- 2 days ago
Some people prophesy and some people are prophets. Some serve and some are servants. Teachers, preachers, exhorters, and givers. What did Paul mean by these words?
Some say that a post-Malachi prophet is just someone who reads and expounds on the Scriptures, but that doesn't align with what Scripture says. A prophet is someone who receives a message directly from God (not through the Bible) to deliver to other people.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Some say that a post-Malachi prophet is just someone who reads and expounds on the Scriptures, but that doesn't align with what Scripture says. A prophet is someone who receives a message directly from God (not through the Bible) to deliver to other people.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
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LearningTranscript
00:00:02Welcome back to Common Sense Bible Study and a journey through the book of Romans.
00:00:07We're on Romans chapter 12, and we started talking about verse 6, but there's probably
00:00:12more there that we can talk about, so we'll start reading with verse 6 again.
00:00:16Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy
00:00:21in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching,
00:00:26the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one
00:00:31who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
00:00:35Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
00:00:40Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.
00:00:44Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
00:00:48Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
00:00:52Contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality.
00:00:56Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.
00:01:00Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
00:01:03Live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
00:01:08Never be wise in your own sight, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what
00:01:13is honorable in the sight of all.
00:01:16If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
00:01:20All right, let's go back to verse six.
00:01:25Last week we had talked about what is prophecy?
00:01:29What is the difference between a prophet and someone who just prophesies?
00:01:33You know, someone who is exercising the gift of prophecy.
00:01:36And obviously a prophet has the gift of prophecy, but a prophet is more like an office.
00:01:43You know, there are elders and apostles and evangelists, priests, kings, and there are prophets.
00:01:51And prophets are in those top three of those offices, the top three being kings, priests, and prophets.
00:01:57And the prophet is less formal than the other two.
00:02:01I mean, the priest is obviously chosen and anointed by God and goes through lots of ritual in becoming a
00:02:08priest.
00:02:08And the king is, I don't want to say one step down from the priest because that's not quite true.
00:02:16God's government seems to be, you know, kind of the balance of powers idea between the priest, the judge, and
00:02:23the prophet.
00:02:24And the judge also being a kind of king.
00:02:27But, you know, the king does have some ceremony that goes along with that.
00:02:32That it's usually going to be the firstborn son of the old king becomes the new king.
00:02:38So there's some predictable kind of thing.
00:02:41Prophet is different in that sometimes the son of a prophet will become a prophet.
00:02:49He's been around it.
00:02:51He's been exposed to the gifts of prophecy, things like that.
00:02:55Anybody can become a prophet.
00:02:57You don't have to be part of a priestly family.
00:03:00You don't have to be a descendant of a king.
00:03:03A priest is frequently a prophet.
00:03:05A king is frequently a prophet.
00:03:07David was both king and prophet.
00:03:09Aaron was both priest and prophet.
00:03:12So there is a lot of overlap.
00:03:15You can be an elder and a prophet, an evangelist and a prophet, apostle and prophet.
00:03:22Prophet just seems to cross all of those boundaries and have no really specific rules about, yeah,
00:03:30I don't know, I guess I've already said it.
00:03:31There's no rules about who can and can't be a prophet, except that God does have some qualifications about what
00:03:39a prophet says.
00:03:41A prophet, for one thing, has to give true prophecies.
00:03:46And the way that we measure that primarily, is he telling people to go and worship some other god, or
00:03:52is he giving false prophecies about the future?
00:03:56Those are the two main ways you can tell if somebody is a false prophet.
00:03:59But otherwise, prophets can come from any class of society, male, female, any other role.
00:04:07There are no other roles.
00:04:08God chooses who he's going to choose.
00:04:10He makes somebody a prophet.
00:04:12And then there are people who just prophesy.
00:04:16Saul prophesied.
00:04:17The elders in the camp in the wilderness prophesied.
00:04:20That doesn't make them prophets.
00:04:22It means that the spirit came on them and they prophesied.
00:04:27For a moment of time or in a certain circumstance, something like that.
00:04:32So that's really the difference there.
00:04:34We talked about all that last week, so I don't want to rehash it too much more.
00:04:39I've already gone down that road a little bit more than I meant to.
00:04:42But I want to talk about the last phrase in that verse, in verse 6.
00:04:47In proportion to our faith.
00:04:50If God gives you a gift of prophecy, what does it mean for that to be, to exercise it in
00:04:55proportion to your faith?
00:04:57Does anybody have any thoughts on what that means?
00:05:00How confident are you that what you're speaking or what you're prophesying is from Yahweh and not yourself?
00:05:13Yeah, I think that's a good way to interpret it.
00:05:17One example I can think of is there are some churches where you walk in the door and somebody's going
00:05:26to come up to you and say,
00:05:27I've got a word from the Lord for you.
00:05:29You know, I'm not going to say they don't.
00:05:30Maybe they do, maybe they don't.
00:05:34But if there is any doubt in your mind, you should be hesitant.
00:05:39Maybe look for confirmation before you say it out loud.
00:05:42Because if you're going to go speak a false prophecy, even if you're not claiming to be a prophet, that's
00:05:48still a big problem.
00:05:50You don't want to, you never want to be caught in a situation where you are saying,
00:05:55thus saith the Lord, and the Lord never say it.
00:05:58I'm sure that he'll have something to say about that someday.
00:06:01I've got a couple of thoughts here and, you know, kind of in line with what Scott was saying.
00:06:08But I think that there are at least three things that it could mean.
00:06:11And one, prophesy as you are confident that the word is truly from God, which is what Scott said.
00:06:18Two, the greater your faithfulness and your faith, the greater or more frequently will be the message that God gives
00:06:25you.
00:06:26So, you will prophesy in proportion to your faith because God gives you more stuff to prophesy.
00:06:32And three, prophesy in faithfulness to the prophetic gift that God has given you.
00:06:38So, the greater faith that you have or the greater faithfulness that you have,
00:06:43the more you should feel confident in your ability to understand or to discern what God is telling you.
00:06:51So, that's, you know, a little bit that that's the same as, that's kind of a combination of numbers one
00:06:55and two.
00:06:56I believe it has to do with your confidence.
00:07:03Because if you believe without a sort of a doubt that this is from God, right?
00:07:14Definitely, you will move forward with that confidence because you're certain that this word comes from God.
00:07:25Because so, is that once you are absolutely certain this is a message from God,
00:07:33you will have that belief because faith is belief, right?
00:07:38And that will give you the confidence to share because a prophet is one that represents God.
00:07:47Whatever message you get from God, you share it with whoever the message is sent for.
00:07:53And as a messenger, if you're absolutely certain that this is from God,
00:07:59that's a measure of faith because it's your belief, your confidence.
00:08:03And so, I believe that's what he means.
00:08:07Yeah, I think we're all pretty much on the same page there.
00:08:10Maybe with slightly different nuances, but we're mostly saying the same thing, I think.
00:08:16Yeah, the only thing that I would really add to that is that the more faithful you are,
00:08:22the more likely God is to use you to speak true prophecy.
00:08:26So, that may be another way that you're speaking in proportion to your faith.
00:08:31Yeah, how would you apply this phrase to Saul?
00:08:38Because you remember when Saul was prophesying, and yet he was not.
00:08:46He'd screw up, and then he'd go back and start prophesying.
00:08:49Is that in proportion to his faith, or was he just prophesying?
00:08:55I'm talking about King Saul.
00:08:56Yeah, let me pull up that passage.
00:08:59Yeah, 1 Samuel 10.
00:09:02So, Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him, and said,
00:09:06Has not Yahweh anointed you a ruler over his inheritance?
00:09:10When you go from me today, you will find two men close to Rachel's tomb,
00:09:13in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you,
00:09:17The donkeys which you went to look for have been found.
00:09:19Now behold, your father has ceased to be concerned about the donkeys,
00:09:22and is anxious for you, saying, What shall I do about my son?
00:09:25Then you will go on further from there, and you will come as far as the oak of Tabor,
00:09:30and there three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you,
00:09:32one carrying three goves, another carrying three loaves of bread,
00:09:35and another carrying a jug of wine.
