Have you ever been told by someone that they felt you were so gifted in a particular area, and then you thought to yourself, who me? Gifted?
Well, that is also the title of Dr. Michael Youssef's current series here on Leading the Way. Who me? Gifted? Let's get specific with the particular giftedness. Do you find yourself quickly coming alongside people, encouraging them to be stronger and more dedicated followers of Christ?
Are you willingly and lovingly able to confront and guide friends and family when you see them stray from truth? Well, if that sounds like you, you may have the gift of exhortation. Today, Dr. Youssef continues the Who Me?
Gifted? series, examining practical uses of spiritual gifts and how you can impact and influence those around you to live a vibrant Christian faith in 2025 through exhortation. So listen with me as he begins this episode of Leading the Way. There was a medieval writer who asked the question, what are the similarities between the rooster and the preacher?
And then he kind of went along to answer his own question. And he said, the rooster crows at a certain hour, so does the preacher. And the rooster has the tendency to strut. So does the preacher. Well, not all preachers strut. But I think this kind of similarity fits in our concept and our, rightly or wrongly, our idea of what an exhortor is.
He's the one who always crows and struts. In fact, there are denominations that have the office of an exhortor in their churches. Preacher, teacher, they have exhortors.
It's an office in the church, in their ministries. But the gift of exhortation is given to many people in the body of Christ, as I'm going to show you in a few moments. And you're going to discover that it is far more encompassing than just those who are in preaching and teaching. I know some people, when they hear that word exhortor or exhortation, they immediately think of that, you know, crowing, strutting, preacher. But exhortation really does not necessarily mean being vociferous or thunderous.
In fact, the word is far beyond and far greater and far encompassing than the screaming people. Exhorting encompasses advising and pleading and warning and encouraging and strengthening and comforting. For example, this gift is exercise when you persuade somebody to turn away from a certain sin or a destructive lifestyle.
You are exercising that gift of exhortation. At the same time, you are exercising that gift of exhortation when you are encouraging that same person to pursue a godly lifestyle. The gift of exhortation can be used when you admonish a person or admonish a small group of people or admonish a whole congregation.
It doesn't matter. As I've been telling you that the manifestations of gifts are different and the gift of exhorting can be used of God to encourage and to undergird a weak believer who's facing a difficult trial or a persistent temptation in his and her life. Other times, the gift of exhortation can be used just to walk alongside somebody, some friend, walk alongside of them, someone who's grieving, someone who's discouraged, someone who's frustrated, someone who's depressed. On other times, the gift of exhortation is helping someone to carry a burden that is too heavy to carry that burden alone.
And we all have been there and will be there. Now, most teachers and preachers have the gift of exhortation added to their gift. The gift of teaching and preaching is not just transmitting information.
In a secular setting with the science and math or whatever, yeah, you're basically transmitting information from the teacher to the students. But when it comes to the teaching of the Word of God, the gift of teaching is the endowment of the Holy Spirit to explain clearly and to apply effectively the Word of God in one's life. All you need to see is how our Lord himself used that exhortation in his own ministry and you will understand exactly what I'm trying to tell you. He told stories. He illustrated with parables.
He encountered a question with a question. He taught by example when he washed the disciples' feet. And when I think of the misunderstanding and lack of knowledge and how the gift of exhortation is exercised, particularly in the Scripture, I think of times when, and I would hear preachers telling the story of the prophet Nathan confronting David about his sin. And the way they would interpret that made me think that exhortation is like that crowing and strutting rooster.
Many of you know the story. King David got lazy and he did not go out into the battlefield with his men as he used to and he stayed home. And then he got up one day and his idleness, he was walking around his roof garden and there was Bathsheba, a woman next door, and he saw her and he lusted after his unbridled lust got him into trouble.
