The Puzzle Has a Designer

After you've been to church, how do you typically evaluate what you experienced? Our thinking has to radically change for us to get to the place where we say I'm going to church and it was good because I was able to encourage someone. It was good because I was able to say hello to a number of new people. It was good because I learned something about God. It was good because with my brothers and sisters, I was able to raise my voice in praise to my Savior. Church was good today. What's your attitude when you think about the church, the body of Christ? Do you know your role and where you fit or is the church a place where you just go to have your needs met? Today we're beginning a series called Divine Design. God has a plan for the church and guess what? You fit and have a place in that plan. This series is both encouraging and challenging. It's about finding your fit in the body of Christ.

This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Stephen called today's lesson. The puzzle has a designer. It was in 1760 that a man named John Spillsbury created the very first jigsaw puzzle. He was a London engraver and map maker and he came up with the idea of mounting a map onto a piece of hardwood, then using a fine jigsaw blade. He cut around the borders of each country creating many different pieces and the very first jigsaw puzzle. In the mid-1800s, jigsaw puzzles had become wildly popular, helped along with the advent of photography. Advances in printing methods also allowed the prices to come down and production to go up. Today I have read tens of thousands of jigsaw puzzles are created every year by taking a photograph and mounting it to a piece of cardboard and then through a process of applying just the right amounts of heat, it is cut into hundreds of uniquely designed pieces.

I found it interesting in my research that during the Great Depression it sold very well, even though money was in short supply it was so popular you could enjoy it for such a small price, but it could be played over and over and over again. And of course since then the sciences have come along and evaluated why people do it and how they do it and for what reasons they conducted various experiments and studies and found that working a jigsaw puzzle reduced stress. Not for me. It increases mine. I look for three minutes and the blood pressure just goes through the roof. I finally give up. My wife, on the other hand, finds them to be a relaxing diversion. The only kind I ever liked were when my children were young. You know, the big wooden pieces with the knobs on the top and you can't miss it.

Two minutes you're done. That was great, honey. I enjoyed doing that puzzle with you. Well, for those of you who enjoy putting together a puzzle, you know there's one thing that helps more than anything else as you put the pieces together and that is to be able to look at the picture on the box. I couldn't help but think about that analogy as I began this new paragraph on how the church fits together in Romans chapter 12 verse 3. Just like a puzzle, every church is different. Some puzzles have more pieces than others.

They come in all shapes and sizes, but no matter what the puzzle looks like, no matter what size or shape it takes, no matter how many pieces are used to form it, every puzzle was created by a designer. So the church, universal and every single local church, is designed down to every piece, each individual, by our great designer and Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is about to inform us that every person has a place inside the puzzle. In fact, you could say that every person is a piece of the puzzle, designed by God to bring glory to his name. And just as a good puzzle designer helps his clientele by printing the picture on the top piece of that box, so our great designer has put a picture of the church inside the Bible for us to study. And I frankly can't think of a better time in our history to arrive at Romans chapter 12 verse 3 than this particular time when our church has experienced unprecedented growth and expansion. It's a perfect time to go back to the picture and make sure we match. I want to just read through the paragraph as Paul provides for us this scene, and then we'll go back and look at verse 3.

Let's start there. For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly.

If prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, and he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Now before we try to identify the pieces in the puzzle, in fact, before you look closely to try to find your own place, Paul says in effect, stop and think. Stop and think. Look at verse 3 again.

That's as far as we're going to get anyway. Look there. For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think as so to have sound thinking literally as God is allotted to each measure of faith. Four times God crowds into this one verse the word think. Now it isn't a word that refers to intelligence or to your mental state. He's talking about your attitude, your mindset from the verb froneo, to think twice in the very first phrase of verse 3.

Look there again. I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. I think it's fascinating before we're told any information about the pieces in the puzzle. We're warned to adjust our thinking so that we're not superior to anybody, but servant-minded to everybody. Paul is saying in effect to the Roman church, nobody inside your puzzle is to be a prima donna. There are no big shots in the body of Christ.

