Humbly Serving in the Church [Transcript]

Sermon Summary

The sermon centers on Romans 12:1–8, calling believers to present their lives as living sacrifices in response to God's mercies, emphasizing a transformed life marked by humility, unity, and purposeful service within the body of Christ. It unpacks the metaphor of the church as a single body with diverse members, each possessing unique gifts and roles not for personal glory but for mutual edification and the fulfillment of God's will. Key themes include the rejection of pride, the importance of selfless service, and the necessity of using one's God-given talents—whether in ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, ruling, or showing mercy—with sincerity, diligence, and cheerfulness. The message underscores that every believer has a vital, often unseen, role in advancing God's kingdom, and true spiritual maturity is found in recognizing that all gifts come from God and are to be used faithfully, not for recognition, but for His honor and the good of others.

Sermon Details

Preacher: Elder Jonathan Moseley

Church: Fair Haven Primitive Baptist Church in Tifton, GA

Date: 11/23/2025

Series: Roman Series

Watch Sermon Here

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[Transcript]

Romans chapter 12. You should know where we are going, right? I will start reading in verse 1, so we will have a running start. I beseech you therefore, brethren. Therefore, right? Based on everything that has come before. Am I going to give you a recap of chapters 1 through 11? No. But all that truth that He has said about who Christ is and what He has accomplished without your help, and how He has told you about it, all that being true, I am asking you, I am begging you, I am imploring you, by the mercies of God, right? Again, a recap of all, a summary of all that has come before, that you present your bodies, right? Offering your bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy, all right, set apart for God's purpose, pure, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

We are going to be heavy into the application portion of the letter to the Romans for weeks, and that is okay. Presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. He is not asking us to do anything that is unreasonable. That is too far, that is too hard. This is our response that is appropriate.

And, be not conformed to this world. You will have a lot of opportunities to see the wrong pattern out there. Do not try and mold yourself after that. But rather, be ye transformed. It is a change, a change from within. This is growth. By the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

And we talked about those different aspects of determining as I am making this decision, as I am offering my life as a living sacrifice, what am I about to do? Is it actually good? Does it glorify God? Is the motive that I am going to approach it with, the way that I am going to approach it, is that acceptable? Will it be well-pleasing? If I am serving myself, I can be trying to do something good, but I can really taint that effort. So we want it to be both good, actually good, and then well-pleasing. The way that we go about it, our motivation, our timing, there is some thought that has to go into it. I want to serve the Lord in all that I do, not just give the appearance of it. And then finally, perfect, the complete, right? Is it going all the way, right? Half measures are not good, right? Starting something and not finishing is not good, right? We want to be diligent and long-suffering. How long are you going to be running your race to serve the Lord? Until He gives you your last breath, then you are done, right? So this is the marathon, this is endurance, this is not the short sprint for service to the Lord.

So, these two verses amount to the thesis statement, or the theme, or the big overarching picture for what is going to come in the next four chapters, right? It's really going to be fleshing these out, because we could spend a lot of time talking about those two verses. Well, Paul does. And he's going to give you quite a few examples. And so our first example is going to be within the body of the church. Why do we call the church the body? Why, when you join the church, are you called a member? Because that's biblical language. That's how Jesus and the apostles would describe this thing that we know is the bride of Christ. He describes it as being one body. There are many different pieces. Members mean like limbs, parts, pieces. If you were to study anatomy, how many pieces make up a natural body? A bunch. Right? It kind of depends on how far you drill down. I mean, if we're just talking bones, there are what? How many? 218? Something? A lot! Right? But there are a lot of different pieces that God, as He designed this body, and ultimately they're all working together for one purpose. Right? If my hand decides to take a vacation and doesn't do anything, the entire aspect of my body is greatly hindered. Right? And so that's going to be the word picture. This is going to be used extensively to describe collectively this local assembly, this local body. This is the body of Christ.

Are there other bodies of Christ within the world? Yes, absolutely. But this is the one that we're concerned with. This is the local body. Almost every time you allude to the church in the New Testament, it is the local church there. There will be a time when all the family of God is gathered together in one church assembly. That'll be in heaven. Jesus will come back. It's going to be great. But in the meantime, this is where we're operating. This is the scope. So, that's what we're going to be looking at this morning in chapter 12, verses 3 through about 8.

