Differing Gifts and Their Use

Transcript

GR 1466
04/03/11
Differing Gifts and Their Use
Romans 12:7-8
Gil Rugh

We're going to Romans 12 in our study of the word. We're in the section of the word that begins with chapter 12, it's the last major division of the book. It is based upon everything Paul covered in the first eleven chapters. Chapter 12 began in verse 1, I beseech you, or urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God. And the mercies of God that he is talking about is the unfolding of God's work in salvation through the first eleven chapters. The multifaceted mercy of God, the mercies of God bestowed upon us in salvation leads us to the responsibility of presenting our bodies to Him as a sacrifice. These bodies with all their parts are to be yielded to Him as an act of worship so that now we belong to Him. We are not our own, we have been bought with a price; therefore, we are to glorify God with our bodies. And the first area that he specifically deals with is the area of what we call spiritual gifts that God when He saves us makes us part of the spiritual body of Christ. And when we are made part of the spiritual body of Christ we don't just become one glob or blob, for a good theological word, but we have an individual place and part to play. He gives us a special enablement so that we can function in a necessary and effective way as part of the body of Christ. It's called a spiritual gift, it is called a grace gift because it is given by God's grace. Just as our salvation is a result of God's grace, so that grace continues to be manifested to us specifically enabling each of us to be gifted by God so that we can serve Him.

The analogy is with the physical body, just like there is one physical body but it is comprised of a variety of parts each with having something to contribute to the body, so it is spiritually. This is brought down to each local church, brought together by God in a specific place, bringing together a group of believers that He has gifted to contribute to the functioning of that body so that as each part functions together the body will develop and grow to maturity in Christ.

Romans 4:12 said, just as we have many members in one body and all members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. So the analogy with the physical body is clear. And you'll note, as believers in Jesus Christ we have become members of the body of Christ. By one Spirit we were all baptized or placed into one body, the body of Christ. There is only one body. But we are individually members one of another. So we have been joined together in a spiritual relationship, not only with Jesus Christ, but with one another. And that's important to understand. I cannot function in right relationship to Jesus Christ in obedience to Him without functioning in right relationship to you because we have been made individually members of one another as members of the body of Christ. And He is the head. So when one part of my body is not functioning in submission to the head, it will be in conflict with another part of the body. That's what has happened spiritually as well. That is not to happen. We are individually members of one another, there are no long rangers. We sometimes carry our understanding. Salvation is individual and personal, each person on his own must come to understand and believe the gospel, repent of his sin and place his faith in Jesus Christ. That does not happen as a group, it does not happen as a result of your physical birth. It happens as a result of your individually coming under conviction of the Holy Spirit and coming to recognize your sinful condition and placing your faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior. But when you do place your faith in Christ, you are joined in the body of Christ with other believers. People get the misunderstanding that I have the Holy Spirit, I have the word of God, it doesn't matter whether I function in a local church. That's just a physical organization. It is not. It has a physical identity as we do gathered here, but it is a spiritual organism brought together by the work of Christ. You cannot grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ apart from functioning in relationship with others. You cannot live a life of obedience to Jesus Christ without functioning because He has made us, verse 5, individually members of one another. We are part of one another's lives. Our growth occurs together.

So verse 6 says, since we have gifts that differ, our gifts are various, they are diverse. According to the grace given to us, it's God's grace that has bestowed the gift. You don't decide you would like that gift, you don't think that if you work hard enough you'll be able to have that gift. This is the gift given to you in grace. We look to discern what our gift is because God bestows it in grace. We'll say more about that later.

So now we go on to the responsibility. God has gifted each of us according to His grace, His sovereign purposes, so use your gift. As one who has been a recipient of the mercies of God, you have presented your body as a living sacrifice to Him, sacrifice which is alive, which is holy, which is pleasing to Him, now you function accordingly. And that means you exercise your gift. So whatever your gift is, if it's prophecy as he brings up in verse 6, then you prophesy. If it's serving, then you serve. There is no particular order in these gifts, he's just picking out different gifts. He doesn't give them in any kind of order, like first I'll talk about these kinds of gifts then these kinds of gifts. Prophecy, serving, different gifts, part of the purpose is it does reveal the diversity. We noted prophecy involved receiving direct revelation often from God and then teaching it to the people. A prophet could sometimes teach using existing revelation, but he also was the recipient of direct revelation. That was necessary when the Bible was not complete, when they did not have the New Testament. With the completion of the New Testament the gift of apostleship, the gift of prophecy and some of the other gifts are no longer present in the church.

