Hello and welcome to our program. We're going to be looking in Romans chapter 12. Have your Bible ready if you can. Well, we're looking in Romans chapter 12, and it has a lot to do with us understanding why people respond to things the way that they do. Over the years, this chapter has been an amazing help to me in understanding exactly that. You can make a statement to one person, and he'll respond a certain way, and someone else will respond totally different. Well, he starts off here in verse number three, and we'll come back and look at this whole chapter in more detail. But today, we're looking at verse 3. It says, For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Well, I think most of us do. But to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Think according as God has dealt to every man. Now, some people have a higher IQ than others. Some people have a different sense of direction than others. And he says, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. And he's looking at this in the context of the local church. In verse 4 he says, For as we have many members in one body, and all members do not have the same office, or that word office has been translated deeds in Romans 8 and 13, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one member is one of another. Then he goes into this area of the gifts, and we're gonna look at this in detail over the next few weeks, but he says, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given unto us, whether prophecy, there's gift number one, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Number two, of ministry, let us wait on our ministering. The third gift, he that teacheth, teaching and then number four or he that exhorted on exhortation number five he that giveth let him do it with simplicity number six he that ruleth with diligence and number seven he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness now He talks here in chapter 12 basically about the life and the service of us as Christians today. And we're talking about service, we're talking about an action of doing some work. Jesus said that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Now, the Lord has given us service, he's given us work to do, but he is not going to give us work to do without equipping us with the necessary things that we need to do the work. To be equipped is to supply with what is necessary for a particular purpose. So we see here in verse number six, he says that he gives gifts differing. Now, when he gives a gift, it's something we receive without merit. It's not something that we deserve. back in Romans chapter 1 verse number 11 Paul said I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end ye may be established now he said I want to come and I want to impart the word means to make known unto you about these gifts and then to that end that ye may be established in using the gift that God has given you for the service of the Lord." Now, there's seven of them here, as we said. First of all, there's the prophet, and that we see in verse number six. And this word prophet is not like in the Old Testament, where it means to foretell. What it means is to tell forth. It's talking about real preaching as in comparison to teaching. Well, then the second one down, we have verse number seven, or your ministry, let us wait on our ministering, and basically that's talking about the gift of a servant. Then our third one is teaching, and obviously that's a teacher. And then the exhorter, one who exhorts. Then the giver, one who just is motivated to give. and then the ruler, which basically means an administrator, and then the mercy shower, which of course is one who shows mercy. Now, it is God's program that we would have all of these things, all of these gifts, actively working within the local church. And so again, he says in Romans 12 and 3, we ought not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, Verse 4, he says, we're many members, but we do not all have the same office or the same deeds. And so one is motivated to do one thing, one is motivated to do another, and we will be motivated in direct relationship to what our gift is. So a motivation is the reason we act or react or behave in any particular way. Not only do we have the gifts that are here and we have basically four Temperaments and the Bible doesn't deal with those but as I have watched this over the years, I'm talking 40 years I see that basically those who promote the four basic temperaments, I believe are correct. There's the sanguine. There's a choleric There's a phlegmatic and then what they call the melancholy. Well, they have strengths and they have weaknesses and I'll give you the strengths of the Sanguine. He's sociable, he's very outgoing, he's a very confident person, he's warm-hearted, pleasant, nice to be around, he's optimistic, he's a fun lover, he's very spontaneous, he is the one who, you know, there's never a dull moment when he's around, he easily makes friends with everybody. Now those are his strengths and He has his weaknesses. Now, when we're talking about how people respond in any given situation, the weakness of a sanguine, well, he's very impulsive. He's usually late for everything. He's a forgetful kind of person. He's a compulsive talker, and sometimes he talks too loud. Sometimes he's too happy when he shouldn't be happy. He's not interested in following through with tasks that are boring. He's very self-absorbed, or can be. and someone who sometimes appears unauthentic. He can't be real because he's too happy all the time. That's basically the sanguine temperament. Then you have the choleric. What are his strengths? He's ambitious. He's passionate. He's a leader. He's usually focused. He's efficient. He's very practical. He likes to plan things. He's good at solving problems. He's a confident person. He's motivating. He's a delegator, and he's usually right. And he's great in the