Alright, so I am going to read the passage, and then we will try to unpack it a little bit. "For I say, through the grace given unto me." So Paul is saying, I am going to make a statement here, but I am stating it based on the grace that has been given to me. And Paul had a lot of grace given to him. Would you say that Paul, when he first started off in his life, would have been a great member of the church? No, right? He hated the church. He despised it. The individuals were enemies. And so, as you come forward to give his testimony of wanting to be a member of the church, there was great grace given to Paul to take him from that state, that road to Damascus, where he was actively going out trying to arrest people in a foreign country to drag them back to Jerusalem so they could be tried, put in jail, maybe put to death. That was his goal, and he had authority to do it. He was not just some crackpot. He was authorized by the rulers in Jerusalem to go and do this, and the Lord snatches him up, jerks a little knot in his tail. He changes him in that moment where he goes from being an enemy to now a faithful servant. So there is great grace shown to Paul. His extreme is really a great example that the Lord, in his sovereignty, can change anybody as he chooses, in his timing.

Dead in trespasses and sins is just that, dead. Dead, like not just unhealthy, not just a little unwell, but dead, right? Lazarus, when he was in the grave, he was less than alive. I mean, he was dead. And the Lord of all creation calls Lazarus out and says, "Come forth." And Lazarus does not say, "No, thanks. I am going to stay dead." No, he lives. And Bubba Gump comes out. He lives, all right?

So there was a change, this great grace that was given to Paul. He says that is what he is beseeching you by. That is what he is begging you. He says to you, every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. All right?

Paul had been taken from that state of enemy, terrorist, hostile jerk. Now he is an apostle, and he has to not only be an apostle, he has to be an apostle to basically all the Gentiles. All right? Did he do that on his own? No, it was because of this great grace that was put upon him, and there was a measure, a portion of faith that he did not have before that the Father gave him. All right?

So, he who was really so low, and God has elevated him. This is a position of great authority, right? An apostle, I mean, they are speaking on God's behalf. They are specially chosen delegates. There were only twelve, and then one was, he committed suicide, Judas, and then one was replaced, and we do not hear anything else about Matthias who replaced him. And then a little bit later, you have Paul on the scene, and that is it. That is your entire body of apostles. There are no new ones, all right?

You have to be chosen by Jesus himself. You have to see him resurrected, all right? And so, you know, anyone who has apostle on their sign today, flee, all right? They are liars.

By that grace, you, including himself, do not need to think more highly of yourself than you ought, to think soberly, so to over-esteem, to over-dignify yourself. This is another way of saying, do not get wrapped up in pride. Do not think that somehow you have raised yourself to some position because God has given you faith and gifts and talents to be used in his service. According as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. And so, if you have faith this morning, it is because God gave it to you. You did not make it on your own.

Ephesians chapter 2, right? For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift, not of works, lest any man should boast. Boasting is bragging. If you want to cause problems in the church, you become wrapped up in pride, making it about yourself and saying, "Look what I can do. Look at what I've accomplished," or "These other people don't appreciate me. They don't see how great I am." Low self-esteem generally isn't a problem when you think too lowly of yourself. You think other people don't agree with you. I'm pretty great, and they should agree. No, this is having a mindset of humility. Being sober-minded recognizes that anything you have to give in the Lord's service, where did it come from? It came from the Lord. That's a good thing.

So, I say unto you through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, in verse 3, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. God's the source. He's the one giving out the faith.

For as we have many members, limbs, parts, in one body, and all members have not the same office. Sometimes when we use the word office in scripture, we're talking about a role within the church that's literally an office. One is the office of the pastor, or bishop, or elder, all synonymous there, or the office of a deacon. That's not the word being used here. This office means work. Each part of the body has a work to perform.

Each of you, as a part of the Lord's Church, has endeavors, toils, and labors to engage in and contribute. Are you all the same? No! And that is significant, is it not? We can look at this a little bit later, but the idea that is expounded upon in Corinthians is that if all of you had the same gifts and talents, and it uses the illustration of if the whole face is made up of eyes, are you going to see very well? Sure. Are you going to hear very well? No, because you have lost the thing that was created to hear. You are just, oh, we are all the same, are we not? Well, what about smelling? What about tasting? The nose is a very important appendage, is it not? It affects your taste, does it not? Have you ever had a stuffed-up nose and you are trying to eat your food and you are like, is the nose particularly a beautiful thing? No, as you get older, it is just kind of funky and things start growing out of it, but it is a real useful tool.

And so it is not about wanting to be in the position where everybody sees what I do, wanting to have glory and fame, and wanting the best of the best. That should not be our desire within the church. We should be looking for opportunities to serve based on how God has brought me, how He has developed me, and what is the role that He has created me for, because it is not all going to be a preacher. It is not all going to be a deacon. Not all of it is going to be cooking. We have different aspects of how we contribute. Some of you are fantastic cooks, way better than I am. If it were up to me to provide lunch every Sunday, we might be having cereal some days.

