Good morning. It's good to see
everyone here this morning. We'll begin our message. We'll
go to God in prayer again. I want to remind everyone of
our conference coming up at the last weekend of July 25th, 26th,
and 27th. I have looked at the corrections
and I'll make them today and I'll email this out to And if
you would, when you get the email, if you're on the email list,
if you're not, let me know and I can put you on there. And then
that way you can email it out to others that you might see
might benefit from coming and hearing the gospel. I'm glad
when other people come. I am. I'm glad to see other believers
come from other places. But these conferences are really
for us. and for the congregation here.
I hope that it'll be a time of refreshing for us. I know it
will be for me. I enjoy sitting down every once
in a while and listening. And so it'll be good for God
and good for me to hear other men pray for them. It'll be Kevin
and David David Edmondson and Kevin Thacker will be the preachers
coming to the conference and preaching for us. Pray for these
men. But more immediately, I need
your prayers. The conference is a good ways away. I'm fixing
to preach now. I need your prayer now, and I
need the Lord's grace now. So pray for me as I preach the
gospel to you, the message of grace. Hope the Lord will take this
and apply it to every heart. And these are very practical
things that we're going to be dealing with. And remember, every
practical thing has a motive. What's the motive of every practical
thing? It's the mercy of God, isn't
it? It's the grace of God. So as we are given these things
as believers to do, the motivation is not exalt ourself. The motivation is to exalt Christ,
to further the gospel. Because I know this, God has
a people that he's not yet called. I know that because he's not
come back. I know when he comes back there
ain't gonna be anymore. There's no more. When he comes back,
he saved everyone he's going to save and that's the end. But
until then, he has a people. He's going to save them, and
he's going to use his people, his church, for the furtherance
of that gospel, for the reaching of those people. And you're going to see that preaching
is not the only thing. There are many other things that
keep the church functioning and moving, not just the preacher. But every person in the church
has a part. Every person has a vital role
in the church, in the ministry of the church. Every person,
every believer. And we're going to see that everybody,
that the pastor, it's a high office, but it's just one of
many. It's one of many functions in
the church. And I pray that God would use
this and help us, help us to discern what God has given us
as believers in the church to do. Let's go to him in prayer. Our
Father, we come before you seeking mercy and grace in a time of
need, and this is a time of need. We need you. We need your power. We need your strength. We need
your wisdom. We need your grace. We need your
guidance. We need your word. And above
all, we need Christ to cleanse us of our sins. Through his blood and righteousness,
that we may be acceptable before you as we worship. I pray that everything redound
to the glory of Christ, every part of the message as we read
it, as we study it together, that this should humble every
heart and exalt Christ in every way. Father, we plead for those who
are sick, who are struggling, even now, I pray that you'd be
gracious and merciful, that you would comfort our hearts
and our minds, and if by your grace and mercy that you might
even heal our bodies. I pray, Father, for those that
are struggling in themselves with the flesh that you would
be gracious to overcome by your spirit, that the word might be
used and effectual, powerful to the hearts of every person.
If there be anybody outside, Lord, of Christ this day, that
you would be gracious to call them. One word from the lips of my
Savior is sufficient to call the dead to life, I pray that
you would do that today. I pray that you would call the
dead to life in faith. I pray that you would comfort
the living and instill love and grace in every heart that believes. Help me as I preach. Give me
the words. Put them in my heart, in my mind.
Pour them out as you please. We pray this in Christ's name,
for his sake. Amen. Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter
12. I've entitled this message, The Humility
and Gifts of the Church. Humility and Gifts of the Church. Now, I've stated before that
this This scripture, this chapter can be easily divided into three
parts. Verses 1 and 2 have to deal with
the exhortation of believers. That we should present our bodies
a living sacrifice. We know this, it's not just the
physical frame of our bodies. but it is our body, our soul,
our being should be consecrated to God and what's the motive?
What's the reason that we should give ourselves wholly to the
service of God? Because of the mercies of God. If you have experienced the mercy
of God, if you have seen the mercy of God in the face of Jesus
Christ, then what is this but reasonable? Paul said, this is
your reasonable service. That's the exhortation part.
