Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We're in Romans chapter 12, looking at why people respond the way they do in any given situation. Stay tuned. We've been looking in Romans chapter 12 at these seven different gifts and the basic responses that people have when circumstances of life that cause things to happen around us and we find ourselves in the middle of those things and we have a reaction. Now, a reaction is a response or a behavior in a particular way in response to what is happening around us. Now, as we look at the situation here in Romans chapter 12, obviously the context here has to do with the local church, and it has to do with Christians getting along with one another. would be to take those verses, just punch it in your Bible program in your computer if you have one, and one another, and check it through and see how many times it talks about how we need to get along with one another, because everybody's different. Now, we looked at the gifts here that is recorded for us in verses six through eight in chapter 12 of the Book of Romans, and we saw about the prophet, in a previous broadcast. He's one who's going to guard against the compromisers, and we sure need them today. Then there's the servant. They are motivated to help people and meet particular needs. We need the teacher, also recorded here, with someone who is concerned about the truth. And then the one who is motivated to be an exhorter to help people from steps, from step one to step two, whatever many steps there is to victory. Then there's the giver. Of course, he's concerned about giving, and not always just money, but things. He motivated to do that. And then there's the ruler, or we would call the administrator, who says, no, we've got to have it all organized. And then the mercy shower that will weep with those who weep. We read about these seven gifts here in Romans 12, beginning to read in verse number six, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth on teaching. Or he that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. And so you have the seven gifts there. We saw previously that in verse nine down through, we have the verses that correspond with these gifts. For instance, the Prophet, verse 9, corresponds to that. It says, let love be without dissimulation or hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good. That's what the motivation of the Prophet is. and then we see the second one uh the servant it's called ministry here in verse number seven and down in verse 10 the verse that corresponds with that be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another then the third gift here is he that teacheth Verse 11 corresponds to that. Not slothful in business. That word means diligence. It's translated that way in verse 8. Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. He's a teacher. He's going to not be slothful in getting to the truth. then in verse 8 we have the exhorter and the verse that corresponds with that is verse number 12 it says rejoicing in hope patient and tribulation continuing instant in prayer this is the one who is motivated to help people along on the road to victory Then number five, he that giveth, the Bible says plainly in verse number 13, corresponds to that, distributing to the necessity of the saints, given to hospitality. Then number six, we have he that ruleth, that is the administrator, and in verse number 14 it says bless them which persecute you bless and curse not and finally the mercy shore verse number 15 rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep now it's interesting that the very next verse says be of the same mind one toward another mind not high things but condescend to men of low state be not wise in your own conceit You see, we're motivated in one particular area, one of these seven areas, and what he's saying here is, don't be wise in your own conceit. Your gift is obviously very important, but don't think it's any more important than the other six gifts that are here. If we had all of these gifts operating with any local church, that would be a church that would be honoring But we're going to look today particularly at the exhorter, and as we look into the Scriptures, you'll find that Paul the Apostle was an exhorter. We read about him in Colossians 1 and 28 that he wanted to present every man perfect in Christ. It was his goal to bring people to spiritual maturity. The word perfect here simply means complete. to be mature is to be fully developed in spiritual ways. In fact, the word spiritual occurs 12 times in the book of 1 Corinthians, and they needed some help in that book. You can read about them. They were very carnal. They had a long ways to go to spiritual maturity, and that's what God wanted for them, and that's what Paul the Apostle was motivated to do, to help them in that. The Exhorter is also motivated to reach people at their spiritual level and capable of understanding that. And he says in 1 Corinthians, I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual. He knew where they were and he knew where they weren't. and he was motivated to help them from where they are and move them on. He would always have precise steps of action as he talked. You study his writings, you can see that. He would explain truth with logical reasoning. And he was concerned for helping individuals, not just seeing people as a group. But in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, he said, I comfort your hearts and establish you. He said in 1 Thessalonians 2 that he would exhort and comfort everyone as a father doth his children, everyone. Now, sometimes you'll find that word, everyone, all one word, that means the group. But when you find it in two words, like it is here, everyone, that's every individual. He said in 1 Thessalonians 2, in verse 7, that he said he helped them as a nurse cherished her children. A nurse doesn't just get on the microphone on the PA system down in the office of the the hospital every Sunday