But there are gifts, and there are talents, and there are ways that we contribute. But the point is, and it is obvious, and you know it, that they are not all the same. For we, having many members in one body, and all members do not have the same office, they do not have the same work. So it is using that as a natural world picture. Look at your body. That is the illustration. Does your hand accomplish the same thing as your foot? No. Have you ever tried to walk on your hands? What happens? You fall on your head. It does not last very long. And so there are different designs and purposes and roles. It says the same thing. So we, being many, are one in the body of Christ, and every member is one of another.

So we are working in concert the same way that if you have any part of you that is hurting, it affects the whole thing, right? You go sprain your ankle. Well, I have still got a foot, that is great, but I have also got something that is bothering me, right? And now my knees hurt, my hips hurt, and like that, it affects the whole. And so, in order for us to function, right, in order for us to be the best united in one purpose of serving God together, we have got to, one, be working in the same direction and looking for opportunities. How can I serve? Often the way that we serve is completely behind the scenes. Nobody knows it. Now, does that mean you have got to be so dogmatic about it? I do not want anybody to ever see me help that when it comes time and there is something public, you are like, no, I cannot do that. Somebody might see. The right hand might see. That goes to your motivation, all right? Do what needs to be done. Look for opportunities to serve. If you happen to be noticed, fine. But do not go with the motivation of trying to be seen.

So it is all about why we are here. Do you have work to perform within the church? Yes. This is not a passive spectator environment, society, or whatever you want to say. There are many things out in the world where you can be on the roll, you can pay dues, and you can sit there and do nothing. This is not the case, right? This is a collective body coming together, literally a body, the body of Christ, coming together with a united purpose to strengthen each other, to edify each other, to refocus each other, to teach one another. Ultimately, we all have the same purpose: we want to glorify our Heavenly Father. And each of us is bound up in sin, and each of us needs to be encouraged every day because we are still at home with ourselves as sinners. And so we come together with other centers, but the difference is we are not just blatantly following the pattern of the world. We desire to bring glory and honor to the Lord. And we need the encouragement and the fellowship. We need to work together in that.

And so if you do not listen to anything else I say this morning, please do not tune out. You have a labor within the church body, okay? You have a purpose. If you do not know anything that you can do to help, come talk to me. Talk to the older sister, talk to the other brothers. There are things that we need that we can do better, that we can get stronger by practice. Does that mean you will have it all figured out and you will be able to do it perfectly without making mistakes? No.

Hey, for folks who have been used to doing everything, if someone else is offering to help, let them. Right? If they do not do it exactly the way you want it to be done, who cares? They are desiring to help. That is something we want to encourage, right? We have to be looking at the bigger picture than just, well, this is my way and this is the way I have always done it. I have got someone who desires to help. Woo-wee! Encourage that. It is good for them. It is good for you.

So, we being many, verse five, we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another. So we are united, right? We are working together, we are trying. Now that is true whether we are in this building or not, okay? You are still a part of the body of Christ, you are still a member here even when you are at home, even when you are in your jobs, even when you are in the community, right? And so you get to reflect honor and glory on Jesus's name by how you are serving in those roles, too. Okay?

All right, so we are going to look at some of these different gifts, and these are high-level gifts. We can drill down more explicitly another time. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Why does Paul have the gift of apostleship? Because Jesus himself gave it to him and taught him the gospel and said, "Now go, I am going to show you what great things you are going to suffer for my name." That was how he got a mentor in Ananias. He said, "You need to go baptize him and pray for him that he can see." And he is like, "No, I have heard about this guy. He is terrible." He says, "No. He is one that I have specifically chosen, and He is going to suffer great things for my name's sake."

So is being a member of the Body of Christ always hunky-dory with no pain? No! But it is worth it. Okay? So we have gifts, differing one from another. How? According to the grace that is given to us. All right, whether, and I am just going to read down to verse eight and then we will talk about them. Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth, on teaching; he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.

Now let me not hide the ball. These different gifts are not just reserved for preachers and deacons. Go read John Gill's commentary. He will take each of these categories and show how they apply only to preachers and deacons. That is not Paul's point here. If it were, he would be addressing this matter. Now, preachers and deacons, pay attention. This is written to the whole body, to all of its members, and so in whatever respective arena you are in, whether that is in a particular office as elder, or as deacon, or as husbands and spouses, as parents, as grandparents, as employers, as employees, as members of the community, these different gifts and talents are given to you in measure. Okay? And so, you have an opportunity to use them. You will be more equipped in some areas than others. And do not use fear, or cowardice, or stinginess to say, well, that just does not apply to me. Okay?