Paul began with his own gift of apostleship in verse 3 when he said through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you, because his gift, as we noted when we studied that, was as an apostle. So I'm speaking to you on the basis of the gift that God gave to me in His grace. I'm exercising it as one who has presented his body as a sacrifice to God. I'm exercising my gift. He picks up with the gift of prophecy, there wouldn't have been any apostles in the church at Rome, they were a unique category and exercised authority over all the churches as Paul is doing in writing this letter.

So the prophet received revelation and he was to function in the realm of his gift. That's one of the emphases on the gifts. You discern what your gift is, you pour your primary energy in contributing that way to the functioning of the body of Christ. If your gift is serving, then you function in the realm of serving. Doesn't mean you don't do other things but you concentrate on the area that you are most able to contribute to the body. That's God's plan, it's simple. The analogy is clear.

We're going to pick up in verse 7, we just broke off after the gift of serving. The next gift he mentions is the gift of teaching. If he teaches, in his teaching. In these opening gifts he concentrates on the focus on whatever you gift is, use your gift. That's what God in His grace has given me. I am responsible as a steward, remember we looked at in our previous study, with this gift. He has entrusted it to me to use it wisely to the maximum. That's part of my life of obedience to Him. So if your gift is teaching, you function as a teacher, you teach, you concentrate on that. You do the work that is responsible to prepare to teach. Just like the gift of serving, concentrate on doing the work that is necessary to serve the body, do those things that are necessary for the body to function effectively. And so with each of the gifts. If you gift is teaching, then your responsibility is to study the word of God.

The difference between a teacher and a prophet and an apostle, they all taught. But apostles had the sovereign leadership over all the churches, they received direct revelation from God and they taught the truth of God. Prophets didn't have the same level of authority as the apostles, but they received direct revelation and they taught the peoples of God. Teachers now don't receive direct revelation, I received no new revelation this week, nothing new from God. All I have is what God has revealed. My responsibility through the week has been to study the word that God has revealed and to explain it to help clarify it, make it more understandable so that you can know it better. It's more than just knowing the word, it's more than just having an interest in studying the word.

Sometimes young men will come and they have a love for the word of God, an interest in studying the word of God so they think they ought to go to seminary and become pastors or teachers. But you also have to have the ability to explain the word in a clear and understandable way. And that's an essential manifestation of the gift of teacher. We all ought to love the word of God, it is precious to us; we ought to have a desire to study the word. But a teacher along with those things is to have the ability to explain it in a clear and understandable way. And in this gift sometimes you need the input of people who listen to you because if you think you are explaining the word of God but no one is understanding it, it may not be your gift. So in these gifts the body ought to be recognizing that there is a giftedness there. I mention that on teaching because of its prominence sometimes people are drawn to it. Because of its prominence sometimes, particularly young men get saved and they think, I love the word and I want to know more about it. I'm going to go to seminary and become a teacher or a pastor. But there ought to be some manifestation that that's what God has gifted you to do. If that is not your gift, going to seminary will give you more knowledge, it will not gift you to be a teacher.

I remember having a director of missions at an evangelical seminary call me on the phone and say, Gil, we need the pastors to help us more. I want to be honest with you, the majority of our students in our seminary are not gifted to be pastors or teachers. They are there learning a lot more about the word, that's fine, but the problem is they come out with a seminary degree and they think that makes them a pastor or a teacher. That's not true. God has to gift you for that. Many years ago Charles Spurgeon had a training school for pastors but he would not allow anyone to enroll in that who had not had two years of experience demonstrating that they were gifted to be pastors or teachers.

So I think it's important that we come and understand. We've followed the pattern, if you want to be an attorney or a medical doctor or something, you go to school, you get the right degrees, you graduate, you can do that. And we've carried that over to ministries like the pastorate where teaching is required. And we think, you want to do that, you go get the right degrees, you graduate, therefore you can do it.

