. We are going to begin our study of Romans chapter 12. So we will, before we study each verse in detail, we'll read through Romans chapter 12 so that we can get an understanding of what we are going to study today and maybe on Friday as well. Okay, before we study Romans chapter 12, we'll just pause for a word of prayer. So can I ask Zalutoli to lead us in prayer please. Yes, Pastor, let's pray. Father God, we come before your presence in the name of Jesus. Father, as we begin our session for the book of Romans, I thank you for the life of Pastor Selena. I thank you for the grace, the wisdom to teach you this morning, Lord God, and Lord, you have prepared each one of our hearts to receive what you have instilled for us, Lord. Thank you Lord. We give you praise. We give you honor in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Zalutoli. So we'll read Romans chapter 12 that is totally 21 verses and there are four of you so each of you can read five verses each and maybe one of you can read six. So we'll get done with that. So can we begin? Somebody read verses one to five and then somebody else can continue from five to ten and so on. Romans chapter 12 verse one to five, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, your body is a living sacrifice for the acceptable to God, which is your reasonable sacrifice and will not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the remedial of your mind that you may prove what is that truth and acceptable and perfect rule of God. For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one, each one a major fate for us. We have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we bring many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Thank you, Zalutoli. So can somebody else read from verses six to verse 10 or to verse 11 please? Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let's prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry, let us do it in our ministering, he who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, pervading in spirit, serving the Lord. Thank you, John Paul. So can someone else read from verses 12 to 16 please? Romans chapter 12 verses fell to 16, constantly rejoicing in hope, steadfast and patient in distress, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of God's people, pursuing hospitality, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty inside the self-important exclusive, but associate with humble people, those with realistic self-view, do not overestimate yourself. Thank you, Jeffina. So can someone finish reading the rest of the verses from verses 17 to 21 please, anyone? Anita or Georgia Hamilton, would you like to read verses 17 to 21? I agree. Repay no one evil for evil, have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore your enemy, if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will keep calls of fire on his head, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Amen. Thank you, John Paul. So we just finished reading, for those of you who joined in, we were look studying, we're going to study Romans chapter 12. So we just read through the entire chapter of Romans chapter 12. Now, in Romans chapter 12, Paul is turning his attention back to the church, to the believers. So now he's connecting back from where he stopped in Romans chapter 8, till Romans chapter 8, through his letter, he was connecting with the believers. He was writing to the believers on how to live a Christian life, how to walk in the spirit, how to crucify the flesh, how to rejoice even in tribulation, knowing that nothing can separate them from the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we studied Romans chapter 9 to 11, where in Romans chapter 9 to 11, Paul goes off in like, like a little excursion, so to say. You know, when he's talking about the Israelites, what does God's plan for the Jews, for the Jewish race, the Jewish nation, the people of Israel, and then he comes back to where he stopped in Romans chapter 8, talking how to live the Christian life in chapter 12. So he says, you know, keeping in mind the goodness of God, and all that Paul has explained thus far, which, you know, is explained about justification from guilt and penalty of sin. He's talked about adoption in Jesus Christ and identification in Christ. He talks about how we are placed under grace and not under the law, how the Holy Spirit is given to us and the Holy Spirit lives within us, how the Holy Spirit works in us, enables us to the person in the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The promise of help in our affliction also talks about the assurance of our standing in God's election, the confidence of the coming glory, the hope that we have, the eternal hope that we have, the confidence that nothing can separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, the confidence of God's continued faithfulness in our lives. And he's saying in the light of all this that we have received, the light of all his mercies that we have received in the past, in the present, we will receive in the future. Paul is saying, or he's begging the believers and he's saying, here, this is what I want you to do. He's saying, I want you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Okay. So he says, you know, he's turning his attention to the believers, the brethren, the believers at Rome, and Paul is making, you know, this solemn request. He says, I beseech you therefore, therefore means, you know, whatever I've told you in chapters written or told you in chapters 9 to 11, in view of all that, you know, you've understood God's plan for the Jews, you've understood God's plan for the Gentiles, you've understood the severity of God, you've understood the goodness of God, that