Hello and welcome to our broadcast. This is the final in our series on the gifts and why we act the way we do. Stay tuned. We've been looking at the gifts that is recorded in Romans chapter 12. I'll just read these verses again. Verse six, having done gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry or the servant, let us wait on our ministering. He that teacheth on teaching, verse eight, he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth or the administrator with diligence, and he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness." Now, we said in our last program we would look at the Mercy Shore. We actually have done that. If you go back to the first and second program, we compared the Mercy Shore with the Prophet because they're so completely different. And yet we found that as we look into the life of John, who was a Mercy Shore, that he was attracted to the Prophet. Very interesting. He spent more time with Peter, who was a prophet, than he did with anybody. You'll find Peter and John together in 18 verses, and Peter and Matthew in one, John and Mark in three, John and Philip in two, and John and Luke in one, but Peter, 18 times. You will find him with Peter and John in the same verse. And so he's attracted to the prophet, interesting. But just a few comments, and you can go back and listen to that other broadcast. if you want to get more details on the life of John. But we saw in those programs that John had a major focus, and that major focus was on love. He used the word love more than any other disciple. John was motivated more that people would have an inner peace more than physical needs. He talked about joy and hope and fellowship and confidence. and casting out fear. John also had a great concern for Christians that they would love one another. He said in 1 John 3 and 11, this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that you should love one another. He said in 1 John We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love one another. That's a major focus of the Mercy Shore. We said there's some weaknesses with the Mercy Shore. They can get over-concerned about hurting people and they fail to be firm sometime when we need to be firm. They can take up an offense for others because if somebody gets hurt, they will take up an offense for them. Also, Mercy Shore needs to be careful not to make decisions based on emotion. Mercy Shores are usually emotional people and decisions need to be made on reasoning and logic, not just emotion. the mercy shores are sometimes too emotional to let the holy spirit get involved in their decisions and that can be a weakness there also rejecting those who appear insensitive the the mercy shore is quick to recognize insensitivity but they need to be careful not to react too quickly and close their spirit to those who are not Mercy Shorers. And then they have to be careful not to get a wrong reaction to suffering. In contrast with the Exhorter, the Exhorter looks at suffering as a means to maturity, but the main concern of the Mercy Shorer is to remove the suffering as quickly as possible. Mercy Shorer is the kind of person that would be bringing a steak dinner to the prodigal son in the pig pen, and he wouldn't learn what he needed to learn by being left there on his own. Mercy Shore needs to be careful, too, about having sympathy for those who violate God's standards. God has a sowing and a reaping process, and if you violate God's standards, there's a price tag and they have to pay. And sometimes the Mercy Shore needs to be careful not to get in the way of that. and undo something like taking food to the prodigal in the pig pen. Well, just in conclusion to this series, I want to talk a bit for a minute about understanding gifts. We're just touching the surface. We hope that we can spark some interest and that you'll get into the Word of God and study this for yourself. We certainly have not gone into it in any depth. But understanding the word gifts as it's taught in the Bible, it's interesting that the word gift, G-I-F-T, singular, is in the Bible 59 times, and the word gifts, plural, is in the Bible another 53 times. And then you have the phrase, he gave, that is in the Bible. In 78 verses, we think about Christ, and it says in Luke 7 and 21, he gave sight John 6 and 31 says He gave them bread. And then Ephesians 4 and 11 says He gave apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors. And we refer to God most of all. It says that God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. Now, giving. There's three main passages that deal with giving gifts, or God-giving gifts. It's in 1 Corinthians 12-14. We have what we'll call sign gifts, and these were gifts that were strictly for Israel. They really had nothing to do with the local church. And then in Romans chapter 12 and Ephesians chapter 4 we have speaking gifts and serving gifts which have to do with the local church. Now the sign gifts such as healing and speaking in tongues for instance in first Corinthians 14 22 It says, wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. Two things here. Tongues was not a speaking gift. It was a sign gift. Wherefore tongues are for a sign. It had nothing to do with a local church. It was a sign for Israel and only for Israel. It was not a local church situation, although the very carnal Corinthians thought it was, and they were saying, well, it's a sign that those of us who believe are filled with the Spirit. No, it says wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. And so we've, you know, Seen that been dragged into the church where it has no business to be and much confusion about this thing about speaking in tongues Well the sign gifts that had to do basically with healing and tongues ceased when the nation of Israel was ceased to be the focus, and the local church came into focus. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 8, the Bible says concerning tongues, whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Now that word cease means come to a complete stop, and they have. 2 Timothy 4.20, what about healing? Well, the Bible says there that Paul said, Trophimus, have I left that Melitim sick? Well, why didn't he heal him? Because those signed gifts were over. In 1 Timothy 5 and 23, he talked to Timothy about his oft infirmities. Well, why didn't he heal him? Because those signed gifts were over. Philippians 2 verse 25 and 26 he paparazzi said is sick so sick. He is nigh unto death He said why didn't he heal him? What because those sign gifts were over that's why the sign gifts ceased once Israel rejected her Messiah for the third time which happens in the first few chapters of the Book of Acts. In the Old Testament, the Messiah was offered by God, they rejected him. When the ministry of Christ, the Messiah was offered by Jesus himself, they rejected him. And then in the first seven or eight chapters of the Book of Acts, once again, the Holy Spirit offered the the Messiah to Israel, and they rejected him again. Well, then the signed gifts ceased, because those signed gifts were for Israel. Now, you have the Old Testament period, and then you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts, verses chapter one through eight in the book of Acts. The focus there was on Israel, and that's important to understand. We put the church in there where it doesn't belong, and we get into all kinds of confusion like tongues and healing and all that has been brought into these healing circuses that we see today. Well, we're in a transitional period between Israel and the local church age there in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the first eight chapters of the book of Acts. Well, as the local church dispensation began, the sign gifts ceased. And so, if you're going to study this about the gifts, you need to have that foundation. Now, Romans chapter 12, we have these seven gifts that we have talked about in this series, and they're for use in the local church. They're speaking gifts, and they're serving gifts for use in the local church. The speaking gifts? Well, the prophet, he's a preacher, and then the teacher, he's a teacher, and the exhorter, he's an exhorter. These are speaking gifts. And then serving gifts? There's the servant, there's the giver, there's the administrator, and the mercy shower. These are serving gifts. Now, God has given these gifts, and it's so important that as individual Christians we determine what our gift is and then get to work with it. A hockey team will never win a hockey game if only the captain plays, and a local church cannot do what God would like it to do if only the pastor is working. It's something that God has said, I've given you these seven particular gifts for the church members here and if you just get busy within your gifts you're going to have a great church and so ephesians chapter 4 verse number 12 says that god gave pastors for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry that's what we need to complete the saints for the work of the ministry, and the saints need to get busy in the ministry, and then we can get things done. Well, he says then, as we saw as we started in chapter 12 of the Book of Romans, and verse number 6, he says, differing according to the grace that is given to us, but he also said in verse number three that we ought not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We say, well, my gift is the most important. No, it is not. They are equally important. We are motivated in one particular area, but we should manifest in all seven. If we're going to let the Holy Spirit guide us as He would like to guide us, then we will be working in all seven of these, even though we're motivated for one. And though you're motivated for one in particular, let us not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. I'd like to close this series with this little thought I read the other day. It was entitled, The Toe Tapper? It says one day a wise man came to a small town and he needed a place to stay so he went to the first church he found. Inside a small group of people argued about how they could best please God. The visitor said I'll help you but you must promise to do what I say to do to glorify God. Oh, we will, the people assured him, we will. Well, he gave each one of them a gift. One was the gift of a pianist, another was a flutist, another was a violin, a man could play that, and yet another, he gave the role of a toe-tapper. a toe tapper. The people worked long and hard to prepare a song of praise for the church. The music became more and more beautiful, and one afternoon during the practice, the person who played the violin said to the pianist, I'm so glad I have this important job of playing the violin. I'd sure hate to be only a toe tapper. Well, the toe tapper was so hurt he went home. The next day when the group met to practice, nothing came together right. Finally, the flutist said, without the toe tapper here, I don't know when to come in for my part. Well, they started over and over again, but the music just was terrible. It was then that the violinist spoke up in a very sad voice and said, I'm sorry, this is my fault. I thought I was so important that I didn't need the help of the toetapper. I was wrong. So he led the way to the toetapper's house and asked him to come back to them. Toetapper agreed. And once again, the music was beautiful. Well, that's an interesting little story, but there's some truth there. Let us not, the Bible says, think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. The prophet, he's going to be out front there, but that doesn't make him one bit more important. then the Mercy Shore, who's just quietly trying to help people to get through the day. Well, we hope this program and this series of programs concerning the gifts have been a help. As I've said, we've just touched the surface of it. You need to study this for yourself.