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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, 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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This will be our last week
looking at the spiritual gifts listed

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in Romans chapter 12.

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And it's been quite a journey
as we have looked at these gifts

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given to us by God in His
grace for our service to him.

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And, and we've looked at many
passages of scripture, but the two

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main passages that we are are
foundationally looking at these gifts

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in is first Peter chapter
four, and then Romans chapter 12.

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And in that list there in
Romans chapter 12, we see the, the

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last gift there listed as the
gift of mercy.

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And last week we looked at the
gift of administration, or as the

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King James puts it, ruling.

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But this year we will look at
many different elements of how we

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can use these gifts for the
work of the ministry.

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But the last one today that
we're looking at in its definition

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is the gift of mercy.

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And so in First Peter, chapter
4, verses 10 and 11, it tells us

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that there are gifts that are
going to be more public gifts.

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There's also going to be gifts
that possibly could be even behind

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the scenes.

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And, and in many ways the gift
of mercy is one of those gifts that

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would be behind the scene.

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And I think one of the things
we have to think about when it comes

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to the area of mercy is the
motivation behind our mercy.

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And we have to look at the
definition of that word, mercy itself.

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Mercy is essentially
withholding something from someone

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that they might deserve.

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And so we have to recognize
what mercy is and we have to recognize

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what that looks like in our lives.

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And so the gift of mercy
defined is this.

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It's the spirit giving gift.

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And with that gift comes the
desire and the motivation to serve

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God in the body by deeply,
authentically emphasizing empathy

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to other people.

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So basically perceiving the
emotional needs of those that are

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in distress or needing
comfort, maybe people needing relief,

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maybe even to some degrees in anguish.

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And I think that for the body
of believers, this is a very important

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ministry.

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And the purpose again behind
the mercy is to point people to Christ,

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to give glory to God, as First
Peter 4 tells us.

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And so the person with the
gift of mercy is the person with

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the supernatural gift of.

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Of empathizing with people's emotions.

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And emotions are a beautiful thing.

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God gives us those emotions.

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Even though we can't allow the
emotions to dictate to us our truth,

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we cannot deny the emotions
that we face through various circumstances

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in our life.

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So, for example, you know,
someone could go through a very difficult

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time with a loss of a loved
one or pain in their own life, and

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that leads to sadness, that
leads to sorrow, that leads to pain.

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And so it's a serving gift
that focuses on the emotional needs

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of an individual and in the
broader sense, the emotional needs

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of the body of believers.

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And so the.

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The mercies are motivated to.

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To meet the emotional needs of
people in practical ways.

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So it's not just, hey, I feel
for you.

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It's.

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It's not just, hey, you know what?

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I feel sorry for your pain and
I'll cry with you, but it's actually

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trying to meet these folks's
needs in a very practical way that

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can help in, in that process.

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And so I think a couple verses
that we could look at when it comes

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to that idea of meeting the
practical emotional needs of people

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within our church could be
found in many passages.

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But I think if you look at
Luke chapter 6, Luke chapter 6, and

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we can look at verse 36, here
we see a very important truth given

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to us.

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And it says, obviously Jesus
is speaking, and he says, be therefore

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merciful, as your Father also
is merciful.

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I know that's a short
statement, but there's a lot packed

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in there.

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And essentially what we see is
that as believers, we are marked

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in our identity by our Savior,
by, by our Lord.

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And so we, we take steps to
emulate and to model the mercy that

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God gives.

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And so obviously, God gives
his mercy by meeting needs.

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Um, God extends grace and
mercy and comfort to those in need.

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And so that's what we do.

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We don't just say it, but we
do it.

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Another passage of scripture
that we're familiar with in our second

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Corinthians studies, 2
Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 3.

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Blessed be God, even the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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the Father of mercies and the
God of all comfort.

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So we see that it's the
character of God to extend this comfort

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and mercy to people, but then
it tells us the purpose of that.

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So, so as God comforts us,
verse four, who comforted us in our

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tribulation, meaning God
comforts us, the believer, that we

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may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort

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wherewith we ourselves are
comforted of God.

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So if you didn't catch that
there, it says this God extends mercy

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and comfort to us so that we
can, yes, be given comfort and receiving

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mercy, but so that also we can
share that mercy and comfort with

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others around us.

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And so God is always extending
that mercy and that grace and that

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comfort so that, yes, we can
be beneficiaries of that, but so

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that we can share that with others.

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And so you serve these people
and you give them mercy.

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You show, you extend mercy.

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But there, there's definitely
a difference between mercy and service.

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But mercy in and of itself is
that starting place to demonstrating

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the, the help.

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But I, I think the way that
you could discern between the two,

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between the gift of service or
the gift of mercy is that the motivation

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behind.

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The motivation behind it, right?

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Meeting needs, yes, but also
meeting people on their emotion,

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I think would be the, the
mercy element of it.

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And so you, you know, you can
see a lot of people in scripture

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that would be examples of this.

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But the one that comes to mind
for me would be Barnabas.

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Right?

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Barnabas.

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He's the, the son of consolation.

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And I think that that would be
an individual that if you studied

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him out in scripture, you
could study out the, the mercy and

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the grace of, of Barnabas.

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And, and that would be a good
character study.

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But I, I would encourage you
to, if you get a chance, look up

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Barnabas and look up what he
does there with, with Paul and others.

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And I think that that would be
beneficial for us as we study this

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gift of mercy.

