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 gift.
This will be our third installment of looking at the word
gift.
Last week we talked about the gifts that God gives us called the
spiritual gifts.
The Bible says that all believers, when a person trusts in
God, puts their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.
The Holy Spirit indwells them, and God gifts them with a gift of
service.
First Peter, chapter 4, verse 10, says, as every man hath received
the gift, meaning all believers have received the gift,
even so minister the same one to another.
So the Bible says we're given a gift to serve one another as good
stewards of the manifold grace of God.
So we are stewards of God's gift.
And it says there the manifold grace of God, meaning that there's
reverence, there's differences in our gifts.
So there might be a person that's in my church that might have
a different gift than me.
All right, so the Bible says that there is diversity in the gifts.
And then in verse 11, it says, if any man speak, let him speak as
the oracles of God.
And so the Bible says that there are some of these ministering
gifts that we're going to look at here today that are public.
They're speaking, teaching, professing things before others in
a public manner.
But then it says if any man minister.
So the Bible says that there are some of these gifts that might
be behind the scenes, more on the avenue of, of private ministry.
Let that person do it as it says there, of the ability of God
which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified.
So ultimately, God is glorified through Christ Jesus.
And so that is the purpose of our gifts.
So what I would like to do here for the next few weeks is look
at these gifts, specifically the service gifts or the ministry
gifts listed in Romans chapter 12.
There are going to be many different passages of scripture that
speak of God's gifts to us.
And we know that every good gift comes from God.
But the list, the particular list that we're going to be studying
in this series is going to be found in Romans, chapter 12.
And so I want you to go along there with me.
And we're going to break down this list for the next few weeks
and we're not going to cover all of it today, but we are going
to try to cover as much as we can today.
As we look at these gifts.
Now, Romans chapter 12 in context is talking about presenting
our bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which
is our reasonable service.
And it talks about us not being conformed to this world, but
being transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we could
follow in the will of God.
And then the Bible goes on to say in verse 3 of Romans 12, 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.
So have a humble viewpoint of yourself.
Don't live with pride, but to think soberly.
And as it says, you know, with thinking soberly, this is being serious
minded about the things of God, according as God has dealt to
every man the measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one body and all members have not
the same office.
And so there's this analogy of me as a believer.
I am now just a part of the body of Christ.
And just as the body, the physical body has many different
members, so does the body of Christ.
And so there's, there's difference in our gifts.
Verse 5.
So we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one
of another.
So he says in verse six, having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us.
And so he's setting up this list that he's about to give and
he's going to give some spiritual gifts that are used within
the church.
And then he also tells us how to properly exercise these gifts
within the local church, within the body of believers.
Now we're not going to have time to go through all of them here
today, but what I would like to do is go through each one of these.
And the purpose of this is to, number one, to identify what these
gifts are, number two, to see how we can live out these gifts within
our, our church, within our spiritual lives.
But I would also love for you to inspect this passage of scripture
and ultimately decide on which spiritual gift you believe that you
are gifted with.
Now I do want to give a disclaimer at the beginning of this.
If you are not naturally or supernaturally gifted in one of these
areas, it doesn't mean that we just throw it to the side.
So, so we're going to talk about the idea of exhortation we're
going to talk about the idea of showing mercy.
If you aren't naturally gifted in those areas, you have to still
say, you know what?
I'm going to grow in this.
Though I'm not gifted in this, I'm still going to try to grow in
this.
And so all of these areas to some degree are things that we can
do as believers, but some of us are just going to be naturally
or supernaturally gifted in these areas.
And so that way we can work effectively in the body of Christ.
That way we can work with more passion, more, more zeal for what
God has for us within various ministries within our church.
And so this, this group of gifts that are given Here, Romans
chapter 12, are considered by many the ministering gifts.
And you go back to that passage in First Peter, chapter four.
The goal for these is for ministering unto those people around
us, ministering for the cause of the Gospel.
So we see here the very first gift that's listed.
It says whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion
of faith.
Now we see first and foremost the gift of prophecy.
Now, what is the gift of prophecy?
Well, when we hear the word prophecy, most of the time we equate
that with talking about the future, predicting events that are
to happen.
And though that is one element of prophecy, we certainly see that
in the Old Testament, prophesying things about Jesus, things
about the future, the nation of Israel.
We even see prophecy in the New Testament, certainly throughout
the New Testament.
And one book that is predominantly prophecy is the Book
of Revelation.
Some prophecies have been fulfilled, other prophecies have
not yet been fulfilled.
But that's just one element of that word, prophecy.
So the Greek word translated in prophecy or prophesying just essentially
means to speak forth, to speak forth truth.
And so though it can mean speaking forth the truth of God in
the future, it essentially just means speaking forth the truth
of God.
And so you, you could say it there, there is the idea of speaking
forward the truth of God, but really it's speaking forth the truth.
And so this idea of prophesying is the idea of preaching
the word of God, declaring the will of God to interpret the decisions
of God in accordance to his word.
I, I would say that this is a gift that pastors hold in, in the
concept of preaching forth the word of God, preaching the truth
of God, thus saith the Lord.
So, so while knowing the future can play into the idea of
prophecy, it's primarily a gift of proclamation, not so much
prediction.
So, so you can have the gift of Prophecy without the gift of prediction.
So, so there's forth telling and foretelling.
I would, the way that I teach this is that I would say predominantly
it's the gift of proclamation, forth telling.