Then he says, be not conformed to the world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. He's talking about spiritual
growth. Don't be following the fashion
of the world. That's the desire of our flesh,
isn't it? To follow the fashion of the
world. We must put that down, but be you transformed, metamorphosized,
changed, from the inside out. Religion wants to change you
from the outside in. They want you to stop doing this,
start doing this, and if you do that, then you'll change the
inside. That's not how it works. The
metamorphosis takes place on the inside by the power of the
Spirit of God. through the work of the Spirit
of God on the heart and the soul, creating a new man, and then
in that new man, it grows. We grow in understanding, we
grow in wisdom, we grow in strength. And as we grow, the warfare increases,
doesn't it? It doesn't diminish, the flesh
just doesn't give up, does it? The flesh is constant. And so
then the warfare as we grow enrages. So what is it said? Be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. The constant renewal of your
thoughts. God set our minds upright now. I think I told you that about
the demoniac. Remember, the demoniac of Gadara. He was possessed. And the Lord,
when the Lord cast out that legion, remember how they find him. They
found him clothed and in his right mind. That's what, when
God saved me, I was now clothed and in my right mind. My right
mind is this, I am a sinner and nothing at all. And Jesus Christ
is my all in all. That, my mind flipped. Once I
was everything. Whatever I wanted. And then if
I could fit Christ in, then that's how that worked, but now that
I'm in my right mind, but you know what, I gotta keep renewing
my mind about this. The battle of warfare is where
this takes place is in the mind, isn't it? And so renewing your
mind. And now, this is the second part.
Verses 3 through 8, he speaks of the gifts of the church. The gifts of the church. Let's
read this. He said, For I say through the
grace given unto me, To every man that is among you, not to
think of himself more highly, than he ought to think, but to
think soberly, according as God hath dealt every man the measure
of faith." Now, before Paul enters into the gifts of the church,
he's going to express what God has done for us who believe. He has given every man, every
believer, a gift. And it's not just one. You'll
see this, that there are many, you may have possessed many of
these gifts. Some more prevalent than others.
According to what? According to the measure of faith
that God has given you. But first, Paul must deal with
this matter of humility. If he were to rush into the gifts,
without this, it is our nature to try to exalt ourself. We look at the gift that God
has given us and we say, well, man, my gift's better than this
person's gift. And so what do we do? We start
to exalt ourself. Well, look at me. I'm a preacher.
I must be better than everybody else. That's the temptation,
isn't it? Or I'm a deacon. Or I help support
the church. I give more than everybody else.
And so the temptation is to exalt the gift. So Paul preemptively recognizes
the pride of our nature. And what he says is first this,
we must humble ourselves. Recognizing the pride of man
regarding gifts and talents, he exhorts us to humility. He exhorts us to humility. He
said, look, through the grace given me. He said, what was this
grace given? He was an apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He had authority. And he said,
by this grace that God has given me, I say to every one of you,
listen to this, do not think of yourself more highly than
you ought to think. You need to renew your mind constantly
about yourself. And this is what the renewing
of the mind will always lead to. I am nothing but a sinner
Saved by the grace of God, and everything I have is a gift of
His grace. Paul is going to show us this,
that we are not an island unto ourselves, but we are part of
a greater whole. We're only part. small part of
a greater whole. We as believers in Jesus Christ
are part of a spiritual body. Every believer is a part of the
spiritual body of Christ. You see, although there are many
local churches, there are many Assemblies and inside of every
assembly there are many individual believers And I know it's our mindset to
focus on ourselves isn't it isn't it It's our first instinct what
about me What about you You believers don't you understand
that you are just a small part of a great whole and A vital part, yes, but a part nonetheless. We are part of the body of Christ. Every individual believer is
in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care what gifts
you have. Isn't this astounding? It doesn't matter. You may be
the newest babe in Christ, or you may be the eldest believer
in the world, and yet you are this. This is the importance. It's not your growth or your
gifts. It's important to this. Are you
in Christ? This is altogether vital, because
if you're not in Christ, none of this matters. What humbles us is this. That
we are in union. We are in union with Christ.
