The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Well, amazingly, we now approach the third step in the plan of salvation that God lays out for us via the Holy Days. Not that long ago, we celebrated again the Passover. We took the symbols of the bread and the wine. Before that, we washed feet as Jesus set the example. We now look forward to the next step, the Day of Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of First Fruits.

In one place, it calls it the Feast of the Harvest. So it's the Holy Day with four different names. I want to focus on a related topic that has to do with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Let's turn back to 1 Samuel chapter 10. This is an account where Samuel is in the process of anointing Saul to become king of Israel. Two chapters earlier, the elders of Israel had gone to Saul, excuse me, they had gone to Samuel, and they had insisted that we want a king to be like the world around us. Samuel had warned them, if you do this, he will tax you and he will conscript your children for his army, and he will take the best of what you have. And they said, bring it on.

Well, thank you, ancient Israel, because taxation has never gone away. What was it? It was Ronald Reagan, I think, who said that, how did he word that? Something like taxation is about as close to eternal life as we'll get in this life, or as close as we'll get to eternity in this life. You get a tax, it tends to never go away. In 1 Samuel 10, notice verse 1, in verse 1 we read, then Samuel took a flask of oil. Of course, that's the olive oil, and olive oil is one of the beautiful biblical emblems that represent the Holy Spirit.

God uses a number of those to help us. We're flesh and blood, and spirit, we can't feel it, we can't taste it or smell it, we can't see it. But he uses emblems to help us to understand how it works and to open our mind as far as how it will seek to work in our life, if we will yield to that.

So, olive oil, like the good Samaritan, as he's so-called the man who was injured, he used some oil and some wine to disinfect in the sooth. So, the 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. Well, we'll skip on down a little bit here about some of the story that took place. Now, let's go to verse 5. After that, you will come to the hill of God, where the Philistine garrison is, and it will happen when you come there to the city that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with stringed instruments, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them, and they will be prophesying.

Notice verse 6, And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them, and, notice, be turned into another man. And we'll stop reading right there, because the day of Pentecost, as we know from Acts chapter 2, is the day when God took a bold new step.

It had been prophesied by Joel and others, but now was the time when God began pouring out His Spirit upon His people. There were forerunners in the Old Testament, like this case. There were forerunners such as with Samson, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him, it said. He would be clothed with the Spirit, I think the Old Kings' name says, and he had this human strength beyond anything we can imagine, as far as what he was able to do.

Take a lion and just tear it to pieces with his own hand. But we celebrate the calling of God. We celebrate tomorrow the gift of the Holy Spirit. And with the gift of the Spirit, it begins a process that, if we will allow it, if we will yield to its lead, will change us into completely different people.

And it's step at a time. You see, we're impatient human beings. We want it right now. We want it to happen. But it takes time. It takes the rest of our lives. There are many ways we can address or we can look at the Holy Spirit. As I said, there are different emblems. And I think once upon a time I covered some of those here.

There's oil. There's wind. There's fire. There's the dove. There's clothing. All kinds of different emblems that help us to consider what the Spirit of God is and how it works. There are different works of the Spirit. It might enlighten us, meaning open our eyes. It begets us with the mind of God. But I want to focus on two chapters of the Bible, two New Testament chapters today. And I just call this the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The gifts of the Spirit. Now, we can't cover all of them. There are so many. There are books written. I have one at home on just discovering your own talents. But it has to do with looking at some of these gifts. So let's first of all turn over to 1 Corinthians 12.

And we'll notice a number. And then we're going to back up to Romans 12. So 1 Corinthians 12 and then Romans 12. Those will be the key chapters. We'll largely be in those chapters, but we may depart from them a little. So keep your place when we do. 1 Corinthians, of course, his first letter to those of Corinth, he'd been there. Paul had worked hard to raise up that church. He's writing back to them a bit later.