00:09:37And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread,
00:09:39which you will accept from their hand.
00:09:42Afterward, you'll come to the hill of God, where the Philistine garrison is.
00:09:46Skip ahead a little bit, a lot of detail there.
00:09:48Then the Spirit of Yahweh will come upon you mightily,
00:09:51and you shall prophesy with them, and be changed into another man.
00:09:54And it shall be when these signs come to you,
00:09:56do for yourself what the occasion requires, for God is with you.
00:10:00And then it happened when he turned his back to leave Samuel,
00:10:04God changed his heart, and all those signs came about on that day.
00:10:07And when they came to the hill there, behold, a group of prophets met him,
00:10:11and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them.
00:10:15And it came about when all who knew him previously saw that he prophesied now with the prophets.
00:10:19The people said to one another,
00:10:21What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?
00:10:25And so it became a proverb.
00:10:27Is Saul also among the prophets?
00:10:30Probably a proverb speaking to somebody who has radically changed,
00:10:34and like, what is going on with this guy?
00:10:37And I actually watched a video this morning.
00:10:40Pretty sure the guy I was watching was a black Hebrew Israelite,
00:10:43which, you know, I normally wouldn't spend a lot of time watching because,
00:10:47but, you know, just because they've got one piece of theology wrong doesn't mean they're wrong about everything.
00:10:53I mean, I'm certain that there are godly men and women among the black Hebrew Israelites, too.
00:10:58I just disagree with them about one really important thing.
00:11:01And this guy was talking about this very episode and saying,
00:11:04what was it that drove Paul to prophesy?
00:11:08And he was saying that, you know, there are two things.
00:11:11One, he had just come from Samuel.
00:11:14And he went from Samuel into the company of a bunch of other prophets.
00:11:18In this proximity to these prophets, their spirit just kind of rubbed off on him.
00:11:24You know, he was overwhelmed by the spirit of God that was among these prophets.
00:11:28And, you know, kind of like somebody who was just driven to make ecstatic utterances,
00:11:32you know, speaking in tongues or singing or whatever it is.
00:11:36And that came out of Saul in prophecy.
00:11:39But I think there's another thing that really goes along with this specific phrase,
00:11:44in proportion to our faith, in that Samuel gave Saul a series of things that were going to happen
00:11:50as confirmation that he had been anointed to be king.
00:11:53And it was an exhaustive, long, detailed list of stuff.
00:11:58And one after another, every one of them happened.
00:12:01And can you imagine that Saul is walking home?
00:12:04And he keeps passing these people, like the donkeys and, you know, the three men carrying
00:12:10the three separate kinds of things.
00:12:12And, you know, this guy's got three loaves of bread and this guy's carrying wine.
00:12:15It's like, how in the world did Samuel know all this?
00:12:18Surely everything he said is about to come to pass.
00:12:21And his adrenaline is rising.
00:12:24His emotions are peaking.
00:12:27And he's like, wow, God is really with me.
00:12:30And then he comes into a party of prophets and they're all prophesying.
00:12:33And Saul's like, he's in the zone.
00:12:36And how can he help but start prophesying with them?
00:12:39That's what I think is happening.
00:12:42Prophecy is not just like foretelling like a future event.
00:12:47But isn't it also included in prophecy is like, would it be kind of like revealing like truth
00:12:59about God himself, who he is, like teaching and exhorting and all that?
00:13:07Well, I think prophecy is specifically a message directly from God.
00:13:11So, yeah, it doesn't, you're right.
00:13:13It doesn't have to be just about predicting the future.
00:13:15That's just the smallest part of prophecy.
00:13:18Anytime somebody is getting a message from God to give to other people, that's prophecy.
00:13:24And, you know, somebody who is expounding on scripture or teaching something, they might
00:13:29be prophesying if God is giving that word to them directly.
00:13:34Or they might just be, you know, they might just have a spirit of teaching.
00:13:38They might just be good at it.
00:13:39And God has revealed things to them in maybe concepts that now they're putting into their
00:13:44own words.
00:13:46You know, one, some illustrations of that, I think that thinking like, you know, when
00:13:53Stephen was, you know, he was about to be stoned, he was on trial and he gives his defense
00:13:59and his defense isn't really a defense of himself.
00:14:02It's a defense of God and reminding them all of who they are and all their history.
00:14:07And now they're persecuting the prophets just like their forefathers did.
00:14:12But Stephen wasn't prophesying at that moment because he actually got some of the historical
00:14:17stuff wrong.
00:14:18I mean, if God was feeding him that information, then Stephen was relaying it incorrectly, which
00:14:23might make Stephen a false prophet.
00:14:25But Stephen was relaying a true idea and God was inspiring him to do that.
00:14:30And so God's presence was there, but he wasn't giving Stephen the specific words to say.
00:14:36But then if you are arrested and taken before judges or courts or whatever on for the sake
00:14:45of your faith, don't think ahead of time, don't plan what you have to say, let God speak
00:14:52through you.
00:14:53And that could be, you know, a case like Stephen, where God has inspired you to say certain
00:14:58ideas, or it could be that God is really going to speak through you and say things that are going
00:15:03to speak to the people there, maybe that you would have no way of knowing what's going
00:15:07to impact those people and what's not.
00:15:09But God knows.
00:15:10So he gives you the specific words to say that are going to hit those people exactly where
00:15:15God needs to hit them.
00:15:17So that would be a case of prophecy.
00:15:19Yeah.
00:15:20An example of that would be the thief on the cross.
00:15:24Because, you know, one reprimand in the other, that statement was a truth that I think was
00:15:33meant to come through the ages for us to hear.
00:15:37And in essence, although he's just speaking truth, it's prophetic as well.
00:15:42Yeah, it could be.
00:15:44Yeah.
00:15:46And I was going to say, the Bible speaks a lot about false prophets.
00:15:52It's a lot in the New Testament.
00:15:58So, in the Christian community, there's just a lot of like, oh, you got to love people.
00:16:04You got to be like a hippie.
00:16:05You know, you just got to love, man.
00:16:07And it's like, the scriptures, they speak, it is God's revelation to man.
00:16:21And if we are, like, there's a lot of people that, there's a lot of prophets that can be
00:16:29false and they'll speak truth.
00:16:31Yeah.
00:16:31And just like you were saying about the black Hebrew Israelite.
00:16:34But we just got to be careful that, you know, we, there might be truth in someone who gives
00:16:46prophecy, but it doesn't necessarily mean, to me, it doesn't really mean that much, I guess,
00:16:52because it's like, okay, if someone's prophesying, does it align with God's word?
00:17:02And does it, you know, is it, like, if I was to prophesy and say, chickens are going to
00:17:09rain down from heaven.
00:17:11And it could happen.
00:17:13It could, but, you know, it's like, I mean, yeah, I'm just saying.
00:17:21Yeah.
00:17:21That's something we could prove pretty easily though.
00:17:23We got to be careful.
00:17:25Well, I mean, yeah, I know, but it's like anything could happen technically if you want it.
00:17:31Like if, if, you know, anything could happen, but God is a God of order and there's things
00:17:38that he does and we just got to make sure we match up his word with what is being spoken
00:17:45about, because I've seen so many times where people start saying they're prophesying about
00:17:50something and it's just people gravitate towards that without even doing any critical thinking
00:17:59or any thinking at all.
00:18:01Yeah.
00:18:02And that happens all the time.
00:18:04Yeah.
00:18:04I think there was a reason why he said false prophets.
00:18:07Huh?
00:18:08Yeah.
00:18:08I need to backtrack a little bit on something I was saying earlier.
00:18:11You know, you're saying that you're asking about the nature of prophecy and is, you know,
00:18:15like accurate teaching and exhortation is that prophecy.
00:18:21And, you know, what I was saying is that, you know, if it's a, like a word for word,
00:18:25direct message from God, that's definitely prophecy.
00:18:27And that's true.