In Colossians 1.18 he says the same thing. He said we are the
church. The church is the body of Christ. And Christ is the head of the
body. Now, I get animated up here. I move my hands and all this. Sometimes I go flip through the
YouTube and all I see myself is doing this on the YouTube
thing. But what does that? My hands
are doing it, but really it's at my head. It's my head that
moves and animates the body. What moves and animates the body
and gives life to the body is Christ. Christ is the head. Consider
that as you consider these gifts this morning. First of all, we
should be humbled by this because we are in union with Christ.
Who put you in Christ? Who made you His body? Did you
have anything to do with that? Not a thing. Before the foundation
of the world, the scripture says this, but of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. The whole of our salvation is
completely and absolutely the work of God alone. Where do you,
do you have any room to boast in? No. When Christ lived on
this earth and obtained righteousness, when Jesus died on the cross,
listen to me, we were in Him. He was our representative. We
were in Him. And when He rose again, we rose
with Him, we ascended with Him, even though yet our bodies had
not been yet created. And now, in time, the Spirit
of God has called you. How do I know if I'm in union
with Him? Because only those in union are saved. Only those
in union with Him have righteousness and forgiveness of sins. How
do you know if you have union with Him? Listen, faith in Christ
is the evidence of our union. When the Spirit called me, I
believed. You know what? I can't do anything
else. Can you do anything else? I know
my faith wanes. I tell you, my faith is weak.
But I know this, when you ask me of Christ, do you believe
that? Yeah. With all my soul, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. And this
is our union with Christ. And so then we are a part, all
of us, are a part of this body. Look, that's what he said. He
said, For we, having many members in one body, all members have
not the same office. So we, being many, are one body
in Christ. Everyone members one of another. Now then, he's bringing it, not
only are we in union with Christ, but we're in union with each
other. We're in union with each other. And this should humble us. And so, as we go over these gifts,
none of us should be exalted. If you recognize a gift that
God has given you, this gift should not exalt you. It should
humble you. It should cause you to give thanks.
Go to Mark chapter 9. Recall this. Our Lord Jesus Christ
Speaking of his humility now. He's talking about his humility
What he's going to do look at verse 31 of Mark 9 It said for
the Lord taught his disciples and said it in the son of man
is delivered into the hands of men and they shall kill him and
After he is killed he shall rise again the third day that Now
we understand that don't we that is that anybody misunderstand
what he just said I? Can you misunderstand that? Look
what happened to the disciples. He said, but they understood
not what he was saying. They didn't understand. Why did he tell them that? He
was going to show them their salvation. How he was going to
save them was by his humility. So they were afraid to ask him
and notice this in verse 33 they came to Capernaum and being in
the house He asked him. What was it that you disputed
among yourselves by the way and They held their peace For by
the way they disputed among themselves who should be the greatest You
see what he just did he told them he was going he being the
greatest was going to Humiliate himself was going to suffer Instead of humbling them, they
began to talk, well, who's going to be the greatest? Notice his compassion. He sat
down and called the 12 and said to
them, if any man desired to be first, the same shall be last
of all and servant of all. Who is the greatest? Who is the greatest of all? The
Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest of all. And what do you say about
himself? He shall be servant of all. Isn't that astounding? That he
being the God of heaven in human flesh humbled himself. Is this not the greatest example
that we as believers should follow? Do we seek greatness for ourselves? Scripture says, seek it not.
Seek it not. But rather humble yourselves.
So if we then offend, if we do anything to offend,
we should be all diligent to cut off all offense. All offense. We should do all diligence to
take the lowest place. The lowest place. And he uses the analogy of a
body. He says, look at your body. Your body is one body, isn't
it? And your body has many members.
Hands, feet, eyes, ears a mouth We have many members And because we are members of
the same body It is it should be the natural inclination To
guard the body in it. I remember when the kids were
little and they had those legos all over the house and I'd get
up in the middle of the night and I'd walk through and I'd
step on one of those Legos. When my foot hit that little
piece of plastic, my whole body reacted. I picked up my foot, my whole
body began to balance on one foot. My hands were massaging
my foot trying to stop the pain. He said, this is exactly how
it is in the body. Every member affects the other member. You're
not an island to yourself. What you do affects everyone
else in the body. This should humble us, friends,
that it's not about us. It's about the body. It's about
the head. And so as we see, the body has
many members. Also the church, being the body
of Christ, has many members. Many members. Each one distinct,
yet necessary. Could you do without your right
hand? You say, well that's just not necessary. I got a left hand. I don't need this one. Would
you dare say that? No. Every part is vital. And so it is with the church.
