The Believer and the Body

Well, today we start sort of the practical section of Romans, if you will. Actually, verse 3, most people consider the practical start of Romans. So we're going to look at a lot of neat things about the believer. And actually, I would like someone to read, starting back in verse 3, and read 3 through 8, if I could get a volunteer for that, in Romans chapter 12. Yeah, I want to start in verse 3, and 3 through verse 8.

For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each and each our faith. 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 individual members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ from each other, according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise according to it, a prophecy according to the proportion of his faith. If service and conserving are he who teaches and is teaching, are he who exhorts and is exhortation, he who gives with the liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with chastisement.

Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, well we're going to basically cover, Bob actually covered verse 3 last week, but I thought It was kind of good to read that again. And something that kind of starts this section on spiritual gifts is the statement in the middle of verse 3, not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. The tendency can be sometimes, well, I have this spiritual gift and watch out, or something like that. I don't think that's the Lord's intent. It's to be for the benefit of the body. It's to be humility. And that's a good thing to keep in mind. Maybe in a given body, there may be multiple people that have the same gift. And I've always thought if another brother or sister has that ability, let them go first. I mean, now, of course, everybody does that. Nobody will do anything. But you go first. No, you go first. But actually, it never seems to happen. I don't know. And that's not a guilt trip either. So anyway, let's kind of jump into these verses here.

It's really kind of neat. What I found when I started looking at the spiritual gifts, boy, it really helps to look at the original word and the definition, because in your mind you have one thought, and you read the word and you say, wow, that's totally different than what I thought that gift was. I thought that was so and so, and the word says that, and that's different. The other observation that I came to is that I think The gifts that are mentioned in this passage, and there are other passages that mention gifts, for the most part, every believer has some aspect of these gifts. But there may be a person in the body that excels in particularly one of those gifts. But we all have, to some degree, all these gifts. We all have children, for the most part. We all wind up teaching our children. Sunday school, a variety of things, we all wind up showing mercy, you know, all these different things. We all wind up doing those things.

And so don't think, well, I can't find my gift in this list. I think we all kind of have aspects of all those gifts. So anyway. So let's go. So the first verse four says, for just as we have many members in one body, and all members do not have the same function. And before we go to my little diagram. Let's compare this verse. Keep your finger there. Well, actually, keep your fingers on the overhead there. That's back in the old days. Keep your finger here, right? And then go over here. Well, it's up there. OK.

Let's compare that verse with 1 Corinthians 12.12. 1 Corinthians 12.12.

And 1 Corinthians 12.12 says, Very similar phraseology For even as a body is one and yet has many members and all members of the body and all the members of the body Though they are many are one body So also is Christ So reading that what what do you see? The differences between the verses say very much the same thing one thing that sticks out. There's one body and They're members of that one body, and they're more than one. They're many, right? There's one body with many members.

When you look at 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 12, and look at this one, what information is different between what's the same and what's different? What's different, I guess, is what I was searching for here. What piece of information do you think this may give, the other one does not, and may vice versa? Go ahead. Excellent. That's what I was looking for, basically.

This brings out that there's one body with many members, but they don't have the same function. So I think that's kind of a key thing. The function of the many members is different. And then the other thing is here, and maybe this is obvious, what do you think, is this addressing the physical body, the spiritual body or both? And I read it, and I reread it, and I kind of went back and forth. I started out one way, and then I said, well, wait a minute, maybe... So I'm just kind of curious. When you read that, what do you think?

Well, obviously the body is referencing the church. Okay. And so the church has both elements, too. Okay. By its very nature, we all have physical bodies. So when we congregate, we're all one physical body together. But the spiritual aspect of it is that we're all united and one in Christ. And I think that's what 1 Corinthians 12 emphasizes. Is it a gift more applicable to the church than it is our own physical body? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Right. The gifts are going to talk about the many members and each member has a gift or a function or how he serves the body.

