The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Oh, right. Well, it doesn't seem possible, but I missed the first Holy Day, or rather, first Festival Passover with you. And I missed the Days of My Love and Bread with you. And here we're coming next Sunday, a week from tomorrow, to the third step in the plan of salvation that God reveals by means of the Holy Days. And as we rehearsed Passover, pictured the sacrifice of the Lamb, the forgiveness of our sins, the fact that we can, through the waters of baptism and by going to the throne of God on an ongoing manner, we can have the sins of a lifetime removed. And we can have subsequent sin, forgiven, covered by the blood of the Lamb. And we kept the Days of My Love and Bread, days that picture a long period of time by which the called out ones can follow Jesus Christ and strive with God's help to put sin out of our life. Now, we come to Passover, excuse me, Pentecost, and it takes us a step further by revealing to us why we were forgiven and why we were called to live the unleavened life and to follow Christ. Because we need to understand why God has chosen to work this way in our lives. Now, I won't go back to Leviticus 23 at this point, but we are familiar with that and we'll surely be rehearsing that next weekend. But it was a time you count 50 and then you gather some of the grain first, you beat out a certain amount, and you wave it before God. And it was the beginning of the early harvest. That was the wave-sheaf Sunday within unleavened bread. And then you had this 50 days that you count. And then at the end, you come to this time of thanksgiving, of appearing and rejoicing before God. And you bake these two loaves, amazingly with leaven, but with leaven because you see they represent us. Probably the church in the wilderness and the New Testament spirit-led church of God. And we have leaven in us. We have sin in us. And we look to a time when with the resurrection that will be a thing of the past. Let's turn over to 1 Samuel 10. There's an interesting little statement made about Saul, who was being called to become the king of Israel. It's interesting what is said about Saul and how God would work in him by means of his spirit. 1 Samuel 10. And in verse 1, then Samuel took a flask of oil. Now, pause there. There are many scriptural emblems. There are physical elements of this earth that God uses to help us to understand what spirit is and how it works. Oil, olive oil is one of them. Water is another. Wind is another. Clothing is another. Fire, you know, all kinds of emblems to help us to understand spirit and how it works. The Holy Spirit is not a being, a personage of the Godhead. It is the power by which God works in our lives.

A flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, Is it not? Because the Lord has anointed you, commander, over his inheritance.

And when you have departed for me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelsa. They will say to you, the donkeys which you went to look for have been found. And now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worried about you, saying, What shall I do about my son? Well, let's skip on down to verse 5.

After that, you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is, and it will happen when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, a harp, before them, and they will be prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them, and, notice, be turned into another man.

Be turned into another man. I want to focus on that phrase as we look at the day of Pentecost in just a number of days. We celebrate the process of God's calling us, and the process of education, of growth, of training, a life that we call conversion. Conversion is not a one-time deal. It may start at a given point, but it's something that continues for the rest of our lives. There is this ongoing transformation throughout our lives as we yield to the impulse, the pulls, of the Holy Spirit within us. We are slowly, but surely, by increments, changed into another man or another woman. Now, there are a number of angles we can approach this. We know there are fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, etc. We know that there are, as I mentioned a while ago, emblems of the Spirit to help us. We look at fire, and there are things we can learn about how Spirit works. There are different words that are used for the working of the Holy Spirit, as far as how it is poured upon us, how it endues us, how it enlightens us. But, I want to focus with you today on two chapters, basically, in the Bible, in the New Testament, that speak of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit. These two chapters will first go to 1 Corinthians 12, and then we'll back up to Romans 12. These are the manifestations of the mind of God, that He pours out upon us by means of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12. This book, probably one of his earlier books, written somewhere around the time he wrote to those at Rome, and he wanted to go there, but with this one he's writing back to those at Corinth. And he covers a lot of material. They had all kinds of questions. In fact, they were bickering, and there was a lot of strife in their body. They had sin that was there in their midst, and they were doing nothing about it. Openly sin. They had those squabbling over, well, this may or may not have been offered to a pagan idol, and what does that mean? Speaking in tongues, different languages. But here in chapter 12, he says, now concerning spiritual gifts, I would not want you to be ignorant, and the same is true today. And so we're going to focus on some of these gifts. We do not want to underestimate these gifts, which we have access to through the Spirit. Gifts are not given to each person in the same degree. It's not right or wrong, it's just different. And God is the one building the church, and he gives certain gifts to certain ones a bit more than he does to others. And when we put the whole body together, and we learn to be unified in the Spirit, then it's for the greater good of the body that God is building and calling. Verse 4, there are diversities of gifts. One of the marginal notes says, there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. So now he's going to lead toward going through some of the different spiritual gifts poured out. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. It's not to lift up one individual who may have a greater ability, a faith to believe the impossible. The next person, I mean, look in Acts, how God used Peter and John. Fasten their eyes on what a man said, rise up and walk.