morning at 11 o'clock and yell at the whole group to get better. She's concerned about individuals, and so was Paul the Apostle. Well, also he had a desire to identify with the people, as an exhorter will. He said in 1 Corinthians 9 that he's made all things to all men. He said to the weak, I became as weak. He was also motivated to bring harmony between Christians. He said in 1 Corinthians, you need to not have this envy and strife and division. He said in Philippians 2, to fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded of one accord, of one mind. And then he understood that trials could be a motivator to spiritual growth. He said, if I'm going to glory in anything, I will glory in my infirmities. In 2 Corinthians 4, he talked about affliction that worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse number 9, he said, God's strength is made perfect in weakness. Well, here we see the strengths of the one who is an exhorter, but as we look, as we have looked in these other gifts, as we looked at this one, we see we also need to be careful about the weaknesses of any one of these gifts. And a sorter can prematurely raise the expectation of people with problems. They have the ability to visualize long-range goals and projects, but sometimes there's a failure to explain the amount of time that it's going to take just assuming that people understand. And, of course, when they don't get results, you know, I want it my way right away seems to be our feelings these days. If the exhorter doesn't explain to the people, this is going to take a long time. We're not going to get this done in a week. Sometimes they'll sacrifice time from their own family to counsel other people. They delight in helping people with problems, and they'll spend whatever time is necessary, and the result, they can have their own family responsibilities suffering, and they will assume that their family will understand. Well, they won't. Then sometimes they treat people as projects rather than people. Exhorters put confidence in their program, in their steps of action, which have previously worked for them. And so people are sometimes made to feel like they're part of his project rather than a real concern. And that, of course, and all of these gifts, if the Holy Spirit's in control, that's not going to happen. Sometimes they'll share private information without permission because Personal illustrations are very good teaching tools, and if they don't have permission to use an illustration, they shouldn't be doing that. They can jump from one project to another without finishing the first one, and they can influence others to depend on them rather than on their God-given authority. These people are going to be attracted to those who care enough to help them. and they may feel that the exhorter is the only one who really understands them, and exhorters enjoy being around those people that are growing spiritually, and sometimes they can distract them away from their God-given authorities that way if they're not careful. Trusting in visual results to a prescribed step of action can be something that when people respond to steps of action, Exhorters communicate acceptance and approval, but there's a big difference with outward conformity to a plan and an inward change, and a prophet would spot that right away. That's just part of his motivation, but in an exhorter, He's anxious to see success and he might take some outward conformity as the real thing rather than an inward change. And then failing to discern between people who want help and people who only want approval. It's been my experience over the years that most people who come for counseling, they don't want the truth. They want to find somebody who will approve what they're already in. I used to spend hours and hours, in fact I'll put it this way, I used to waste hours and hours counseling people who didn't really want the truth, they wanted my approval. So I changed my counseling procedure to a different way and I would give my life, I will, to help anybody who really wants help if they're not just playing a silly game, but we have to be real. And so I would tell anyone who comes to for counseling. We have two types of counseling in our church. We have private counseling and we have group counseling. And I would explain to them that the private counseling is what we're doing right now. And then there's group counseling. That's our regular services that we have every week. Now, we will have our private counseling, but we have to have an understanding. We will have the private counseling as long as you will do what I give you instructions to do. Here's step one. Step two, you take these steps and you will do what we're talking about. Then we can have this private counseling. If you won't do it, then we're all wasting our time, aren't we? And so I would get a commitment. Yes, I will do what you say I need to do in order to get the victory. All right? All right, the first thing you need to do is you need to be faithful to all the group counseling sessions. Well, that knocks out about 85% of them right away. They want to come in and have some personal counseling where they can see if they can get you to agree with what they already want to do. They want your approval. Well, I haven't got time for that. I'll give my life, as they said, to help people who are willing to be helped, but I don't play these games. And so here's step number one. You must come to all the group counseling sessions. If you're not going to do that, then we're done. Now, you've already agreed that you will do what I say or we won't have private counseling. So this is your choice. And again, it just kind of filters out those who are real and those who are just looking for approval. Well, here we are, seven different gifts here. In our next program, we're going to look at the one found in verse number eight, he that giveth, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicities. Tune in for our next program.