00:18:29But, you know, if some, if God has inspired somebody and then they're teaching based on
00:18:33that inspiration, that's, I wouldn't call that prophecy.
00:18:37But there's a middle ground.
00:18:39I think that, like Paul's letters, I think that Paul was prophesying when he wrote his
00:18:44letters, but I don't think that God dictated them word for word.
00:18:47I think that God inspired Paul to write down certain ideas and guided him more or less in
00:18:55how to do it.
00:18:55But they're written in Paul's style, but they're written in Paul's style, in Paul's vocabulary.
00:19:01And so God didn't dictate them word for word, except maybe a sentence here and there.
00:19:05But I still think they qualify as prophecy.
00:19:09And I think I might get myself into trouble here.
00:19:12I think that there are forms of prophecy that are valid and that we wouldn't normally recognize
00:19:17as prophetic.
00:19:19Music and art and even craftsmanship can be prophetic in the sense that they're communicating
00:19:27things.
00:19:28I mean, that's what prophecy really is.
00:19:29It's a communication from God to people through a person.
00:19:33And so if God spoke through Aholiab and Bezalel in the wilderness, and they were filled with
00:19:41the spirit and wisdom and how to actually build the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle and
00:19:46all of this stuff.
00:19:48And I believe that the things, the specific ways that they built these things, the designs
00:19:53in them, these are speaking to us.
00:19:55You know, the exact measurements, the exact patterns of the cherubim and things that were
00:20:03woven into the curtains in the tabernacle.
00:20:05Today, we don't know what those look like.
00:20:07I mean, we have a vague description in scripture, but we don't know exactly what they look like.
00:20:12But Bezalel and Aholiab, they knew because God worked through them.
00:20:16And then the things that they wove into those tapestries communicated things to people.
00:20:21And I think that was a form of prophecy, too.
00:20:25And any medium that people can use to communicate with other people can be a medium of prophecy.
00:20:32But when you get into things like that, the message is very subjective.
00:20:37And so you're in very muddy water.
00:20:43It's hard to see what's really true and what's not.
00:20:46It's hard to judge whether it's true prophecy or not when the interpretation is so subjective.
00:20:52So hopefully it's making sense there.
00:20:55So art is a form of prophecy.
00:20:59It can be, yeah.
00:21:00A singer.
00:21:01What about a singer?
00:21:02Because that's a form of art.
00:21:05Yeah.
00:21:05Look at the Psalms.
00:21:07Yeah.
00:21:08In Miriam's song.
00:21:10Yes.
00:21:11She was a prophetess, yes.
00:21:13I wonder if you have a fad at churches whereby they will do prophetic art
00:21:20while the sermon is being delivered.
00:21:24And it may be inspired by whatever the mood is there, but is it prophetic?
00:21:29I don't know.
00:21:30It's inspired art, possibly.
00:21:33Yeah.
00:21:34I think it can be.
00:21:35I think for the most part, it's just, you know, people are inspired by the moment.
00:21:39You know, emotional, whatever.
00:21:40But it can be prophetic.
00:21:43I mean, if there is a prophet among that group or somebody has the gift of prophecy,
00:21:46God can certainly prophesy through whatever it is there, you know, whatever kind of art
00:21:52they're creating.
00:21:53Through the typical lion art, right?
00:21:56Yeah.
00:21:57So, a writer, right?
00:22:00Somebody that writes.
00:22:02I mean, in a form of expression.
00:22:06Yeah.
00:22:07In writing, writing is probably the purest form of prophecy because it's so precise.
00:22:12God can say exactly what he wants to say in exactly the way he wants to say it.
00:22:17Whereas the further you get from writing, the more subjective it becomes.
00:22:21I mean, even the spoken word is less objective than the written word.
00:22:24I do get inspiration to write.
00:22:27I believe it.
00:22:29I may not express myself, but I do get it.
00:22:34Yeah.
00:22:35I think that there's probably a lot more prophecy going on around us than we want to admit or
00:22:40that most of us would be comfortable with.
00:22:42And probably a lot less prophecy going around than some churches would have us believe.
00:22:47The false prophets, though, like, there's many false prophets.
00:22:53Like, even back in the Old Testament, there was way more false prophets than there were of God.
00:23:00And so, you know, it gets a little crazy out there.
00:23:09And as long as we're reading the scriptures, I think we have the spirit of God, I think, praying about
00:23:17what's true and what's not true.
00:23:23It's, you know, it is difficult because there's a lot of revelation that has been done.
00:23:31And there's still more revelation that we don't know.
00:23:34Like, we do know what's coming, you know.
00:23:37We do know what's coming, but we don't know how everything is going to pan out.
00:23:43But I do believe, like, if you're speaking on behalf of God and you speak with authority, that is offensive
00:23:57to a lot of people.
00:23:58And so, if I'm reading this word and I'm reading the scriptures and the scriptures are in me, and I
00:24:06have the Holy Spirit, and with conviction I speak about this word with fervor and someone doesn't accept it.
00:24:20And it's, it just, that's something you shouldn't do these days.
00:24:24We can't talk about hell.
00:24:26We can't talk about sin.
00:24:29So, I do believe that, you know, too many people are looking at prophecy as the future events of what's
00:24:36going to come.
00:24:37And yes, that is true.
00:24:39But what is also true is hell is a future event.
00:24:44It's not here yet.
00:24:46And sin, it leads to the pit.
00:24:51So, I just, it's very, I've seen a lot of stuff, you know, and I'm sure you have and everyone
00:24:59else has.
00:25:00But I just, we can't just believe on the base of someone calling or self saying they're a prophet themselves,
00:25:09you know, that could be scary.
00:25:12Because there's a lot of people that do and they're not.
00:25:15Yeah, I completely agree.
00:25:17Anybody claiming to be a prophet, my automatic response is disbelief.
00:25:24And maybe that's unfair.
00:25:25Because if somebody is a prophet, then they ought to be able to say they're a prophet.
00:25:29But they're, you're right that there are so many false prophets that you're more likely to be right than not
00:25:36if you disbelieve them by default.
00:25:37So, but it's the same with, with those that claim to be the man of God.
00:25:42I've had that thrown at my face before, you know, do not besmirch the man of God and like, okay.
00:25:50But some people appropriate.
00:25:52A question I would like to ask, Abram, I know God says he's a prophet.
00:26:04What identified him as a prophet?
00:26:07The way he brought up his household?
00:26:10I mean, because I know there are a lot of things that happen that's not in the Bible.
00:26:17But I remember when Yahweh was about to, well, Yahweh had left.
00:26:24And the other two angels were going to Sodom and Gomorrah to be a lot worse.
00:26:33And he says, should I hide this from Abram?
00:26:39What I'm about to do?
00:26:41You know, because of the relationship Abram had with him.
00:26:47And he knew how faithful Abram was.
00:26:54Why did Yahweh label him as a prophet?
00:26:59Well, you know, that is an interesting question that I don't know if I've actually thought about it that way
00:27:04before.
00:27:06We don't have any specific records that I know of, of Abraham relaying a prophecy from God.
00:27:12But, I mean, I suspect that much of what's in Genesis was probably passed down from Abraham.
00:27:20It could be to his household, how he relayed to them.
00:27:26Yeah, well, there's certainly, that's certainly one thing.
00:27:29That when God told Abraham that all of the men in his household needed to be circumcised,
00:27:35well, that's a message he relayed from God.
00:27:38And clearly everybody in his household believed him.
00:27:41Because, I mean, if you don't believe him, are you going to do that?
00:27:47Right.
00:27:48Yeah.
00:27:49Although I suppose if Abraham is saying, you're all going to be circumcised, I'm going to kick you out of
00:27:54my house.
00:27:55You know, maybe they would go ahead and do it anyways, whether they believed him or not.
00:27:59Go ahead, Ron.
00:28:01Yeah, I wanted to comment on, you said the natural reaction when somebody comes and prophesies or claims to be
00:28:09a prophet is that you don't believe.
00:28:11And I think that's actually appropriate because I think it's in Deuteronomy 13.