So before Paul gives us any detail about the gifts and their operation in the church family, he warns us to approach the subject with humility and deference. I think that's fascinating. This past Christmas, I wanted to buy my wife a puzzle, the ultimate jigsaw puzzle. It was a large canister and on top, sealed with saran wrap were the pieces to a puzzle and inside the canister was popcorn.

Three kinds, regular cheese and caramel. I thought it would be great. She could put the puzzle together and I could eat the popcorn.

What a great idea that was. Well, as I searched and looked at a number of different things and a number of different boxes, as I thought back with this analogy in mind, I never came across one box that carried a warning label that would read something like, warning, do not attempt this without a spirit of humility. Do not attempt to put this puzzle together without thinking through with humble thoughts. I find it interesting before Paul tells us anything about how God has put us together, he warns us, don't approach this without humility or you'll never get the puzzle right. It's exactly what Peter meant when he wrote, all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. In other words, without humility, you will experience a malfunction of ministry. Paul warned the Corinthians as well, is there anything anybody can discover in you that you can take credit for? Isn't everything that you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God?

So what's the point of all this comparing and competing? It isn't really surprising that Paul would begin a discussion on the ministry of believers together within the church with a warning. Before there can be genuine Christ honoring service, there must be a genuine spirit of servanthood. Paul told the Philippians the same thing in that classic text where he said, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Same thing in Romans 12, three. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests but also for the interests of others. Then he says that familiar phrase, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God the Father a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant. This attitude which was in Christ Jesus, have the same attitude within yourselves.

He had it, he modeled it and now we are to practice it. But we live in such a different era, don't we? You ever listen to the descriptions of products through advertisements in our culture today?

I understand we're confronted by thousands of them every single day. This product is better. This is superior. This is a one of a kind and it's not gonna last.

Unique, exciting, dramatic, life changing. It is the answer for everything. Have you ever noticed how the church in America more and more advertises along the same lines? Dynamic, we're the answer to everything. Ever notice how Jesus Christ described himself with his own lips? Come to me, take my yoke upon you. Learn with me. For I am dynamic. I am one of a kind. No, I am what? Gentle in heart.

No wonder our thinking has to be revolutionized. By the way, the word the Lord Jesus used for gentle was prouse. It's used in the New Testament of a wild stallion that has been tamed. Strength under control.

Not a wimpy, doe-eyed brunette who always looked like he never knew what to say. This is strength under control. The same word gives us our word meekness. Meekness is not weakness. It is power under divine control. The Lord said he was gentle. That's what he meant. He also said his heart was humble. The word humble in the original language referred to the small and insignificant services by which one helps another person.

It's a servant's word illustrated perfectly when the Lord wrapped around him the towel so he could teach all of his big shot disciples a lesson they would never forget as they argued about who will be the greatest in the kingdom. Who's going to be first? Who is the most dynamic? Nothing dynamic here.

No headlines here. No oohing and aahing here. Just a towel and a basin of water and they never forgot it. Paul provides years later to the church, the believers in Rome, and to us today the same challenge. We're to not think, he writes too highly, of ourselves.

That's the attitude of superiority. It'll destroy a church. It'll destroy a family.

It'll destroy a life. In fact, this first appearance of the word think has the prefix before it from which we get our word hyper. I like that. In other words, Paul is saying don't get all hyper about yourself. Don't get all excited about who you are. Relax. Settle down.

Take another look. Now, let me add that if this is true, then the converse is implied and equally true. One is self-admiration and the other then would be self-depreciation. Neither one honors God. I was given an out of print little book by Graham Scroggi, actually taken from his lectures many years ago called Salvation and Behavior as he lectured on the book of Romans.

He writes these interesting words as it relates to verse 3 of chapter 12. Self-admiration is conceit, which is bad for oneself, unjust to others, and it throws the machinery of Christian life and work out of gear. On the other hand, self-depreciation neither honors God, encourages ourselves, nor blesses others.

Now, follow this. He said the person who overestimates himself will try to do what he cannot do. The person who underestimates himself will not try to do what he can do. In both cases, the work doesn't get done. You can see how the enemy of the church causes us, seeks to have us emphasize one or the other, right? To run around saying, I'm good at everything. Or just as badly, I'm good for nothing. Neither one is true.