You understand, it's God's grace. Verse 6, we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, not particularly according to these other factors. The primary requirement these days for getting into seminary is ethical, moral and scholastically. Rarely am I asked, do you think this person is gifted to do this. So I mention that on the area of teaching because it is a prominent gift.

Turn over to Ephesians 4. And here we are reminded that the gifts have been bestowed upon us individually for the benefit of the church as a result of the coming to earth of Christ, His suffering on the cross, His death, burial and resurrection and ascension to heaven. And you'll note what he says in verse 7, but to each one of us. Again, we've noted that stress, each person individually. To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Again, the sovereignty of Christ. We've seen Father, Son and Holy Spirit involved in the gifting of believers. And then you talk about His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. And as a result of that He has bestowed gifts upon us as believers.

Verse 11, He gave some, and this is the grace. To each one of us grace was given, according to the measure of Christ's gift. Verse 11, He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some evangelists, some as pastors and teachers. And the unifying thing about the four gifts mentioned in verse 11 is they are all speaking gifts, they all involve the communication of God's word. Different than like serving or administration or some of the other gifts that would not be involved in directly communicating the word of God. They would all be based on the word of God. These speaking gifts, the apostles and prophets as we've noted are no longer present. Evangelists, the gospelizers. From the little bit of information we have in the New Testament these seem to be those gifted by God to carry the message of the gospel, particularly to unbelievers, to new placed. We see that today. Perhaps missionaries ought to be required to have the gift of evangelist. We want to know, whom have you led to Christ? If you're going to go to a foreign field to evangelize and you've never led anybody to Christ here, what makes you think you're going to lead them there?

I used to think I had the gift of evangelist. I had the desire to go and share the gospel with people. I used to think I wanted to go and preach the gospel to different people all the time. Who would want to get up on Sunday and speak to the same group of people week after week? Boring. But you know that's where God put me. Because you know what happened? After several years as I was preparing and so on, I had to evaluate myself and say, I love to share the gospel and I try to share the gospel with a lot of people in different places. But I have to be honest, I don't see response. There aren't many people. I could see people being saved but it’s not happening often. But I did find that when I had opportunity to teach the word of God regularly I did find that seems to be where my strength is, my gift is. So the evangelists here carrying the gospel to people. I think people ought to demonstrate their gift before we just decide they are going to go exercise it. Pastor/teacher, we ought to see. Before I ever went on to seminary I had people that I respect address the issue of whether they thought I was gifted for such a ministry.

Here you have pastors and teachers. Pastors and teachers. Paul talked just about teachers. Here we have pastors and teachers and grammatically these are closely joined together. Now I think perhaps a valid distinction is all pastors are to be teachers but not all teachers are pastors. It seems to me the pastor, the word shepherd, has the responsibility for oversight. We could pick that up but we don't have time to develop that because that's not our purpose. But in the Old Testament for example, the kings of Israel are referred to as the shepherds of Israel because they have the overall responsibility in the flock. But the prime responsibility of the shepherd here is the teaching of the word of God.

Now you'll note what these gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers—are for. They are all involved in the communication of the word and verse 12 says it is for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service. So what they do is give out the word of God. And as the saints take in the work of God they are prepared to exercise their gift. So _______________ evangelists would also help to prepare and equip people to do evangelizing. Equipping the saints, they give them a clear understanding and a better understanding and use of the gospel, understanding of the word of God. So those with a gift of serving, serve; those with a gift of administration, administer; those with the gift of helps, help. And on they go. But you have to take in the word of God. As newborn babes we are to be longing for the pure milk of the word that we might grow with respect to our salvation, Peter wrote in I Peter 2. So that's essential for the exercising of all the gifts.

But you'll note, these gifts of communicating the word equip the saints for the work of service. And exercising your spiritual gift is work. And most of you are involved probably in one way or another, and you know it is work. It takes time, it takes energy, it takes effort. Sometimes it seems more productive, other times it seems less productive. But we stay at it because it is what God has called us to do. And what that does is build up the body of Christ.