00:28:18God says he's going to test us by sending prophets.
00:28:22And you need to pay attention.
00:28:27And even if they do miraculous signs, we tend to think of miraculous signs as an endorsement from God.
00:28:33But in Deuteronomy 13, God tells us, no, the only thing that's certain is that God's testing you at this
00:28:40moment.
00:28:41And you need to test the prophet to see if their message is true and agrees with what was taught
00:28:50before.
00:28:51Yeah.
00:28:52And, you know, something that I think that I think it was Kevin who had mentioned this, that if, you
00:28:56know, a prophet, everything that he says needs to align with scripture.
00:29:00Now, he can tell us things that aren't in scripture, but if he tells us something that is opposed to
00:29:05scripture, either he's not a true prophet or we have misunderstood something in scripture.
00:29:12So we kind of have to evaluate that and be cautious.
00:29:17Yeah.
00:29:18I mean, when I test a teaching, you either come up with it, it agrees with scripture, it opposes scripture,
00:29:24or it's outside of scripture.
00:29:27But anyway, that's, those are the options when you're testing whether something's true or not.
00:29:33Yeah.
00:29:35One exception to that, though, Jay, is do you remember when the, when God sanctioned some prophets to speak incorrect
00:29:44prophecy?
00:29:45Yeah.
00:29:47He would put a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets.
00:29:50Exactly.
00:29:50So that, although they were, I mean, it was a test, but it was a test of God.
00:29:56I mean, it's, it's, it's an interesting thing to ponder.
00:30:00Yeah.
00:30:00That's a curious one.
00:30:01I don't, I'm not really sure what to do with that.
00:30:04Yeah.
00:30:05Deuteronomy 13 says that God's going to send prophets that are going to teach falsehoods.
00:30:10At least that's what I gather from the whole paragraph.
00:30:14And he's sending them to test, to test us.
00:30:17And so it's, we need to know his word and how to test.
00:30:23Yeah.
00:30:24You know, back to the question of how do we know that Abraham was a prophet?
00:30:27I mean, other than that scripture records, God calling him a prophet throughout the middle part of Genesis, you know,
00:30:35like Genesis 14 to like 20 or so.
00:30:38We've got multiple private conversations between God and Abraham.
00:30:42And the only way we know about them is that Abraham told us.
00:30:46He told somebody or wrote it down.
00:30:48And so God comes to Abraham and says, I am God almighty walk before me and be blameless that I
00:30:54may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly.
00:30:58And God didn't tell him that just for his benefit.
00:31:01He told him that so that he could pass it on to us.
00:31:04And so this makes Abraham a prophet because God spoke to him with the intent that Abraham pass it on
00:31:10to the rest of the world.
00:31:12Does that make sense?
00:31:13Yes, it does.
00:31:16And the proportion of his faith was immense.
00:31:19I mean, if you go back to the scripture we're referencing, I mean, you can't get anybody that's, maybe a
00:31:25couple, but not many that's more faith proportionate than he.
00:31:30Ah, yes.
00:31:32I remember the part where when Isaac says, he see the word, he see everything else, everything for the sacrifice.
00:31:43But where is the actual sacrifice?
00:31:48And he says, God will provide it.
00:31:51Right?
00:31:52Mm-hmm.
00:31:53Didn't Abraham tell him that?
00:31:55Yep.
00:31:56Yes.
00:31:57That was a word of prophecy that God will provide and God did provide it.
00:32:03All right.
00:32:04It just triggered my memory there.
00:32:07He did prophesy to his son.
00:32:10But then Abraham, God told Abraham that Isaac was going to be the sacrifice.
00:32:15But when Isaac asked, that God will provide it.
00:32:19You know, the idea of Abraham, we know that Abraham is a prophet because we have the word of God
00:32:27passed through Abraham to us.
00:32:29Well, what do you make of this?
00:32:32See, but Abraham said to Sarai, behold, your servant is in your power.
00:32:36Do to her as you please.
00:32:38Then Sarai dealt harshly with her and she fled from her.
00:32:40The angel of Yahweh found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to
00:32:45Shur.
00:32:45And he said, Hagar, the servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?
00:32:50She said, I am fleeing from my mistress, Sarai.
00:32:53And the angel of Yahweh said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her.
00:32:57The angel of Yahweh also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered
00:33:02for multitude.
00:33:04And he said to her, behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son.
00:33:07You shall call his name Ishmael because Yahweh has listened to your affliction.
00:33:11He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him.
00:33:15And he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.
00:33:19Is Hagar a prophetess?
00:33:22How else would we know about this conversation?
00:33:25Interesting.
00:33:26Good question.
00:33:28Yeah.
00:33:29Maybe God revealed it to Abram so that he could pass it on to Isaac, who passed it on to
00:33:34Jacob, who passed it on to, you know, et cetera, and down to Moses.
00:33:37Or maybe God spoke to Hagar with the intent that she relay this message to the rest of the world,
00:33:43and she went and told Abram what God had said.
00:33:47Or she told Ishmael, who then told Isaac later.
00:33:50We don't know.
00:33:51Using that logic, Jay, you could go to any verse in the Bible and you could call, oh, who was
00:33:57the one that cursed the donkey?
00:34:01Yeah, Balaam was, because that story had to come from somewhere.
00:34:05So just because the story is related in the word, does that mean there's a prophetic element to it?
00:34:12I don't know.
00:34:13Yes, it does.
00:34:14We know that Balaam gave true prophecies.
00:34:17I mean, when he went to Baal Peor in, what's his name, Balak, you know, was trying to pay him
00:34:27to curse Israel, and instead he gave these beautiful prophecies of the future of Israel.
00:34:32He was giving true prophecies that were from God, but he was still a false prophet, because he then turned
00:34:39around and he taught Moab and Midian how to lead Israel into idolatry.
00:34:46So that disqualifies him as a true prophet, even though he gave true prophecies.
00:34:52So Hagar here is maybe prophesying, but it doesn't make her a true prophetess, unless we don't have any record
00:35:01that she ever gave a false prophecy or led anybody astray, not that I know of.
00:35:07Yeah, I don't, scripture never calls her a prophetess, so I don't really know what to make of that.
00:35:11I'm not, maybe it's one of those cases like Saul, where she was just given a prophecy in one moment,
00:35:16and that was it.
00:35:19I don't know, I'm kind of, I'm just speculating, just running out in the weeds here a bit.
00:35:24I'm just grabbing a speculation and saying, just because it's written, it could be written from a historical standpoint.
00:35:30I'm not sure if, if you're saying it's written, then therefore there's a prophetic element to it, because it had
00:35:36to come from a source, and that source would have, God would have had a purpose for that source to
00:35:40be recorded, for that information to be recorded.
00:35:43So by that standard, almost everybody would have some sort of prophetic element within the Word.
00:35:49Well, only if, only if what we're relaying, or what we're reading, is a message directly from God.
00:35:55Like in this case, Hagar is all by herself, out in the wilderness.
00:35:59So either God revealed to Abram what happened out there with Hagar, or Hagar relayed it to Abram later, or
00:36:08to somebody.
00:36:09But in any case, God gave her a message, and then she relayed it to the world.
00:36:13Now, was she supposed to relay it to the world?
00:36:16I mean, probably since it's here in Scripture.
00:36:19But yeah, does that make her a prophetess?
00:36:22Not necessarily, but it does mean that she prophesied.
00:36:26At least in one instance.
00:36:28You know, how did Balaam know that, how to lead Israel to idolatry?
00:36:39I think that, you know, there's a proverb that says, a curse undeserved is not a light.
00:36:46Yeah.
00:36:46If you're going to curse a people, there has to be something wicked about them.
00:36:50They have to be doing something to deserve the curse.
00:36:53And so that's what, that was one of the prophecies that Balaam gave, is that God sees no wickedness in
00:36:59Israel.
00:37:00That was one of the things that he told Balak.