Look at this, read it again with me, verses 5 and 6. He says,
So we being members of one body, Christ, and every one members
one of another, having gifts differing according to the grace
given us. Every member has a gift of grace. So with a thought of humility,
That's where we're at. Present your bodies, living sacrifice,
transform your minds about your importance here. Don't think
of yourself any more highly than you are, but according to the
measure of faith that God has given you. Listen, He gave gifts
unto His church. Every member of the church has
a gift. I'm not talking about the physical
member that signs a card. That's not it. We're talking
about a spiritual member of the body. If you'll notice, when
you guys came in, did I give you something to do? Did I give
you a job? That's what the church today
is all about. They go in, they look at a man's
talents, they say, well, man, this guy's an accountant. Well,
let's put him in charge of the money. Or, hey, that guy, he's
an auto worker. Maybe we can help fix the church
car or van or whatever. And they give him a job. I'm
not here to give you a job. I'm not here to del out gifts
and discern gifts. You have a gift. It's given you
by God and not the pastor. And it's not my job to make you
do your job. That's not my job! I'm not going to give you instructions
as to what you should do. If God's given you something
to do, do it! What do you need me for? What
do you need my permission for? You don't need my permission.
If God's given you a gift and it benefits the people, what's
that to me? The gift that I have, I'm doing
it. And so everyone should do theirs.
With what? Humility. Humility. First of all, prophecy. Prophecy. Look at this. He said, having
gifts differing, according to grace given us, where the prophecy
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. This does not mean fortune-telling.
Not what he's talking about. In the Old Testament, many of
the Old Testament prophets spoke about future things because Christ
had not yet come. They were talking about Christ,
and He had not yet come, so their prophecy was mainly future things. Today, our prophecy is looking
back mostly. There are still future things
that are to come. Christ is going to come, the
dead is going to be raised, Christ is going to divide all men, He's
going to judge all men, He's going to accept His elect and
He's going to damn those that are not. That's coming. That's
future. But most of our ministry is dealing
on the past and the present. Christ. Christ has come. And listen, anybody that doesn't
preach Christ is not of God. They can call themselves a preacher,
they can say they have gifts, and they can be great speakers.
There's plenty of great speakers out there. Self-help gurus. You want your marriage fixed?
They'll help you out. You want your finances fixed? They'll
help you out. They have their subjects. But that's not a preacher. That's not someone sent of God.
In Deuteronomy, God promised a prophet. He said, I'm going
to send a prophet like unto you, Moses, and him, to him I will
give my words. And if you don't hear him, I'll
require it of you. Now who's that prophet? prophet Christ Jesus Christ is
the prophet of God and he has spoken the word of God now but
there will come other prophets he said but the prophet which
shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded
to speak or that shall speak in the name of other gods even
that prophet shall die And then God knows what you're going to
ask. Well, how are we going to know which prophet is of God
and which one's not? Listen to what God said. He said,
If thou shalt say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which
the Lord hath not spoken? Now, the false prophet is going
to preach to you what God has not spoken. Well, how do we know
what God has not spoken? Well, listen. If the thing spoken
doesn't come to pass, it's not of God. When God gives a man the ability
to be a preacher, one who preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's
what he's going to preach. He's going to preach what God
has said. I'll give you an illustration
of something God has not said. Jesus Christ died for all men
without exception. God did not say that. How do
I know that? Simply this, because not all
men are going to be saved. If Christ died for all men, you
listen to me, everybody would be saved. There wouldn't be any
hell. But we know this, that Christ
came to save His people from their sins. How do I know that?
The Word of God testifies to that. The angel said, you shall
call his name Jesus, for he shall save, listen, his people from
their sins. Now who is he going to save?