He has had to address all kinds of issues. From chapter 1, he hears there are schisms. There's not the unity quotient that he had thought he left behind. You had people priding themselves because this guy living with apparently his stepmother was openly doing so right there within the body. And he says, I've judged already, get the guy out and turn him to Satan until he repents. And thankfully, from the second letter, we know he was able to come back. They had people upset about whether meat from the local meat market, I think we have to understand, he's only talking about clean meat, that some of it may have been offered to a pagan idol.

And he said, we know the idol's nothing in the world. It doesn't change that piece of roast or that chicken one wit. They had differences over speaking in tongues or interpreting. And he's saying, if nobody's there interpreting, it's confusion. And we've got to do things decently in order within the body of Christ. Now, in chapter 12, he gets on the topic of spiritual gifts. And so in verse 1, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.

And the same is true for us today. He's going to list a lot of gifts. And, you know, God does not give the same gift to every person in the same manner. Some we're going to comment on may just seem to have a degree of faith beyond most people in a congregation. And the next person has a gift of being able to encourage and just leave somebody behind feeling so much better. You know, I went to see Ken and Brenda last Saturday night down there in Leeds, Alabama.

And here's a lady suffering so much. But when I drove off, you know, I felt a lot better than when I walked in there. And sometimes you go see somebody who's laid up and you ask God, help me to go and have a positive impact. And then that's what happens to you so many times. So in... let's go down to verse 4. There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit. So it is the power of God. It is the comforter. It is the helper. It is the spirit of truth that Jesus had promised weeks earlier, that Passover night.

But it works in different manners. And there are different gifts. But it all comes from God through that spirit. For there are diversities 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 prophet of all. Now, we're going to start seeing some of these gifts specifically mentioned as we get to verse 8. And as we come to one, we'll pause and we'll consider that.

Verse 8, 421 is given the word of wisdom through the spirit. So, wisdom. And we know we have the book of Proverbs and it's made very plain in that first chapter that it is written for that purpose. That we can study it, we can reflect on it, we can read through it to give us a deeper understanding and comprehension. Wisdom is the ability to rightly judge and to make, to render decisions, and then to follow the soundest course of action based upon the Bible, our own experience, upon knowledge, upon counsel that others may give to us.

The wisdom. Now, early in this book, Paul had reminded them that God calls the weak of the world. He calls those of us who are special. We're a little challenged. And he says this was to confound those who are mighty. But, you know, when Paul wrote that or other scriptures that may indicate that, there is no indication that we need to stay that way.

And that's the thing that struck me when my family began attending God's Church when I was 14 years old. I had had experience in another church on another day. And you might take a Bible and you might not. But when we went to God's Church, everybody, everybody had a Bible. And I was 14, so, you know, it cut me a little slack. It was a bad year. I took a Bible, and in a little while I had a little instruction from my father, discreetly, that I would open it and follow along. Or, if I can't follow along, go somewhere and read. I mean, go somewhere in the Bible and read something. And most people had notebooks. I mean, they're writing notes.

And I was taken by these men who are carrying briefcases. There's a man with a briefcase on his lap. What do they have in those briefcases? And sometime later I asked a man, what do you have in there? I mean, he opened up. He has church, bulletin literature. He had news items and clippings from the newspaper and all kinds of things in there. Because we realize we're not here to play church. We're not here just going through the motions. The calling of God was to come and learn something. And yes, we're going to accrue knowledge, but then we have all kinds of life situations.

We face things we've never faced before. And we have to take the Word of God and apply it and allow His Spirit to lead us, to teach us. And through the process of discerning what is right and choosing it and striving then to do it, through the process we learn and we grow in wisdom. Now, I think back across a lot of congregations, I think back to Lubbock, Texas, and there was this man who was a petroleum engineer. He taught, at that time, late in life, he taught in a university there. And he was nobody's dummy. He was kind of like we called him the wise old owl of the Lubbock church.