So you'll note, it doesn't say these gifts alone build up the body. These gifts are part of the work of building up the body because they equip all the rest of the saints so then together we work together. My teaching is not all there is, that just is part of equipping you to function. One of the tragedies in the pastorate for many churches is they hire a pastor to do the ministry. And he is supposed to do all the gifts. Well we hire him to do this or that. If he does have the gift of teaching it is hard to have the time to do it with any effectiveness.

People ask me about Indian Hills and I talk to pastors. One of the greatest blessings to me is I have had people who have supported me and encouraged me and helped limit me to what my gift is. I sometimes have met men, I think they probably would be stronger in the teaching than me, but how in the world would they do it? They talk about all they are responsible to do and the church is missing all the blessings because you have all these gifted people sitting there not functioning. Just like you have the rest of the body watching the arm just go all to town here and the rest of the body is not doing anything. How am I to get around, how am I to do anything? There has to be more to the body. So we concentrate. I have tried, in the early years of the ministry when the church was small I had to do more things. And even then there weren't other people on staff, but it's not only the staff who is gifted. Every single one of you are, and that's why our church is such a blessing because there are so many people functioning and so many people carrying on ministries and have worked in such a variety of areas in serving the body. We build up a strong ministry. We talk about the girls' choir that was here, operating ten years. That took people committed to work with young girls and spend the time and the practice in doing what is necessary with them over time. And that's just one of a multitude of examples.

The gift of teaching, what am I to do? I'm trying to equip because the more grounded in the word we are, the more understanding of the word, the more solid we are, the more effective we are in the exercising of our gifts. There are no superstars. There are some gifts that have priority in importance because without the ministry of the word we can't develop. We're equipping the saints. If you don't equip the saints, then you have saints that are weak and they can't function with the work of service like they could. And so the body is not being built up and it's a downward spiral. So it does become important that the teaching of the word be sound. And it's not just from the pulpit but we are blessed with a diversity of men who faithfully teach the word and build up the body. That's to equip the saints to exercise their gift. It's only one gift. You say, you get to be prominent, you get to devote yourself to the study of the word. Well, I am responsible to do that and for me that is work. And we all want to exercise our gift. So I appreciate the fact that I can exercise my gift here and you can be thankful that I am not the one coming to the hospital showing mercy.

I did that in early days along with others. I remember a dear physician who I knew well, he was much older than I. One day I'm walking down the hospital hall and he put his arm around me and said, Gil, let's talk about your hospital visits. I'm there at the hospital and my prayer is Lord, I thank you that I'm not here. Wait, I should be praying for them. But there is a gift of showing mercy and we're going to come to that.

Come back to Romans 12. He who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation. Some of these gifts sometimes, and it depends, within the gifts there is variety and some of the gifts get awful close like the gift of exhortation. They can overlap in some ways with teaching because an exhorter will be doing teaching. But it is a distinct gift, a person with the gift of exhortation.

Let me give you an idea of what this particular word is said to convey. It contains the ideas of encouragement, comfort, admonishment, entreaty. It's the word basically parakaleo. We know it because in John 14 Jesus said after He leaves He would send another helper, that's the word, the comforter, referring to the Holy Spirit. And it is a word that has diversity. It's basically two words, para and kaleo, one called alongside of. He gives help, aid, encouragement, exhortation is the idea. I think a person with this gift is used in the sense of communicating the word but often then in the area of moving people along, challenging them to where they need to be, what they need to be, changes that need to be made.

There are men that I've heard preach that I think that their gift tilts more toward exhortation than just teaching. And you hear them and you're motivated. You go out and say, that challenged me, that moved me, I want to go on, I was rebuked by that. There is a sense that certain people have that ability, that gift from God that strengthens the body.

Come over to I Thessalonians. There are some guidelines on this exhorting that I think helps us understand the gift. And again, all of us do a variety of things—show mercy, teach on a one-on-one level, whatever, even though it's not our gift. But we concentrate on what our gift is. In I Thessalonians 2:11, Paul is talking about his own ministry among the Thessalonians. Just as you know how we were, note this, exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children. So you see that gift, exhortation, joined together with encouragement here and imploring. And it's like a father would his own children. And you get the idea of the flavor of the gift and how it is used. And sometimes you rebuke your children, sometimes you challenge them with something, sometimes you direct them. This person has more that flavor in their gift.

