Open—R. Thonney
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Just two verses in.
One in first Timothy.
And another in second Timothy.
That have been.
Exercise.
For for us to think about first Timothy chapter 4.
And verse 14.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Then second Timothy chapter one.
And verse 6.
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
Just this thought, brethren, and I want to lay it.
On the hearts of each one present.
That gift is something that is given to every single member of the Body of Christ.
It's not always the same gift, but each member does have a gift. Let's notice it in.
Three places where the gifts are mentioned. First of all in Romans chapter 12 and here the gifts are given by God.
But notice how it puts it.
Verse.
Four. We'll read from there for as we have many members in one body.
And all members have not the same office, so we, being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, and then he goes into the different gifts prophecy.
Ministry or service?
Teaching.
Exhortation.
Giving.
Ruling, showing mercy.
These are gifts given to who?
Every member of the body of Christ.
Now in First Corinthians chapter 12, we have the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And notice what it says.
About these gifts.
Verse 4.
1St Corinthians 12 verse 4. Now there are diversities of gifts.
The same Spirit, and there are differences of administrations with the same Lord, and there are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh All in all.
And then it goes into the different gifts that are mentioned.
Now this, the last one, is gifts given by the Lord Jesus as head in heaven in Ephesians chapter 4.
And there again, it's to all the members of the Body of Christ.
Notice verse seven of Ephesians 4 but unto.
Every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, and here we have gifts that are given that are in person.
Verse 11 He gave some apostles and some prophets. That's the foundation work of the Church.
And some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
I thought this afternoon is not to go into those different gifts so much, but to show that every one of us have been given gifts.
Brother and sister in the Lord Jesus, what are you doing to stir up that gift?
00:05:06
I honestly believe that the majority of the gifts that have been given to members of the Body of Christ are not being used.
And so the exhortation.
To Timothy is so appropriate.
Stir up the gift of God that is in thee.
Still remember.
Chuck Hendricks one time was asked by a young brother. But how am I to know what gift I have?
And that's probably a good question to think about.
Gift is something that is given.
But it's developed.
Think some of you used to know brother.
Albert Hayhoe.
And he was gifted in evangelism.
Giving the Gospel.
Still remember some of the messages he gave.
Very powerful messages.
He himself told.
Us young people one time to encourage this, he says. The first time I got up to preach the gospel.
In Toronto ON, it was an assembly where there were a lot of older brethren, serious older brethren, and he says I got up there, he says.
My mouth went dry, so I took the glass of water to take a drink, but my hand was trembling so that I had to hold it with my two hands.
If you have tasks to be developed.
The fact is you have a gift.
You need to be exercised before the Lord to use that gift for the good of others. If you don't, you're not only robbing yourself, you're robbing all the fellow members of the Body of Christ.
And I must say, I've been impressed in my own experience in Latin America to see those that the Lord raises up.
There is one that the Lord used.
Quite markedly in the South of Bolivia name was Delphine on Cassie.
But when he got saved, he didn't know how to read.
But his hunger to read the Word of God was such that he taught himself how to read the Word of God.
What a blessing that man was.
Without any human education.
He was very gifted in explaining the scriptures in the Quechua Indian language, which is still used in a number of assemblies in the South.
And he could minister in that language.
Very effectively, but it was something that was developed, but I want to.
That question that was asked Chuck Hendricks. How am I to know?
Chuck's answer was very interesting and helpful to me. He quoted that verse in John chapter 2 That I think was mentioned today. Forget exactly where it was, but I'm going to just read it.
What Mary, the Lord's mother?
Said to the servants.
At the marriage feast.
It's in chapter 2 of John's Gospel and verse 5.
His mother said unto the servants.
Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And I must say, I found that a very helpful little statement.
Not determining, oh, I've got such and such a gift, That's kind of hard to do. And perhaps the gift the Lord may have given you is not developed yet. But if something is laid on your heart to go visit somebody or to call somebody on the phone and to encourage them, do it.
It might seem insignificant, but if you follow the direction of the Spirit of God in that way, little by little it will turn out, it will show what your particular gift may be.
Timothy had a gift.
But we don't know exactly what it was.
00:10:00
Something that it was an evangelist because he is told in Second Timothy 4 do the work of an evangelist. I think that shows that maybe he didn't have the gift of an evangelist and that we, even though he may not have the gift of an evangelist, should evangelize.