And the glory goes to God in any of these gifts. It's not the individual.

Well, let's go to verse 8, because here we start seeing some of them, and you may want to keep your place here. We may deviate a little from this chapter. We'll come back, and then we'll shift over to Romans 12. But in verse 8, 4-2-1 is given the Spirit, or the Word of wisdom, through the Spirit. Now, wisdom is why the book of Proverbs was written. That's what it tells us in chapter 1.

Wisdom we could define as the ability to properly apply the Word of God in various life situations. Wisdom here is one of the great gifts of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom is the ability to judge rightly, to follow the soundest course based upon the counsel of the Bible, to come to understanding, and to act to live, to teach accordingly. Again, keep your place here, but let's go back to chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1.

And notice in verse 26, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty.

Well, it speaks of the base things. Verse 29, That no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God. So the point is that for all of these, what is important is that the glory goes to God. We began, and we were the weak of the world, there's nothing in the Bible that says where to remain that way. We are to go into training. Many of you remember that when your family first started attending church.

I remember that very distinctly at age 14. My family started going to God's church. And lo and behold, we got there, and everyone not only had a Bible. I mean, we were used to going to Sunday school, and you take your Bible, and that was about all you took. But these people had notebooks and pens and pencils, and they were writing down, and it was like we were in class.

We were in class, and then that week we're going to go back out into life, and that's lab time where we take what we learned and put it into action in our life. So, wisdom. The Bible does not say we're to remain as the weak. We're to grow. And God's the great educator, and growing in wisdom is something that will continue throughout life. And the larger part of wisdom is that which is imparted by means of the Holy Spirit. And we do know we have the example of Solomon, who when he had the weight of the reigns of the kingdom of Israel placed on his shoulders, and God appeared to him and said, tell me what you want, and what a marvelous attitude Solomon had early on. He said, I'm just a child. I don't know how to come in and go out. How am I going to judge this you're so great of people? And he asked for an understanding heart. He asked for wisdom, and God gave him that and more. And at any rate, we sadly know the rest of his story, but we can go to God. We can ask for wisdom. Ask God through his spirit to give us a depth of discernment of understanding that wasn't there before. Well, chapter 12 again, verse 8, the latter half to another the word of knowledge through the same spirit. The word there translated knowledge is gnosis, and it primarily means seeking to know an inquiry and investigation. And God wants us to be those who are seeking to grow, to learn, to understand. And then without an ability to share, to share that knowledge. Now, I had the privilege a long time ago to work for a period of time with Denise's father as an electrician, and the man is an absolute genius in the area of electricity in all kinds of technical areas. He just has a marvelous gift. But whoever it was around him, a young apprentice or another master electrician, he was continually talking and he was explaining, and he had a gift for teaching. And go work for him. Back then, when you could work for him for a year, you came out with years of experience because you had someone who was just driven to teach others around him. Now, that's a part of gaining and accruing knowledge. It's not just for us.

It is to give out what we are drinking in of. It's like three weeks ago when I talked about prepare to teach the word. And I said we can't teach what's not there, and we are to drink in of the word so that we can share it, teach it, spread it today, and in the world to come.

But there have been many times in my life I remember being in a situation. I went to an adult ed class up in Kingsport, Tennessee years ago, just introduction to computer, years ago. And I thought, well, it's cheap. And maybe I can learn how to turn on the computer, and a few basics like that. But the first thing they did, opening night, probably 20 of us there sitting there in a classroom behind a computer, opening night, the instructor said, all right, we'll start here, stand up, tell who you are, what you do. And, you know, as it went through the room, it was amazing that two out of three of those people could not do that. They would embarrass, just in an embarrassed manner, stand up and kind of try to cough out their own name and then just sit back down. They could not give what they had. I think that's why it got inspired Mr. Armstrong a long time ago to start Spokesman Club. I wish we had the numbers to do that again. That last Saturday night when we were in Manila, Philippines, they had their men's club, Spokesman Club, and I got to guest direct that, and I'd almost forgotten the basic order of club, but it felt good. But I think by having an outsider, you know, this visiting minister from America, they were ill at ease. They were on edge, but they did a wonderful job, and I tried to commend them and tell them we need you to stand up because some of us old coots are getting older and we need help.