00:37:03And so what Balak would do is he would take Balaam to another hilltop and say, okay, you can see
00:37:08this part of Israel from here.
00:37:10Maybe there's some wickedness in this part of the camp.
00:37:13And when that didn't work, he would take him to some other hilltop where he could see some other part
00:37:16of Israel.
00:37:17It's like, okay, maybe these people have something wrong.
00:37:20When they couldn't find anything, that's when Balaam says, okay, here's what we have to do.
00:37:25There's no wickedness down there right now.
00:37:27So let's go create some.
00:37:28And then we can curse them.
00:37:30I mean, Scripture doesn't describe that part in detail.
00:37:33It just kind of assumes that it happens.
00:37:36And then later on, we get this thing.
00:37:38I think it's from Peter or Jude.
00:37:41I don't remember which one.
00:37:42Talking about how Balaam taught them how to curse Israel.
00:37:47Balaam, what he did was he led people into idolatry.
00:37:52Yeah, well, he taught the Midianites to do that to Israel.
00:37:55He gave them the strategy.
00:37:57He didn't do it himself because he was probably already an idolater.
00:38:01But he gave the Midianites the strategy to go into the camp of Israel and seduce them into idolatry.
00:38:07So does that align with Deuteronomy 13, in which Balaam was talking?
00:38:11Yeah, I think it does.
00:38:13You know, one of the things that we're supposed to judge a prophet by is, do they lead you into
00:38:17idolatry?
00:38:18And if they say, let's go worship this other god, that's a false prophet.
00:38:22And not only do you stop listening to them, that's a prophet you're supposed to kill.
00:38:27Yep.
00:38:27And so, like, there was a lot of prophets that would promote peace, like in Jeremiah 6, 14.
00:38:37And just giving people a false peace, which is interesting, because there's a lot of that going on.
00:38:46But Jesus was a prophet.
00:38:51So, Jesus, he didn't have to do this, but it was interesting how he, when he would prophesize, and people
00:39:02were looking at him like, who are you?
00:39:05He would perform these signs and miracles, right?
00:39:08And then they would say that's, they would try to catch him and say that's from, you know, Satan or
00:39:16something like that.
00:39:16Casting out demons by Satan.
00:39:18Yeah.
00:39:19But isn't one of the attributes of being a prophet is authenticating, or like, having authentic, the sign, authenticating signs,
00:39:32basically.
00:39:32Like, do prophets usually, they'll say, let's say the Lord, but we're going to, they're going to do a sign
00:39:42of a miracle or something.
00:39:44And is that, is that a normal thing?
00:39:47I know that frequently in scripture, there are signs that accompany prophets, but I don't think it's necessarily a requirement.
00:39:55I'm not saying it's a requirement, but just wondering if that was like...
00:40:01Yeah, I would expect miracles to follow prophets around.
00:40:04But, yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't disqualify somebody if I didn't see any miracles around them.
00:40:09And, oh, I was just saying, because if someone said there's going to be a miracle in 10 days from
00:40:17now, this is going to happen, and it doesn't happen, yeah, you're a false prophet.
00:40:22It did not happen.
00:40:23And so, I was just wondering if sometimes God works in ways of authenticating his message by the use of
00:40:34signs, if maybe people are not believing or what happens.
00:40:38Yeah, I think sometimes he does, you know, like when, in the case with Aaron and Korah, where, you know,
00:40:46Korah goes to Moses and says, why are you and Aaron holding yourself up high above everybody else?
00:40:51Aren't we all prophets?
00:40:54And Moses is like, okay, let's have a contest.
00:40:56And they put all their staffs together, and he says, the one that blossoms is the prophet that, is the
00:41:03one true priest that God has chosen.
00:41:06And, you know, of course, Aaron is also a prophet.
00:41:08And so, the next morning, they go and check the staffs, and Aaron's staff not only blossomed, but it produced
00:41:14fruit overnight.
00:41:15You know, this dead stick that he'd probably been carrying around for years.
00:41:20And so, I mean, this is the kind of signs that might follow a prophet, like to prove that this
00:41:26is the guy that you're supposed to be listening to.
00:41:29Go ahead, Scott.
00:41:30I think there was something you were trying to say.
00:41:32Yeah, I'm sorry.
00:41:32It's cutting in and out.
00:41:33So, if I overstated, Donnie, Kevin, I'm sorry.
00:41:37I couldn't hear you.
00:41:39Malachi, his life, that was prophetic.
00:41:42And it was through action, and the Lord had something to speak unto us through the tragedy that Malachi went
00:41:52through.
00:41:53So, it can be action as well.
00:41:56You know, it doesn't have to be, thus saith the Lord.
00:42:00Yeah.
00:42:00Was John the Baptist a prophet?
00:42:03Yeah.
00:42:05He was a prophet.
00:42:07Yeah, Yeshua actually said he was the greatest of all the prophets.
00:42:10All right, so we have spent 50 minutes on one phrase.
00:42:16I think that's a new record.
00:42:18That's okay, since our theme this month is, what is prophecy?
00:42:22This all fits in, so it's perfect.
00:42:25But let's move on to verse 7.
00:42:27If service in our serving.
00:42:30So, let's talk about that phrase.
00:42:32You know, Paul is talking about how, you know, whatever it is that God has given you to do,
00:42:36do that, and do it well.
00:42:40So, what does he mean by serving?
00:42:42The word is diakonia, which is the source or the root word for deacons, which really just means a servant.
00:42:52Someone who is helping people or ministering in ministry doesn't, like being a minister,
00:42:58you know, we have a warped view of what that word means today, that, you know, the guy in charge,
00:43:04he's the minister or ministers in government.
00:43:08That's not really what the origin of the word means.
00:43:10It means just somebody who is ministering to people, seeing to their needs.
00:43:14That's what a deacon is.
00:43:15And if that's your calling, do it well.
00:43:18Serve with everything you've got.
00:43:20See, just scanning through my notes.
00:43:23Sorry.
00:43:24Yeah, so the word, Paul uses this word to refer to kind of an office also later in when he's
00:43:30talking to Timothy.
00:43:31He talks about qualifications for elders and then qualifications for deacons.
00:43:36And I think this is a lot like the same idea between being a prophet and having a gift of
00:43:42prophecy.
00:43:43If you have a gift of prophecy where God speaks through you on occasion,
00:43:47it doesn't necessarily mean you're in the office of prophet.
00:43:52But it means that, yeah, there's a division there, and I don't know exactly where the line is.
00:43:58Somewhere between Saul and Isaiah, there's a dividing line between somebody who has prophesied and somebody who is a prophet.
00:44:08And I don't know exactly where that line is.
00:44:10But there's a similar thing going on with deacons, that somebody may have a gift of service,
00:44:16but that doesn't put them in the office of being the deacon or a deacon.
00:44:22That's more of an official capacity sort of thing.
00:44:25And the way that this works out in the Book of Acts, you know, we've got this conflict
00:44:30where you've got the Jewish Jews and the Hellenized Jews, and they're all believers and they're trying to cooperate.
00:44:38But the Jewish Jews are in charge of distributing all of the, they're not really tithes because tithes at this
00:44:45time are still going to the Levites in the temple.
00:44:47But it's like tithes.
00:44:49And so people are bringing offerings for the assistance of people in the congregation.
00:44:56And the local people who are the more Jewish Jews, people from Jerusalem, they're the ones managing the money.
00:45:02And so they're doling out money to their own widows and their own people in need before they're getting to
00:45:09the more Hellenized Jews who are from out of town.
00:45:11And, you know, they're complaining about it.
00:45:13And so they're, Stephen and the other higher ranking apostles all get together and they appoint a committee of seven
00:45:22men from both the Hellenized Jews and the regular Jews.
00:45:27I might have the number wrong there.
00:45:28I don't remember for sure.
00:45:31Yeah, and I think Stephen was among them.
00:45:34He was, yes.
00:45:36Yeah.
00:45:36So these people are now in the office of deacon where they have been appointed as, you know, official.
00:45:43They have an official job where your job is now to oversee this service.
