Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical
words that have great significance to our faith.
The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where
once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are
familiar with in scripture.
So come along with me.
Let's study the Word of the week.
Pastor Josh here.
The word of the week is again gift.
We've been studying the spiritual gifts listed in Romans
chapter 12 here for many weeks now.
And we are going one by one and looking briefly at each one of
these gifts and how they fit in within the church and how we as
Christians can identify those spiritual gifts in our life.
And so we pick up with Romans chapter 12.
And we have talked now about the gift of prophecy.
We've talked about the gift of ministry or service.
We've talked about the gift of teaching.
And this week we find ourselves looking at the gift of
exhortation.
We need to ask a few questions with the gift of exhortation number
one, what is exhortation?
It's the gift of God given to us through the Holy Spirit, focused
on motivating others to, or encouraging others in their spiritual
growth.
Okay, so this is the gift of encouragement, the gift of motivation.
You could say it this way, coming alongside of someone to pull
them along or encourage them along, even, even challenging them
to come along in their spiritual growth in accordance to
Scripture.
And so just like all the other gifts that we've seen so far, this
is a gift given to us by God through his grace after salvation,
led by the Spirit, so that we can help in areas within the church,
encourage others to come to an understanding of who Jesus is and
what he has done for us.
And ultimately, as we've seen in First Peter, chapter four, to
glorify God.
And so the gift of exhortation is, is that Spirit given gift to
motivate others, to serve God, to motivate others to grow in their
knowledge of the Lord and the application of their knowledge to
godly wisdom.
And so it's calling to action somebody who understands the truth
of God, but now needs to apply that to their life.
And so this is done to strengthen both the individual and
the body of believers for service to the Lord, obviously for
the purpose of exalting the name of God.
And so an individual who has this gift appreciates serving, but
also has a, has a desire to look into others, have compassion
for others and challenging others.
So this is a very all of these gifts are, are not self focused.
It's the opposite of that.
There's humility there, it's others focused.
So, so these individuals would be able to give clear and practical
goals and steps to achieve spiritual growth.
And so this is somebody who focuses on individuals and loves
individuals, loves mentoring, loves counseling.
They might even have the element of teaching along with this.
They would be able to explain well, to communicate direction well,
able to understand difficulties in the way and prepare
folks for those difficulties.
Helping people make decisions, helping people finish what they have
started.
Giving people the drive to see spiritual growth in others as well.
So we talked about this last week, Second Timothy, chapter two,
verse two.
You, you teach some so that they can teach some, so that they
can teach some.
So you've been taught and then you teach others and then other people
teach other people.
Well, it's the same thing with exhortation.
You know, there's that idea of people have exhorted us, encouraged
us, challenged us.
And then there's other people that we can challenge in our life
so that they may encourage and challenge others.
And so this is a wonderful gift in the ministry, a needed gift
in the ministry because we have so many people that as we, as
we already seen in First Peter, chapter four, there's, there's
the manifold or the various gifts of God.
So different people fall on different areas of the spectrum within
serving the Lord.
And so like all of the gifts, this is a needed gift in the process
of moving people forward.
But like in every gift, you have the challenge of either living
within the spirit or living in the flesh.
So a spirit filled teacher or a spirit filled encourager is going
to be someone who has the desire to push people forward, has
a desire to discern the spiritual growth or the spiritual
gifts in other people and, and then allowing them to get to a place
of, of maturity in their life.
And so, but then you have the other side of things where there's
the, maybe the fleshly or the carnal exhorter.
And you know, again, in all of these gifts, the person walking in
the flesh is looking for self recognition.
They're seeking praise of, of them, of their own work.
And so we have to be careful of that.
Obviously, someone who's walking in the flesh might feel that
they could take credit for what they're doing by exhorting and
challenging others, maybe even would elevate a, their, their personal
experience or their opinions above scripture.
So, so again, like all of the other gifts, we need to make sure
that we are exercising this in the Spirit now we go back to first
Peter, chapter four in that regard because it of gives us that.
That touch point, that, that beginning point in, in reminding
us what these gifts are all about.
So as every man hath received the gift, so some of us have received
the gift of exhortation.
Some of us have received the gift of prophecy.
Some of us have received the gift of.
We're going to talk about later on giving.
And so the list goes on and on.
So some of us have been given that gift.
All of us, we should say have been given a gift.
And then he goes on to say, even so, minister, that's serving
the same one to another.
So again, the focus is other.
So an exhorter is looking to see who he or she can exhort, who
he or she can encourage, who he or she can exemplify spiritual
growth to in their life.
So even so, minister, the same one to another as good stewards.
I think that's important to note as well.
It's that stewardship principle.
This is not something that we have been accomplishing in our own
strength.
This is a gift of God.
We don't own this.
We are stewarding what God has given us.
And so that gives us that humility, perspective, that gives
us that selflessness and allows us to see where truly the
source of all these things are coming from.
So good stewards of the manifold.
We already mentioned that.
The manifold, the various gifts of grace, the manifold grace
of God.
So there's so much packed into that verse.
And we know that it's from God, we know that it's for God, and
we know that ultimately we are just the vessels in this process
of exhortation.
So you think about different ways that we could exhort people.
You know, you look at Scripture and you think of some individuals
that might have been good exhorters.
I think of people like David.
He would exhort others.
And David's mighty men, he came alongside of them and encouraged
them to stand fast in their faith and, and fight for the cause
of the Lord.
And then, you know, you can think about back at.
In the New Testament with Paul.