See, idleness not only causes boredom, it will always get you into trouble. The man whose heart, after God's own heart, the man who composed some of the most magnificent psalms, the man who led Israel into worship, the man who by the power of God led Israel from victory to victory allowed a moment of unbridled passion and lust to consume him. And so he commits adultery and then asks questions later. When he found out that this woman's husband, Uriah, is one of his soldiers out there in the battlefield fighting for his king, he tries to bring him home to be with his wife so that David would not take responsibility for the pregnancy. But the man would not.
He refused to go inside his own house. And so David arranged for Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, to be killed in the battle. Beloved, I want you to listen to me very carefully, okay? Because we live in such promiscuous society that we cease to understand what the Word of God says about these things. Listen to what James said in 115. He said, when lust goes unchecked, it conceives and it gives birth to sin, and when sin fully grown, it gives birth to death.
So what happened? David was more concerned about cover-up than repentance. He was more concerned about creating a diversion for sin instead of turning to the living God. So God sent him, a godly man, with a gift of exhortation, to exhort him, to warn him, to lead him into repentance. And this man, I mean, this is now a small task, to be called to go to the king of your country and practice your gift of exhortation. And so he comes to David and says, what, you are rascal, you are miserable king, look what you have done.
No, he didn't do any of that. He comes and tells him a story, a parable. He said it was a rich man who had lots of sheep, and then he had a neighbor who had only one lamb. But when a wandering guest, a wandering visitor came, he took his neighbor's one and only lamb and slaughtered it and fed it to that wandering guest. And David, being the king that he was and the man that he was, his own sense of justice and righteousness have risen within him and he said, that man must be punished.
He cannot get away with this. And this is what brings me to how I used to hear the story from preachers. And the preachers I used to hear, they said, thou art a man. Nathan looked to David and said, thou art a man.
As I grew up and began to study the scripture a little closely, I'm convinced in my own heart that was not the case at all. I think Nathan probably told the story with tears streaming down his face. And he gently and softly looked to David and he said, King, you are the man in that story. For the wandering visitor was no other than your wandering eyes, and you're the man, David.
You're the one in that story. You see beloved, what I'm trying to tell you is that exhortation is not necessarily thundering. Oftentimes is a gentle word, a word of rebuke nonetheless. Oftentimes it's a word of encouragement and support. In fact, the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 10 verses 24 and 25, he uses that word exhorting interchangeably with the word encouraging. And so he says, encouraging or exhorting one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assemblies together as it is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing nigh.
And suddenly you see a member of a church who only shows up once a month or every now and again and you kind of put your arm around him or her and say, hey, we've been missing your church. You're doing the work of exhortation because you see in every gift I've been showing you that there is a general application for all of the believers and then a specific endowment to some of the believers. So Hebrews, according to Hebrews, when you tell somebody, hey, we're missing your church lately, you are doing the work of exhortation.
Listen carefully please. Prophecy is a proclamation of the truth as we have seen in the past. Teaching is systematizing and explaining and applying the truth of the Word of God. But exhortation is the calling for believers to obey the Word of God.
Some of you may still be asking, exhort them to what? To live the Christian life the way it's supposed to be lived. To live a life that is consistent with the will of God.
To live a life that is obedient to the Word of God. And the gift of exhortation is that spiritual ability that the Holy Spirit gives to some to come alongside of someone, to help them and to strengthen the weak and to reassure the wavering, to buttress the buffeted and to steady the faltering, to counsel the troubled, to encourage the halting and to warn the disobedient. Just like what the Holy Spirit does with us. You see, the Holy Spirit does His work through us. You cannot exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit without the power of the Holy Spirit in you.
Especially in the gift of exhortation. If it ever gets to be exercised in the flesh, it's going to come across as being harsh and critical. It's going to come across as being egotistical. It's going to come across as being arrogant. It's going to come across as being self-righteous.