So, anyhow, knowledge. All right, then as we go to verse 9, it says, "...to another faith by the same Spirit." Now, faith, Greek word P-I-S-T-I-S, I suppose, close to pistis, and it means this is from Vines expository dictionary of New Testament words. Vines says it means primarily firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing.

Faith, you know, about the simplest definition I ever heard, a long time ago, Harold Jackson was a long time minister and evangelist in the church. There was an article probably back in the 80s. Mr. Jackson wrote an article, and he just one little statement he made that stuck with me. He wrote, faith is the degree to which you believe God. And there's a lot to that. That really distills it down to a simple to understand statement. Faith is the degree to which you believe God. I mean, look at Peter. Christ walking on water. He wanted to join him. As long as he had his eyes on Christ, he believed anything was possible. But then when his eyes looked at the raging water around him, he changed. And he lost and began losing that ability to believe that Christ had just said, get out on water, walk to me. Some members, it seemed, have a far greater ability to believe the humanly impossible. Some are given a greater gift to see with eyes of faith than they are with human eyesight. We are told in the New Testament that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And that's why it's important for us to pour over the Scriptures, because we read of these examples where God intervened for his people. It's important for us to not forsake assembly and to come here together and rub shoulders and we hear each other's stories. And these are stories of of God working out in our lives. And it builds up someone else's faith just by hearing those stories. So it is important that we are here. But it is a gift that through the Spirit of God, God can impart faith and in greater faith to us. And we should pray for that. But then we have to exercise it. We have to live in accordance with that. We have Hebrews 11. You've read so many times. So that great Hall of Fame of men and women of God, people of faith. And it starts there with, where did it start? Abel and Enoch and Noah, all the way through. And then it stops even naming names. And women receive their dead, raise the life again. But then it shifts. And they were saw in a thunder. You know, and they surely were praying out and they believed God. But God's answer was no.

But faith, faith, the Spirit of God works to impart faith to us. And those who exercise faith grow in faith. We have so many examples of individuals of faith. Esther had to have a lot of faith to say, fast for me three days and three nights, and then I'll go into the King. David had a lot of faith. He looked at that giant and realized, the guy's so big I can't miss him.

Joshua and Caleb had faith. They went with the others into the Promised Land, came back, and they said, the land is great. It's wonderful. It's theirs. Let's go. Let's take it.

But the others said, you know, the people live there. We're like grasshoppers in our sight.

They did not have faith. So we exercise the faith that we have. It may be within our marriage. It may be with child rearing. It may be in healing. Tithing. Tithing. That's a step of faith. Because so often you work out that budget on paper and it won't work. But if you give God His tithe, you turn around and lo and behold, it worked. Somehow, some way, it worked. We got through it. So faith, like so many of these gifts, faith is infectious. You know, if we have faith, if we live according to our faith, if we share our faith, then others around us are going to be strengthened as well. Well, Hebrews, excuse me, Hebrews, where they get on Hebrews? Hebrews 11. That's where I was thinking. 1 Corinthians 12. Then it continues here in the latter part of verse 9. It says, to another gift of healings by the same Spirit. So what he's doing is he's mentioning all of these come from God. All of these are imparted through the Spirit, but he gives different gifts predominantly to different people, and it's not right or wrong. It's just the beauty of all of it being provided to the church, and then we come together and there's unity of the faith. But did you notice that it said, gifts of healings, plural, healings, which to me would seem to say that there's more than one type of healing. You see, we hear of healing, and we think of Peter and John and the lame man rise up and walk, and we think of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, and Lazarus come forth. We tend to think of things like that. Or Nahum and the Syrian going and washing seven times in the Jordan, and he was cleansed of his leprosy. But we don't think of other types of healings, and there are other types of healings. When Jesus was here on the earth and he went to Nazareth that time, he went back home and he stood up on the synagogue on the Sabbath, stood up and they gave him the scroll of Isaiah, and he found the place where it was written that says, and he read messianic scriptures about his own work, and one of those phrases was to heal the brokenhearted.