He had a lot of savvy. And as a young pastor, I could go and catch him on the side and run situations by him. And I was learning a lot just from being around him. So, wisdom. And you know, we also need to remember the example of Solomon. Later on, yeah, he was the boy who was born into the king's house. He was the boy with, as we say, the silver spoon in the mouth in many regards. But when it came down and the kingdom was passed on to Solomon, and God appeared to him, what did he ask?

Yeah, give me. Who am I to judge this? You're so great a people. He needed wisdom and understanding. And because of that, God gave him that and gave him more. Now, we realize, sadly, he turned down different tangents and got stuck in some of the ruts along the way. Okay, let's go on. Verse 8, middle, to another the word of knowledge through the same spirit. Now, there are those who have phenomenal gifts of knowledge in different areas. Denise and I have thought we must at least be carriers of the genetics because both of our boys are absolute geniuses in the area of the computer world.

I know how to turn one on, and I can use one to a certain point. But then I hit the technological wall. I can go so far, and that's it. It used to be we would ask the boys to come visit, and we'd say, well, your mother and I have a list of things we messed up on our computer. And we would go and show us how you're fixing that. Well, to show us would take them all afternoon. But if they would take the list and go back, they'd come back in about two minutes and say, got it fixed.

They have phenomenal abilities there. I have a friend who's a deacon out in the church out in Bakersfield, California. And he teaches environmental science and other classes, chemistry and whatnot, at a university level. And the man is an absolute genius in those areas.

I think of Denise's father over here. I worked for him as an electrician for a few years. And the man is an absolute genius in mechanical and engineering things and just understanding. I did a lot of wiring and running conduit and pulling, putting switches and breakers. And I could follow a blueprint and make something work, but my mind doesn't understand everything behind it. A lot of electricians are that way. They might be good electricians, but they don't understand electricity.

Her dad was a genius as far as, and on a job site, you might have other master electricians or journeymen like he was. You might have a brand new apprentice, and he was continually talking and teaching. And I think with this gift of knowledge, what good does it have for us to have a gift of knowledge unless we're sharing it? And I think that's a part of the gift, an ability to be able to convey that to others so that we're sowing seeds that may germinate later on.

Well, let's continue in verse 9. To another faith by the same spirit. Faith. And the Greek word there is P-I-S-T-I-S, pistis. Firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing. You know, one of the most succinct definitions of faith that I ever heard, a long time ago, in a Good News article, a long time back, Harold Jackson, some of you will remember the name Harold Jackson, long old-time evangelist in the church, he wrote an article, and in that he said, faith is the degree to which you believe the promises of God.

And that stuck with me. I like those little statements that just really distill it down to the nuts and bolts. Faith is the degree to which you believe the promises of God. And faith is different for different people. Our own faith can vary. I mean, look at Peter's example. He saw his Lord walking on the water toward him, and he wanted to join him, and as long as he had his eyes on Christ, he walked on the water, but as he looked at the raging waves around him, he began to sink and he got wet.

Our own faith can be stronger at times and be in it can waver at times. But again, I think back to a lot of God's people across the years, and there oftentimes has been this little old lady.

I could name names, but there was this lady in Portalis, New Mexico, about 89 years old. And if I wanted somebody praying for me, she was on my list. And there was a lady in Plainview, Texas, and she had reared eight children with her husband having left her when they were little. And she was one tough lady, and I wanted her praying for me. And there are people here I want praying for me, because they have the ability to believe the humanly impossible.

And God help us to have that. But, you know, it said here, another faith by the same spirit. And another place Paul wrote that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And that's why it's important for us to be students of the Bible. We go back and we read and we re-read and we re-re-read these same old stories. And that's why it's important we come here to church. I thought it was interesting. I believe it was two weeks ago, maybe three Sabbaths ago. Darren Keith, who has driven me here before, but Darren gave the sermonette in Kingsport.