It's going to come across as just being careless. And that is why the gift of exhortation, teaching, preaching, prophecy, and mercy can only be exercised like all the other gifts when you and I are only instruments of the Holy Spirit. The gift of exhortation is the most demanding of all gifts. And that is why so many people are reluctant to be exhorters or even exercise the gifts. The ability to exhort is a gracious ability. It uses healing words rather than sharp rebuke. It works with compassion rather than throwing back a confessed sin in the face of the confessor. Without the slightest condoning of the wrongdoing, the exhorter will help the wrongdoer to become an overcomer.
That's the purpose of it. My beloved friends, that takes time. It takes time to come alongside of a person in the time of misery. It takes time to encourage a believer. It takes time to confront the wrongdoing. It takes time to counsel the perplexed.
It takes time to lead the backslider to repentance. And I often think of how our Lord Jesus Christ used exhortation with his disciples and so many examples, but the best is in the time when they were spending that moment in the Kidron Valley, right after they had the Lord's Supper and they came down to the Kidron Valley. And if you read John 14, 15, and that's where the exhortation of the Lord Jesus was taking place. He spends time with them. He spends hours with them, warning them, uplifting them, encourage them. And listen, he's the one who is facing the very hell itself on that cross.
And yet, he's so sympathetic about their future fear, anxiety, confusion and doubt. And so he exhorts them. The Apostle Paul does the same thing in Acts chapter 20 with the church in Ephesus.
After enduring two harrowing hours of an uproar by the mob, he embraces and exalts the believers of Ephesus. Now, he should have been the one the recipient of their exaltation, encouragement and strengthening, but he gives exhortation. Peter, in 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 1 and 2, exercising the gift of exhortation when he wrote to the elders and he said, feed the flock. And isn't it amazing that Peter would write those words because those are the very words that the Lord Jesus said to him. And now he's passing the baton and saying, you, feed the flock. In fact, in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 to 7, there are short five verses and yet the Apostle Paul uses that word ten times.
Ten times. And then I was thinking, I said, you know, if I was sitting where you are, I said, yeah, well that's okay for Jesus and for Paul and Peter and all these big shots in the church. I mean, these are the big names. I mean, yeah, the Savior Himself and the disciples, they have exercised the gift of exhortation, but you know, what a simple person like me, how can I exercise the gift of exhortation? And then I thought how in the scripture God used a man's gift of exhortation to literally, literally cause the church to be successful. He was a layman. I don't like the word, but I use it because that's what it means.
I mean, that's how you understand it, okay? He was a layman. He was a businessman. He was not a preacher.
He was not a teacher. He was a businessman. And this man was just so obedient to the Lord and the use of his gift of exhortation that not only he went to his hometown, the island of Cyprus, and sold a piece of property, a valuable piece of property, and brought the money to the church in Jerusalem because at that time Christians are being thrown out of their homes for becoming Christians, so he supported the whole church. Not only that, but I want to tell you, humanly speaking, if it weren't for Barnabas, we would never have heard of the apostle Paul.
I know, I know, you know, God sovereignly chose Paul to be his witness. I know that, but he'd used Barnabas to do it. What happened when the apostle Paul became converted on the road to Damascus? Immediately the Sanhedrin cut him off. This guy has been killing and persecuting Christians now. He became one, so the Jews cut him off, didn't want anything to do with him. In fact, they persecuted him. The church wanted nothing to do with Paul. Did you know that? Did you know that?
They wanted nothing to do with him. I mean, the guy has been killing them and persecuting them and throwing them into prison, all of a sudden said, hey, guess what? I'm one of you. Really?
Huh. I've encountered that in countries where there's so much fear. And when a convert comes who had horrible past, the pastors are reluctant to baptize him because of fear.
It's happening now. It was happening in the first church. They couldn't believe that God's power can transform somebody like Paul. They thought he's probably a spy, fifth columnist. And under the circumstances, Paul felt rejected. He was rejected by the Jews. He was rejected by the Christians. He was all alone. And feeling dejected, he decided to go back to his hometown, depressed and discouraged. And in reality, Paul would have literally faded into oblivion if it wasn't for Barnabas.