Other thoughts about this? I'm not sure this is a huge point. I looked at that and I thought, well, it seemed to me that he was maybe setting the stage here. Verse 4, if you didn't read the passage, I had you read and compare it, which wasn't fair. You put your blind on and you say, well, okay, let's see.

I have a body and it has many members and my hand doesn't have the same function as my foot, right? I mean, you could, in isolation, look at that and say, well, that's just talking about, you know, there's one body, I don't have multiple bodies and I have many members and they don't have the same function. The hand doesn't do what the foot does, the eye doesn't do what the nose does and so on. So I kind of went back and forth and said, okay, but when you read, when you come down and read the next verse that follows, it's obvious that he was setting the stage for that and wanted to make the comparison between the human body and the body of Christ. So I thought this was just, you know, it could be looked at in isolation. You could say that's just talking about my human body and it has, you know, hand doesn't have the function of the foot and so on. Okay. All right. So let's go on here. OK, so the first clause there is we have many members and then and all members do not have the same function. So one of the first questions is, what is this members? What's members about?

And actually, you know, in a physical sense, and actually the word literally means a limb of the body. And there's two to. If you look in vines, and actually I don't always put it down there, but normally I use vines most of the time. I try to put it every place I do, but I forgot this time.

So in the literal sense, you'll find that it'll talk about physical limbs of your body, physical members of your body. But in terms of the body of Christ, it talks about the believers as members of Christ's body. So there's that members, it can be, depending upon the, context, it could be members of a physical body, or it could be members of Christ's body. And I think it's setting the stage for the verses to follow.

And the next question is, is there anything to be learned from this function or same function? We have many members in one body, and all members do not have the same function. And actually, I didn't put this down on the chart. But it's the idea that idea of function is a mode of of acting or action. It's how something acts or functions. And let's just look here. Look, let's look at X 19 X 19. And it uses that that word for for function or for action X 19. And this isn't a very pleasant example. In Acts 19, around verse 18, let's just go back and look at verse 17 and 18.

And this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus. And fear fell upon them all, and the name Lord Jesus was being magnified. of those also who had believed kept coming and confessing and disclosing their practices. They weren't good practices, but that's things they were doing.

So the idea of this function or action is something that is done, is some action that is carried on. So basically, back to this verse, it says that these many members in this one body have different actions or functions. Pretty straightforward. Okay, the next part is, and actually it continues on, that's actually the rest of the sentence, if you will. So we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Okay, so let's just look at the first part.

It says, the many are one body in Christ. And actually, in the construction here, the many, speaking of the members of the body, are one body. And one actually defines, it's a construction where are is a verb, many are one body. And one body is what's called a predicate nominative, and it names the subject. So it defines the many as one body. So what you notice here, we come back to one body, one body, one body, just over and over again.

I think that's central, is that that the gifts are meant to edify the one body, not to be something that is showcased for the individual. It's for the one body. And that's really kind of key. And it's in Christ. It's not, hey, I have this great gift and I'm going to go out and show the world this great gift. No, you're doing it in this one body, which is Christ's body, and you're doing it in Christ, not separate in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the last part of the verse here is, and actually, this is a literal Greek, if you will, the body is, this is kind of implied, the body is members, each one one of another. So we're intertwined, interrelated by our union in Christ.

Yes, go ahead. Sure. OK. No, no. And I and I I was always doing it. No. OK. Absolutely. Absolutely right. And I see what you're. that word practice is the same word. It means something they were doing. It was something they were acting out or doing. It's not, and I agree. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And that's somewhat a danger sometimes. And when you choose, you find a word someplace else, maybe a totally different context and you're looking for just, well, how does that, what does that word mean? And it means doing something or practicing something.

Well, okay. Well, I've had a chance to look at it for a week or so, so I mean, you know, that's, I understand. Okay, well, thank you for clarifying that. I was not indicating, that's why I said it wasn't the best place to find the usage of that word. Okay. All right.