Is that not a manifestation of the gift of healing? Because there are people, any congregation we've ever been around, there are those who have the most marvelous ability to be able to communicate that they care. They may not understand fully what you're going through, but they communicate that they care, that they will be there for you, that they are there for you when you need them. Now, I had the privilege of having a mother who had a tremendous gift that way, and sadly, she died when I was 27. We lived down here in Hoover, and I was working as an electrician far away from my home in Oklahoma, and mom died a terrible death of cancer. But she had that gift, I'm absolutely convinced, because she could meet somebody brand new, hear their story, and in no time they were soulmates because she could communicate that she loved that person, that she cared. And there's a lot of that gift I wish I'd lapped up more of. She had a beautiful soprano voice, and I didn't get any of that one either. Anyhow, I'm still working on the soprano. Well, I'm still working on the other one, too. But there are different types of healings, and which one is more important?

To have a spiritual healing take place in our life, or to have a broken arm that suddenly is restored. God's looking at eternity. God's looking at the desired end result. And the spiritual healing will fulfill what God said about soul. You'll be changed into a different person, more so than having a broken bone suddenly mended. Keep your place here. Just let's go forward a little bit. Second Corinthians 1. Actually, just a couple of pages forward here. Three or four. Second Corinthians 1. Verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation. That's interesting. Paul didn't say, He takes us out of our tribulation. No. Paul's the same one that told the elders of Ephesus that it's through much tribulation we're going to enter the kingdom of God. But He is the God of all mercy and the God of all comfort, and He comforts us when we are getting run over by life's trials and tests. Why? That we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. And that's where the rubber meets the road here as far as this gift of healing in this aspect. That by the things that we suffer, there is a sensitivity that is given over time that wasn't there before. I mean, if Christ said the book of Hebrews said that He learned in obedience by the things that He suffered, and in Hebrews it also tells us there at the end of chapter 4 that we have this high priest who has been here, and we can go to Him to find comfort in time of need. So that certainly is an aspect of healing. Okay, 1 Corinthians 12 again. This time verse 10, to another the working of miracles. All right, so miracles. How many kinds of miracles are there? Well, I don't know that we can really enumerate those, but there are miracles that we read of in the Bible. One point God parted a sea. Another point 40 years later, He held back waters of the Jordan River. Another time was at Elijah, or Elisha, I'm drawing a blank, but one of those prophets with the woman and her son, and she had a cruise of oil, and He says to the boy, go get all the vessels you can find and bring them. I started pouring and the oil kept flowing. And all of those were miracles.

But you know, there are also times when God may open a mind and call someone.

And I've heard it stated, and I personally believe it, that God's greatest miracle is the opening of a stiff necked human head, penetrate it, get its attention, and bring it to conviction and to walk in His steps. We lived in Memphis many years ago. There was a couple that moved in from the far other end of Tennessee. They were a deacon and deaconess, and His work sent Him there as near as retirement. They sent Him there for that last year or so, and then they were going back.

I forget Greenville, Knoxville, somewhere up there. But they were telling us our story when they first got there, had us over their condo. He was a long, long time member, and she for many, many years was a very antagonistic wife. He said she would sew my socks shut on top when I would go off to the feast. And she says, that's true, I did that. She would take sugar and things and just shake through his suitcase when he was going off to the feast. She hated the church that much.

And after years, it was really getting, it was just getting tough. And he says, I was reaching the breaking point, and she was telling me how much she hated me and hated my religion. And he said, he just held her and said, no, you love me, you've forgotten. And he said, got up the next morning, and God had called her, and she started going to church with him. And she was baptized. And years later, he was a deacon, and she was ordained a deaconess. Sometimes, you know, we don't ever want to give up on, I don't care how hard headed a person we live with. I'm, thankful, I don't have to live with a hard head, but my wife does.