Again, a layman, a businessman. Barnabas goes to the Council of the Apostles, a man of great reputation, integrity and he testifies to the authenticity of Paul's conversion. He testifies of how God used him in Damascus. He insists that the apostles would give a hearing to Paul back then, Saul of Tarsus. And just think about this, what an incredible boost that is to the apostle Paul.
One man exercising his gift of exhortation. You see, Barnabas was so committed to the use of his gift of exhortation that he was willing to pay a heavy price for it. In fact, when he and the apostle Paul came to blows, you say, really? Yeah, read about in the book of Acts. Sometimes Christians come to blows and over silly things too.
When they came to blows over John Mark. You see, John Mark actually happened to be Barnabas's cousin but the relationship has nothing to do with it. Barnabas saw the potential in John Mark and all that Paul can think about is that guy went with them on a mission journey and he blew it. He chickened out and said, I want to go home to mommy and Paul said, get home and don't hang out with me. And I'll never take you on another missionary journey. I'm just not looking for sissies and wimps.
I need some people who can really stand up and be counted. Barnabas sees the potential in John Mark and so he even forfeits going with Paul on that missionary journey and he stays home in order to develop this young John Mark. And as a result, Mark took a very tough assignment from the Lord and went to Alexandria, Egypt and there he preached the gospel and within 100 years the whole nation became a Christian nation. In fact, it's a church that my ancestors belong to for 2,000 years. But that's not all.
That's not the end of the story. Toward the very end of his life, the apostle Paul had seen what Barnabas use of gift of exhortation had done in the life of John Mark. And so he writes in 2 Timothy, the last epistle he's written, chapter 4 verse 11. He said, bring Mark with you for he is very helpful in my ministry. What a difference the use of the gift of exhortation makes.
What a difference. Barnabas never wrote a book. He never wrote an epistle.
He never founded a church. He never preached to large crowds and yet I want to submit to you that it was the exercise of his gift of exhortation that encouraged others that between them they authored half of the 27 books of the New Testament. You have heard me say, speak of Jeremiah Lamphere, the businessman from New York, whom God used single-handedly to ignite the second great awakening in the history of the United States. See, the gift of exhortation is not just for the thundering preachers. Many of you have that gift. Some of you know it and using it. Some of you know it, not using it.
Some of you have long ago put it in mothballs and anchored it in a safe harbor somewhere in your life. And the Lord is calling you today to get it out, dedicated to him and serve him afresh. Thank you for being a part of Leading the Way Audio with Dr. Michael Youssef. Hear more encouraging content from Dr. Youssef through the Leading the Way app, online, the podcast, your favorite radio station and more. Further details are available at ltw.org. Now, another way to connect with content from Dr. Michael Youssef and Leading the Way is by way of a podcast hosted by Dr. Jonathan Youssef. That's Dr. Michael Youssef's youngest son. He was challenged to create content addressing cultural challenges and the best ways for Christians to navigate the unique times in which we live.
A podcast was born and it's called Candid Conversations with Dr. Jonathan Youssef. Looking for biblical conversations about faith that fit into your busy life? Here's the truth about truth. If something is true, it's true whether we believe it or not.
Gravity doesn't care about your feelings about gravity. And if Christianity So many people deconstruct because of hypocrisy and they think all evangelicals are evil and fear based and all of this, just break that stereotype for them. It would have taken more faith to maintain my atheism than to become a Christian. We can talk to our children, we can talk to loved ones, we can talk to friends. And sometimes you think it's never getting through. But as God says, His Word never returns void. The storms in our lives do not make, shape or mold us. They merely reveal what we're made of. And sometimes it requires the faulty foundations that we've built our lives upon for those things to give way for us to see that all we truly need in this life and in the life beyond is Jesus. Let's just about it for today, but I do want to remind you that you're invited back again next time right here when the Word of God is opened and taught with passion by Dr. Michael Youssef on Leading the Way. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org or through your favorite social media platform.