He'll save his people. Who are they? They're his people. I don't know who they are. They're
called the elect. And I know this, he'll not lose
one of them. How do I know that? Because the
Lord said it. Jesus said, of all that the Father giveth me,
I should lose, how many? How many? Nothing. So if any
man tells me that Christ died for all men, listen, that's not
a prophet of God. Because he's speaking against
what God has said. So believer, don't be afraid
of false religion. False religion is massive, isn't
it? We drove here and I think last week, they had this
carnival thing over there. Man, I was on the freeway and
I saw these big blow-up slides and things. You know, it's not
the fact that they had some kind of carnival, but I know what
they preach there. They don't preach the gospel
of Christ at all. But don't be afraid of them. Because I know this, God will
save His people. And I tell you what, we were
all part of those, we were all part of that. False religion,
and then God what? He called us out. And I'm sure
that there are many out there in it today that God will call
out, if He pleases. So this prophecy, this is preaching
the gospel. Now, this includes the office
of a pastor. This is the office God has called
me to, to preach the gospel. Not that there's anything greater
in me. The more I do this, the more
I understand why God chose me is because I was the least. I was the least. Not because
I was the greatest. I was not the best orator that
I knew. I was not the best speaker. I
was not the most knowledgeable in scripture that I knew. I knew
many men superior to myself. And so everyone called to this
office understands this, that we are not sufficient for ourselves.
Listen to what the apostle said about himself. He was called
to be an apostle. I'm not called to be an apostle.
That's not my office. That was his. Listen to what
he said. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything
of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who hath also made
us able ministers of the New Testament. Who makes able ministers? Who equips people for this gift? It is God who sustains me as
I preach the gospel. It is God that sustains me. It
is God that keeps me. If I learn anything, if I know
anything, if I'm able to communicate anything to you, I'm not sufficient
for myself. My sufficiency is in the power
of God and not myself. I don't get to promote myself. I didn't call myself to this.
I didn't give myself the gifts to do this. And listen, we don't
preach the law. Listen, Paul said, we are made
able ministers of the New Testament. Listen, not of the letter, but
of the Spirit. Not of the law. We're not here
to preach the law. The law can only condemn you. I'm not here
to preach salvation by works or merit. I'm here to preach
salvation by mercy. Now, are there any sinners in
need of mercy? Absolute free mercy. That's the only kind of salvation
God gives, is mercy. Not merit. Not merit. Why? Because he merited everything
that God required. That's what preachers preach. And so I and every gospel preacher
must never be lifted up with pride concerning our office.
We are not sufficient in ourselves but only by the power of God.
Therefore, Paul said this, we preach not ourselves. I want you to bear me record.
Have I preached myself? If I ever preach myself, please
leave. Don't listen. We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus. But Jesus Christ, the Lord, and
ourselves, your servants for Christ's sake. This is one who
is given the gift of preaching. And this verse is the sum of
what we preach. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
That's how you know if a man's called to preach. And I'll say
this, we're not, I learned this very early, never to promote
myself to this. When I felt like the Lord called
me to preach, I went to my pastor and I told
him that the Lord called me to preach. And he just left me standing
in the hallway. He said, that's great, Fred.
And he left me standing there. I thought surely he would say,
wow, that's great. That's wonderful. Come preach
for me next Sunday if the Lord's called you to preach. What was
I doing? I was promoting myself. My pastor taught me a great and
wonderful wise thing. He said, What God's Word said,
a man's gifts will make room for him. If God's called you
to preach, He'll open the place. One month later, my mother-in-law
said there's a position at the hospital to preach. And the Lord opened that for
me. I didn't have to open that. I didn't ask for it. I didn't
even know Redeemer Baptist Church existed. until the Lord called me to this
place. And so if there's any having
a desire to preach, never promote yourself. If men don't want you
to be their pastor, then don't. Just wait. And God will call
you. If God wants you to preach, He'll
call you. If God wants you to preach, He'll exalt you. He'll
put you in the place. And then when he does, listen,
what Paul says to pastors is this, if that's your gift, then
focus on that gift. With all diligence. The second
one, ministry. Ministry. He said ministry, let
us wait on ministry. Now the word let us wait is in
italics, so he's saying this, ministry, if this is your gift,
ministry, service, that's what it means, to serve. Then what
should you do? Serve. If your calling is to
serve, then serve. In other words, you should be
totally occupied with serving. Ministry. Now there are many
different things about ministry. This is a big area, isn't it? Service. First thing comes to mind is
deacons. Deacons. Remember in the early church,
there was dispute between the Jews and the Gentile widows. The Jewish widows were getting
most food, and the Gentile widows were being neglected in the church. So there's a big dispute, and
they come to the apostles, and they say, look, you need to handle
this. There's a dispute. And the apostle
says, look, We are meant for this office of preaching. Is it wise for us to set aside
the study and prayer to go and literally wait tables? Is that really sufficient? If we neglect the most important
thing, which is what? The Gospel. That's what they
would have to neglect to do it. So what they did is said, look,
set aside seven men in the church that you know are honest, full
of the Spirit of God, and let them do that work. There were
many of them. One of them was Stephen. Stephen. Philip and several other men
were chosen to do that work. So what was their ministry? Their
ministry was to help the preacher, to help the apostles. And that
did help, didn't it? It allowed the apostles to do
their work by coming along and doing this work that was needed
in the church. This wasn't a small thing. The
apostles weren't saying this was a small thing. This was a
necessity. And so this is what some men
do and I get most every man in this congregation helps me. Imagine if I had to attend to
everything in this place and study and prepare the messages. I'll tell you both would be horrible.