God is good, but he's also severe in his judgment, in his wrath, in his punishment. He's a God who's compassionate, but he's also a God of truth and justice. So in his dealing with these people, there is this coming together of his goodness and the severity of God. So he's saying, I want you to think of how God is working, how he has worked with the people of Israel, and when they rejected him, he gave them up to their own blindness, their own ways, and now he's extended his goodness to the Gentiles. So he's saying, here is what I want you to do, keeping in mind the goodness of God, the severity of God, what I want you to do is I want you to, you know, do with the heart of compassion with God's mercies, and he goes on to tell them what he wants them to do. He tells them in chapter 12 verse 1, I want you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And we know that in Romans chapter 8, Paul talks about the body. He says, you know, he says, keep the body under the power of the Holy Spirit. In verse 13, he says, put to end the sinful deeds in your body and you will live. And now he's continuing with the same thought. In Romans chapter 8, Paul mentions how Jesus broke the power of sin on the cross, and how the Holy Spirit is at work in us to overcome the flesh, and how we can walk in the Spirit and not yield to the dictates of the flesh. And so he's saying in the view of all this, you know, what should be our response? He says we need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. So when he says the word we need to present, he's saying we need to make a deliberate choice, okay, which means it is a willing, intentional and a deliberate choice. It's not something, a choice that just comes automatically once we are in the family of God, once we become heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ Jesus, once we are part of the kingdom of God, once we are born again. But he's saying you need to make a deliberate choice, which means he's saying that, you know, you need to make a willing, intentional, a deliberate choice, you know, willingly, deliberately make this choice to make your body or to make our body as a living sacrifice. Now why does he use the word sacrifice here is because Jews were very familiar with sacrifice, their whole life, you know, their whole culture was so blended together with sacrifice that they had to make day in and day out. So in the Old Testament, you know, they brought their sacrifice as part of their worship, as also part of sin offering as well, and also part of the festivals that they used to celebrate, but, you know, they brought it as part of their worship and they sacrificed animals or birds, grain, oil, whatever. And now Paul is saying, you know, you need to offer yourself. It's not bringing some animal grain or oil or bird, but it's saying you have to offer yourself. So the sacrifice you are to present is to be put on the altar. And the sacrifice now is not some animal or bird or grain. And he's saying, put your body there. He's saying, offer your body. And this is not a one time sacrifice. It's a living sacrifice. Okay. Which means that my body is alive. It's not dead. Okay. Which means that, you know, I need to make the sacrifice daily. And hence it's a living sacrifice because our body is alive. We are called to do what God has called us to do. But at the same time, we have to offer our bodies as a sacrifice on the altar. Okay. And hence it's a permanent sacrifice, which means you, you know, you keep doing it every time. And he says you need to present your bodies wholly and acceptable to God. So how do we offer our bodies? It's a living sacrifice by keeping our bodies wholly and acceptable and pleasing and honoring to God. So when we do this constantly, every day, you know, keep our body wholly set apart for God, it is something that is pleasing to God. And he's saying that this is your reasonable service, which means you think this is your thoughtful worship. This is your act of worship. Some translation says it is your intelligent form of worship or it's your rational logical worship. So let's think about it this way, you know, if I go and beat myself with whips and cut myself and, and all of that, it's not, and I say that it's an act of worship. Now, how is beating your body and cutting yourself up, you know, as an act of worship to God, it seems irrationally does not make any sense. But Paul is saying you keep your body wholly and acceptable to God. So when you do this, this is your thoughtful and intelligent worship to God. So how can we, can our bodies be this wholly acceptable, thoughtful, intelligent worship to God? How can we make this daily sacrifices every day? So maybe you're walking down, you know, shopping street or you're just walking down a busy street and you see this billboard sign with images that are, and graphics that are, you know, are not honoring, you know, poorly clad women or men and, you know, something that has a very sexual connotation. And instead of keeping your mind and eyes are gazing at it or giving it a second look, the moment you look at it and you just turn away and you don't want to have anything to do with it, you're actually at that moment, you have offered a thoughtful and intelligent worship to God. Okay. Now, we are constantly on the Internet. We're constantly on our phones. We have access to so much of Internet content. And, you know, things keep popping up on our screen. And there are things that are content or graphics that are not honoring to God, or, you know, we get magazines, we get even our newspapers talking about the ones that we get here in Bangalore, you know, the additional magazines has, you know, a lot of images and graphics which are not honoring. And I, whenever I