So let's, you know, all this interrelationship with the body, I think there's a really neat, and we actually read part of it already. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 12 again. Let's just read the rest of the story as they say. First Corinthians 12, there's actually a longer discourse about the body and the function of the members and all that. And I think it's really, and if I get someone to read, or maybe two people, I'll have to read 12 through 27. It's quite a lengthy passage, but it's going to talk about all these different members and how, hey, they're not working independently. So if someone would like to read, start, that'd be great, Randy.

For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot says, Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker, are necessary, and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it, but God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacks so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Isn't that fabulous? Wow, I mean it's just incredible. But you see the focus. We're individually members, one of another. There's this interrelationship.

And we may have, you know, there may be exceptional people in your body, but the idea is not necessarily to showcase those exceptional people. It's how does that relate to the entire body, and there may be people that aren't so exceptional. But it's interesting, it says, you know, don't think that they're not as worthwhile. You kind of think, well, we got John and Sally and Jane, and look at all they're doing. These guys are the movers and the shakers, and the other folks, what are they doing? Well, he says that they're, they're important, they're part of your body. You think of that, you can't neglect. Physically, you cannot neglect. You neglect your toenail, for example, and you can be hurting big time, limping around. You can't neglect the smallest member.

That's good, wonderful exhortation. I think the gifts have to be set in that context. If you take them out of context and try to make them something that I'm a mover and a shaker and I got this gift and stand back and watch out for me, I think that does a service to the body. It really does. Randy? One of the things that I think both of these emphasize is the uniqueness of not everybody has the same function and how that works. When I was involved with a charismatic church in my youth, One of the concepts that got taught was that you could have any gift you want. You just pray for it, ask for it. Name it and claim it, right? And you could just operate in it.

Well, that takes away the uniqueness of the Holy Spirit working through you at that time. Yeah, it also takes away what the Lord says here, that he's the one that chooses, he's the one that makes the decisions and that kind of stuff. Go ahead, Roy. It's just a passing observation. Okay, good. Excellent. No, no, it is. It really is.

And I think in a way, when you come into a body, you ought to be, in a way, looking for that. I mean, you know, I come to the body and I want to do my thing. Well, that's not, that's a wrong, that's a wrong mode of it. You come, you look, How can I be part of this body? How can I help? Anything. It doesn't matter. You come with a different motivation. I've been in bodies where people come in, not this body, but they come in and say, I have a gift. Stand back. You have to let me practice it. You kind of shake your head and you think, it's kind of sad. It's kind of sad to see that. I have a gift and you have to let me do it. I say, okay, well.

You know, I think that's the wrong focus entirely. Other thoughts? Well, I don't think we're always aware, or even need to be, how the Lord has imposed it. We may be totally unaware of it, and it seems to work well. No, I agree. I agree with you. I don't think that, you know, Some people, we've got to go search out, I've got to nail down my three spiritual gifts. I've got to tell everybody I have these three spiritual gifts and you have to know I have them. Well, wait a minute. That seems totally backwards to me.

The thing is that you are what you are. the Holy Spirit works through you in that way and you are who you are. The pancreas doesn't have to discover it's a pancreas. But it is what it is and there's not searching it out. What does that mean? And I agree with you.

It seems like many times you what you're comfortable with. I mean, you feel comfortable doing certain things. And sometimes you feel uncomfortable with, like, if I try to go up and sing, I feel very uncomfortable with that. And you probably will too. I know Bonnie will. So anyway, so certain things that you kind of know. And then sometimes, you know what happens is sometimes you, you would like to contribute, and sometimes it doesn't seem that it's the right time. You say, okay, Lord, this may not be the right time. I think that's the approach with the gifts.

We're going to find out that, like I said, many of these are already in operation for all of us. The compassion we have for brothers and sisters, I don't think you have to rally that up, it just happens. When somebody's hurting, you naturally want to go and comfort them, and encourage them, and help them, and it just happens. You don't have to say, okay, now time for encouragement everyone. If you do that, it's probably not the wrong focus there. Okay, yeah, go ahead.