00:45:48And underneath them are the rank and file deacons and kind of like a priest and they're Levites.
00:45:54The Levites, they're not officially priests, but, you know, they have this gift that God has given them to teach
00:46:01and to serve the needs of the priests.
00:46:05So you've got the deacons who are in the office of deacon who are in charge of some kind of
00:46:10ministry or project.
00:46:11And then you've got people who have a gift of service, of a gift of who are helping them or
00:46:19helping whoever, helping their neighbor, giving people rides to doctor's appointments, bringing people groceries, whatever it is.
00:46:27These are the people who are actually going out and caring for other people.
00:46:30It's not an official office.
00:46:31It's just something that they're gifted with doing.
00:46:34Does that make sense in the distinction between those two?
00:46:37Yes, but I think the greatest demonstration of service was when Yeshua washed his disciples' feet.
00:46:49In John, it says when he got up from the table and he took off his outer garment and he
00:46:58tied his waist with a towel and he poured water in the basin and he washed your feet and he
00:47:04dried it.
00:47:05He was demonstrating how we're supposed to act towards each other in serving each other, right?
00:47:12Because if he being the master and he can, you know, demonstrate that, it means that we who have, when
00:47:21he was talking to his disciples, they who have seen this kind of demonstration, they need to practice the same
00:47:27thing.
00:47:28I mean, I mean, I look at that as the greatest example of service was when he did that.
00:47:37Yeah.
00:47:37Yeah.
00:47:38And he's serving a different kind of need.
00:47:40It's not necessarily a physical need that they had, but it was a spiritual and emotional need of showing this,
00:47:47experiencing this humility of the Messiah, the Son of God, whether, I mean, by this time, I think they all
00:47:54pretty much knew who he was.
00:47:56Washing their feet.
00:47:58Like, what a crazy, humbling experience that would be.
00:48:03Anything else about service to talk about?
00:48:06I mean, there are all kinds of examples of service.
00:48:08Who was the lady that was used to be making was purple robes when she died?
00:48:16Lydia, I think.
00:48:17Lydia, Lydia, right.
00:48:20Yeah.
00:48:21Yeah, and that's, that's one way that it was pretty common for women to be serving in this role in
00:48:28the early church was providing spaces, you know, a wealthy woman like Lydia, who, you know, she works with purple
00:48:36dye.
00:48:36So, I mean, her clientele are wealthy people and, you know, if she was a really wealthy woman, then she
00:48:42would be a trader of dye, not a worker of dye.
00:48:45So, I don't know exactly what the difference there is, but, you know, she was providing funds for the ministries.
00:48:52Like, she was paying the way for apostles to go on their mission trips.
00:48:56And other women were providing places for the churches to meet.
00:49:01I can't remember who it was.
00:49:03I think it was a niece of the emperor, maybe, who was providing a place in Rome for Paul to
00:49:10stay.
00:49:11And I don't even remember if that's tradition or scripture right now.
00:49:15But those are...
00:49:16You also have the widow that took in Elisha.
00:49:19Was it Elisha or Elisha?
00:49:21Elisha, I think, yeah.
00:49:22Yeah.
00:49:23Built a room on top of the house.
00:49:25Exactly.
00:49:26Yeah, and those are examples of serving the ministry in general.
00:49:30And, you know, there are the opposite ends, you know, what June was pointing out with Yeshua of the ministry
00:49:36serving the people.
00:49:37I mean, that is what ministering means, after all.
00:49:40And Yeshua didn't come to earth to make himself king.
00:49:44I mean, that's a side effect of what he did.
00:49:46But he came to suffer and die to serve us so that we could be elevated.
00:49:52And that really is the ultimate purpose of every ministry that God has commissioned.
00:49:58You know, every office, whether, you know, it's priest, king, prophet, apostle, the role of all of these things is
00:50:06to serve the kingdom of God, which is people.
00:50:09To bring them back into repentance and right relationship with the father so that then they can become like Yeshua
00:50:16in time.
00:50:19Yeah, it's kind of funny that, you know, there is no clean distinction between most of these roles.
00:50:25About the cleanest you can get is between king and priest.
00:50:28But then Yeshua just throws all that out the window, too.
00:50:33All right.
00:50:33So the next phrase.
00:50:35One who teaches in his teaching.
00:50:38And in Greek, the word for teaching, I didn't write down what it is, but it means essentially the same
00:50:43thing as it does in English.
00:50:44It's pretty straightforward.
00:50:46If you've got a gift of teaching, use it.
00:50:49Don't bury it in the ground.
00:50:51And I think that over time, if you've got a gift of teaching, you will you will know.
00:50:57Because you will keep finding yourself in situations where you are teaching people things, explaining how to do things, answering
00:51:05questions.
00:51:07If people keep coming to you and asking questions about something.
00:51:10You probably have a gift of teaching and other people recognize it, even if you don't.
00:51:15Yeah, I have a question for you.
00:51:17Yeah, there you go.
00:51:19Yeah, I did this exercise, you know, before I started the Common Sense Bible Study and even the American Torah
00:51:26website, I think.
00:51:27I went through this personal inventory exercise trying to figure out what exactly is my calling?
00:51:35What what am I built for in the world?
00:51:38And, you know, one of the things that you're supposed to do was.
00:51:41Ask other people.
00:51:44What how do you think of me?
00:51:45What role am I in when you think of me in your mind?
00:51:48What kind of person is that?
00:51:50And what kind of things do you see me doing all the time?
00:51:52And the thing that kept coming back was.
00:51:55Taking complicated ideas and breaking them down into simple, simpler pieces so that other people can understand them.
00:52:03That's something that I'm good at.
00:52:05And I, I guess I knew that for I mean, I've known that for many years.
00:52:10I just didn't realize that it was such a thing that everybody around me recognized it to.
00:52:17To an extent, everybody has a gift of teaching.
00:52:19Everybody is capable of teaching somebody something.
00:52:23Just like everybody is capable of being a servant.
00:52:27Some people are just more gifted at it.
00:52:30You know, I can I can help people.
00:52:33I can, you know, go pick up groceries.
00:52:35I can help mend fences.
00:52:37I can do that kind of stuff.
00:52:39But it doesn't come naturally to me.
00:52:41I don't necessarily see the needs that other people have and think, oh, I can help you with that.
00:52:47I need Paula to point it out to me, said, hey, you this person needs you to talk to them.
00:52:52I need somebody to come and tell me they need help because I won't see it, which means that I
00:52:56don't really have such a great gift of of service in that sense.
00:53:01You know, sometimes I see things that other people need and I'm more than happy to help.
00:53:06But generally, I need people to tell me that they need something.
00:53:09Somebody with a gift of service is more likely to just know they see it.
00:53:14Without being having to be told and they should be looking for opportunities to serve and a teacher should be
00:53:22looking for opportunities to teach.
00:53:24And if you're not if you don't have a gift of teaching.
00:53:28There are going to be opportunities where you're going to be able to teach people anyways.
00:53:32I mean, if you are a parent, you're going to be teaching your children.
00:53:35If you work with people, you're going to be training somebody or teaching somebody or teaching customers.
00:53:42Everybody teaches somebody something at some time doesn't necessarily mean you've got a gift for it just means that you're
00:53:48human and you communicate with people.
00:53:51So I think if you've got a gift for one of these things, you probably already have some kind of
00:53:58inkling that you do, but you might need some confirmation from other people.
00:54:02So if you are wondering, let me know and I can give you some tips on trying to find out
00:54:10what your giftings are.
00:54:14And that won't be a guarantee that this is what you're called to do, but it could certainly point you
00:54:20in the right direction and maybe give some confirmation of what you're already thinking about yourself.
00:54:25Oh, and this is something that Kevin had asked about.
00:54:28Some people believe that teaching, teaching from the scriptures is a form of prophecy and it can be, but it's
00:54:35not necessarily because if it was just, I mean, if all biblical teaching was prophecy, I don't think Paul would
00:54:42have included that as a separate thing here.