look at those images, I always think I'm sure these men and women, you know, have, you know, pics taken of them when they are well dressed. Why do they always have to put, you know, this, put the images of them being poorly or very little dressed, not poorly, sorry, little dress, a little clothes on their bodies, you know, and so much of a sexual connotation. And sometimes it's so embarrassing to keep these newspapers as, as Christian believers in the, in our, you know, in our halls or in our, the first room where we entertain guests can be so embarrassing for us. But, you know, when, the moment we see things like this and, you know, we don't want to give it a second look or we just, you know, look away, whether we're watching a movie or watching a commercial and add and we see something that is this pleasing and this honoring to God, the moment we turn away, we have offered and thoughtful and intelligent worship to God. Okay. And the moment I've done that I've offered my body as a living sacrifice, I worship God right there and then. So even when it comes to our thought life, you know, which can be very secret then, you know, sometimes our thought lives can be so messed up, you know, thinking thoughts that are with, you know, lustful, evil thoughts, wicked thoughts, and we can choose whether to linger in those thoughts or whether, you know, to give up those thoughts in the moment we give up and we've, you know, we, we don't want to think those thoughts or we don't want to indulge in those lustful or wicked or evil thoughts. You know, we've offered ourselves as thoughtful and thoughtful and intelligent worship to God. We've offered our bodies as a living sacrifice, and we have worshiped God right there and then. So Paul is saying in the view of all that you have heard, brethren, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice was to he says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. And so he begins this verse two by saying and and means also. Okay. So not only present your bodies as a living sacrifice, only an acceptable and pleasing to God, but he's saying also do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind says, do not be conformed to this world. That means not be conformed to the don't pattern your thinking, don't pattern your lifestyle, your behavior to the ways of the world, but be transformed. Now the word transformed here is a word metamorph for in Greek, where we get the English word metamorphosis, which we all know is the metamorphosis is which is the the the the animal that comes to our mind when we think about metamorphosis caterpillar to the butterfly. Okay. So, you know, there is such a change from a caterpillar that is a worm that is just, you know, crawling on the on the ground to something that is so beautiful that is flying in the air with such vibrant colors and and just so beautiful it looks. So, you know, so he's saying so undergo such a beautiful supernatural change in the way you think live and behave. So Paul is telling us, you know, by the way that we think behave and live, we need to go through undergo through such a beautiful and supernatural change. So he tells us how this transformation is possible. How is this transformation possible? He says by the renewing of our mind. Okay. We know that when a caterpillar is undergoing metamorphosis, the first thing the caterpillar does is it eats. It eats and it eats and it consumes a lot of green leaves. And you know, when as it's eating, it expands. Now, why does it eat so much because it's preparing for a change that is going to take place and then it soon disappears into that cocoon and inside it all the changes are taking place and then comes out a metamorphosized butterfly. Okay. I like to just compare this eating stage, this consuming stage, you know, to you and me consuming the word of God, because it says here, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, we know that the mind has to do with our mental faculties, the way we think, the way we reason. Now, the best way to explain a renewed mind is in Isaiah chapter 55 verses seven to nine. Okay. I like to read that for us. It says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let them return to the Lord and he will have mercy on them and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. God says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth, it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the things for which I sent it. In verse seven of Isaiah chapter 55, you know, God is speaking to the wicked, to the men of this world, the women of this world. He says, I want you to forsake your ways and your thoughts, just let go of them and turn away from your ways and thoughts. And he says, you know, let him come to God and God says, I will pardon you and I will receive you again. Verses eight and nine, he says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. And verse 10 says, as high as the heavens and above the earth, so high God's thoughts and his ways to the thoughts and ways of the wicked, such a huge difference. So here the implication is that, you know, God is saying, I'm going to help you to take on my ways and my thoughts and this is going to happen. When you take on to my ways and my thoughts, verse 11 he says, by the word of God, the word of God is going to help us to take on the thoughts and the ways of God. So what is renewing of the mind? It's the process here that we read in Isaiah chapter 55 verses seven to nine. It is giving up my ways, my thoughts, and taking on God's ways and the thoughts of God. And as I take on God's thoughts and God's ways, you know, it's going to lead me into a transformation. I'm undergoing a transformation. I'm no longer going to take on to the ways of the