That was not funny, by the way. But how many times? You know, we have children, you know, a lot of us here, we have children that we taught them the way of God, and we watched them walk away from it. God is not through with any of those people yet. He said, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. And he doesn't tell us when he's going to do that. But he also tells us the rest of the story, and God who wills all to come to repentance and to a knowledge of the, he wants all to be saved. So, anyhow, miracles. There needs to be a yielding to the working of God miraculously in our life. Okay, then it says, there in the middle of verse 10, to another prophecy. Let's stop with that one. Prophecy. We think of prophecy, and we tend to think, you know, some of these prophets of old, and Elijah went and told, and said, you know, until I said, there won't be any rain in Israel. We read about the two witnesses. We read of other prophets. And that is an aspect. That is one aspect of this word prophecy. Let me go to Vines Vines dictionary on that word. Prophecy. Prophetea, the Greek word. A speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God. Now, here's what Vines says. Though much of Old Testament prophecy was purely predictive. Okay, think of all the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of Messiah. Coming from Bethlehem, born of a virgin, all of those. They were purely predictive, and they've been fulfilled. Then it says prophecy is not necessarily, or even primarily, the foretelling of events. Then Vines says it is the declaration of that which cannot be known by natural means. So it is the fourth telling of the will of God, whether in reference to the past, present, or future. So with this word, prophetea, there's kind of a hinged two-part meaning. It can be foretelling the future, or it can be the fourth telling of the will of God. Now, look at the story in the book of Acts. Which one happened more? Yes, there was Agabus the prophet who went to Paul and bound him up and said, so you'll be taken when you go to Jerusalem. But most of it was like Peter on that day of Pentecost, and the others throughout Paul later on when he came along, the fourth telling of the Word of God, the will of God, of showing the way to salvation. As Paul said, preaching Christ in him crucified, of showing the way to eternal life. So prophecy, again, think of the dual sense, the fourth telling, and that speaks of the inspired preaching and teaching. And you know, it speaks of our words and our example, because our example, you're probably familiar with Edgar Guest's famous poem, Sermons We See. I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day, because you know a person's tongue might run too fast. He says in the lyrics, but he says there's no mistaking who you are and what you do. So we teach by word, we teach by example. Any parent knows that whenever you see one of your bad habits, one of your children start imitating. You realize, oops, they've been watching me.

All right.

Let's go on here in verse 10. Okay, we read to another prophecy. Then it says, to another discerning of spirits. Spirits, Numa, again, different meanings can come. Yeah, it may be the discerning of an evil spirit. You know, even Saul's servants back here in 1 Samuel 13-14, even Saul's servants recognized when this evil spirit would come and influence Saul. And that's when they called young David, who would come and play a godly uplifting music and the demon would leave. There is a discernment of demons, yes, discernment of evil spirits. But there's just a gift called discernment of discerning. You know, by nature, we can be naive, weak of the world, simple-minded. Yes, we can be. And yet, we're to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. We do have to be wise as serpents. And the world around us is filled with the negative. It's filled with some things that are destructive. And we're counseled to not be ignorant of Satan's devices. And yet, often we are. This discernment can be speaking of vision and awareness, being able to see what's really, truly going on, what's truly behind the scenes, any parent needs to pray for the for a very acute sense of discernment.

Because in dealing with children, we need to be a lot more concerned about their attitude than some of their actions. You know, there are a lot of battles to never pick.

But the attitude needs, if the attitude is ungodly, that needs attention. More so than the fact that they may forget to do their chores. Well, we all did that when we were young.

So we need discernment in watching television, in viewing movies. We need discernment in listening to music. Because, as it's been said, music is the language of emotion. And if you watch a movie, you know, by the music that is used in different scenes, it sets the stage.

And Satan the devil can reach out to us in that way. So we need to be discerning.

Now, it goes on. I'm going to skip on over. It talks about tongues, languages, and interpretation. Verse 11, but one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He willed. For as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of that one body being 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 have been made to drink into one Spirit. So the gift of the Spirit of God places us into the same body of Christ, places us among the same body of firstfruits, and it binds us. The Spirit of God is the tie that binds us together. Verse 18, now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

Now let's go back to Romans 12 and notice a few that are referred to there.

Romans 5, another chapter, where as He wrote to Rome, He got off on the topic of spiritual gifts.

So, Romans 12 verse 5, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. You know, it is by God's design that we have always had this wide disparity, wide variety of people in the church. We also have a wide variety of the endowment of gifts, spiritual gifts to different members, so that we can learn that we need each other. That we need to be a singular unit and build on strengths. We are to be mutually interdependent on one another. Well, let's go to verse 7, because He begins mentioning some of these gifts. Verse 7, or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. Now, the word there, oftentimes the same Greek word is translated service in different areas. So, maybe we should think about that as service. Some are given a gift of service, and a lot of the work that we have to do locally is to serve one another. It takes a lot of effort to pull off a service. There are those who open up, and there are those who close up later. There are those who prepare snacks, get the water hot for tea, or brewing the coffee. It takes a lot, and it's our service one to another. It's a special tool, and it seems that some have a very special gift of serving, that when there's a need, they drop everything and they go running. I forget where I was. It was just over four years ago, you know, April 27, 2011, we had the big tornadoes coming through, and went south of our house and went on across Tennessee near where Mrs. Cole, Catherine Cole, lives. I know Mark was one of them. There were a bunch of people who went up there, because she had these huge oaks that were just laid over. There were a lot of people who went one Sunday, and then quite a few went another Sunday. They cut up trees, and they cleaned up, and got it down to where then something that big, you need a dozer, push it together and start a fire. So there are times like that. It wasn't that long ago down in Birmingham. After church, we finished, and we stacked the chairs over on the side wall, and I picked up a couple chairs and went walking over there, and I got headed off.