Where do I live now? Huntsville. Huntsville. I lived in Kingsport 13 years. In Huntsville. And he focused on, you know, Hebrews not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And he had three very solid points from that. I was not in Murfreesboro that morning, but I heard the messages that were given. And the sermonette man up there, Mark Smith, gave a sermonette on not forsaking assembling together. And had three different points. And then later on I heard a split sermon that Ken Robbins gave in Birmingham.

And as a part of that message, he got off on not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And I think there was a theme there. God was inspiring. But of course, the people that needed to hear the messages weren't there that week.

There are reasons that we miss. But the importance of coming here is, and I'm blessed usually to be able to go to church services the same day. Two different groups of God's people. We rub shoulders, we tell stories. We hear stories. We share trials that we've been through. And in the process, it shores up, it strengthens our faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. And God can inspire it through reading His Bible, but He can also inspire it by hearing stories of other people. Who have same passions, same challenges as we do, but they struggle. And God leads them and overcomes. And we go to Hebrews 11, we have that long list of men and women of God, starting there with Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham, Sarah, and all the way through.

Alright. I would also say with faith, and a lot of these, the beauty is that that gift can be infectious as well, in a good way. If a person has knowledge and shares it, how much better is that? If a person is filled with faith and shares that faith, again, it is contagious in a good way, and it spreads through the congregation. Well, let's read a little further. The latter part of verse 9, it says, to another, gifts of healings by the same spirit. Now, it strikes me that it says, gifts, plural, and healings, plural. Because when we think of healing, we tend to think of Acts 3, like Peter and John, the lame man, and they said, we don't have any money, but what we have, we'll give to you in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. We tend to think that. We tend to think of Jesus standing outside Lazarus' tomb, had them open at Lazarus, come forth. We tend to think of Nahum and the Serum, go wash seven times in the Jordan, and he was cleansed. We tend to think of a man born blind there in John 9. And no one sinned, Jesus said, but that the mighty works of God could be manifest. And he was healed, given his sight. We tend to think that way. And yeah, we hunger for that. The early days of the church, brethren would be injured or sick, afflicted, and the church praying for them. And it was unusual, if you go back in the 60s, it was unusual to hear that the person wasn't healed. But the further we go along, and I think we pay a greater price because this society is going the wrong way, as we know.

I also know there were times in my own life when I was newly baptized, when I was young, say through my 20s, a few times. I went and was annoyed for something, and I was healed. In fact, this hernia surgery that I had, I was hauling hay when I was 17, and I had a bulge in that same area. And I was anointed, and it went away. Now, I worked farm work, I worked construction work, and a few years ago, it came back. Same area. First surgery, and now second. But I was anointed each time. In Murfreesboro, I asked Preston Fritz, would you come annoy me, please? And because, you know, we always need to think, I want God involved first. Then there are things man can do, like make things like this, so I can tell when Rudy's sticking his tongue out at me.

Where was I? I had a thought there. Healings. We pray for our brethren. Phyllis has suffered a lot now to have an eye surgery and having complications. But there are other types of healings.

My mother died, we lived in Birmingham, a long way away. My mother died in 1980. But I look back at her, and Denise would say the same thing. She's so thankful that our first five years of marriage, that we were four years there in Oklahoma, and Denise got to know her mother-in-law and her father-in-law well. And then we moved to Birmingham with work, and mom died. A terrible death of cancer. But she, I'm convinced, had a gift of healing, but it was a gift of being able to encourage. And I wish I'd gotten more of that. She had a beautiful soprano voice, too, and I got none of that, though. So I've tried. I cannot hit those notes. But she seemed to have the gift if somebody began sharing something, she communicated that she... Well, she may not fully understand, but she wanted to, and she was from the heart, hurting with that person. And that's a beautiful gift. We can read in the book of Acts, this man whose name was Joseph, or Joseph. The apostles renamed him Barnabas, and that his name meant the son of encouragement. Barnabas, we see a little bit here and there. You know, he and Paul. He's the one, after the events of Damascus and Paul, and then Paul disappears. But Barnabas is the one that goes back up to Antioch looking for him, or Tarsus, wherever it was. And then when Paul and Barnabas kind of, you know, sparks were flying over young John Mark, Barnabas is the one who took him, and even Paul later on told Timothy, When you come bring Mark with you, he's valuable to me for the ministry. So Barnabas seemed to have the ability to see the potential and to then lift up a person. And, you know, we get a lot more out of encouragement than we do out of correction. And yet, by nature, sometimes I can deal with our children. We want to correct them. I know I did a lot of that. Go in there and bark a few orders and get them to comply. Better to reach for their heart. Better to train and teach the attitude. So encouragement, I think, falls in that realm of healing.