world like the wicked, but I'm going to begin to take on or to walk on the higher levels, the higher ways and the thoughts of God. And this can happen only by renewing of my mind, which means we train to leave the ways and thoughts we were used to, you know, our old ways and thoughts are all sinful ways and thoughts. And we take on the ways and thoughts of God. And how do we take on the ways and thoughts of God is how do we know what are the ways and thoughts of God is basically his word is word that tells us shows us his ways, his nature, his attributes, and what are his thoughts. So right here in this chapter 12 are, you know, some of the ways and thoughts of God of God that is given to us, you know, he talks about forgiving, he talks about showing love, we look at that in a little bit. But you know, like the caterpillar, which eats and keeps on eating leaves, we also need to keep on eating and eating and consuming the word of God. Okay, the more we meditate on God's word, you know, what it does is it renews our minds, our minds automatically begin to take on or think the ways and thoughts of God, our minds begin to think new and different ways just like God would think and God would do and we would begin to align our thoughts and ways to thoughts and ways of God. And this process is, you know, is the process of renewing our mind. And a renewed mind actually results in our transformed life, you know, because we are able to think and behave differently, we're able to think and behave Christ-like, because we're taking on his ways, we're taking on his thoughts and basically we will behave like Christ. We will portray the divine nature, we will manifest the divine nature that is in us. So, like I said, you know, here in chapter 12 itself, you know, Paul suggests ways and thoughts that God has given to us about forgiving others and showing love. And he mentions in the very last verse of this chapter, he says, do not overcome, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Okay. Now the way of the world is what? If you do me evil, I will do twice as much to you. You know, I will do twice as much as what you have done to me. Okay. And why is there so much of evil in this world? Because everyone is repaying others twice as much evil that they have received and it keeps multiplying. Right. But God says, do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. And he says, if your enemy is hungry, what should you do? Feed them. Okay. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. Okay. This is not a natural response. Right. You know, we would want nothing to do with our enemy. But when we renew our mind, when we are chewing on God's word, we take on God's ways and thoughts, you know, we are transformed in a way of our living, in our thinking, we don't overcome evil with evil, but we overcome evil with good. Okay. So Paul mentions the renewing of your mind is not only one that brings transformation, but also does something else. What does it do? We're able to prove what is the good, acceptable, and the perfect will of God. Now, we studied quite a detail about this in, you studied quite a detail about this in, in the first year when I taught you about ministers, the foundation, you know, the the course ministers foundation, we studied quite a bit of this in the, in the publication receiving God's guidance. Right. So, you know, when we renew our mind, we can prove and test and determine, you know, through testing what is God's good, acceptable, and pleasing will like in the lab when they test samples, they come to the conclusion. Right. So also when our mind is renewed, we can test, we can prove, we will know what is a good, acceptable, and the perfect will of God. So he's saying that renewing of your mind is not, is not only one that brings transformation, but also will help us to determine what is the will of God in each and every situation and circumstance that we face in life. Okay. So can we know the will of God for our lives in various situations? Yes. The word of God says, and he uses three adjectives here. What does he say about the will of God? It is good, acceptable, and pleasing and perfect. Now, people say that there are three levels or three categories of God's will. And that is not right. Paul is not you giving us the categories of God's will. He's just using three adjectives here. So a renewed mind to the very thoughts are able to say which is good, acceptable, and the perfect will of God. Now as a cross-reference, you know, let us look at Ephesians chapter five verse 17. Okay. Can you please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter five verse 17. Can somebody read that please? Ephesians five 17. Can somebody read Ephesians five 17? Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Amen. Thank you, John Paul. So says do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Okay. Now connecting this to Romans chapter 12 proves the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Now the struggle with connecting Ephesians five 17 to Romans chapter 12, what we're studying now here about God's will being good, pleasing, and acceptable, which is Romans chapter 12 verse two. Okay. So connecting these two things together, no struggle with believers is, you know, many believers struggle whether they should use their minds. Okay. They think whether I should use my mind or I shouldn't use my mind. Some don't want to reason, understand, and think. They think using their mind or thinking in itself is bad. They just want to be led by the spirit. Okay. And they mess up in hearing the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. And most often, you know, they're not led by the spirit or the inner witness Holy Spirit. Most often they're led by their