At the men's retreat this year when Rod Goertzen started us out on Friday night, I think Rod Goertzen has the gift of encourager. He teaches the word but he has that aspect, and I would see him as an exhorter, a challenger. He just has that way to cut through and get you right where you are, move you on, and rebuke you from where you are. And you say, I needed to hear that. I think there are people that have that gift, in our body there are people that have. It doesn't have to be done in a pulpit kind of setting, they come personally like a father does his children. They bring something to your attention. They are just there to encourage you to keep going or to challenge you. Or to rebuke you when it is necessary like a father would his children. It's that flavor.

Turn over to II Timothy 4. When you exhort you're doing it like a father would his children. Verse 2, you preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. You see that exhortation put in the context of reproving, rebuking, exhorting. Those kinds of things go on and it takes patience. That gift with its variety in it. Sometimes you are rebuking, reproving, challenging, and you do it with great patience because it takes time to bring people along. And with that is instruction. So the gift is not teacher in the sense that we talked about previously, but they are instructing and teaching from the word. But their ministry has an exhortation flavor which is that encouraging, rebuking. Very necessary in the body. We have a number of people in our body that have the gift of exhortation. We would have with each of these gifts, there are a number of them. Again, it doesn't just happen in a class setting or formal setting, but just happens personally often.

Over in Titus 2:15, these things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. So you see you do this exhortation, you do it as a father would his own children, you do it with great patience and instruction. You're showing them from the word of God why this is necessary, why there should be a change here, why you are making progress to encourage them. You do it with all authority because you are acting as God's representative on the basis of His word. The gift of exhortation is just not giving good advice, it's bringing the word of God to bear in a special way on this person's situation, their condition. You do it with authority. And they are exercising their gift. Doesn't mean we all in one sense can't be used this way, but the person with exhortation is especially effective in this, especially used of God in this and they need to be functioning accordingly.

This is all done with the word of God, you exhort with the word. Come to Titus 1, and here elders when they do exhort, verse 9, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching. So you'll note in the context here, the faithful word in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine. So this is just not coming giving advice out of my experience. Doesn't mean that sometimes you don't share a personal experience. But the exhortation is based and comes out of the word of God, you are exhorting them with the word of God. Otherwise with all these gifts the word of God is foundational and crucial. You exhort in sound doctrine and refute. You see how often exhortation is put in the context of reproving or refuting because in the exhortation sometimes there is a reproving or a rebuking for what is not being done as you challenge them to move more toward what they should be doing or how they should be functioning.

Come back to Romans 15:4, whatever was written in earlier times, referring to the Old Testament scripture, was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement, there is our word, translated encouragement here, exhortation, encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. So this is a person who has the special gift of God to take the scriptures and bring that exhortation, that encouragement, that comfort, that rebuke to a particular person in their situation. And sometimes to a congregation, there are various times we have had different men come and fill the pulpit here whose gift was exhortation. And we ought to appreciate the different slant on their gift than particularly my gift. ____________ compare and see, well do they teach the way Gil teaches. No, every teacher will have his own particular slant, he has to teach the word. And those with the gift of exhortation are going to bring more of that personal challenge, and often you go away from that saying that moved me, I'm rethinking that and so on.

Come back to Romans 12. We move from exhortation to giving. Now you'll note there is going to be a change now in the way he emphasizes. Up to this point the gifts he's talked about, if your gift is prophecy you do it in that realm, if it's service you function in serving, or if it's teaching in teaching, or exhortation in exhortation. Now he's going to mention the gift but tell you how to use the gift. So he who gives with liberality. He doesn't say he who gives in giving. And just a different emphasis which he could give to all the gifts but he just breaks it down here. We've stressed the fact you function primarily in the realm of your gift. Now he's giving you an example of how you would exercise the gift. If the gift is giving you do it with liberality. And he'll do that with the rest of the gifts he mentions, he'll tell you how to exercise it.