Ernest Little, who I think is 80 now, probably two years ago, he headed me off. He said, oh, Mr. Dobson, we've got that. Mr. Pritchett and I were the chair crew.

I said, well, thank you, but I'm a little bit younger than you, and I can carry two chairs over here if I want. And he smiles and says, no, Mr. Dobson, you're the minister, and we're going to put the chairs up. So he took those chairs away from me. And of course, Mr. Pritchett was stacking chairs. Mr. Pritchett is what? He's 88 now, I think. He was stacking chairs. So when they weren't looking, I went and got a chair, and I was taken over there, and I almost got there, and Mr. Little ran me off. He said, Mr. Dobson, you're the minister.

I said, yeah, but the minister's, by that very term, it means he's the servant. Well, we've had fun with that, because I'll pick up chairs every so often, and if he sees me, I'll get headed off. So it's a nice problem I have, isn't it? It is. But, you know, I look back across the years, there are times we loaded up everything we owned. That's when we had two little kids. Got the U-Haul truck, packed everything we had, drove from Memphis to Lubbock, Texas.

Someone I had out there, Deak, and I had told about when we thought we would hit. I got there about 30 people waiting. That truck was totally unloaded in 30 minutes. It was inside that house. There were ladies opening boxes, stacking dishes and glasses, and it was beautiful. But it was what they did.

It was a reflection of the character of God in them. And you know, when you think about it, you talk about these gifts, the basics of Christianity distills down to these little, simple acts of service one to another. And I think that's what Christ talked about when He divided to the right and the left. And those on the right, He welcomed the kingdom. And they wondered why. And He said, you know, I was thirsty.

You gave me something to drink. I was hungry. I was in prison. You came and visited me. Those little, you know, it just distills down to those little, simple actions that we do, one for another. And that fits in with this term, ministry or service.

Okay, then in verse 8 it says, let's see, I'm skipping a page. You don't want me to skip a page, do you? Don't answer that. Verse 8. Oh, we were in verse 7. Okay, He who teaches in teaching. Let me skip over that one. We're all to be teaching. I think we kind of comment on that a while ago. Verse 8, He who exhorts in exhortation. Now, there are some translations that will render that encouragement. Exhortation, encouragement, it's a lot of similarities there. And here's another tool that has to do with God pouring out a gift within us. Somehow it seems a special God-given ability or talent to be able to go and just leave people feeling better after they've been around you.

I was taken at the funeral, Mr. Charles Dickey shared a memory there of Margaret Allen. And of course, when she was diagnosed with the cancer and told it was terminal, he and his wife would go see her. And he said every time, you know, we would go there trying to think, you know, well, Father, how can we go and encourage her? And we would leave there after being around Margaret and feel better than when we went there. And what a wonderful testimony that is. I've known a lot of people that way. You know, as a pastor, I've thought, well, you know, this person's shut in, this person's laid up, I need to go see them and just pray about, well, how can I encourage them?

And then I'm the one that leaves there, and I was lifted up. And I hope they were too. But encouragement, none of us has as much of this gift as we can use. We do need to be a far more encouraging people. Last Sabbath in Huntsville, Darren Keith gave the sermonette. And I thought it was interesting that he took this phrase from Hebrews, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.

And then it says, but exhorting one another so much the more you see the day approaching. And he built his three-point sermonette around that phrase. And then I was listening Sunday when Denise and I went down to her parents, I listened to the messages given in Murfreesboro. And Mark Smith gave a sermonette, and it was on the very same scripture. The very same scripture, he approached it completely differently, but they covered the same material. And of course, the people that needed to hear that weren't there that day anyhow, but that's the way it goes. Just kidding there.