own emotions or their presumptions or their own imaginations. And they think it's the Holy Spirit leading them through the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. On the other side, there are people who, you know, one have one nothing to do with the inner leading of the Holy Spirit. They just want to go purely by reasoning, logic, thinking, you know, they want to just go by that. And they don't depend on the inner leading of the spirit. Okay. But as believers, we need to learn to blend both. It says here in Ephesians 5, 17, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Okay. We need to be intelligent people. We need to use our mind, a renewed mind, which is a mind thinking according to ways and thoughts of God. At the same time, we need to also be led by the spirit. So we need to be sensitive to the voice of the spirit that comes to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, the inner promptings, the stirring within the inner voice, the audible voice. We learned all about this in Ministers Foundation in the first year. Okay. But oftentimes, you know, the renewed mind and what the Holy Spirit are saying are in agreement. Okay. I repeat that again. Oftentimes, what the renewed mind is saying and what the Holy Spirit are saying is in agreement, because a renewed mind has already been trained or is aligned to think in the ways and thoughts of God. So with your renewed mind, you are able to know the good, pleasing and acceptable and the perfect will of God. And the Holy Spirit is also giving you the witness, the inner witness, to the good, pleasing and acceptable will of God. And so we need to walk with the two. Okay. We need to walk with the renewed mind and also with the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. So what the, the Holy Spirit is telling us and what the renewed mind is also telling us, you know, when both are going together, there is a great confirmation that you're using your renewed mind, which is able to understand what the will of the Lord is. And you have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. That is what the Holy Spirit is saying. Yes, this is the right thing. Go ahead with it. Do it. Or this is the best for you. So it's not wrong to use our mind. God gave us our mind, our mental faculties. He wants us to use it. And it's important that we don't have a carnal mind, because a carnal mind is enmity with God. A carnal mind goes against the standards and the will of God, but it's important to have a renewed mind. So when we need to come to that place where we are thinking with the renewed mind and also listening to what the Spirit is saying in our hearts, and when these two are in agreement with each other, this perfect unity and harmony, and it's like a train, you know, running on two rail tracks, no, two rails of the railway track. And when it runs on the two rails of the railway track, the train is going very, very smoothly. Okay. So that is was two for us, was three. He says, for I say, to the grace given to me, to everyone who's among you, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one, a measure of faith. So saying, through the grace that is given to me, Paul knew the grace of God that was given to him. He knew he had the grace to be a leader, an apostle, a minister to the Gentiles. And hence he could tell the church that through the grace that was given to him, you know, I am telling you what to do or I'm beseeching you. So also, you know, you and I know the grace that has been given to us, know the grace that has been empowered upon us, so we can operate in the grace and we can operate out of this confidence of the grace that we have as an empowering over our lives. And he says, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly. So he's saying, be level headed in what you think about yourself. Now, we can apply this for those of us who are in ministry, you know, when our ministry grows and people enjoy, you know, either about study groups or our worship or the church that we have begun or our sermons. We tend to think that everything is happening because of me. Okay, everything is happening because of me. You know, we think I am very gifted by God, I'm highly anointed, I'm anointed of God, you know, and we begin to think like this, you know, your whole view of yourself or the whole view of myself gets very inflated. And we are no longer thinking soberly about ourselves. So he says, you start thinking based on, you know, an unreal estimation of yourself. So he says the first step, and he says, this is the first step towards your downfall or your failure. So Paul is telling us that at all times we think soberly, be level headed, you know, keep your feet on the ground. Okay, and he says, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith, so he says, God has given to all of us a measure of faith, you know, we all started out with a measure of faith that God has given to us, we keep growing in this faith that God has given to us, but we need to think aligned to that, we need to keep thinking aligned to our faith, we need to stay level headed, don't get inflated about how you think about yourself. Okay, we'll move on to verses four to eight. Before that, anyone has any questions? Any questions versus one, two, three? Okay. Then no questions. We'll move on to verses four to eight, verses four to eight, Paul is talking about the functioning of the body. And all of these verses in verse four to eight are very familiar to us. So verses four to eight, he says, for us, we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Can someone else read verses six to eight, please? Anyone likes to read six to eight? Romans chapter 12 verses six to eight. Having then gives deferring