Give a track to somebody be exercised about it.
Dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus, I just want to encourage you to be exercised stir up. What does that mean? It means that you just you just.
Activate what you can. Do what you can to be a blessing to others. That's the principle of the Body of Christ. It's made-up of different members.
And each member is necessary. In its place might say, what in the world is this ear doing? It's just kind of fastened on the side of my head. It's done not lifting any any heavy weights or anything.
What is the purpose of this?
It has a purpose. God put it there so we could hear better. And so every member has a place and a purpose.
The Lord encourage us and exercises to use what He has given us.
I don't know what's your particular gift might be, but the fact is, if you are a member of the Body of Christ, you do have a gift, and that applies to the sisters as well. They don't exercise their gift publicly.
In assembly especially. But they do have a gift and you look at one that was mentioned today, Priscilla.
In the book of the Acts, what a blessing that woman was to her husband.
And she was used of the Lord in a signal way. And so there is a place for women to exercise themselves as well. Point is, when there's exercise, there's growth. And I sometimes say to young people.
To exercise, you need.
Time and you need energy.
And that's what sometimes we do not take time. We do not take the energy to get into the word of God, to ask the Lord in prayer what he wants us to do.
That's what it means to stir up the gift of God that is in thee. It's interesting.
In First Timothy, it's shown fellowship by the hands of the Presbyterian, the elderhood. In other words, the assembly must have detected there's something in this young man that is very useful, and they laid hands on him to show their fellowship with his activity.
In Second Timothy, where the ruin has come in so greatly and sometimes that's an in discouragement to people saying what's the use anymore doesn't seem to be anything around. But Timothy was encouraged and he said by the laying on of my hands to the apostle, Paul sought to encourage him to.
Stir him up.
Brethren, that's my desire this afternoon.
To stir you up, may the Lord encourage you to give whatever He may have given you for His own purposes of blessing. I like to think of those gifts that are mentioned in Ephesians 4 that we read. There are only 5 mentioned. Two, like I say, are the foundation work, the apostles and prophets. That's the New Testament prophets that gave us the scripture.
Our brethren spoke to us from the book of Jude. He was not an apostle.
And James was not an apostle, but they were prophets because they gave us the word of God.
And that is what our faith is based on, the apostles fellowship or the apostles doctrine and fellowship. And so they gave us the foundation work, but what we have today are those three that are after that.
Evangelists. The Lord exercises brethren. Like I say, Timothy. We don't know that he had the gift of an evangelist, but he was told to do the work of an evangelist.
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I must say it's a blessing to reach out and to do what you can.
Down in Lawrence County, we've had the privilege of going into the prison there, Lawrence County Correctional Facility and recently they've changed that from a medium security prison to the highest security prison. Only lifers and death row inmates are in there and and so we've had a hard time trying to keep going in but.
I find it such a blessing.
In and to speak to those men, you know you can't speak on a level with all the brethren ease that we use sometimes in our local meetings to speak down at their level.
And I find that a challenge and I think that is a healthy exercise to speak at the level that people understand. And so I encourage you to reach out to do what you can to and it's it'll be a blessing to you.
And then it says.
Pastors and teachers.
Pastors are to take care of the flock of God.
Teachers are to teach.
Somebody said, and I think it is important point that the church does not teach.
That's what the Catholic Roman Catholic system says, the Church.
Teachers. No, the Church does not teach. The Church is taught by the teachers that Christ is given.
As a gift in his church. And there are those who are specifically gifted in that way.
And I really appreciated our brother Chuck Hendricks, whom the those in this area knew quite well. He could lay things out in such a way that were very clear. It was a definite gift of that particular brother and many.
Were helped by his gift. It doesn't mean he was a pastor, exactly, but he was a teacher, and so those are things that need to be cultivated.
I think there must be pastors and teachers here.
My exercise is, I'm afraid, that many of the gifts that Christ is given are not being used.
When we are called to go to the Lord's presence and stand at the judgment seat of Christ, is he going to say, Did you use that gift I gave you?
What are you gonna say? I didn't know I had a gift. Are you gonna say that?
Well, I know it's not easy to determine what gift you might have, but I say be exercised in the Lord's presence to be a vessel, a minister, in whatever way you can be a blessing to others, not only you.
Will profit, but all those that you minister to would be a prophet as well.