But, you know, when Christ began his ministry, early on he's back up home at Nazareth. And there is something about going back home. It's just a strange quirk of human nature that they think, Well, he or she, they're from around here. They can't know anything. They're one of us. You know what that thinking says about you? It's not very good thinking. But Jesus went back home and on the Sabbath went to the synagogue. And it was a time when he stood to read the Gaven scroll of Isaiah. And it says he found the place where it was written. Well, he inspired it. He ought to know where it is. And he read those words, apart from Isaiah 49, apart from 61. But he read scriptures about himself as Messiah, and one phrase was, To comfort the brokenhearted. And he read so far and he sat down, and this day this is fulfilled in your ears. To comfort the brokenhearted. We live in a world with a lot more heartache, heartbreak. Imagine as prophecy comes to its crescendo, as we see, and we step into the world to come, the wonderful world tomorrow. People are going to live through the untime Holocaust, and they're going to need that people of God with the gift of comforting the brokenhearted. And I believe that falls in the realm of the gift of healing. That is a manifestation of that. Well, let's go to verse 10. We're making ground here. Three verses down here. Verse 10, to another the working of miracles.

Miracles. Now, healings are miracles, yes.

Holding back the waters of the Jordan River is a miracle. Parting the waters of Red Sea is a miracle. There are all kinds of miracles. The Bible has one from early all the way through.

But, again, we have something I think we can ponder here. Are there other types of miracles? What about if you pray for a hard-headed spouse? Denise has probably prayed for one for 40 years. If I can mind my manners till June 14th, she will have put up with me for 40 years? It used to be just old people could say, we've been married 40 years. But who knows how long that poor lady has prayed that God would open my mind? And I know that this has happened because there are things she's tried to tell me. And somewhere down the line, it's like, oh, the light comes on. And I realize, oh, I need to change that. But maybe it's with work, maybe it's in the family, maybe it's with friendships, and there are people you pray about. After all, what is God's greatest miracle? What would be God's greatest miracle, then, to penetrate the hardest thing on the universe? And that's the human skull. I'm speaking a little figuratively there, but to penetrate a stiff-willed, selfish, stubborn carnal mind, and to have the light come on, maybe not quite as dramatically as happened to Saul that day on the way to Damascus, and he ended up the Apostle Paul later on, but to gain conviction. And someone whose very nature hated every word in this book, who then couldn't drink in enough of it, that is a miracle to lead down the path that led to baptism.