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So someone with the gift of
mercy strongly is driven by love,

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compassion.

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And so there's that, there's
that desire for genuine love, deep

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love.

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Someone who has the gift of
mercy is going to be strongly empathetic.

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And that can go in the
positive and the negative.

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Obviously, as you're feeling,
there's emotions, those emotions

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that can go into a negative
place, right?

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If we allow our emotions to
dictate our truth, then our truth

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is being dictated by a
fluctuating thing.

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And our truth has to be
dictated to.

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Our truth has to be dictated
to the Word of God.

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Dictated by the Word of God, I
should say linked to the Word of

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God.

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And so I think that that's
something that we have to gauge when

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it comes to this gift.

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And so, you know, exercising
this gift in the flesh would be seen

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maybe as allowing our emotions
to dictate our decisions, but exercising

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this in the spirit would be
saying, I'm going to take my truth

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from the Word of God.

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But meet people in their needs
and their emotions.

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And so that, that's something
to think about.

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I think that there is a strong
attraction in this gift to connect

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with people that are stressed,
people that are maybe going through

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difficult times in their life.

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And maybe even sometimes it
feels like they, they come after

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you, they, they follow you,
they find you.

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And so there is a strong
tendency to communicate emotions

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to other people.

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And, and I, I think that, you
know, there are going to be people

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that are naturally gifted in
this, and there's going to be people

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like myself that might not be
naturally gifted in this.

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And so, you know, it's.

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The exhorter will see the, the
problem with the situation and the

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remedy to the situation and
will say, hey, look, you know what?

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This is all you gotta do to do
it and kind of separate themselves

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from the emotional side of things.

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But the person with the gift
of mercy will maybe not necessarily

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sacrifice truth, but they will
meet that person in that emotional

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distress and empathize with them.

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And so that mercy and that
truth works together wonderfully.

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And so there's a strong
tendency to try to take away stressful

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situations from people.

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And, and so I, I would say
that that's something as well that

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would link in with the, the
gift of, of mercy.

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But of course, all those, all
those things can fall into the, the

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fleshly mindset as well.

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Someone who has the gift of
mercy but exercising in the flesh

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could be maybe more of an
indecisive person when it comes to

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decision making because of the
fact that they are.

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He or she are, is going
through the process of trying to

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allow the emotions to dictate
them instead of the truth of God.

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That the person who's
exercising mercy in the flesh might

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jump to someone's side, taking
sides because of an emotion, maybe

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going to the place of empath,
emphasizing the empathy too much

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and not emphasizing truth.

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There may be some
vulnerability there that could easily

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lead to hurt, maybe feeling
overwhelmed by taking on the pain

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of others.

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And I would say, you know,
might even get to a place of being

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too connected with somebody to
the point where they can't see the

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truth.

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They're too close to the
situation that they can't see the

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truth.

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Uh, so, so of course the Bible
speaks of speaking the truth in love,

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but if you emphasize the love
and have no truth, there is a mistake

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in that.

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So that would be, that would
be the negative side of acting in

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the flesh with this gift of
mercy in one's life.

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But it's a needed, needed gift
within the church.

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As all of these gifts are, right.

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God gives us these manifold
gifts, these various gifts for the

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purpose of being diverse
within the church.

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Because not everyone can be
gifted in the gift of mercy, because

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we would be missing in other areas.

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But we all are gifted in
certain areas for the purpose of

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the gospel, for the purpose of
the glory of God.

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And it is given to us by grace.

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We did not earn our salvation
and we did not earn our spiritual

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gift or gifts that God extends
to us in his love and his grace.

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So that's something to think
about, never to wrap ourselves up

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in the pride of our gifts
because they weren't something that

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we earned.

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It was something given to us
in grace that brings us to a place

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of humility, that brings us to
a place of thankfulness, and that

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brings us to a place of
reliance on God, even in the midst

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of our gifts that God has
extended to us.

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So I've really enjoyed this study.

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I've really enjoyed the study
looking at the spiritual gifts, the

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ministering gifts there in
Romans chapter 12.

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And certainly we will address
these in further study down the road,

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I'm sure.

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But we will be moving on to a
new Word of the Week next week.

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If you've been with us now for
a while, this has been a long study.

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I think it's around two months
that we've been looking at the spiritual

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gifts there in Romans chapter 12.

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And I thank you for following
along with that and I hope it's been

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helpful for you, hope it's
been a beneficial study to identify

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where God has gifted you and
where you can serve in your local

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body there, wherever you are
listening this, listening to this

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podcast.

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So I hope that you continue on
with us as we study more words.

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There's so many words given to
us in scripture and we're thankful

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for them and we're thankful
for the opportunity to grow in our

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knowledge of the Word of God.

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So I hope that you have a
wonderful rest of your week.

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We will come back to you next
week with another Word of the Week.

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We'll be praying that God
continues to work in your life and

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we continue to trust in him
for his guidance and for his truth.

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So we thank you, appreciate it.

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If you could share this
podcast with somebody else, that

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would be wonderful.

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The more folks we have
listening to this podcast, the more

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we're able to reach out and
proclaim the truth to this world.

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So we will talk to you soon.

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God bless.

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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.

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You can find more information
about us on Facebook or YouTube.

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Or you can find the podcast on
NBCPodcast.org you can contact me

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directly at Josh
Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch.org stay

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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.