Okay. somebody else and I attend their church and I find within myself often that I feel like, well I'm not going to get anything there. They have nothing to offer me. Or I sit in a Sunday school class and feel like, you know, they really could get more depth out of this person right here. And yet, this is telling me that these people are as valuable in their functioning within the body of Christ as anybody here.

And to keep that in mind and say, okay, Lord, what have you got for me? And it may not be necessarily what they get out of the text, but what they say as an individual when they greet me or whatever. And the Lord shows his light through them. Right, right. That's a good point.

I mean, the thing is, we're constantly, you know, we know many believers, we have connections with many relatives, family, and they have many churches out there. Many of them you say, boy, I don't know. I know, you know, there's no substance there. It doesn't seem like to us. I don't think it's our place necessarily, unless someone asks you, what do you think about this? And you say, well, I think there's some, and you tell them, but if they don't ask you, you're not going to proclaim that this gathering of believers, and they may be off, we know, or they shouldn't be, but until they ask you, until they want to know, I don't know. It's hard to tell people something unless they want to know it. I don't know if your experience has been, unless they want to know it, You can talk to them all day, and it's just like it's a rock wall. You never make any problem.

And they say, well, have you seen this before? Well, the door opens, and they're willing to listen. So, that's great. Thank you. Sure. Also, do you think that there's a tendency sometimes to equate earthly talents with spiritual gifts? I have found no place to do my yo-yo. But I think there's an assumption that if this person was a singer, I couldn't put a pot roast on them. Right, right. I just don't...

And I think that's true. I think that's true. You tend to think, you know, well, certain people, because of their earthly profession, naturally, you know, and I don't think that's the case. I mean, you look at, you look at the background of many people and sometimes you'll find some, you know, seems to be some connections, but a lot of times you will not. I mean, you know, no, I agree. I agree with that. Well, I think it was sooner, too, but going back, he starts with one and two, right?

Right. Preventing your body by the sword is a threat and a living sacrifice. It seems like a lot of times we want to skip over that and get right to the gift. Exactly. That part has to be right. If that's not understood, then you're getting the cart before the horse.

That's good. That's good. And actually in the summary, actually I have a summary from Brother Hal and he points, he kind of goes through that. That's the beginning point, which is really good. Okay. So, and there wasn't much, many basically means many great, you know, it's a number of folks. Okay. All right. So actually, and just talking about that, here's an analogy that Hal did back in 78, basically. And we already kind of said this to a large degree.

The human body has many members, a hand, a foot, etc. And there's only one body. You haven't come across some people that have more than one body. If they do, they usually have a problem. And not all of your members have the same function or same office.

Then you go over to the church. Many members are believers. There's one body. members of one another because of our union with Christ. And that's a key element. And that's what kind of rules out the thing, well I have this great earthly ability, I have this job and I'm CEO or whatever, and I can manage this church really well. I can make money for this church because I'm a CEO. Well, that's not the qualification. It's that because of our union with Christ, because you know Him, that's a qualification. And we have different gifts according to God's grace. And God's the one, as Roy's pointed out, that's determining the right mixture. He knows the right mixture of people in that body.

And it's interesting, when we pray, when the elders get together, we pray for the people that God wants to come to this body. and keep away the people that shouldn't be here. Some places will never say that. Everybody come right on in, just pack them in here. But we want the people that the Lord has picked out, has chosen, we want them to come. And people that shouldn't be here, maybe they should attend someplace else. It's kind of harsh, but you want the body to be one, in agreement, on the same page. Otherwise, it's not going to glorify Him.

Okay, so now we go on to verse, and actually I switched this around a little bit. Your notes are just, I flipped two charts around. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each of us, given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly. I don't have a hard time reading that. Okay, we have gifts. Okay, that's pretty straight. We have gifts, they differ. according to the grace given to us.