So, let us begin with the one that is probably the hardest: prophecy. "Let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith" (Romans 12:6). Paul is writing to the Romans before he has ever been to Rome, is he not? How much of the New Testament had been written by this point? Probably very little, is it not? He is sending a letter because he has not had a chance to go and teach them in person. And so there was a unique need in the early church for the ability for a man to be able to stand before them and say, "This is what God says," is there not? That same need does not exist today without this. We have the New Testament Scripture. We have the full history. We have what we need, do we not? "All Scripture is thoroughly furnished unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). You have the full text. And so now, in a sense, I am standing before you in a prophetic role in that I am saying, "This is the Word of God." But you have an easier time than those people back then, because you can fact-check me immediately. They would have to wait to see if what that man was saying is actually true, because generally there would be a sign or a wonder that would be a stamp of approval that, yes, this man is speaking for God, or no, he is not. And as we learned in Deuteronomy, sometimes God would let a sign happen to test His people to see if they are paying attention, because if that man says something that you know to be wrong, "Let us go worship other gods," or "Jesus is not the Son of God," then you say, "Whoa! We do not have to follow Him. His message is wrong."

So, to prophesy means to speak on God's behalf. At that time, literally, they were doing that. And now, we are speaking on God's behalf when we are reading and giving His word with authority. I have been authorized by a presbytery of elders to stand before you and say, "This is the word of God." That is part of the role of being a minister of the gospel. I have to account to the Lord for how faithfully I do that. This is a weighty, weighty thing, not to be taken lightly.

Let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. That means I must believe what I am telling you. Are there men who are willing to stand up and say, "Well, this is what the Bible says," and then they do not actually believe it or they intentionally sow doubt and say, "Well, you know," and then try to undercut it? That is not edifying for the church. That is not good. That is not glorifying the name of the Lord to cause such doubt and division within the church, right? We need to be able to stand fast and say, "This is the word of God, and I believe it, and I am willing to commit my life to it." Because if this has value, if this has meaning, I should be willing to impart it into my life and show you, as I am saying, "This is what we do."

Watch. Here we go. Will I do it perfectly? No. I am not your Savior. I am not Jesus. I will not do it perfectly. Will I mess up? Yes. Part of my giving an example is going to have to be, when I mess up, I get to show you what it means to mess up. How often did Jesus have to apologize and confess his sins? He did not, because he did not have any sins. But I get to be an example even there, because of my flawed humanity. So do not make me the mark and perfect standard. I am just the sorry man who is trying to show you what it looks like as I understand and teach it.

So that was prophecy. Ministry or ministry. Let us wait on our ministering. Wait on our ministering. All right. Does that mean I can just wait until it is time to minister? No. All right. When you go to a restaurant and someone comes and says, "Welcome, here are your menus. Can I take your drink order?" They are your waiter! That is the word we get from. Waiter or waitress, right? They are attending to you. And so that is the idea here between ministry. It is an attendance. The word behind it, you all need to know Greek. No, you do not. It is what we get deacon from, okay?

This word "deacon" applies in many different contexts. One is in Acts 1-7; you don't have to turn there. It refers to the apostles. Their ministry, you see, was to apply themselves to the Word and to prayer. That is, they were delivering the Word of the Gospel. That was how they had to give attention to it. Perhaps as an elder or as a teacher, do I have to give attention to the Word and to prayer? Absolutely. In fact, that is one of the most needful things that I can do: teaching the Word. When Peter denied the Lord three times, the Lord said to him, "Do you love me?" Peter answered, "Yes." What was the Lord's response? "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep." What was Peter feeding them? Was he feeding them grass? Was he feeding them lasagna? No, lasagna is good, but no. What Peter was feeding them, what his attention was to, was the Word. What do the Lord's sheep need every day? They need the Word.