00:54:44He includes prophecy and teaching as separate ideas, because if you understand something and you have the ability to explain
00:54:52it to people, that doesn't mean that you are necessarily a prophet.
00:54:56It just means that you understand it.
00:54:58You're able to explain it.
00:55:00Any questions or thoughts about teaching or a gift of teaching?
00:55:05Okay.
00:55:06The next one is one who exhorts.
00:55:09If you exhort in his exhortation, and of course, that's going back to, you know, do it in proportion to
00:55:16your faith, the same as prophecy, but give it everything you've got.
00:55:21Your gifts may differ, but some people really do have this gift of exhortation.
00:55:26The Greek word is parakaleo, and it's usually used to refer to some kind of motivational homily.
00:55:38You know, it's, it's related to teaching in that you are explaining something to people, but you're explaining it to
00:55:45them with the intent that they do something with it.
00:55:47You're trying to convince them to do something like implore is a good word in English means essentially the same
00:55:55thing.
00:55:55You have a gift of imploring, and this would be preachers.
00:56:02Most preachers, if you're going to be a good preacher, you have to have a gift of exhortation because the
00:56:08point of preaching is to get people to do something, to repent or to engage in a mission or something
00:56:15like that.
00:56:16That's what exhortation means.
00:56:18There are some examples.
00:56:20In Matthew 8, it says that legion, these demons that had inhabited either the one or two men, depending on
00:56:29which gospel you're in, they exhorted Yeshua to send them into the herd of swine.
00:56:35So exhortation isn't always just a spiritual, a good thing.
00:56:39You can exhort people to do evil, or you can exhort people to have mercy on you or whatever.
00:56:45In this case, demons are exhorting the son of God to have mercy on them by sending them into a
00:56:51herd of swine, which turns out not to be so merciful after all.
00:56:55And then immediately after that, the people of the village where this herd of swine were, they come out and
00:57:01they exhort Yeshua to go away.
00:57:04So the demons exhort him to send them away, and then the people come out and exhort him to send
00:57:09himself away.
00:57:10That's just to give you some ideas of what exhortation is.
00:57:14So it's like imploring others?
00:57:19Okay.
00:57:20Yeah, it means pretty much the same thing.
00:57:22Acts 21.12 is another example.
00:57:25There was a prophet there who combined sort of, what do you call it, interpretive dance is the word that
00:57:34comes to mind, but that is totally wrong.
00:57:36He acted out a prophecy.
00:57:38He tied up his hands and he said, if you go to Jerusalem, they will bind you like this and
00:57:43deliver you over to the Romans.
00:57:46And that's what happened.
00:57:47And so the believers at Caesarea, they exhorted Paul not to go to Jerusalem after he was warned by that.
00:57:54And of course, he did it anyways.
00:57:57The prophecy wasn't, don't go to Jerusalem.
00:57:59The prophecy was, here's what's going to happen if you go.
00:58:03And Paul's like, okay, I can deal with that.
00:58:06So he went, he got arrested, and that was his ticket to Rome to go, you know, preach the gospel
00:58:11to the emperor.
00:58:12Yeah, I think there are other examples of exhortation in scripture, but I think that gets the idea across.
00:58:18I think salesmen, if you're a really good salesman, you have a gift of exhortation.
00:58:24Any other thoughts about that?
00:58:26Can you think of anybody in scripture who has that gift?
00:58:30One of the spies, Joshua, was it Joshua?
00:58:33Mm-hmm.
00:58:34And he was, he was encouraging them that they should ignore the fact that they were giants and, you know,
00:58:42that they were the size of whatever ants.
00:58:45And so he was exhorting Israel, we need to do the right thing.
00:58:49Yeah, well, there's, there's a, that leads me to another really good point about these kind of gifts.
00:58:54Joshua failed, at least in that exhortation.
00:58:58They didn't listen to him.
00:59:00Right.
00:59:00But later on, I'm sorry, what was that?
00:59:04What about Caleb?
00:59:06Yeah, same thing.
00:59:07Joshua and Caleb both, they exhorted the people to have faith, but the people didn't listen to them.
00:59:13However, many years later, some like 41, 42 years later, they're in the promised land, and they have conquered most
00:59:22of the land.
00:59:22And, and I want to find the reference here.
00:59:28It's in, I think, Joshua 24.
00:59:34And he says,
00:59:36Now, therefore, fear Yahweh and serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your father served
00:59:42beyond the river in Egypt, and serve Yahweh.
00:59:45And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve Yahweh, choose for yourself today whom you will serve, whether
00:59:50the gods which your father served, beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are
00:59:54living, that as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
00:59:58And the people answered,
01:00:00Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh to serve other gods.
01:00:03For Yahweh our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from
01:00:07the house of bondage, etc., etc.
01:00:10But anyways, they go on to make a covenant right there with Joshua, say, we will serve Yahweh, us and
01:00:17our children forever.
01:00:18And so Joshua has evolved over time.
01:00:21I mean, he was always a leader.
01:00:23He started out as a military leader, which does require a gift of exhortation, because you have to get, you
01:00:30have to convince men to go risk their lives.
01:00:33And that's pretty serious.
01:00:35But he, his character and his skills developed such over time and his reputation developed such that when he confronted
01:00:43the entire nation and said, who are you going to serve?
01:00:47They not only believed him, but they went along with it and made a covenant with him to ensure, like,
01:00:54to underscore it, that they were agreeing with his exhortation.
01:00:58So the gifts that you have, I mean, I think that people are generally born with specific gifts or inclinations,
01:01:05but they need to be developed.
01:01:07If God has given you a gift of service or teaching or exhortation, you have a responsibility to use it,
01:01:15because in using it, you are developing it and in making it better.
01:01:20And the more you use it, the more you will be able to use it for the benefit of the
01:01:24kingdom.
01:01:25So Joshua went from a guy who could command a group of soldiers who were ready and eager to go
01:01:30fight until the point where he could convince an entire nation to make covenants based on his recommendation.
01:01:39Why I asked about Caleb, because Caleb was in his 80s and he convinced Joshua that he was able-bodied
01:01:54and eager to go conquer the land God had promised.
01:02:00Yes.
01:02:01Yes.
01:02:01He said he's still strong for war.
01:02:05Yeah.
01:02:06And he was in his 80s.
01:02:07He said, give me the hell country that the Lord had promised me.
01:02:14I'm capable enough.
01:02:17And he was in his 80s.
01:02:20Yes.
01:02:21They were both warriors and exhorters.
01:02:25And, well, I'm not sure if Caleb was a prophet, but Joshua was.
01:02:29Oh, I was talking about how he was able to convince Joshua that, you know, he's still able-bodied at
01:02:36his age to go conquer the land that was promised to him.
01:02:41Yeah.
01:02:42Yeah.
01:02:44All right.
01:02:44Let's see if we can get through verse eight before we're done here.
01:02:47So the one who contributes in generosity.
01:02:51You might not think of giving as a gift, like the gift of giving.
01:02:57And it sounds like people who are planning for Christmas and planning to give people presents and they're collecting presents
01:03:04for people all year around.
01:03:07I used to work for somebody like that.
01:03:08She was always, every business trip, she was looking for the Christmas gifts that she was going to give to
01:03:13all of her employees, which was, you know, great.
01:03:15It's definitely a spirit of service and of giving.
01:03:20I don't want to encourage anybody to be doing Christmas.
01:03:22It's just, I'm using that as an example.
01:03:25I don't celebrate Christmas and I think we should just stick with the holidays God gave us.
01:03:30But giving is something that some people are better at in more natural at it.
01:03:37Generosity is, you know, I like to think of it as one of God's core values.
01:03:41He wants his people to be generous.
01:03:43We should all be generous, just like we should all be servants and we should all be teachers and we
01:03:49should all be exhorters.
01:03:51And Paul and Moses both said they want all the people to prophesy.
01:03:56But we don't all have that gift and we don't all have that office.
01:04:00Some people have a gift of giving.
01:04:02Anybody have any questions about that or any thoughts about what that means?