And what's interesting is this word differ, and I wanted to kind of go down that path a little bit, is the idea of variety. In fact, let's just look here. It's the one on the bottom there. Differ is this word that signifies varying in kind, different, diverse. So there are different gifts, and we're going to see those different gifts as we go through this. And gifts is this word from charis, the grace word, a gift of grace, a gift involving grace.

And let's look at 1 Corinthians, back to 1 Corinthians again. 1 Corinthians 12 this time. Weren't we there before? I guess we were. OK, well, let's go up to the earlier part of the verse, early part of the verse, early part of the chapter. Yeah, this is my point here. I'm losing here for a second. Let's look at verses four through seven. And Yvonne, could you read that four through seven? Now there are varieties of fruits of the same spirit. And there are varieties of ministries of the same name.

And there are varieties of effects of the same God who works all things and all persons. So to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit of the common good. So the word variety is what I kind of picked up on, and it's not exactly the same word as differ, but I think it has the same idea. There are varieties of gift. But it keeps pointing back to but one spirit, and a variety of ministries, and the same Lord, and the varieties of effects, but the same God, who works all things in all persons. And then verse 7 has been pointed out many times. It's talking about, but to each one, and I believe that each is inclusive. There's not an excluded member, but to each one, is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. So, as has been said, every believer has a gift.

Now, and of course that's where people kind of go off, well, I've got to find that gift. I've got to, you know, and they go down that path. But I think it's, this verse points out that that's the case. But is that, is our goal to find that gift or is our goal to serve the body? And let the gift kind of work itself out. And I think that's, the latter is a way that you want to do it. You're not, well, I've got a gift. I know I've got a gift. I've got to find that gift. Well, no. you do what is needed where you are and the gift will come out without fanfare. It demands interaction with the body for it to be exercised. Excellent, that's good. The body is a place where that's exercised and that's where it will be the most valuable and the greatest benefit will happen when it's in the context of the body.

All right, so here's another chart. I really took advantage of Hal's notes. Actually, this actually comes from the major Bible themes. And this is the analogy again. We're going to have analogies overboard here. But anyway, so this is kind of a summary, if you will, of those first three verses, three and a half verses.

Many members, but they function as one body, physically with a body and its members, spiritually born by the Holy Spirit into Christ's body. members of the bodies differ, their function and gifts are different. God designed it that way. Just as each member of the body is content with his function, so we should be. Be content with who we are. Just like the example we read, with the eye and the foot, that's not God's design for us to, well, I just got to get involved in that ministry. No, we should be content with what we have.

Total dependence between the members, and that's a toughie. I mean, depending upon one another is a toughie. Oh, to live with the saints above. Anyway, no exaltation of one member over another because of their function or gift, otherwise division occurs.

And you can see that. I mean, over and over that happens. God, in his grace, has gifted every member. There's 1 Corinthians 12, 7. God's wonderful goal for members is to function in the body as they are gifted. The result is edification, the body, and love. The local church needs to encourage the exercise of spiritual gifts. The dynamics is not the elders, but the Holy Spirit. So I thought this was a great summary of that.

So now we're going to go one by one. We have prophecy, service, teaches, exhorts, gives, leads, and mercy. So let me just read it. 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, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

So this is the part that I kind of found was kind of neat. If I look through each of the words, and actually, I apologize. What I did with each is I just kind of took weeks and I plugged it in here. I don't have the definition of every word, but I can talk to at least hopefully here. So we kind of renders this whether a profit, whether and if there is not the it's not a conditional situation, whether is possibly a better word, whether that a prophecy prophesy according to the proportion of faith. OK, so this word for prophecy and you probably. Actually, I do have this one. This is the one I did do.

It's the idea to speak forth, the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God. And in essence, when we share God's word, we're doing exactly that. Now, in the Old Testament, we have people that foretold, you know, this is going to happen. Well, that's not really what's happening today. We are telling people God's word. This is God's counsel. This is God's mind in that situation. That gift is basically telling him the truths of God's word.

