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Hello and welcome to the
Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

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where we are proclaiming the
truth to the world.

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In this podcast series, we're
going to be looking into biblical

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words that have great
significance to our faith.

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The name of this series is
called the Word of the Week, where

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once a week we will dive
deeper into these words that we are

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familiar with in scripture.

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So come along with me.

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Let's study the Word of the week.

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Pastor Josh here.

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The word of the week is gift.

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We've been studying the gifts
given to us in the Spirit in Romans

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chapter 12 here for a long time.

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Now we're getting towards the end.

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We're going to be talking
today about the gift of administration.

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Whereas the King James says the.

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The gift of ruling.

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And so you can see that there
In Romans chapter 12, it speaks of

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that gift.

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And as all of these gifts are,
they are given to us by Christ through

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the Holy Spirit with the
discernment of God so that we can

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use them for his purposes in
our life.

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And so the gift of
administration could be defined as

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the Spirit giving grace and I
would even say motivation to serve

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God in the body of believers,
to visualize the bigger picture of

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the body, to understand its
needs, to define the needs, to communicate

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it with other people, to
formulate plans of action to encourage

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members of that body and to
complete goals, obviously for the

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sake of God's glory within the church.

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And so it is a more public
gift when it comes to administration.

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It is a gift that what we
would say is, is in one of the upfront

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ministries, even though it
might not be necessarily preaching

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or teaching, it would be
definitely a ministry that would.

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Would be demonstrating
administrative needs for the body

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as a whole.

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And so people that are rulers
or administrators are motivated to

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make the body run with optimum efficiency.

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Meaning there are things maybe
that are going well within the church.

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They want to make it run better.

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And they have the tools, as
God has given them to, to make the

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church run better.

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So some of these people in
scripture that would have had these

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gifts, people that I think
about would be people like Nehemiah,

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Solomon, Joseph, even you look
at Joshua there in the Old Testament,

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these would be people who
could have the ability to visualize

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the final outcome.

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Sometimes you have people in
the church that, and come up with

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ideas, but they're not able to
make them come to pass.

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These would be individuals led
by God in, in the area of, of defining

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the needs for the goals at
hand and being able to delegate the

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right people for the right jobs.

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And so biblically speaking,
this is a needed position within

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the church.

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Obviously it's not always
necessarily the most attractive position

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for people that aren't gifted
in that area.

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Um, they, they would be people
who are very faithful and dependable

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with, with various skills and
talents that would be administrative

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and, and really they are
people who are going to be.

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Tend to be workers.

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Very, very busy.

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And.

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But anytime we have these
gifts, we know that we can exercise

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these gifts with the power of
the spirit or the power of the flesh.

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And so just as much as an
administrator is helpful for the

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church, when exercise within
the power of the Spirit, someone

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that's exercising themselves
in a carnal fashion, a fleshly fashion,

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would, would maybe be harmful
to the body at large.

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And so some people that would
have the gift of administration might

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tend to be more dismissive of
others that don't have their vision.

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Some people that are working
in the flesh might be tempted to

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use people to accomplish goals.

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So, so using people, right,
Seeing people as a, a tool instead

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of a soul that, that is in
need of care, they might be.

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Tend to be so driven that they
forget about other responsibilities

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in their life.

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And so we, we know that
there's a proper way to administrate

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and there's an improper way to administrate.

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And I think the, the goal for
somebody who is an administrator

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would be to exercise their
gift that God has given them in the

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framework of the fruit of the Spirit.

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And any of these gifts could
be exercised that way.

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If you think about it, you
could either work in the flesh or

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work in the spirit.

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Galatians chapter five lays
that out for us.

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The Bible speaks of the flesh
and the spirit warring against each

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other.

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And if we are acting in the
flesh, we are going to be characterized

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by these things of the flesh.

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And there's a whole list of
those things in Galatians chapter

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five.

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But then we see at the end of
Galatians chapter 5, there is the

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classic list of the fruit of
the Spirit.

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And if we are characterized in
any of these gifts today, specifically

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including administration, we
would be characterized by, by these

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character traits.

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So if you look at Galatians
chapter 5, verse 22, it says, but

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the fruit of the Spirit is love.

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And so I think it's key to an
individual who is administrating

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to do it with love.

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The spirit of love would be
selflessness, humility, care for

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others, Instead of seeing
people as tools for the job to get

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done.

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You know, just steps in the
machine process.

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It's, it would be like, hey,
this person has issues and Needs

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and, and might need to be
shepherded and cared for.

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So, so love, joy, so do this
in joy.

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All these gifts can be done in
joyful manners.

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And they could also be done in
manners of bitterness and anger.

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You know, a person could say,
well, can't believe I have to do

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this for the church.

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Or I can't believe I have to
do this for the Lord.

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No, it's, it's done with joy.

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That's one of the character
traits of doing these things in the

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spirit.

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Peace, long suffering.

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That, that word in our
everyday language is patience.

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You know, you gotta have
patience with administration.

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Sometimes someone gifted in
the gift of administration can see

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exactly what needs to be done,
but someone's not doing it.

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And there could be an
inpatient spirit with that.

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And so to be exercising the
gift of administration would be to

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exercise it in a manner of patience.

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We see the word gentleness here.

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Goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance, that's self control.

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Against such there is no law.

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And so the Bible lists there
the different character traits of

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the fruit of the spirit.

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And I think that as we're
looking at the gift of administration

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today, it would be wise to
check ourselves with that list.

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You know, am I exercising my
gift in these areas?

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So the gift of administration,
the gift of giving, the gift of prophecy

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or proclamation, the gift of
teaching, the gift of exhortation,

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am I doing it with love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness,

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goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

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If I'm not, then I'm
exercising my God given gifts with

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the flesh.