01:04:06I don't know.
01:04:07That one seems pretty straightforward to me.
01:04:09I mean, it seems a little unusual to think about a gift of giving, but some people just do.
01:04:15Give without complaining or talking or boasting about it.
01:04:18Some people love to give and everybody, they have to tell the world that they're giving.
01:04:25Yeah, that's not the same thing.
01:04:27Yes.
01:04:28What your right hand do, your left hand must not know.
01:04:31Exactly.
01:04:32Yeah.
01:04:33If they're doing it in order to get something.
01:04:35Yeah.
01:04:35Go ahead.
01:04:36Sorry.
01:04:36Go ahead, Ron.
01:04:37Yeah.
01:04:38You have to be careful.
01:04:39You're not giving to manipulate people.
01:04:42Yeah.
01:04:43Giving in order to get honor or to get into somebody's good graces or whatever.
01:04:50Some people probably do have a gift of being able to give just the right gift to get people to
01:04:55do what they want.
01:04:56The gift of bribery, if you want to call it that.
01:04:58And there's probably a place for that kind of thing.
01:05:01But yeah, that's not what Paul is talking about here.
01:05:05He's talking about being generous, which means frequently giving without anybody knowing who gave.
01:05:12All right.
01:05:12So the one who leads with zeal.
01:05:17It's see, I'm looking at my notes here.
01:05:19The word for zeal seems like a strange one.
01:05:22Like, should leaders be wild eyed, crazy people?
01:05:25That's not what Paul is talking about.
01:05:27The word is, I know I'm going to mispronounce this one.
01:05:30The word is spoudy, spoudy.
01:05:34And it's translated as discipline in the King James version and zeal in the ESV.
01:05:41And I think that both of those really don't give the right, quite the right nuance to the word.
01:05:48I think the ESV is even more likely to give the wrong impression.
01:05:51It's not about lead with excitement and charisma.
01:05:55That's not what it's really talking about.
01:05:57It's more about determination and intention.
01:06:00Do it like you really mean it.
01:06:03Like Joshua here saying, you people, you follow what God you're going to follow.
01:06:09But as for me and my house, we're going to serve Yahweh, no matter what comes, no matter what happens.
01:06:14And like Caleb saying, we can go in and conquer this land because God is fighting for us.
01:06:20And then they go and do it, not hesitating, not asking everybody's opinion.
01:06:26And, you know, there's a there's a time and place for asking for people's input and their opinions in leadership.
01:06:31But sometimes you just need to act.
01:06:33You just need to make the hard decisions and do what nobody is comfortable with doing.
01:06:39And that's a lot of what Paul is talking about here.
01:06:42Doesn't mean being a dictator, nothing like that.
01:06:45It just means being determined to get the job done, whatever it takes.
01:06:50Anyone else?
01:06:51The NASB uses the word diligence there.
01:06:54Yeah, I think that's pretty good.
01:06:56That's pretty close.
01:06:58Be a trailblazer.
01:07:00Yeah.
01:07:01Frequently, that's what it means.
01:07:03Go where no one else is willing to go.
01:07:06Okay.
01:07:06And then finally, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
01:07:11Mercy is another one of those words that can.
01:07:14It maybe doesn't mean what we think of normally with the word mercy.
01:07:18We think of I've got power over you, but I'm going to have mercy on you and not hurt you
01:07:23the way I could.
01:07:24And that's not really what he's talking about.
01:07:26He's more talking about acts of compassion to go and help people who are in need.
01:07:32And that's very closely related to the gift of service.
01:07:35But in this case, it's not just helping people who need help.
01:07:38It's going to the people who are most in need.
01:07:41You know, the homeless, prisoners, the mentally, I don't know, what's the PC word these days?
01:07:51Mentally handicapped, whatever the right word is.
01:07:54People who are challenged.
01:07:56Yes.
01:07:56Mentally challenged.
01:07:57You know, people who can't fend for themselves, who can't work, or they don't have the means to feed themselves.
01:08:04That's what Paul is talking about here.
01:08:06And that's why he says do it with cheerfulness, because sometimes that can be a really unpleasant thing to do.
01:08:12You know, for a few years, my mom worked as a home health care provider.
01:08:16I mean, she wasn't like a nurse or anything like that.
01:08:18But she went and did basic services, probably a lot like you've got some ladies coming to your house, June,
01:08:25to help you with cooking and house cleaning, that kind of thing.
01:08:30And, you know, she would help people bathe, you know, people who were paralyzed, she'd clean their houses, clean their
01:08:39bathrooms, you know, all this stuff.
01:08:40And it's not glamorous work.
01:08:42And it could be really depressing if you had to do that day in and day out.
01:08:47But there are people who are gifted with being workers of compassion.
01:08:54And Paul is saying, don't let the depressing state of the world drag you down.
01:09:02If you've got this gift of service to the people that the rest of the world has rejected, do it
01:09:08with cheerfulness.
01:09:09Do it because you know you are working for God.
01:09:13You are making the world a better place.
01:09:15You're taking people who are living in misery, and you are making their lives brighter.
01:09:20And you should see yourself as that you are bringing light to people's world.
01:09:25And that is a that's probably that might be the most important gift in this whole list.
01:09:31Yeah.
01:09:32I don't know if I have anything else to add to that.
01:09:33Anybody have any thoughts on.
01:09:35Acts of mercy or compassion, the gift, the gift of doing acts of compassion.
01:09:41Like my caregiver.
01:09:44She is a very compassionate person.
01:09:47She just comes to work as she wants.
01:09:50Yeah, we were.
01:09:51We were just talking to somebody last night.
01:09:54And.
01:09:55Yeah, this is somebody who is spends her entire life helping other people just serving all the time.
01:10:02And she's attracted to serving the most helpless, needy person in her circle.
01:10:09Whoever is most unable to help themselves.
01:10:12That's the person she's going to be hanging out with, because that's just who she is.
01:10:16That's the person she wants to help most.
01:10:19That's not a gift that many people have.
01:10:22Yeah.
01:10:22She is very, she's a very compassionate person.
01:10:28Mm hmm.
01:10:29And she does our work.
01:10:32She attends to me well, but she just she comes to work however, whenever.
01:10:42And what can I say?
01:10:45But whenever she's doing something for me personally, she will take care of me.
01:10:53Probably.
01:10:54Yeah, those people are rare gems.
01:10:57Before we wrap up tonight, just something I want to share with you.
01:11:00Hold on.
01:11:01Give me just a second here.
01:11:02I forgot to get it.
01:11:04All right.
01:11:04So if you are with us for the Proverbs, excuse me, the Proverbs study, or if you've gone through
01:11:11the chiasm course, then you probably saw my sister Regina on, you know, one of those calls.
01:11:19She did a she wrote a small book about, you know, kind of focused on Romans chapter 12.
01:11:25And it's really about how.
01:11:29How the people of God need each other like nobody is meant to be a lone wolf.
01:11:33We are all designed to be part of a community.
01:11:36You can't keep God's commandments all by yourself.
01:11:39You can't love your neighbor.
01:11:40If you don't have neighbors, you can't serve people.
01:11:43If you're not around people, you can't teach anybody.
01:11:45If you don't have any students, we can't exist as the people of God without being part of community.
01:11:53And I don't know if you can see that.
01:11:55It might be backwards.
01:11:57I don't know.
01:11:58Called intertwined strength to stand.
01:12:00And it's it's very short and it's mostly photography and art.
01:12:05She's also a photographer and it was inspired by Romans 12.
01:12:09So if you want to look that up.
01:12:12Like I said, it's not a long book and it's more art than literature.
01:12:16But there is, you know, it's got some some small essays.
01:12:22Some exhortation in there.
01:12:24And so you can check that on an Amazon and I'll put a link in the in the notes after
01:12:31I post or after I upload this recording.
01:12:34What else do we need to add anything?
01:12:36All right. Well.
01:12:39The next slide with all those those examples of triads that Paul uses in this chapter that will have to
01:12:45wait for next week.
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