The last part of that could be a little bit puzzling. I spent a little bit of time It talks about according to the proportion of faith. And I think, and I, you know, one thing to, there actually is a definite article there, the proportion of the faith. And it seems like that's really referring not necessarily to, well, let's see, I know more of scripture than you know more than I can prophesy better than you can prophesy. I think it's more, that you're accurate to God's word, you're consistent with God's word, and actually I didn't have time, Vine had it, the last part he says is a warning against going beyond what God has given in his word and faith has received it. I think it's saying it's according to your faithful interpretation of his word.

It's a little hard to see from that and I really can't totally defend that, but go ahead. Well, I was thinking of second year, one twenty and twenty one. But notice, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. No prophecies was ever made by an act of human will, but then moved by the Holy Spirit. Excellent. Excellent. That's that's that's a good point. That's good. Good verse.

I think that the context here really, and with closer examination, is really not, I have a bigger proportion of faith than you have. It's more, I'm consistent and accurate to God's word, not adding or subtracting from it. And that actually is a faith operation. We faithfully look at God's word. The Holy Spirit shows us the truth. And we faithfully prophesy it. We faithfully tell people the truths of God's word.

I think that's what is being indicated here. All right, so let's go on. That's prophecy. So actually, think about that. We all do that, right? I mean, have you ever shared a Bible verse? Have you ever shared a truth of God's word? I think that's prophecy. So I mean, every believer has done that.

If service in his service, and actually, we rendered all these kind of an interesting way of serving. exercising that gift within the sphere of service, and that idea is actually where the sphere is where you're at, in the realm where you're at. You know, it would be kind of silly for me, you know, there's some churches down the way here, I could go down and serve down, I could be a member of this body, but go down and serve down there. Would that be in the sphere, where God has placed you. He placed you here, you serve here. You don't serve there. Not to say you couldn't serve there, but You're here. So you would serve in the sphere of service where you're at.

I think that's what what's being. And actually, this word had a couple of interesting things. There's a. And let's look at both. Let's look at Luke 1040. And this is keep going back to Mary, Mary and Martha. So much at one that one verse has one versus or several versus Luke 10. And let's look at. Let's look at verse 40.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations, and she came to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me. The serving is the same word. So basically, she was serving. She was serving the Lord in a physical sense. She was serving. She was preparing a meal. Well, that's one aspect of serving. And sometimes it's actually rendered ministry. So you can have a ministry in terms of meeting somebody's need physically, food or whatever. Or if you look at Acts 6. Let's look at Acts 6. And find it here. Acts 6, and let's look at verses 3 and 4.

It says, but select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. That's referring to a task that needs to be done. And then basically it said, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Same word, service.

So it can apply to the It can apply to those who are ministering God's word. It can apply to those who are ministering food for the body. So it can be both. So if you begin to see, well, boy, I probably have some aspect of this gift. I serve the body in some way. We all serve the body. There's aspects we all do this. So it's not just a ministry of the word. It's not just serving, waiting tables, preparing food, playing music, whatever. We all serve, so there's one that we all have. Or teaching, within the sphere of teaching. Once again, if we're involved in teaching, I want to do it within the sphere of the body that I'm in.

And this is a derivative of the word didaskalos, the careful instruction of God's word. In 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 3 verses 10 and 11. It says, But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and Lystra. what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me." So in this whole list of things that Timothy is talking about, he talks about teaching. So teaching was one of the things, and he was doing all these things, my teaching.

And it's used in that context like qualifications for elders and things like that. It's used in that sense. But if you think about it, we all teach. We teach our children, we teach Young people, there's a variety of things. Most believers are involved in some sphere of teaching.

Exhort. Or he who exhorts within the sphere of exhortation. Once again, saying it's in the sphere of where you're at. And this word, exhort, is actually, could be rendered encouraging. And actually, somehow that makes it more palpable. I think, you know, exhorting, it sounds like, that almost sounds like a preaching kind of thing. But encouraging sounds like, well, that's something I probably do. I probably encourage a brother or sister or try to, you know. So actually, the root word is encouraging. Actually, literally, to call to one's aid or one's side. And I have some more here. I apologize for all the... In Acts 8, let's look at 29 through 31. This is interesting.