And so, so a pastor or a preacher, someone who's going to
be getting up and speaking the truth of God to people, will declare
what the Bible says.
Hopefully that's what they are doing.
And the Bible says that someone with this gift is able to
do this with ease, or at least they're able to do this in, in a
natural sense.
They enjoy doing this.
And so with the, the completion of the New Testament,
prophesying change from declaring new revelations to now
proclaiming what has already been given us in the Word.
You know, obviously in, in the New Testament, in the Book of Acts
and other places, they did not have the complete canon of Scripture.
They did not have the complete revealed Word of God.
So therefore they had to prove things by prophesying and speaking
forth the truth of what's going to happen.
And those would happen.
But now the Word of God has been validated in the fact that we
have the complete canon of Scripture.
And so now the job of someone who was prophesying is to speak forth
the truth of God in accordance to His Word, not extra biblical revelations.
We know that in Scripture it warns us against adding or subtracting
from Scripture.
And we even know that the Bible says that there are going to
be false prophets.
So these are going to be people who are speaking forth not
the truth, but lies.
And so there can be true prophesying and there can be false
prophesying.
And so we know that as Christians today, there is an importance
to this within the local body of believers because we need to hear
the truth.
And so I, I would venture to say that most of us would want to
hear the truth of God.
If you're listening to this podcast, I hope that's your desire.
And so the way that the truth of God is presented today is through,
obviously you could read the scriptures on your own, but it is
given through preachers and, and evangelists and, and different
folks that are going to be prophesying in the name of God through
His Word.
And so if you enjoy reading the Word of God, studying the Word
of God and then sharing the Word of God in, in the context and
in the interpretation of Scripture.
I would say that, hey, you might be someone who has been gifted
with the gift of prophecy.
I, I would say that the gift of prophecy, and we're going to talk
about another gift here, a little bit later.
The gift of teaching, they're, they're simultaneously linked in
many ways because part of teaching is proclaiming the word
of God.
So thus saith the Lord.
So, so many times it's explaining what the truth of God
is and then explaining how we can grow in understanding of that
truth.
And so simply the gift of prophecy is the gift of speaking
forth the, the truth.
And so we, we see that there in Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter
12, verse 6.
If someone is gifted in the gift of prophecy, it says, let us
prophesy according to the proportion of faith.
Now that's an interesting concept to think about there, but
what is it saying?
Well, essentially what we're seeing here in this case is that
there is a proper way to proclaim the truth of God.
There is an appropriate way to proclaim the truth of God, and then
there also is a way of proclaiming the word of God in a
false manner.
And I think it's important for us to practice godly counsel, godly
guidance, and how we proclaim the truth of God.
So God might give us something to say as an individual that might
stretch out to the church body.
But, but it might even stretch our own faith if, if we cannot preach
in faith.
That means it basically as I'm proclaiming the word of God, if I'm
not doing it in trusting God, we shouldn't do it at all.
That's what he's saying here.
To do it in the proportion of faith, do it with faith.
So proclaim the truth of God as you believe it.
Don't, don't be preaching something that you don't believe,
even though it might be hard to believe.
It's going to stretch our faith.
And so we're reminded that preaching the, the word of God takes
faith.
And so this is the teaching for those folks that are gifted in
this area of prophecy.
I believe that Paul might be even cautioning folks that are, that
are preaching to, to get it together in their minds and in their
own hearts what they believe before they even bring it to the
folks that they are preaching to.
So, so other people take the proportion of faith to be, maybe
even in regards to the audience like, okay, so be careful
on who you're preaching to.
But I think personally the way that I interpret this passage is
that's talking about the one who's proclaiming this truth to have
faith in what they are saying, believe in what they are saying,
believe in the Lord, believe in that teaching, that, that proclamation
of the truth of God.
So that takes hard work.
That takes Study, that takes courage, that takes boldness.
And so I would encourage you to inspect your life, to say, you
know, is that me?
And this isn't just for preachers within the church.
I mean, you can preach in your workplace, you can preach in your
home, you can preach in the community.
So this isn't only in the formal setting of a church service
behind a pulpit, but I would encourage you to think about, you
know, is that something that God has given me in, in a desire?
Because I will say that most of the gifts that God gives us, he
also links a desire to that gift.
So if you desire to preach, you desire to proclaim the truth
of God, there might be a great chance that you are gifted in the
gift of prophecy.
And then the next step would be, am I going to do this in faith?
It's not performative.
It's not getting up in front of people and making sure that all
my intonations are right.
And it's very rehearsed.
No, there is this element of trusting in the Lord and believing
in what we are going to preach.
And so there is the gift of a prophecy.
Next week, we're going to look at the gift of ministry or service.
Some people are gifted in that area of serving others, and I would
encourage you to come back and listen to that one as well.
We're going to go through each one of these gifts here as we do
this study.
And I would encourage you to inspect your own life, expect your
desires, inspect your call, and see where God has you to fit
into your community, your church, your world.
So thank you again this week for following along with us.
We've studied the spiritual gifts and started with the gift of
prophecy, the gift of proclamation, the gift of preaching.
So looking forward to talking to you next week.
Looking forward to bringing forth another spiritual gift that
we can all understand and grow in in our lives.
Well, we hope that you have a great rest of your week.
We will talk to you next week.
Have a wonderful day.
Hey, I really appreciate that you listen 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.