according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy, if proportion to our faith or ministry, let us use it in our ministry. He who teaches in teaching, he who exalts in exhortation, he who gives with liberty, with liberality, he who leads with religions, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Amen. Thank you, Jeffina. So here we read that, you know, just like we in our human body, we have different parts. Okay. And each part in our body have different functions, but all of them have to work together for the perfect wholesome functioning in our body. So also we are one body in Christ. We're all individual members in this body. You know, we all have different functions. Each of us have different gifts according to the grace that is given to us. Okay. So here if you look, you know, like to highlight these words, function or functions, gifts and grace. So in the body of Christ, all of us have different function or functions, gifts and grace. Okay. Now function is what we do or how we serve in the body of Christ. The capabilities are the talents that God has given to us. And the grace is the empowering upon our lives to exercise the gifts and to fulfill the function. So God has given each one of us a function and the gifts and grace to fulfill that specific function or functions that he has given to us. We can develop the gifts and grow in the grace, which means how we function can get better and better even as we continue to develop the gifts and grow in the grace. And we know that the word of God says that, you know, more grace is available to us. James chapter four verse six says he gives more grace, you know, and he says, therefore he says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. But the first part of this James chapter four verse six, he says, six says he gives more grace. Okay. So the gifts can develop as I give develop, it gets us better and better and more sharper and helps us to, you know, improve in the function that God has called us to. Okay. And then in verse seven, he mentions the functions. He mentions prophecy. Again, he talks about serving ministry, which is serving, talking about teaching, exhortation, which means, you know, you have a function of encouraging people, giving, leading, showing mercy, you know, so what he is actually listing here in Romans chapter 12, verses six to eight is the membership gifts. Now, this membership gifts are different from, sorry, the membership gifts is different from the gifts of the spirit, and is also different from the ministry office gifts of the spiritual gifts. And we need to know that these are all just manmade titles and it is not God given title. So what he's listing out here for us is basically membership gifts. Okay. So we all, when we are baptized the Holy Spirit, we all receive the gifts of the spirit. Okay. Membership gives are basically like the functions each one of us have in the body of Christ. And then we have the spiritual gifts of the ministry gifts, which the, where Jesus Christ himself gives specifically to each one of us, like some of us are called the office of being a prophet or a pastor or an evangelist or a teacher, you know, the five-fold office gifts that we have. And that is specifically given by Jesus Christ specifically to people. So he's saying having then gifts. So the difference and the distribution of gifts is all due to grace that has been given to us. Okay. Now the spiritual gifts of the ministry gifts is not given on the basis of merit because God chooses who to give them to. Okay. So in the ministry gifts, the spiritual gifts are given according to the discretion of the Holy Spirit. We read this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 11 it says, but one and the same spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually as he wills. Okay. But Paul says, whatever is your function in the body of Christ use them. This means that, you know, either the capabilities God has put in us to fulfill our function. Each one of us has been given different membership gifts. And these membership gifts are all related to the function we have in the body. And there's grace of God that is empowering us to exercise this gift to fulfill the function. Okay. This is called membership gifts because you are a member or a part of the body of Christ. And God has given you certain gifts to help you to fulfill certain functions. Okay. And we must encourage believers to discover their gifts to carry out their functions. Okay. The more the laborers who are actively engaged in fulfilling their function in the body of Christ or to the body and for the body, the more healthy and strong the body of Christ is going to be. Okay. So hence in our local church, you know, we need to let every believer know that they have been given one or more function or functions or gifts. And every believer has been given the grace from God to serve in that function. So in chapter 12, Paul begins by saying, you know, present your bodies, then renew your mind and he's saying, serve in the body of Christ. So verse nine, following the focus is more on our relationship with others in the body of Christ. And what we do in our relationship with others, especially in the body of Christ, and also with others who are outside the body of Christ. Okay. So that is Romans chapter one versus one to eight. We will stop here because we just have one minute more. Anyone has any questions? We'll continue with Romans chapter 12 on Friday. Any questions? Romans chapter 12 versus one to eight. Okay. If there are no questions, we will stop here. Okay. We'll continue with Romans chapter 12 verse nine onwards. On Friday. Thank you everyone for joining class. Have a blessed day and a blessed week and I will see you on Friday. Thank you.