The gift of giving. We all give, just like we all are to show mercy, we are all to serve. But a person with the gift of giving will have that ability from God to give perhaps we could say more sacrificially. I don't believe this gift is tied necessarily to the amount that you have. It may at times, but God gives a person with the gift of giving more to give. But sometimes it may be a person with very little. But because they have the gift of giving they are constantly looking and making sacrifices so they can give more. So in reality they are giving a larger portion out of what they have than someone who doesn't have the gift might. So the emphasis is they give with liberality.

You know in each of these gifts you can't be comparing or measuring. A person with the gift of giving couldn't be looking around and saying, I live in a smaller house, drive a less expensive car, don't go out to eat or whatever they do because they believe before the Lord that they should be giving more of their money, more of their possessions. If they begin to look around and say, I'm going to give less because .......... It would be like a teacher saying I'm going to study less because I don't think they study. They are out doing these things in an area, if their gift is serving, and I'd rather be out with people doing that. Well, if this is my gift I should be closed up with the books and getting ready to teach. So you can't compare yourself if your gift is giving. Otherwise that begins to create cracks, dissension in the body, jealousy, envy, resentment because I give more. Why do I have a smaller house and drive a less expensive car or whatever we do. And I'm sacrificing, they don't seem to be. Well whether they do and nobody does, I still have to function with my gift, right? I'm going to give account to God for my stewardship of the grace He has given to me. I don't want to decide that I won't be a faithful steward with the grace He has given to me because I don't think someone else is. What does that have to do with me? I'm responsible to my Lord, I'll give an account to Him for the exercise.

So the gift of giving, liberality. It's a word that can also mean simplicity. There is to be that in our giving, but it is usually used when you're talking giving, particularly in II Corinthians. Turn over to II Corinthians 8, the word is used several times here, it's used in other contexts as well and often means simplicity. But it's used to mean liberality, generosity, when it's used in the context of giving. And in II Corinthians 8 Paul is talking about the sacrifice that was made by churches in Macedonia to give for needs. Verse 2, then a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy, and note this, and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. That word liberality is a translation of the word we're talking about. So you see they had deep poverty but they gave with liberality. So it doesn't have to do with the amount you have to give, but here they were giving greater sacrifice. And so their giving was liberal even though the amount would not have been what a rich person might have been able to give. They are giving out of deep poverty. But in relation to what they could afford they were giving generously. We think that would tie to the gifts but you see the word here liberality in the context of giving.

Over in II Corinthians 9:11, talking about God's provision to meet our needs. And he says, you will be enriched in everything for all liberality. He's talking about their giving and the blessing of God is to be seen as the opportunity to be liberal in our giving. Down in verse 13, because of the proof given by this ministry they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel and for the liberality of your contribution to them. And in a sense for all of us our giving ought to be characterized by generosity. But for those with the gift of giving, they will have it in a ways that other people do not. That's part of their gift. And it is a great encouragement.

Now let me say something. We sometimes put this gift as a gift that nobody ought to know about. And I think there is a misunderstanding and something lost to the body because all the gifts are for the benefit of the body and the blessing. Part of the blessing comes in seeing and knowing that somebody is exercising his gift.

Come back to Matthew 6 for a caution. There is a warning here. We are in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching, beware, verse 1, of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. This is key. Our righteousness is to be evident, manifest to others, they ought to see it. But when you do it to be noticed you are doing it with the wrong motive. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so that they may be honored by them. Truly I say to you they have their reward in full. They didn't give to help the poor, they gave for the show of it so that people would see and say what good people they are, what generous people they are. Well they got their reward, they were noticed. That's why they did it. When you give to the poor do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving will be in secret. Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And the same thing is in prayer. You don't pray for notice, but that doesn't mean we never pray before people.

Come over to Acts 4, here we have an account of Barnabas and he's a man who was gifted with the gift of encouragement or exhortation. Verse 36, now Joseph a Levite of Cyprian birth who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, which translated means son of encouragement or son of exhortation, which would be the word we talked about with the gift of exhortation. What did he do? He owned a tract of land, he sold it, brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. This would have happened evidently when the church was meeting because the rest of the church had known about it because in chapter 5 Ananias and Sapphira decide to do the same thing. But they are doing it with the wrong motive. And so they lie so they look better than they really are. But they want to get the same kind of glory and honor that Barnabas got. But Barnabas was functioning properly, Ananias and Sapphira weren't. We're familiar with the story.