As an apostle, they had to give ministry to that. As preachers, we must give attention to the Word and to prayer. That is what Paul told Timothy: "Give yourself wholly to these things;epistles to Timothy 4:15" to make full proof of your ministry, to teach. There are also, literally, deacons in Acts chapter 6, where you have someone who is attending to the physical tables. They were members of the church who did not have income and did not have the ability to have food on their table that day. These were the widows. Their husbands were dead, their children were probably dead, or they did not have any children, so they were depending upon the church to make sure they had something to eat that morning. And there was not exactly an equal distribution going on. There were some who felt like it was a little unfair, and so they were complaining to the apostles. The apostle said, "Whoa, all right? The highest and best use of apostleship time is in the word. This is important, but it is not my role." And so that is where you got in Acts chapter 6: "Choose out from among you men that are full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and we will give them funds, and they will go make sure that these sisters are being fed." And so that is the institution of the office of a deacon, who cares for the physical needs of the church members.

So that is one thing: making sure people are cared for. This is the same word that referred to Martha. Remember old Martha? Mary and Martha. Mary is sitting at Jesus' feet, and Martha is bustling about trying to serve. The same word is used there. Because she had guests in her home. She had a lot of people there. There was food that needed to be made. There were drinks that needed to be poured. She was giving attention to those in her home.

Now, Jesus had to rebuke her a little. "Martha, Martha," he said, "Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her." She was sitting at the feet of Jesus, but there was a service that Martha was doing and attending in the form of hospitality, right? It is not just limited to making sure the poor have something to eat, but also to ministering to one another, right?

Why do you think we eat together every Sunday? Because you have an opportunity to minister to one another. With the meals that you prepare, you are showing love and affection. With the opportunity to sit there and listen and talk to one another, you are showing care for each other, as opposed to coming here, then departing, and not seeing each other for the rest of the week until next week.

We can have the same kind of superficial conversation, where it is, "Oh, how are you doing? I'm fine." I might be lying because we do not have time to get into it. I have never done that, but we do not really want to tell somebody how we are because we are not really sure if they even care, right? The ministry that we have is taking care of one another, right?

Did Jesus say something important about caring for the least of these? David talked about that, right? Not despising the least, right? Giving a cup of water to the least of these, right? That is what he said to the sheep, right? "You cared for me. You fed me. When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited me," right? All of those things, as a follower of Christ, when you see someone else and you are showing mercy and compassion upon them, you are ministering, you are serving, you are showing care.

What does that mean? You have to be looking for opportunities to serve. You may not individually be able to care for every opportunity that you come across, but you should also know your brothers and sisters around you: what are they equipped to do, and what are they better positioned to do? As just a function of me being a man, I am not equipped to go and minister to a single individual who is a woman at her home. That is not something that is safe or wise for me, but that sure does not mean that if I know of a need, I cannot dispatch some sisters or have a group or something where it is still proper. I am looking for opportunities where service is needed, even if I cannot meet the need myself.

Sometimes, your important role is that you are there and that you are here, and then you go and find help. Not just, well, I cannot deal with that. Washing our hands of things quickly is not the right approach. Look for opportunities to serve and to minister. That is important. Then, follow through. Remember the complete will of God? Well, I saw the need and I kind of threw up the red flag, but no one ran with it. Oh well. Sometimes we must be intentional, deliberate, persistent, and even annoying to ensure that it is followed through.

All right, so a ministry, right? We have different ministries, right? As mothers, we have a ministry within our homes. We have grandchildren with us. We are serving. We are attending to them. We are giving of ourselves for someone else's good. But what is the motivation for all of this serving? It must be this motivation: "I am doing this to serve my Lord." Because that affects why you do it, right? If you are doing it to be seen, to gain Instagram followers, or so people could think you are such a good person, then you are really tainting it. You may not be doing as much help as you think you are, right? If your motivation is to serve the Lord because He is worth it, and because He has told you to do it, and you have yielded your life to Him as a reasonable sacrifice, then this is what it looks like.

So, this one is very broad. All right, I cannot tell you individually right now where you ought to be ministering, but you have a ministry, okay? It probably is not up here in this format, but in each of your lives, in your homes, in your community, in your deployments, you have an opportunity to serve the Lord by giving attention and caring about others, okay? Let us wait on our ministering.

So if we have a ministry, and you do, pay attention to it, right? The things that are neglected, are they the ones that are most cared for? Are they the ones that do the best? Are they the ones that are farthest along? No, right? They are the things that are neglected. They are the afterthoughts. They are the back shelf, the back burner. The point of all these things is look at where the Lord has given you gifts, given you talents, given you opportunities, and move it to the front burner. That expression, make it more important in your life.