So what's the solution? Well, you might expect Paul to tell us to stop thinking about ourselves altogether, right? But that isn't what he does. He doesn't tell us to think less of ourselves if we're thinking too much. He actually tells us to begin thinking about ourselves biblically.

Look at the middle part of verse 3. Don't think more highly of yourself, but think, here it is, but to think so as to have sound judgment. Again, it's the word think.

It's a compound word containing the same verb form. Think about yourself, he's saying, reasonably. The word means to keep a proper measure, to not go beyond the set boundaries, to be literally sensible. You will not be led to either say, I can do everything, or you will not be led to say, I can do nothing. You will be balanced in your thinking. Well, what does the Bible then say about us?

How are we to think about ourselves? Well, in verse 3, we're given two things that directly relate to helping us think about ourselves and find our fit in the body of Christ. Number one, everything we have received is the result of God's grace.

Everything we have received is the result of God's grace. Look at the way Paul started verse 3. For through the grace given to me, I say to every man among you. Paul wrote constantly of the grace of God, did he not? To Timothy, he wrote, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, and yet I was shown mercy and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant.

Paul never completely recovered from his conversion. Do you know why any one of us could ever claim to belong to God? Only by his grace for we are saved by his grace through faith, not of ourselves, it's the gift of God, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

Do you know why any one of us could ever claim to be forgiven by God? Where sin abounded, Paul wrote, grace abounded more. Romans chapter 5 verse 20.

Do you know why any one of us could ever claim to belong somewhere in the picture puzzle of Christ's church? It is by virtue of the grace of God. Peter agrees and wrote in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 10, as every one of us has received a special gift, use it in serving one another as good stewards of the grace of God. Number two, everything we do is the result of God's gift. Look at the last part of verse three. As God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Would you note that Paul did not write, as God has allotted to each one of us a measure of intelligence, a measure of skill, a measure of personal charisma, a measure of dynamic, no, a measure of faith, which is entirely the gift of God. Now let me say this, not only has God given to all believers the equipment to serve him, but we also know from scripture that God has given to all believers all the equipment they need to serve him.

He has given to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. You say, well, that's too good to be true. You don't know me. I don't believe it. Now what I do know is that you're not thinking correctly and biblically about yourself within the boundaries of God's truth. This is what God says about you.

He has given you, he has measured out the allotment perfectly to fit you so that you can fit in the body. You believe it by faith. You take it by faith. You accept it. You act upon it. You have a place in the puzzle.

Every one of us who know God the Father by faith in Christ. What does that look like? Let me make some observations that are rather obvious analogies of a puzzle to a church. Number one, in a puzzle, you probably noticed all pieces are either directly or indirectly interlocked. But I want to encourage you some pieces may rub a little tighter than others. Sometimes you have to press a little harder to make it squeeze in, right?

Sometimes it's just not easy. It reminds me of the two church members who had a hard time getting along in the church at Philippi. Paul, in his letter, actually named them Euodia and Syntyche, remember? It must have been terribly embarrassing to have your name mentioned in the letter that would be read to the assembly, but evidently it was needed and it probably worked. Paul wrote, I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.

J. Vernon McGee renamed them Odious and Soon Touchy. But it's going to take humility. It's going to take viewing the other person more important than yourself, right?

It's going to require deference. No wonder Paul starts with that kind of challenge. Before he tells us what to do, he tells us how to think. Secondly, and this goes along with the first, but let me say it a little differently, it isn't always easy putting the pieces of the puzzle together. So likewise, putting the body together and working together, there are easy spots along the way, but ultimately it takes work and commitment. Sometimes it's inspiration.

Most often it's perspiration. So we get our little list out. We're going to find a church with social interaction we like and programs we like and activities that meet my needs and some people I know and liturgy I'm comfortable with. And all the driving question can easily become what can the church provide for me?

And so we arrive. We have our little checklist and we sort of mark it off in our minds as we arrive. Parking space, check. A friendly usher, check. Good seats in the back, check.

Climate control, check. Music I like, check. Isn't it easy for that to kind of creep in? Hey, man, church was good today. It served me well.