All this to say Barnabas didn't do the wrong thing by publicly giving this gift. You might say, well if he hadn't done it publicly maybe Ananias and Sapphira wouldn't have been moved to do the wrong thing. That's their problem. But it was an encouragement and a blessing to the church. I don't know what people give, so I don't want you to misunderstand. I don't see what people give, I don't track giving, I'm not made aware of what the giving in the church is. But there are occasions when I am made aware. Sometimes in personal conversations with people they tell me about their giving or something. There have been occasions when I think it's too bad that people in the body can't know this, don't know this because they miss the blessing of this person exercising what seems to be his gift. And so I think there is a balance. Not for show, not for motive. And any gift has to be careful. You don't know, my preaching this sermon because I want you to say, he's a good preacher. He's a better teacher than I had in my past church. If I'm doing it for that kind of reason there would be no reward from the Lord—I'm not doing it for His honor, I'm doing it for my own glory. So any gift has that danger but I think sometimes in the gift of giving we are so afraid, we say, that ought to be done by yourself and nobody ought to know. I'm not saying we ought to publish it, that might change all of our giving if we would run it on the screen. Here is what so-and-so gave this week, this year. Here's what they made, here's what they gave. That would really ............... But that's a personal matter so I'm not saying we ought to go to that. But by the same token we oughtn't to be so afraid somebody is going to know what somebody gave. Oh, they shouldn't know that. Why not? Like I say there have been times of blessing and I have thought, I ought to tell the church so they could experience it. Like Barnabas, came and gave it with the right motive and the church is blessed. So the gift of giving and we have a number of people that are blessed with that gift and we are blessed that they have that gift.

Come back to Romans 12. The gift of leadership. He who leads is to do it with diligence. He who leads, the word here, you go to a Greek dictionary or lexicon they would say to lead, to manage, to be in charge, to oversee. This is a person who stands over the people and has the responsibility of leadership. The church is not established in scripture to be a democracy. I'm of Baptist background and they are strong on congregational government. But even in Baptist churches that have strong churches they end up with strong leadership. That's why God says He gives the gift of leadership and those persons ought to do it with diligence. It is demanding, it is time consuming, it is burdensome. Paul himself said with all his other troubles he had the burden of the churches upon him. And leaders have the burden of the church upon them. It takes diligence, zeal, commitment in the exercising of this gift. It's probably similar if not the same as the gift of administration in I Corinthians 12:28. The word used there for that gift is a different word but it means to pilot a ship. So you can see it would be the same idea. It's setting the direction, the course, being responsible for that matter. So leadership. We sometimes say, we ought to vote, everybody ought to have a say. No, there can be input but God has gifted some to be leaders. And the head of the church exercises his leadership through those He has gifted to be leaders. So a rebellion against their leadership is a rebellion against Christ.

Turn over to I Peter 5. There are guidelines, there are qualifications. Elders are to be leaders in the church. There are qualifications, we have a couple of men we are recommending to be considered for elders now. They have been evaluated to the best of our ability as existing elders regarding the qualifications and requirements of scripture. We looked at them before we interviewed them, we have had them fill out the necessary work. We have evaluated that, now we have interviewed them and now we present them to you. We ask you over the next few weeks to respond to their candidacy because it is important that men being put into leadership responsibility, not just the formal leadership of elders but they are the leaders among the leaders in our church, be men of godly character. So I Peter 5 gives you some of the requirements. Verse 2, they are to shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, voluntarily, according to the will of God. Not for sordid gain but with eagerness, not as lording it over those allotted to their charge but proving to be examples. And when the Chief Shepherd appears you will received the unfading crown of glory. You see the Chief Shepherd is administering His rule through these shepherds. They are to shepherd the flock, verse 2, and the Chief Shepherd will reward them. And the flock is responsible to their leadership.