Probably halfway cut the grass and halfway get done with my
message But these men come alongside and they minister in these things
they don't think it's ministry it is You when the when the ladies
come in or they clean the floor they empty the trash What is
that but service? It is service And if God has
given you a heart to do it, then what should you be about? Do
it. With what? All your heart. Why? Because it is just as vital as
the preacher. Is the hand more important than
the mouth? No. And so Paul is saying, if God
has given you the ministry to come alongside and help in any
matter in the church, any part, then be occupied with that. Teaching. Here's another one.
If God has given you the ability to teach, then teach. That doesn't
mean publicly. That doesn't have to be in a
Sunday school room or in a pulpit. Now that does happen. There are
a lot of young men right now that are coming alongside and
helping pastors when they're absent from the pulpit. There
are some men that are gifted with the ability to preach or
to teach the Word of God. And I'm thankful for those men.
If God's given you that, then do that! Do that with all your
might. It's a gift. Now, not everybody
can speak, right? I've heard this a thousand times.
You know, people want to witness to others, and they say, well,
man, I just can't say it like you say it, or you don't have
to. You've got ability to give them
messages, don't you? You could say, hey, like, I believe it was Nathanael said
to Philip, or Andrew said to Philip. Philip's under that tree
and Andrew comes and he said, hey, I think we found the Lord.
I think the Lord, the Christ is here. And Philip asked him
a question he couldn't answer. He said, I don't know, come and
see. Come and see. But some men do
have an ability to sit down with others and teach. And if God's
given you that ability, then do it. Priscilla and Aquila.
Didn't they do that to Apollos? Apollos was a great orator. He
was a great speaker. But he didn't have much knowledge.
And so if God's given you the ability to teach, teach. Teach. You know what I found some of
the greatest teachers? The greatest teacher is a man who doesn't
know everything. A man who can teach is a man
that doesn't know everything. He desires to be a learner. Those are the best teachers.
And if God has given you the ability to teach or to speak
a word in his name, do that. Witness. Fourthly, look at this, exhortation.
He that exhorteth on exhortation. He that is gifted with exhortation
is to be occupied with exhorting. This is to come alongside someone
in need. Every time the gospel is preached,
aren't you exhorted? When I preach to you, do I not
exhort you to faith, repentance, love? That's what the gospel
does, doesn't it? It exhorts us! Now what if this
exhortation ends with me? What good would that do? If just
you are exhorted. God has given you the ability
to exhort others, to encourage others. Then do that. Encourage them to the same things
you are encouraged. Aren't you encouraged to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ? When you hear how great He is
and how wonderful is salvation, you're encouraged. Well, if God's
given you the ability to convey that to someone else, encourage
them. Why? They need it just as much
as you do. I want you to know this. You sitting
there, you have not said one word to me. You have not made
one gesture to me at all. And I want you to understand,
by just sitting there, you have encouraged me. You have exhorted
me. You have, by God's grace and
power of the gift given to you, have encouraged me to keep doing
what I'm doing, which is encouraging you. It's necessary that we encourage
one another. And I'm telling you, Faithful
attendance to the service is an encouragement, not just to
the pastor, but to everyone else. Isn't it? When you see other
people here, tell me, are you not encouraged? When you see people that are
not here, aren't you discouraged? And so as we are exhorted, let
us exhort one another. To what? Let us exhort sinners
to faith and repentance. To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'll tell you what, the lost have many questions that
you can't answer. Don't worry about it. Exhort
them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell them their need. Show them Christ is the Perfect
Savior. Exhort believers to faithful
service. Exhort one another to love. Isn't
that what he said in Hebrews 10? Forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but as you
see the day approaching. What does this do? Exhorts one
another to love. That's what he said. And I'll
tell you, it's true to me. Like I said, you sit there, I
love you, I love you, just look at you. You're exhorting me. Let us exhort one another to
take heart and not be afraid. Anybody afraid? I fear quite too often. I'm afraid. It's all right. I had good company.