We have a man in Huntsville Church, and he showed up at our front door in November. He had a first cousin years ago who was a member of the Church. A lot of seeds were sown through the years by this cousin, a lot of seeds that lay dormant for a long time. And then things came along that they began to germinate. And about two days before I got on a plane to go to the Philippines, I baptized that man. He was on a high learning curve, and he said he had 66 years of life. Before you leave, I have to have that washed away, and I want to keep the Passover. So I baptized him. I'm sorry I'm going to be on the other end of the world before the Passover. But you'll... excuse me. So that's a miracle. I mean, it's a miracle. Somebody spends decades, and you're going a certain direction, self-oriented, and all of a sudden you realize, uh-oh, there is a God, and I have a problem, and I need to change, and I need his help, and I need to pass washed away. What a marvelous miracle that is. Verse 10, the next phrase, it says, to another prophecy. Now, we know prophets through the Old Testament. We have some referred to in the New. There's Anna the prophetess. There was Agabus the prophet that crops up in the book of Acts once in a while. He, you know, as Paul was saying goodbye there at one point, people were trying to get him to not go back to Jerusalem. He took his, what, his cloak and bound them with it and said, so you'll be taken in Jerusalem. But to our knowledge, we don't have any prophets working in the church today. I know I'm not one. It wasn't that many years ago with camp over here that we have that, you know, that first week of July, I told them, okay, it's going to be hot in Alabama, come dress for hot. And it was cold. And I remember when somebody was going down to Walmart and Ken Martin and I gave somebody some money, buy me a little light windbreaker because we were chilled. And I don't know of any prophets. Usually when they say they're a prophet, they're not a prophet. I want to know what God says they're a prophet. And there'll be some, but there's more than one type of prophecy. Let me read a little list from Vines' Expositor dictionary of New Testament words. The word here, prophecy, is from the Greek prophetaea. And as Vines points out, much Old Testament prophecy is purely predictive. And he mentions like Micah 5 verse 2 that he'd be born in Bethlehem. And they're in Isaiah that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. There are all these 30-some prophecies about the coming of Messiah and many others. Look at Isaiah 44 or 45, the prophecies about Babylon going down. And you can read from history how ancient Babylon fell. And it's amazing how it was worked out. So we know a lot of that is predictive. But then it says prophecy is not necessarily, or even primarily foretelling. So it's not necessarily foretelling future events. It says then, it is the fourth telling of the will of God, whether in reference to past, present, or future. It mentions God placed apostles, prophets, etc. in the church. And the purpose of their ministry was to edify, to comfort, to encourage, to teach the believers. And I think we've heard that in the church over the years. There is prophecy, and we do need to be careful. We've had a tendency to go out on limbs and say, this is it, this is it. And then find out, nope, we're wrong. That guy died. It wasn't him. He wasn't the beast.

But the focus is on fourth telling, the will of God. And when Paul would go around, he said, we determine we would know nothing but Christ and him crucified and resurrected. And there is a fourth telling, and that involves inspired preaching and teaching.

And you know, all of us are a part of that. We have an opportunity to share in a work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, foreign white. Okay, then it says, in the middle of verse 10, to another discerning of spirits. And we could just say discernment. Because we're often very naive, and we're often blinded. We do read in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, about the God of this world, who has blinded the minds of those who believe, not lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them. And so, it is a matter that we live in a world that has many negative influences, many destructive influences. And we're told, don't be ignorant of Satan's devices. We need the gift of discernment. I think any parent needs the gift of discernment. Because in rearing a child, or working with a grandchild, maybe more of us are in that phase now. Working with a child, we want to read the attitude. Discern the attitude, the intent behind the action. Kids will forget to do their chores, and it's not the end of the world. You can tell a child, clean up your room, and by the time they get there, who knows where their mind is. But we want God's help to discern the attitude, and work with molding that attitude, more so, much more important. We need the gift of discernment anytime we turn on the television, anytime we decide to watch a movie, or turn on music. Music is the language of emotion. And Satan the devil can preach his messages to us through anything we get on the radio, the television, the internet, any number of areas. Well, I think we'll end our part here on 1 Corinthians 12. Different kinds of languages. Notice verse 13, We were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have been made to drink into one body. And I think most importantly, verse 18, But now God has set the members, every one of them, in the body just as he pleased. And it's interesting, as he wraps up this discussion of spiritual gifts, God is the one who gives to one a gift of wisdom, maybe beyond others, and gives to another a gift of faith beyond others. And it's not a competition. These all come from God. They're all to edify the body. They're all to glorify God. Now let's back over to Romans 12.