He that teacheth, all right, so if you have been given the ability to teach, what should you do? Teach! Teach, well, what is teaching? Well, it is to impart instruction, to instill doctrine, to explain, to expound. How many here are teachers? All of you. In different arenas, right? Not all of you need to be up here teaching in this form, in this office. But somebody is always watching you. And you are setting an example in what you do, how you do it, what you say, how you say it, how you treat people, what you talk about, what you care about, why you value it. All of those things are being observed. And so it is not about putting on a front of, well, look, I am the super Christian. And then behind closed doors, you say, oh goodness, I am glad we do not have to worry about that. No, it is about being consistent wherever you are with the idea that I can, by my life and by my words and by my deeds, set a good example that brings glory to my Lord and helps bring along someone else who does not know as much, right? The idea of teaching is that you have some additional experience, some additional wisdom, some additional knowledge, and you are willing to share it, right? So should you be teachers? Yes.

Now, how many of you would feel comfortable walking into a Calculus 3 course and going and being that instructor? Neither would I. So teach what you know, but make sure that what you are basing it on is actually consistent with the word. Do not go beyond what you have learned and internalized and faithfully can teach, but make sure what you are teaching is right. Being a bad teacher is not helpful.

And so, do not feel that in order to teach, you must be able to give a grand dissertation on any topic. Do not pick an obscure topic in the Bible. Often, what people need the most is to know what a godly response to a problem would be. If you can listen to the problem, think about Scripture, and try to answer it in terms of what Scripture says, that is helpful. After all, how often does Scripture exactly describe your particular problem? Is the Internal Revenue Service ever mentioned in Scripture? No, but it can cause people problems because they were not honest, you know.

And so you must help them zoom back out to consider what the principles and truths are that apply, and how those principles can be applied to this scenario. Those are some of the ways that you can teach. But to do that, you must be willing to listen, and you must care, and you must take time to think, and see, what does Scripture actually say? Rather than just making up answers because you want to sound smart or you want to give advice.

Sometimes the best answer you can give is, "I am not sure, but I am willing to go look, and let's talk some more later." You gain a lot more credibility with honesty and not just trying to make something up, because you do not want to lead somebody astray.

Alright, let us wait on our ministering. He that teacheth, on teaching. He that exhorteth, on exhorting. Well, what is an exhort? This one is probably more like counseling. To exhort literally means to call near, to invite, to implore, sometimes to admonish, sometimes to beg, sometimes to console. There are a lot of different emotional aspects depending on where the person is at. Sometimes when we are weighed down and so burdened by our sins, we need somebody to come and console us about what great things Christ has done and how we can rest in that assurance and we can go to Him and confess and we can have relief from that pain. Sometimes when we are off in a ditch and we are being bullheaded, we need someone to come along and say, buddy, you are wrong. Speaking the truth in love, but admonishing us not because we are chuckleheads and they need to jump down our throat, but because they love you and want you to do what is right. So you have admonishing, you have consoling. Sometimes it is just begging. This is a wise practice. I hope that you will engage in it. This is not necessarily that you are in the wrong right now, but we could be doing better.

Teaching and exhorting are very, very similar. One is kind of the objective information. The other is more of, all right, how does that look? How does that apply? Another word you could use is mentoring. You all could be somebody's mentee, one who needs mentoring. Who has got it all figured out? Yeah, me neither.

And so we need to be looking for those who have got different experiences and life skills and knowledge that we can still learn from and glean from. But we also need to be looking for opportunities, because that is for our benefit, but in service of looking for those who need information, right? We can see when we are around folks if there are some areas where we still have to grow.

Now, you do not need to look down your long nose and say, "Well, I just cannot believe you have not figured that out yet. I mean, you have been a member of the church for all of twenty-seven minutes, and you have not gotten that figured out." We all know that. Are you going to run someone off? Do you want to discourage someone? No. Instead, say, "Man, I remember being there. Have you considered this? Look at this scripture here, right? This is the long game with caring about one another."

Because how often, how quickly do trees grow? Not very quickly, right? The same is true among Christians. Sometimes we have seasons where we kind of speed up, and sometimes it is just slow, and you cannot even see it. Sometimes roots are going down, and it is going to be much better in the long run. But continue to invest in one another, and in people, even if they are not members of the church, right? Young believers, right? Those who need encouragement, give it, right? Is that ever going to be wasted time? No, right? The things that I can waste my time on are numerous, right? There are many of them.

And there are many things, you know, if I were having to stand before the Lord today and give an account for how I spent the twenty-four hours He gave me, it would be a great shame. But I am never going to feel ashamed, and you are never going to feel ashamed for the hours that you invest in another believer, all right? For their good, okay?