No wonder Paul doesn't even begin to address the issue of us serving one another and how to do it without beginning with the challenge of humility. Our thinking has to radically change for us to get to the place where we say I'm going to church and it was good. Why was it good? It was good because I was able to encourage someone. It was good because I was able to say hello to a number of new people. It was good because I learned something about God. It was good because with my brothers and sisters I was able to raise my voice in praise to my Savior.

Church was good today. Here's another one. A puzzle piece never demands its place. It merely surrenders to the designer's placement. No piece said, well, never mind, I'll make my own picture all by myself. Every piece has its place. Every puzzle has a designer. Fourth, since each piece has been designed, there's no such thing as an insignificant piece to the puzzle.

Not one. Every piece counts. In fact, it takes the entire puzzle to reveal the completed picture. Have you ever taken the time to put a puzzle together and discover at the very end you're missing one piece? Oh, one piece. You look on the floor, you look on the board, you look in the box, you stand up and look on your seat and why did I ever start it?

I'm missing that one piece. You'll probably put it all back in the box. No need to lay it out there for family or friends to see why because everybody who comes along is going to go, hey, you got a piece missing.

I know that. So you crumble it all up and you put it back in the box. You lost that sense of fulfillment and you're missing one. In this analogy to the church, everybody loses when somebody is missing. The church loses its complete effectiveness. The world loses the benefit of our full testimony, the fullest picture of God's grace.

Not to mention the missing piece of the puzzle is missing what they were designed by God to contribute. But it takes a radically different way of thinking. You've got to think about yourself differently.

You have to be willing to lay yourself down to think more of others. I read a story recently that reveals a different kind of thinking. And I want to take you out to a race where the starter I read fired the gun and the contestants sprang out of the starting blocks and even the casual observer could tell something was different. This was the Special Olympics. There are people in our congregation that work with the Special Olympics and I have enjoyed what they have shared. This was special because these contestants were, this article wrote, developmentally and physically disabled.

But it was special for a far greater reason than that. It was special because of the way this particular hundred meter dash would be run. The runners moved down the track shoulder to shoulder.

No one ahead, no one behind. But suddenly one of the young women sprawled headlong on the track and turned over in some amount of pain and embarrassment. The rest of the contestants moved on for about 10 meters or so. But then without any communication among themselves they all stopped, turned around, jogged back to their fallen friend.

They picked her up off the track, comforted her, and then arm in arm, interlocked, they ran together to the finish line. No one came in first place, but then again, they all came first place. Isn't that a different way of thinking? But isn't that refreshing? Nobody's first.

Everybody's first. No wonder Paul challenges us at the outset of this discussion how to serve together in a local body of believers than to start thinking in an entirely new and fresh, radically altered way where everyone wins, where everyone finds their place of equal significance in the puzzle where every piece is fitted together by divine design. We all reveal to one another and reveal to the world the picture that God has designed for us to exhibit. God's name is glorified as cause is advanced and His sons and daughters find fulfillment and accomplishment and joy as we together find our fit in the body of Christ.

Does that sound like something you want? To know exactly where you fit in the body of Christ? We're going to continue to explore this topic as we work our way through this series entitled Divine Design. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Today's lesson was part one in this series and I hope you'll be able to join us for all of it as we explore the church and where we as individuals fit in it. If you'd like to listen to this lesson again or share it with others, we've posted it to our website. You'll find it at wisdomonline.org. In fact, you'll find the complete archive of all Stephen's teaching on that website. We post the audio files as well as Stephen's written manuscripts.

I encourage you to install the Wisdom International app to your phone. Once you do, you can take this Bible teaching ministry wherever you go. In the menu along the bottom is a tab that says Bible. You can actually hit a play button and listen to the Bible being read to you. Also, if Stephen has a lesson from the section that you're reading, you'll have a link right to Stephen's lesson from the Bible. Let's say, for example, you're looking at Genesis 1-1. Right at the top of your screen there's going to be a link to Stephen's lesson from Genesis 1-1. Install the Wisdom International app on your phone today. Then join us back here next time for more wisdom for the heart. ...