Because Romans 12, as he wrote to Rome, we have a similar thread that he gets on as he gets to what we know as Romans chapter 12. Notice verse 5. So we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. So he reminds them, we're different. We have our own talents, abilities, our own pasts, our own likes, dislikes. But we're all members one of another. Sometimes in the body of Christ over the decades, we haven't done very well in remembering that. We're on the same team. Years ago at the camp, there was one year I used the acronym TEAM, and it stood for, Together, Everyone Accomplishes More. And there's a lot to that. And if we can learn that in the body of Christ, by staying together, and we don't always do a very good job of that, do we? Stay and don't answer that question. Staying together, every time we are pulled apart, Satan wins because it pulls away from the strength of the overall body. I wish there were a human being who knew the answer, but I think Christ is the one that's going to have to, in his own due time, bring the body back together and God speed that time. But let's go down to verse 7. As he starts listing, he mentions prophecy and faith in verse 6, but we've commented on those somewhat. So let's go down to verse 7. He says, He says, or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. Now, he's not talking about pastors and elders there, specifically, but it is inclusive of them, but of all of us. The same word oftentimes is translated serving or service. Like when the disciples were squabbling over who was going to be greatest, and Christ mentioned the leaders of the Gentile world, and they had this tight-fisted government. And he said, And then he said, Even as the Son of Man came not to serve, not to be served, to give his life a ransom for many. And so he lived it. He set that example of giving his life. You read, especially Mark's focus, Mark's gospel, the focus is on Jesus coming as a servant of fellow man. And it goes from one example after another after another of he went about healing and easing the suffering of human beings around him. So on service, this is a special tool. There's a lot of work on any given type of service, even for a smaller group like this. There are those who come in, and all of you have a part over here, but there are hymnals to put out, and there's a button to punch to make the right song play at the right time.

There's just someone who has to book the hall and keep them happy by paying them from time to time. All kinds of work goes together, and it has to do with service. There are some that just seem to have a special ability, almost to an extreme. I've known people who have almost just served themselves right out of the church because they neglected their home at the expense of wanting to go and help other people. That's where that important word, balance, comes in. We have to keep it all in balance. There has to be time for all of the above.

I mentioned Lubbock, Texas. Years ago, we moved there. There was a deacon who said, We'll call us when you can and give us an estimation of when you'll arrive. We had gone to Oklahoma and spent the night at my dad's place, and then we left early. I had called and I estimated at 4 in the afternoon I thought we could be at Lubbock. We pulled in our house. We could hardly get to our house. There were 30 to 40 people waiting to unload that truck. That truck was empty in 45 minutes. There were people all through our house. Ladies were opening boxes and putting glasses. It was wonderful! It was a wonderful move. Well, in Lubbock, we had our third child and got to the point where we were kind of beyond getting everything we owned in one truck and driving cross-country. I'll always remember that example. Same thing just about happened when we moved into Memphis three years earlier. The gift of service. The more it's used, the more it's developed. The more it sets an example and in the process sows seed for others to look and see and go and do likewise, hopefully. Okay, then it says, He who teaches on teaching. I think in part we focused a bit on that. No, I was down to the wrong verse here. Let me see. Where was I?

Oh, that's in verse 7. I'm sorry. I was down a couple of verses. Teaching, in part we commented on that. He who exhorts and exhortation, that kind of would tie in with some of the comments about encouragement. We need to be more encouraging people. We need to build others up. He who gives with liberality. So, giving is a topic as well here. Giving. And you know, giving is something that's contrary to human nature. Human nature is in the getting. I think way back when, when Herbert Armstrong said there was a way of give and there was a way of get. By nature, we want to get for self. By nature, life is focused on self. The calling of God, we're slowly turning to another person. That means focusing on the other, away from self and toward others. And that involves giving. Giving, serving, sharing. And, okay. Let's see.