Come back to Hebrews 13:7, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Come down to verse 17, obey your leaders, submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable for you. Responsibility is to submit to the leaders God has appointed and they will give an account for their leadership. But if they have to give an account of their leadership but the sheep they were leading were rebellious and were not willing to follow their leadership, that wouldn't be profitable for the sheep because that rebellion is against the leaders that God has appointed through whom Christ is leading. So you see why it is important to have godly men in leadership. Then we are responsible to submit to that leadership. Sometimes there are people who, when we make difficult decision, become the super elders that sit out here thinking that their responsibility is to work through things and decide whether they leaders made the decision they would have made. Wait a minute, that's not submitting to the leadership. We go through this every time we have church discipline. We have to have godly men to lead the church in these matters. Other decisions that have to be made, then we support the leadership of those that God has placed over us. I don't have to know all the details, sometimes it's not possible to share all the details and not profitable in certain situations. So godly leaders are key to the health of the church.

Come back to I Thessalonians 5:12, we request you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction. And that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. And as a testimony to our church you have been a faithful flock in supporting the leadership of the leaders and that has made the ministry a blessing here. In times of turmoil and trouble it is especially important. Our church would have been torn to pieces if we had been just a congregational kind of government in some of the conflicts. That intimidates some churches from dealing with what they would have to deal with in hard and difficult matters. Because you develop all kinds of power centers in the church and factions, and it's because we are not functioning biblically. God's plan is to gift certain men to provide godly leadership for His people and Christ the head of the church will exercise His leadership through them and that gives unity and harmony and continuity to the church.

An aside, we have a remodeling project ahead of us. There will be decisions people will agree with and not agree with. God gives us leaders and we will trust God to give wisdom to them, and we pray to that end.

All right, one more gift, the gift of showing mercy. And they do that with cheerfulness. It's the person who can come with compassion and comfort. That ability to come in and comfort those going through difficulty and trial and pain and suffering. That special compassion. We all are to have mercy and show compassion, but some are gifted that way. And they bring that special dimension and presence and they are the ones who bring greatest comfort when they come to visit during those times. We say, why didn't so-and-so come? Well maybe they are not gifted of God. Be thankful that this person came, they are the one that God provides. Again, in all these gifts sit is not related to an office or a position, like being a pastor. We have numerous gifted teachers throughout the body who are not officially pastors or elders. We have numerous people who have the gift of showing mercy. A pastor doesn't have to come on that occasion, sometimes it's just a person with the gift of mercy that comes. And we thank God for that. There may be a pastor who comes who has the gift of mercy and we're glad for that.

What's your gift? If you don't know, go to work. Open up the worship guide, see where there are opportunities, what is needed. It doesn't mean you can only do your gift. If you don't know what your gift is, start. I think I've done about everything in the church, I even worked in a nursery way back when my hair was a different color and there was more of it. But I did it. I've cleaned. That's not bad, you learn to do different things, you appreciate what needs to be done, you develop an area. I've visited the hospital. But you begin to realize where you are effective, where it seems God uses me more. And you are drawn to that area because God is using you. So how do you find your gift? You begin to function. Sadly, some people decide that's the gift I have. It ought to be reinforced by others, sometimes it doesn't hurt to ask, do you think this is where I am gifted? Sometimes it is obvious to you and others, sometimes a person might say, I can see you here. I had some godly people, my pastor sat me down and said, Gil, we've observed you, we've watched you, we think this is where your gift is. That was a help to me. I thought my gift is here, this is where I really wanted to be. Well, we are just observers. God has gifted you, all we can do is tell you what we see may be your area of greatest effectiveness. I don't want to be closed to that. We sometimes think, why would they tell me I'm not gifted there? I want to be open to that. I mean, we are part of one another. If I see a foot trying to be a hand, maybe it helps to say, you're a foot. You make your best contribution as a foot. Oh, I always wanted to be a hand. Look, the hand is up here, this foot is down in the smelly sock. You want to be a foot? I want to be a hand. Wait a minute, if you are a foot, that's your great contribution. I don't want to spend my life trying and fighting against what God has gifted me to do. I just want to submit to Him. He has done what is best with me, here is where I want to serve. Lord, make it clear to me, make it clear to those around me and use me in the greatest possible way.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace, a grace that is ongoing. Lord, grace that is showered upon us. Thank you, Lord, for the grace that has gifted each one of us. Thank you for the blessing and encouragement that is ours to serve together as a body, part of one another, blest by one another and growing together a maturity into the head which is Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray in His name, amen.