The apostles had the Lord Jesus Christ himself in the boat and
they were afraid. So what do we do? We're to exhort
one another with the word of God. Here's one. Fear not. Don't
be afraid. But I am afraid. It's okay. I
am too. Don't be afraid. We encourage
one another with these words. Giving. Look at this gift. He
that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. You know, in my experience,
I've seen this. The best givers are not rich. Rich people have a lot to tend
to. They have a lot of things that
they have to maintain. I know a man, he owns two million
dollar homes. That's a lot to maintain, right? I'm just not talking about the
mortgages on those things. I'm talking about the upkeep
and the lights and the necessities, the plumbing always going out,
the lights going out. So this is a great expense. And
usually what it is, is that people who have money tend to take care
of all these other things and then out of the stuff that's
left, they say, well, I'll give just a little bit. And what they
give truly is more than Everybody else. One man came and wrote
a $10,000 check one time. But $10,000 to him is more like
$100, $200 to you. $200, that's a pretty substantial
amount for people on fixed incomes. But to him, $10,000 was really Nothing. I think he probably
didn't go on a trip somewhere. He had to sacrifice a trip. You know who gives the most? Who's been forgiven most? That's who gives the most, isn't
it? Remember this? The history of that woman, Simon
the Pharisee, that pompous Pharisee, what a man that believed in the
Lord Jesus Christ nonetheless. And he had a big feast at his
house, invited the Lord over, great expense. The Lord came
in and this woman came in. She was a prostitute. This woman was looked down by
everyone. And she came in, not boasting in her sin, but
in humility, she fell at his feet. And she began to weep and
wash his feet with the tears and take her hair and wipe his
feet with her hair. And she had a box of ointment
that was very expensive. And she rubbed it on his feet.
And Simon said, if he was a prophet, he'd know what kind of woman
this is. And he wouldn't even let her touch him. And the Lord
said, Simon, I got something to say to you. He said, Master,
say on. He said, there was a man, a creditor,
who had two debtors. One owed 500 pence. Five million
dollars. And he had another guy that owed
him 50 dollars. But there was a problem, both
of them were broke. And he freely forgave them both. And he asked the question, which
do you suppose would love more? And he said, I suppose the man
that you forgave the most. And he said, that's right, that's
true. He that is forgiven much, listen, loveth much. The more we understand the debt
we owe to God, the more we see what price the Lord Jesus paid
for our sins, the more willing and freely we give of everything
we have. I'm not talking just money. I've
told people this. I've had people come up there
and when you talk about giving, they swell up like a toad frog.
You know, they just tighten up. They don't want to talk about
that. Look, if you feel that way, don't give, please. If it makes you, if you feel
hardened about it, don't do it. God doesn't need your money.
You think God needs you? He doesn't need your money. We give
that. because of what we've been given.
We know that this is necessity, doesn't it? This building is
a necessity, the pasture is expensive, necessity, the lights, the air
conditioning that you enjoy, all of these things are necessities.
So yes, people give. But listen, he said if you have
that gift, listen, do it with liberty. With liberality. And we give. Why? Because of
what we've been given. And I'll tell you, whatever measure
we've been given, that's the measure we'll give. I'm not talking
about money only. What about time? How much easier
is it to write a check than to actually give up your time to
go over to somebody? Huh? Takes a lot more, doesn't it?