It says here, verse 8, continuing, He who leads with diligence. So, leads, let's speak of leadership, rulership, administration.

Diligence, yes. But I think it always behooves us to view, you know, make the government of God as easy as possible. To be loving servants, loving leaders within the home. To be loving, even when as a parent there's authority over others in the house. Let it be loving authority. Okay, He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. He who shows mercy. And, again, showing mercy can be totally contrary to our nature. There's something about human nature. If we're hurt, we want to see that person pay. If not, you know, we want to draw a unit of blood. But mercy is to write off a debt someone has. And, in fact, in the sample prayer Christ gave on how to pray, you know, we're to be merciful so that we can have mercy shown to us. And so, let's look over in Micah 6. This is a good one to be reminded of. Good material back here that Micah wrote.

Micah 6, and let's read verse 8.

You will probably remember it as we start if you haven't already. Micah 6, 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? God help us to let that be our credo for living. When we are slighted, when we are offended, when we are wronged by others, then we have the opportunity to show mercy. And the Apostle Paul mentioned showing mercy with cheerfulness, not begrudgingly setting them free, but happily setting them free. I think that's what Christ did through all the pain. Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing. And I think that's what Stephen did in a similar manner, as he was just about dead. And he says, Father, lay not this into their church. So, when we are wronged, let us be among those who quickly, happily, cheerfully extend mercy. Let's turn to Acts 4, and we're going to wrap it up over here. As far as showing mercy, with the calling of God, our eyes open up to see our own sins in a way that we never could before. And that's an ongoing process. And to the degree that we really, truly examine ourselves and realize how undeserving we are of the forgiveness of God, to that degree, it's so much easier to look at someone else. Someone else we don't know nearly as much about as far as their faults and sins. And to just let it go, write it off, set them free, cheerfully and happily. We're going to come tonight, tomorrow, to a holy day. The day of Pentecost, the day when God, at least with that group of about 120 people, you'll probably hear more about it from Gary tomorrow, poured out His Spirit upon His people. It began there. It had been prophesied. And that began something that has been continuing. You know, it won't be that many years. We'll be, if time goes on, 2,000 years down the line. And the process continues. And then with the millennium, it's really going to be ramped up. And then with the White Throne Judgment, it'll really reach a crescendo.

But in Acts 2, the Spirit was given. Most of that chapter is that marvelous sermon by Peter. You read that and you think, who is that guy? This is the guy who rebuked Christ. This is the guy who said, well, I'm going to go fishing. But no, He's a different man because the Spirit of God came upon Him and He was in the process of being turned into a different man. And John working with Him, but Peter was the one who was out there and he was kind of taking the dominant lead. We have things that go on. They're threatened. They're jailed. All kinds of things happen. And when they get back with the church, notice here in Acts 4, verse 23, I think I said 24, 23, And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised them. This is the early church, the apostolic church. They raised their voice to God with one accord. And you know, you find that from Acts 2 on. They were all together in one accord. The end of that chapter 2, they were together in one accord. And I think that's one of the great manifestations of the Spirit of God is that it leaves unity in its wake. God help us to yield to the lead of that Spirit to the point that we are tightly woven and bound together as one. One accord and said, Lord, here's a prayer. 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 do the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the children of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants, that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal, 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. A similar revival is always needed in the body of Christ at any age. The Church of God needs a renewal like that, and that happens to the degree that we yield to the working of God's Spirit. And by looking at gifts of the Spirit, and we haven't even covered all of them, it helps to break it down into little pieces that we can wrap our mind around, that we're changed into another man or another woman, to the degree that we learn to heal, to the degree that we grow in faith, to the degree that we're able to encourage and comfort and strengthen one another. And I think through it all, the greatest thanks we can give to God is by yielding to the Spirit of God, as God seeks to work in our life through it, and be willing participants in bearing the various gifts of the Holy Spirit.