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And I think that that would be
a dangerous place.

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It is a dangerous place to be
because we are squandering what God

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has gifted us in, in the area
of stewardship.

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And you go back to, I think
it's First Peter, First Peter, Chapter

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4, Verse 10.

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We started here says, as every
man hath received the gift, there's

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the gift.

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Even so minister that service
the same one to another.

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So the purpose is others as
good stewards of the manifold grace

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of God.

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So what we've been given is a
gift of grace.

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Therefore we are stewards of it.

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Because it's not ours to, to
claim, it's, it's God's, but he's

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given us the opportunity to
manage it and use it for his good.

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So if we have been given these
things in our life and we use them

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for our own pleasure, or we
use them for our own purpose, then

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we essentially are squandering
or wasting the gift of God.

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We are not being good stewards
of what he has gifted us in.

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And so, so often we, we waste
the things that God gives us for

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our own pleasures, for our own
fleshly desires.

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And so the challenge for us
today would be God has given us so

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much.

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He has given us talents.

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He has given us time, truth, treasure.

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He's given us all these
wonderful gifts.

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As James 1 says, Every good
gift comes down from God.

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What are we doing with these gifts?

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How am I using this for the
furtherance of the gospel?

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How am I using this for the
edification of the body of believers,

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the church?

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How am I doing this to edify
my fellow brothers and sisters in

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Christ?

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How am I exhorting others to
love and good works?

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And so I think of, of may, of
all the gifts, administration would

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be one that could be seen as
sometimes as, hey, I'm deflecting

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work, right?

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Because I'm, I'm, I'm tasking
other people.

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And though it can turn to that.

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And we do need people that are
good delegators within the church.

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We do need people that can see
the bigger picture and see the end

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goal and be detail oriented.

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Not everyone is naturally
detail oriented, but I do know that

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even as all the gifts are,
even if we're not supernaturally

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gifted in these areas, we are
supposed to grow in these areas.

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And so you, you might think
that, hey, you know what?

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I don't have the gift of
administration, so I don't need to

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worry about the details.

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No, I think as believers, we
all need to grow in these areas.

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And so if I'm scatterbrained
or if I'm not organized in my ministry

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or my service, I need to see
how God can help me get stronger

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in those areas.

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And so I think that that's the
goal for all of us when we come and

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look at these gifts is how can
we all grow in these capacities as

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believers?

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So we are looking at
administration today.

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Next week, we are going to
look at the gift of mercy.

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And that will essentially
conclude the gifts that are listed

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there in Romans, chapter 12.

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And I really hope that this
has been a beneficial study for you.

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And I think that if you.

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Well, let me say it this way.

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I know that if you are a
believer, God has gifted you with

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at least one of these gifts.

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And the challenge would be to,
number one, identify that gift in

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your life, but then, number
two, to see how you can use that

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gift in the local body of
believers that you were a part of.

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And so the assumption there
would be that you are a part of a

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local body of believers.

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I know that Many of the folks
that are listening to this podcast

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are members of Middletown
Baptist Church, but we know that

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there are many great churches
around the world.

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And so if you're not a part of
Middletown Baptist Church, I'm sure

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there's a church out there for you.

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And I encourage you to find a
local body of believers that you

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can be a part of so that you can.

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You can be utilized for the
kingdom of God there.

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Now, you don't have to be a.

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A member of a church to be saved.

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You can trust in Jesus Christ
as your savior, but the assumption

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in Scripture would be that
immediately we find a local body

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to be a part of and to grow in.

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And so the Bible does say to
not forsake this, the assembly of

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ourselves together.

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And the Bible says that
there's a purpose to that assembly,

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and that is to exhort one
another to love and good works.

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So it's not so much that I
have to go to church, but that I

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want to go to church and that
I need that body to complete me.

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Now, Christ completely
satisfies everything that I need

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in my life, but Christ uses
the church.

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And the Bible says that Christ
loves the church and he gave himself

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for it.

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So Jesus loves the church, and
so we should, too.

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So we're gonna look at the
Gift of Mercy next week and conclude

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our study, and then we will
get into some new words.

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I know we've been on the
spiritual gifts now for.

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For a long time, and I know
that anytime you're studying one

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thing for an extended amount
of time, it can be difficult.

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But I do encourage you to stay
through and see it through so that

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we can move on to some more
wonderful words here as we study

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the words of the week.

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God has given us so many
things in scripture to learn from

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and to grow in, and I want to
do that along with you.

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So thank you so much for
following along in the study.

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We are looking for ideas that
maybe you would like to hear about

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in scripture.

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And so if there's a word or a
phrase or a person in Scripture that

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you would like to hear more
about, we would love for you to share

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that with us.

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You could email me at Josh,
that's J O S H Massaro M as in Mary,

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A S as in Sam, S as in Sam a r
o@middletownbaptistchurch.org you

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can send me an email there, or
you can, you can reach out to the

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church at large.

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You can call us at the church,
you can find our contact information

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on our website, you could find
that@middletownbaptistchurch.org or

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you can find a link to our
church website at our podcast website.

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That's nbcpodcast.org well,
thank you so much for listening and

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I appreciate your faithfulness
as we've been going through these

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words for quite a bit of time now.

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Well, God bless you.

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We hope you have a wonderful week.

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We look forward to hearing
from you soon and we will be back

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next week with another Word of
the Week.

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Take care.

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Hey, I really appreciate that
you listen to the Word of the Week

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podcast.

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If you have any questions
about the podcast or about our church,

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Middletown Baptist Church, you
can find more information about us

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on Facebook or YouTube or you
can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org

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you can contact me directly at
Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org

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stay tuned for future Word of
the Week episodes where we dive deeper

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into words that impact our
life according to scripture.

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Thank you so much.

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God bless.

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We'll talk to you soon.