I mean, Paul would definitely be considered a teacher, definitely
a prophet.
But we do know that Paul would come alongside and exhort others.
And I think that that's an important ministry gift that all
of us can at least strive for, even if we're not necessarily gifted
in this supernaturally.
I think that we all should strive to be better at exhortation.
Exhortation in the area of encouragement and the area of challenging
others coming along And I think that's important to notice
too.
It literally means to come alongside of other people.
It doesn't mean to push people.
You know, I think sometimes that gets out of context when we
think about, you know, challenging people.
It's like, well, I don't push people.
I don't condemn people.
I don't, you know, judge people.
No, exhortation is, is essentially coming alongside of someone
and urging them to do something.
So it there is that in the Greek, the idea of being close, the
idea of walking alongside them.
We're in the trenches together.
And Paul Instructs Timothy in First Peter, or excuse me, First
Timothy, chapter 4, verse 13.
In the ministry, he says, till I come give attendance to reading
to exhortation into doctrine.
So we know that exhortation has to be a part of the church just
as much as doctrine, just as much as biblical teaching sound.
Biblical teaching needs to be within the church.
So does exhortation.
And so the word is used there in the concept of encouraging, admonishing
and challenging others to spiritual growth.
And so in that case, Timothy's job as a pastor was to encourage
those within his body, within the flock, as an under shepherd.
And so we know that obviously this would be a gift that many pastors
should, should have or at least grow in.
But we know that the church is more than just the pastor.
The church is made up of many individuals.
And so the exhortation gift can be exhibited in many different
areas within the church.
So the Holy Spirit gives believers these gifts for a purpose.
And that purpose is to bring them closer to the Lord so that they
can reach more people for Christ.
And so I think what we can leave with, with this thought is
ex exhortation is not pushing.
Exhortation is not pressuring.
Exhortation is not putting a guilt trip on somebody for spiritual
growth.
But it is a time where we can come alongside of somebody and so
doing it together.
Let's do this together.
So exhortation is not just talking the talk, but it's walking
the walk.
And so people with the gift of exhortation don't just proclaim the
truth.
That's the gift of prophecy.
There is some proclamation of truth with exhortation, but the exhorter
develops relationships.
The exhorter takes time to do extra things when people might be
struggling with their Bible study or their prayer time or even
just elements of their life.
And so an exhorter is someone that takes it a step further from
the proclamation of the truth.
It takes.
They take it a step further than teaching the Scriptures.
So it could look like this.
You know, a person could get up and say, thus saith the Lord.
This is true from Scripture.
But an exhorter would then come alongside of someone who might
be struggling in an area and say, hey, can we go grab some coffee?
I'd love to help you out with this.
I'd love to pray with you on this.
I'd love to walk you through some steps to get to this place in
your life that God wants you to be.
And so like we mentioned before, regardless of whatever gift
that we are given in, in the primary sense, all Christians should
desire to become better at this gift of exhortation or this
aspect of exhortation within the ministry, because this shows,
this shows the love that we have for other people and it ultimately
will strengthen the body of Christ the more that we exhort each
other to love and to good works.
And so all of us are called to exhort each other, challenge each
other to that.
And I think that that is an element of the church that sometimes
gets overlooked.
Sometimes we don't have a problem with the proclamation of
the truth, but sometimes we have a problem with the follow up,
following up with the understanding that, hey, someone
needs help, Someone needs help here.
Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13 talks about we need to do this every
day.
The encouragement has to happen every day, the exhortation
has to happen every day.
And I think that that is showing the importance of, of the
love that we have for each other, but ultimately the, the practical
application of, of the truth of God, even, even in the book of
Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and
25.
Very familiar passage when it comes to the assembling of ourselves
together as a church.
But it, but it says, and let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and to good works, not forsaking of the assembling of
ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting,
there's our word there, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
So the call is, is that we are all up to meet, we are all to spend
time together, and we're all called to exhort each other.
And, and that's the idea of provoking each other to love and
good work.
It's not a negative provoking that we're provoking just means to
stir up, to encourage, to, to revitalize, to get each other fired
up for the cause of the gospel.
And so we as a church are called to meet together, but meeting
together is not enough because if you go on farther in that verse,
it says, but exhorting one another.
So the goal is to meet, yes, as a church, but then the next step
would be meet and then exhort each other for love and good works.
And, and I think that is what God has called us to do when it comes
to the area of exhortation.
Now we'll come back next week and we will look at the gift of giving
and we're going to go through each one of these gifts here listed
In Romans chapter 12, these ministering gifts.
And when we get done with that, we'll have a good picture of
these spiritual gifts listed to us In Romans chapter 12, as we
serve the Lord together.
Well, after that study, we will get into a new one.
But I encourage you to follow along with us here this year in 2025,
and we will be doing Word of the Week every single week.
These will be posted every Wednesday and I hope that you can
enjoy these, grow with us on these, and then share some of these
with your friends and family.
Because the more we promote the Gospel, the more we're able to
see people come to the understanding of who Jesus is and
what he has done for us.
And we want to proclaim the truth to all of the world.
So I encourage you share it with one person maybe that you know.
And I hope it'll be a blessing for them as it has been for you.
Well, God bless.
You have a wonderful week.
We look forward to coming back next week and studying more about
these gifts of grace.
God bless.
Hey, I really appreciate that you listened to the Word of the Week
podcast.
If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church,
Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us
on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org
you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org
stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper
into words that impact our life according to scripture.
Thank you so much.
God bless.
We'll talk to you soon.