He that exhorteth, let him exhort; he that teacheth, let him teach; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. What is giving? You know what giving is. It means to impart. That could be money, that could be food, that could be clothing. Simplicity means singleness, all right? You are not doing it with a dual purpose, right? Like the Instagram photos where you are taking a picture of yourself giving a dollar to a homeless man. Do you really care about the homeless man? Do you really care about pleasing God in that? Maybe, but you have tainted it. You have made it a mixed motivation where it is something about, let me be seen. That is not our objective in giving.

How much of all that you have belongs to you and was not given to you by God? None of it, it is all His. And so it is a matter of, all right, He is my Master. I have been tasked with stewarding His stuff. How do I use that in a way that pleases Him? And so, when He has given you more than you need, how many of us have more than we need? All of us, right? Am I looking for opportunities to put it into service for someone else's good or benefit? Giving, again, food, money, clothing, with singleness, not with pretense, but it is with generosity, with liberality.

All right, let me give you a Bible definition. Liberal is not a bad word. Whoa, get the stones. The Bible definition of liberal is to be generous. In the Bible, when you are being generous, it is you are making the decision to give away your own stuff. Why do we have a problem with the political name of liberal? That is because someone else is deciding to give away your stuff, and it is not a choice, right? It is you voluntarily being generous, right? And that is quoted over there in Proverbs 11:25, "The liberal soul shall be made fat." We are not talking about weight gain here. We are talking about a blessing in abundance. You will have more than you will need because you are giving it away, even though the world says, well, you cannot do that. You are going to need that.

He that watereth shall be watered also himself. Is there a time when we need to be watered ourselves? Yes, indeed? Part of this involves ministering to someone else, giving, and all the things where you are the one giving it out. There will be a time in your life when you will be on the receiving end, when you will be the one who is weak, the one who needs more information, the one who needs encouragement, the one who needs help. And guess what? How do we start this? About that pride? Your pride cannot be stepping in the way of somebody obeying their Lord and ministering to you. How often do you read books or watch movies where the father in the situation says, "Well, I'm not going to do that. That's charity." And you see his pride flowing over. Well, that's just a human perspective. That's caring more about your pride than being obedient. Sometimes you will need help. That's okay. Why do you think the Lord gave us all these different talents and things? Because sometimes we are the ones giving them for someone else's benefit. Sometimes we are receiving them. And so when you are refusing to operate in the role of "I need help, I need to learn, I need to listen, I need encouragement," you are hindering someone else's obedience to the Lord in addition to being disobedient yourself.

How many of us need to be humbled on a daily basis? Maybe it's just me. Sometimes the Lord will send afflictions into our lives to bring us lower until we can see our dependence upon Him. You are dependent upon Him all day, every day, whether you recognize it or not. But when He takes away some of the illusions that you have of what is holding you up, and you see, "Oh, it really is Him," and you can see how He is caring for you in a multitude of different ways, it kind of opens your eyes and gives you a greater and better appreciation than you had before.

All right, so he that exhorteth, verse 8, on exhortation. Focus on it. He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, single-mindedness, not to be seen generously, right? He that ruleth with diligence.

All right, ruling, what are we talking about here? Well, there's an allusion to pastors. Before you ordain them, you need to look at their household to see if they are governing or superintending their families and their household. Well, right, because if you can't handle leading a wife and children, how are you going to lead the family of God? With children, at least, you have a large degree of latitude and discipline and instruction. How are you going to manage to lead the family of God without those skills?

The camera's blinking, hopefully Patrick can still see. So there needs to be, and the idea of ruling is standing before. All right, you're presiding. I have to stand before you and I have to set an example, I have to lead, I have to teach, I've gotta give an account to the Lord for how I'm ministering to you in this office as pastor, all right? So that's one example of ruling.

Husbands, right? You have a wife. You have the responsibility of being the head of that relationship. You've got to be the image of Christ in that relationship, and she has to be the image of the bride, right? You can make her life a lot easier by being a better reflection of Christ, right? Where you're faithfully serving, it makes it easier for her to submit and to do the thing. Now, she's supposed to do it whether you're doing it right or not, and you're supposed to love her whether she's doing right or not. Your roles are independently obligated, right? But when you have that opportunity and that responsibility for ruling, the idea is don't just lead it to the side. You have to be intentionally focused on it with diligence.

If you had a city manager out here and the city manager never came to the city and didn't check emails and didn't, right, would you say he's actually managing anything? You would say, no, he's AWOL. What's going on? We need to fire this guy. And so when you're given an opportunity to lead and have responsibility, give attention to it. Particularly within the context of the church, as pastors, as deacons, as husbands, mothers over children. There's a lot of different areas. As employers, right, you should care about your employees beyond just whether they are doing the bare minimum that you require in order to accomplish the mission, right? We are called to a higher standard, right? He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.