time of an emergency. But his weaknesses? Well, he's aggressive. He can be domineering, sometimes impatient and inflexible. He can be rude and tactless sometimes, very argumentative, unable to relax, uncomfortable around any kind of emotion, he's kind of low on empathy, and he's discouraged by failures, and sometimes he can be very intolerant. Then you have what they call the phlegmatic personality. What are his strengths? Well, the phlegmatic person is relaxed, he's quiet, he's calm, he's content with himself. usually kind, he's consistent, he's a steady and faithful friend, he's affectionate, he can be very diplomatic, he's a peacemaker, he is one that easily makes friends as well, but his weakness, he sometimes can be too shy, fearful of change, he can be prone to be lazy and stubborn, He can be indecisive and permissive, and he doesn't set goals. He just kind of goes through life and can sometimes be too compromising, undisciplined, discouraging, as a matter of fact, because he doesn't participate in a whole lot. And then you have the melancholic personality. What are their strengths? Well, they're thoughtful and considerate. They're very cautious. They're organized. They are planners. They plan extensively. They are schedule-oriented. They are detailed. They're highly creative. They may be people who write poetry or do artwork. They can be independent, and they can be very good at preventing problems. But the weakness? They can be too cautious, prone to depression. They're moody. They're up one day and down the next. They're professionalists. They are pessimistic. Sometimes they're very difficult to please. They are deeply affected by tragedy. They have sometimes a tunnel vision and sometimes they are procrastinators. They can be discontented with themselves and discontented with other people too, and sometimes they can be prone to play the part of a martyr. Well, no doubt as we were looking at that list and going through those characteristics, you thought about somebody, but you can be absolutely sure that somebody thought about you. We're not going to talk about the basic temperaments that I've just talked to you about. We're going to go with the Bible things about the seven gifts and why we are motivated to do the things that we do. By way of introducing this series, I'm going to ask these questions that have to do with things that might irritate you. And if these things irritate you, it can tell you or help to tell you what your gift is. And we're going to look at it in a lot more detail. But just on the surface, what bothers you? Does it bother you when Christians compromise? then your motivational gift is probably that of a prophet, because the prophet says, hey, this is right, and this is wrong, and compromising is wrong. Does it bother you when Christians fail to demonstrate true concern for others? then maybe your gift is that of a servant, because a servant is motivated to serve and meet the needs of people. Or does it bother you when we substitute experience for sound doctrine? And that happens a lot. Well, Maybe your motivation is that of a teacher because a teacher wants to get the facts and a teacher doesn't want to deal with experience. A teacher wants to deal with sound doctrine. Or maybe it bothers you when people do not grow up spiritually and they don't reach their spiritual maturity that they could. you're motivated to do something about that, then perhaps you are an exhorter, because the exhorter is one who exhorts people to grow up spiritually, and he has that gift of being able to help them to get from one step to the next in the process of growing up spiritually. Now, that is in contrast with the prophet who we said, oh, it just bothers him when Christians compromise, and it should, but he says, okay, this is right and that is wrong, do right. Well, the exhorter, he's a person that says, no, wait a minute now, it's not that simple. You can make that decision, but help him do right. There's maybe five, six, seven steps to getting to where he needs to go. And that's the difference. The prophet is a great motivator to get him on the right track, but then he needs an exhorter to help him stay on track. Well, maybe it bothers you when people do not trust God concerning their finances. One verse in every six in the Bible, in the New Testament at least, talks about money, and maybe that is a concern to you. Well, you're probably, your motivational gift is that of a giver because you're concerned about giving. And the giver not only is concerned about giving money, sometimes they don't have anything else to give than to bake a cake and help the neighbor across the street who is sick, but they like to give. Then maybe it bothers you when everybody is so disorganized. Well, then your gift is probably the administrator because they have the motivation to get everything organized. Nehemiah, for instance, in building that wall. He was an administrator. If you read the book, you'll see that he was. Then, maybe it bothers you when people do not show a genuine love for each other. That is probably because you're a mercy shore. and a mercy shore will show mercy. Now, as you can see, we need all of these within the local church. If every church member would take his gift, and he would do what he should do with his gift, we'd have amazing churches that would really be on fire for the Lord. And it would balance it all out with all seven of these areas. So in the days ahead, we're going to be looking at this in detail. and trying to figure out what your gift might be. And I think you should let somebody else know about these programs. If they help you 1% as much as they've helped me, they will help you a lot. It's so important not only to understand why people respond the way they do in any given situation, but why you respond the way you do in any given situation. So be sure to tune in for our broadcast as we look at this in Romans chapter 12.