So giving is not just money. It is your energy. It is your
time. And if God has given you that,
then you should do that. Okay, ruling. I'm moving quickly. Ruling. This surely has to do
with pastors. God's given men to oversee the
church. And Paul says, if God has put
you in a position of ruling, he said, do it diligently with
haste. Earnestness. When I come here, I'm not playing. I don't play, church. A lot of times I sit there and
He don't go with me. I don't want to get up here.
He's not with me. You don't want me to be here. He's called me. I should do this
with all haste and earnestness. And this is husbands in your
home. You rule your home. It should
be done with all diligence and earnestness. As what? As unto God. In service. Over your children? Over your
grandchildren? Shouldn't you be earnest in their spiritual matters. Shouldn't
you be earnest about that? You have rule. You should be
earnest about this. It should be a necessity. Mercy. Oh, here's a gift. Mercy. Let me ask you this. Who needs
mercy? Someone who deserves it or doesn't
deserve it? Listen, if they deserve it, it's
not mercy, is it? So as the body of Christ, we
that have the gift of mercy, what should we show? Mercy. Mercy upon those that don't deserve
it. Now listen, if you're going to
be a believer for a while, you're going to find out this, that
you're going to get offended. Isn't that true, Joanne? You're
going to get offended eventually. You've been around a while to
see this. And yes, believers are nothing
but sinners saved by grace and they could be a real jackass. They just can. They can treat
you really bad. They can hurt your feelings.
They can call you names. They can do all sorts of evil
things and still be believers. What a gift to be able to have
mercy on people who don't deserve it. How are we to forgive one another? When your body does something
you don't want it to do, how many times you drop something,
you know, you think you got it and it just falls and it breaks
or something, and you go, But then, how quickly do you forgive
your body? Do you cut that hand off? No, it's part of you, isn't it?
Look, you're part of me. We're part of one another because
we're part of Him. Should we not then have mercy?
Should we not be the most merciful people on the face of the earth? Should we not be the most forgiving
people, seeing how often he forgives us our sins? How often? My Bible says that he gives mercy
every morning. His mercies are new every morning. Shouldn't your mercies be new
every morning? I tell you, you can't stop the
anger or the hurt, but you sure can stop how you react to it. May God help us to have the gift
of mercy. And then whatever these gifts, whatever gift you have in the
body, it is just as vital as anyone else's. So we don't exalt our gifts,
we give thanks for them. We give thanks. When he gets to this passage
and he says, be not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord. He's not talking about fervent
in your job, you should be, whatever job you have. He's talking about
being fervent in the service of God, using your gifts. So we see this. We must be humble. And then as
God gives us grace to discern what we've been given to do,
may God give us grace to do it. Not just think about it. How
many times you think about, oh, I know I need to do this. Then
what? Well, just your thought about
it doesn't help anyone. Do it. for the service of Christ. I hope the Lord will help us
with this. As a church, as a body, draw us closer to Him, closer
to one another. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Terrence, just miss him in prayer,
please, please. Brother. Our Father in heaven, we pray to you, in the name of the Father, we
pray to you, in the name of the Son, we pray to you, we pray to you,
we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you,
we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray
to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray
to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray
to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray
to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray
to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray
to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, we pray to you, Pray just for a
friend. Father, we're so thankful for what you're going to do and
we thank you for the ways in which you live. We give everything
for you. Or we just pray that you fill
us up with your blessing. You know, to retain us in our
mind. To cause us to think about you. To be worthy of your favor. May God bless you. Please go back to our humble
bodies. And pray for us to be able to express ourselves with
you. that is my only hope. We confess
our sins to the Father, and Lord, we confess our sins, and we know that we have sinned,
and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned,
and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have
sinned, and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have
sinned, and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned,
and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned,
and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned,
and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned,
and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned,
and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned,
and we know that we have sinned, and we know that we have sinned, and we We
need the people everywhere, today, wherever they gather in Christ
Jesus. We have to. We have to keep them
in the places where He's at. It won't happen. So find this
precious Word of God, heavenly in Christ Jesus, and you can
make any reaction you want. Here's an example. There you go.