Well, we thought about giving, isn't that just, you know, mercy? I want you to go look at that parable of the Good Samaritan, right? The Good Samaritan is the guy who got, well, there's a guy who got beat up, right, stripped naked, wounded on the side of the road, and some folks from his own kin and country, the kind of religious elite, see him and go, ooh, and walk to the other side of the road. But a guy that he normally wouldn't interact with in town, who was beneath him, this is the good Samaritan. This is the guy who stops, binds his wounds, puts him on his own animal, carries him to a hotel, instructs the innkeeper, take care of him, feed him, here's some prepayment. When I come again, if I owe anything else, you know. And Jesus asked, which of these is his neighbor? And the answer was, he that showed mercy, right? He could have walked by and, you know, flipped him a coin. Well, you're naked here, come here. There's your buck. Go get you some clothes. The man had a need that was greater than that. There was physical healing. There was time that had to be given.

And so when we have this idea of mercy, this showing of compassion, this is often broader than the bare minimum. We can look for the bare minimum to do to help people, and we can look for excuses not to help people. But we can also do better. There are opportunities to show mercy when there are needs. Why did this little church send a fair amount of money up to Kentucky when that tornado came through and basically leveled that town? Because there were a lot of people who were really hurting. We got to hear a little bit more from Brother Jeff Winfrey about how this pastor of a tiny little Permanent Baptist Church was able to give away hundreds of thousands of dollars that rebuilt houses, bought cars, fed people, clothed people. It was amazing to hear how, when you've got this generosity and spirit being given out there, he was able to use it in the Lord's kingdom. That's wonderful, isn't it? Nothing that he did there, regardless of whether someone scammed him or took advantage of him, means that he has to be shameful before the Lord in the use of those funds. He is trying to apply what is given here.

And so this is getting us beyond kind of habit, beyond the bare minimum, beyond the ease of becoming hard-hearted, isn't it? We see the wickedness in the world and we just, ah, as opposed to saying, "All right, Lord, what have you really called me to? You've called me to care, to be faithful, and to be diligent. And when I see an opportunity to show mercy, Lord, help me, let me show mercy. And if I can't do it on my own, guess what? We have other limbs here in this body. And then there are other bodies, aren't there? Some things are broader than just the one local church, aren't they? We are going to use what we have to be faithful.

But how are we going to do it? With cheerfulness. All right, here is your definition of the day. The definition for cheerfulness is alacrity. What? Alacrity. The brisk, eager willingness to do something. Cheerful readiness. That is not typically how you respond to your mother when she says, "Go clean your room." "Yes, ma'am, happy to do it." But when we have an opportunity to show mercy and we are sullen and begrudging and, well, I guess I really ought to do it because the Lord wants me to, that is not good. Right? We can do better, right?

That idea of, is it good to show mercy? Absolutely. How do we do it? That matters. And do we follow through? So, we could go a lot farther. I am not going to. I am going to stop there. If you want to see more about this comparison among these different gifts and using the body as an illustration, you can go read 1 Corinthians chapter 12. That is where Paul really fleshes out the illustration here in this word picture of the body and different aspects of the church.

But it is the same overall message. You have got different gifts and talents. Do not be jealous because someone else has one that you do not have. And do not try to pigeonhole yourself into just one thing that you perceive to be the most notable. Use what the Lord has given you. If you have something that he has given you, guess what? He has given it to you, so you do not have to be lifted up with pride with it. But because he has given it to you in this opportunity, you should be diligent in trying to use it for his glory.

All right. So if you do not know how you can serve here, come talk to me. I was making up a list this morning. There are some things that, similar to the apostles, I will spend hours in a week that really are not my core mission. Those kinds of Mondays are kinds of admin days with just some things that need to get done, some things to do here on Sunday mornings before we start, right? If you came here an hour before church time, I could give you some chores that would help shift some things, right? There are opportunities, but we have to be available. We have to be willing. Sometimes we have to be uncomfortable. That is okay.

We should be looking for ways to give, ways to serve, and ways to help move this body closer to the Lord and more faithful in our service. So thank you all for your time and your attention. If I have a number you want to send.

This transcript was automatically generated by SermonAudio and has been lightly edited for readability.

Elder Jonathan Moseley is the Pastor of Fair Haven Primitive Baptist Church located in Tifton, GA.