And the spirit said to Philip, go up and join this chariot. And when Philip had run up, he heard him reading Isaiah, the prophet, and said, do you understand what you are reading? And he said to him, well, how could I? Unless someone guides me. And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. So actually, the word is actually translated, you know, guide doesn't sound like encouraging, but it is along that line. So sometimes it's translated to guide me, And in Corinthians, it's translated courage in other places as well.

All right, so let's look at the next one. This is basically Gives. We used to have some interesting words here. The one who distributes of his earthly possessions in the sphere of unostentatious simplicity. Maybe not the current vernacular, but interesting.

And actually, this idea is basically sharing is involved in this, to share something with someone. In Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 28. Let him who steals, steal no longer, but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share, that's a word, to share with him who has need. So this giving is many times sharing.

And so it's not necessarily, the focus is really not monetary. I think it's more you're sharing something of yourself with that person. You're taking time with that person. You're sharing yourself, which actually for us today is a much more costly thing. We never have time. It's so hard to find that time, right? So anyway, all right.

All right, the next one is leads. He who leads with diligence, the one who is placed in a position of authority with intense eagerness and effort. And this has the idea to preside or rule in Titus. This is the one in Titus here. Titus 3 verse 8, this is a trustworthy statement concerning these things. I want to speak to you confidently so that those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know some of these references. Anyway, so you understand the reference. Thank you. I mean, you're leading. Right. OK. I guess that confidence is supercritical. You really have to have. confidence comes from a knowledge of something. Right. You can't confidently teach something you don't know. Right. That's a good point. Excellent. OK.

And then the last one is the one who shows mercy was joyous, abandoned. And this basically to show mercy is the idea to feel sympathy with the misery of another, to sympathize. I thought this one, when we hear a brother or sister, we pray for them, if there's something we can do to help them, that's something that naturally comes out of that. I have a summary.

This is actually a summary from the beginning of Romans. In the first 11 chapters, Paul has laid down a variety of doctrinal teachings. In 12 through 6, Paul gives us a series of exhortations based on the doctrine. It's based on what we've learned in the first 11 chapters that he does this. And as I pointed out, the first two verses are critical.

The first two exhortations in Romans 12, 1 to 2, we are to present ourselves as instruments of righteousness to God. We are not to be conformed to this age. or that from without, but to allow God to transform us from within. The remaining exhortations are the how of the exhortation to present ourselves. The next two exhortations, or how, are found in verses three through eight.

The believers are to have a right estimate of the relationship with the body, not to think more highly of themselves as they ought. We have humility and not high mindedness with respect to our spiritual gifts. We exercise our gifts to the fullest capacity that God has given us. And remember that we have a mutual responsibility to each other because of our vile union with Jesus Christ.

Questions? Sure. Go ahead. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Absolutely. That's great. That's great. Wayne, thanks. That's great. That's great.

Well, next, we're going to carry on and Randy's going to be on the hot seat. It's hot, literally. We're thankful that Randy could... Actually, this is really cool. Jim Poole is in the midst of doing things and moving back east. Randy, the Lord's provided Randy for us, so we're excited about that.

He's going to join Bob and I. We're thankful that he can do that and has the time and his family will let him do it. I know that's always a difficult thing. I understand that. Talk to my wife sometime if you want any comments about time. Like I said, I feel very convicted about that. If only I had more time, right? All right.

Let's close in prayer. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, Father. We thank you for your word. We thank you that you've provided the right balance of gifts in our body, Lord, and that we can trust you for that, Lord, and we can rely upon your choices, Lord. And we realize that every member is important, and there are none that are insignificant, Lord. We pray that we would have the mind of Christ in terms of our brothers and sisters. We ask it in his name. Amen.