But exhorting one another as you see the day approaching. And boy, I tell you, we look at world events, and that day is approaching. Okay, then it says, He who gives with liberality, so giving is a manifestation of a gift of God through His Spirit.

Giving oftentimes is contrary to human nature. We have what we have, and we want to keep it. We don't want to give it away, and we want more. But Satan is the one who has the way of get for me. Giving is a manifestation of the presence of God's Spirit. It consists of words, it consists of giving some of your time, word of encouragement. Maybe it's food, maybe it's some other type of material, but it is directed away from self and toward the needs of others. Just like long ago, when Jesus was here on the earth, and He had the seven, and He sent them out as teams, pairs. And one thing He said was, freely you have received, freely give. And that's always been a hallmark of the Church of God. All these years, my family from 1959 to present, we've never been sent a bill, but we've been inspired to freely give, and you have too.

Okay, then it says, right in the middle of verse 8, He who leads with diligence, now some have suggested that word could be rendered rulership, or administration, or government. There are other places in the New Testament where those words are used. But, you know, it's a beautiful thing to see unity in action that comes from proper planning, and then brethren working together in harmony. I mentioned the pre-camp Sabbath service we'll have. I'm glad it's behind me, but we did have 11 years of directing Camp Woodman over here. A lot of years, and it was a lot of work, especially back in the early days when it was all done over the mail, and you have all this paper to process. It was a heavy burden.

But once we got at camp, you get them divided in the dorms, and you spend the first night, then the next day I always thought, good, I can just watch them make camp happen. And most of them, after two or three years especially, they knew the routine, they knew the drill, and just fell in the place. You always had two or three hard heads here or there. But, you know, basically we'd have 150 people, and just, it was a beautiful thing. It was a beautiful thing. So, peace and order. We have that in our local Sabbath services. We have that in our social functions, and it is marvelous to see those who are able to, again, hear it says, lead. We could say rule, or administer, or govern, but in a godly way. And, you know, that applies to our families as well.

The government of God ought to be easy. It ought to be done out of love.

Christ is the one who told his disciples about the, you see the rulers of the Gentiles around you, exercising this heavy authority over people. But, he said, it shall not be that way among you. You want to be great? Be a servant. Just like the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served, and to give his life, a ransom for many. Well, then in verse 8, the latter part, it says, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Cheerfulness. Now, you know, showing mercy can be something very unnatural for us, if not contrary to what we want.

Mercy has to do with forgiveness. It has to do with not giving someone what they deserve. Someone may have wronged us. Humanly, we want to see them pay. But, that's not the mind of God. From the cross, Christ prayed, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

From his stoning, Stephen said essentially the same thing. Father, forgive them. Lay not this end of their charge.

But, shows mercy with cheerfulness. And, when we're wronged, then there's a need to show mercy. And, God wants us to show mercy, but to do it cheerfully. To willingly be able and happy to extend and offer the same mercy that God has given us toward a brother or sister.

Let's look at Micah 6, verse 8. Micah 6, verse 8. Classic, classic statement back here in Micah.

Verse 8. He has shown you, O man, what is good. And, what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Let's go over to Acts chapter 4, and we're going to wrap it up over here.

You know, with this showing mercy, we have the example of Christ, where when He was reviled, we read, He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not.

Showing mercy is a manifestation of the mind of God.

These early chapters of Acts, we have the early church, of course, the ascension of Christ, and then they were waiting for that day of Pentecost. And, what a powerful start to the church. Three thousand added, but in the days that followed, lots of activity. But, notice here, we have another sermon of Peter. We had a lot of abuse. The apostles went through it, the hands of the Jewish leaders. But, Acts 4, verse 24. So, when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord, and said, this is the prayer of the church at that time, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that's in them. Who, by the mouth of your servant David, has said, Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. 27. For truly, against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on these threats, and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word, by stretching out your hand the heel, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. You know, a similar revival. There is always, I think, a need for a similar renewal, revival, or new beginning among the people of God, and it certainly is needed to this very day. Here is a prayer from nearly 2,000 years ago, and our church, our body, we as individual members, need desperately to be filled with that same Spirit that filled them, that we can be about our Father's business preaching the Gospel to the world that doesn't have the hope that we have, and taking care of nurturing and training the flock of those whom God calls. So, as we come to the weekend of observing the Day of Pentecost, let's appreciate, let's identify what that pictures, and let's yield to the guidance, the leadership of the Spirit of God as God seeks to pour out a variety of gifts upon His people.