1 Peter 4:7-11 The End is Near

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan This is a message from Pastor Don Filsack from the series

Ready for the Storm on 1st Peter. If you'd like more information on Recast Church, please visit us on the web at www .recastchurch

.com Here's Pastor Don Talk about where we're going this morning in regards to the text

We're gonna be in 1st Peter 4 7 through 11 and as I studied this text this week I found it to be a challenging text now some of 1st

Peter has been challenging to me Primarily because it's hard to understand some of it has been difficult and you know what

I'm talking about in the last couple of weeks There's been talk of Jesus preaching to the spirits in in prison and different things like that And it's kind of like what is he getting at here?

And when did this stuff happen and but this text has not been so difficult because it hasn't been that I don't understand it

It's been that it's loud and clear Like how many of you know, sometimes the text is difficult because you understand it, do you know what

I'm talking about? Sometimes it's difficult because I get it and it doesn't necessarily Resonate with me or it hits me in a different way or it challenges me and I don't necessarily like the challenge and This text is one of those that is it challenges me to look at life at a way that doesn't come natural to me

Now some of you maybe this is just a natural way of thinking about things But I don't find myself

Routinely motivated by the statement this statement that Peter is going to say should motivate you

The end of all things is near Do you find that as a routine motivation in your daily life?

Is that something that you walk through making decisions on Monday morning based on?

This statement the end of all things is near I'm guessing that very few of us have that as a primary motivation in the decisions that we've made this past week that we've made the past month that we made in the last year that the

Motivation has not primarily been the end of all things is near But in those rare moments when

I do think about death or the return of Jesus or that the end is indeed coming

It doesn't usually I mean what then what does that motivate you to do? What what is your first gut level that you're like?

Okay, if I'm thinking that the end is coming close if you knew your Expiration date was tomorrow.

What would you go out and do? How would you live? What would you do? And and you know what he says here in the text So this is what gets really confusing and kind of like it's mind -boggling.

He says pray Pray love each other serve one another

With prayer where you go with that notion the end of all things is near so pray so pray and I think that it challenges the way that we think about prayer.

I Expect Peter to say the end of all things is near. So go evangelize The end of all things is near so hurry up and spread the word to the world

And instead he begins with prayer Moves to the love of others in the church tells us to be hospitable towards one another and then concludes with service toward one another

So this morning we're gonna be looking at a motivation from Scripture that doesn't come natural

But in the end, I hope that we are indeed all motivated to a deeper life of prayer

To a deeper love for one another and a deeper commitment to serve one another So let's open our

Bibles if you're not already there first Peter 4 7 through 11 If you don't have a Bible on your lap or a means of reading the

Bible on your lap I would like you to please just raise your hand so that somebody can bring you a Bible Maybe you forgot yours this morning or whatever

Maybe you don't own one if you don't have one at home Then I just encourage you to just take that one with you

Otherwise if you have one you can just return it to the table back there at the end of the service But thank you guys for doing that first Peter 4 verses 7 through 11

Recast this is God's revealed word to us this week here this morning This is what God wants us to hear the end of all things is at hand therefore

Be self -controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers above all

Keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins

Show Hospitality to one another without grumbling as Each has received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace

Whoever speaks as one who speaks Oracles of God whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever

Amen Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in singing this morning father.

I Pray that all glory and honor would go to you this morning Father that as we contemplate and consider the reality that the end could indeed be at any moment

Father would you give us a fresh motivation a fresh? Understanding of your word and the way that we are intended to be motivated by the return of Christ the imminence of that event

Father that we would be indeed a people who are diligent in our prayer diligent in our love diligent in our service

Father that you would move in us and among us to be convicted by your word this morning And even now as we have an opportunity to step before your throne and worship father

I pray that you would be honored and glorified by the words that we sing father but most importantly with the position of our hearts as we sing to you a

Heart in gratitude and thankfulness for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ Father that we would be indeed grateful

Joyful and people who are motivated by you. I ask this in Jesus name.

Amen Thank you very much to the band I really appreciated

Josh's comments at the start just kind of to set the the mode of worship just about our hearts and I really appreciate that Encourage you over the next 30 to 40 minutes to just get comfortable again since we didn't have a connection time

I recognize that that might mean that you need to get up and get more coffee or get some doughnuts or whatever and just take Advantage of that.

I mean that sincerely I know that sometimes it you can feel uncomfortable or whatever, but don't don't worry about that Don't stress about it just get up and do what you need to do to be able to keep your focus word of God because that's the point is

That we're hearing from God's Word as we go forward And so I hope that God would use me to speak to you guys this morning

Peter has been bouncing back and forth in in his letter as we've been going through it And I don't know if you've noticed that we're kind of getting closer to the end of this letter

And so as we've been going through it, I don't know if you certainly as I study I see patterns You probably don't necessarily because it's been a little bit of a chunky sermon series and that it's been broken up here or there

We've had some different things and then I'm actually gonna be out again next week And so we'll miss a week and so it can sometimes be hard to get the flow

So you kind of have to just take my word for it and you can read it And I mean, it's really easy book to read in one sitting

So if you want to choose to do that here, that would be really good to get that flow But he's been bouncing back and forth between talking about the way that we as Christians should respond to the world outside these four walls and Bouncing then to how we should respond to other

Christians within the four walls of the church And so he kind of goes back and forth in these themes

About how we interact with the world out there than how we interact in here and all of it in the context of a church

That undergoes persecution all of it in the context of a church that where the world doesn't understand out there

But we are indeed connected to God and we are indeed connected to one another in here and we still have a responsibility

We can't just hide out this is not a fortress where you come together as God's people and it's a protected place where all that happens is you just kind Of huddle here and hope that Jesus returns soon, but he's got a responsibility for us out in the community

And so he has kind of dovetailed with that and talked about always being prepared to give an answer which means for the hope that's in You which means that others are seeing your hope that are not

Christians and that you've got relationships like that going on last week We saw him tell us to expect that in the midst of always being prepared to give an answer that We should expect suffering now

That's been a theme of the book and it's gonna it's gonna continue on and we're gonna talk about it the next time we're in Here as well but to expect suffering to be ready to look strange to the culture out there around us and Finally, he told us last week to remember our salvation that that's the place that we draw our strength to be able to stand and Withstand persecution in in our culture now this week.

He's going to focus on a different motivation The first the first coming of Christ was held up as a motivation for our interaction with the world out there

Jesus came he suffered he worked out in society and so we ought to also do that in the same way with an

Expectation that we may suffer as a result of our interaction with the world And so his first coming the it was served as a model for the way that we interact out side of the church

Jesus was persecuted for doing good He had an attitude ready to suffer and he did and we should expect it to be no different for us

But now as Peter moves forward Into speaking of how we should respond to the suffering that we experience in the world within the four walls of the church

He turns to a different motivation where the first one the first motivation for outside of the church was the first coming of Christ the

Motivation inside the church is the second coming of Jesus He says a phrase that makes us uncomfortable for a variety of reasons now when he talks about The end of all things as at hand that any of you kind of get a little like what's he getting at here?

Is that does that resonate with you? Like the end of all things is at hand. How is that possible? When is the last time you meditated on the end of all things?

Is that a routine thought in your mind? Maybe maybe a little bit more with the news and the way that the headlines look but you know things have been

Headlines have been headlines for four years. How many of you know that it's the bad things that make the news Have you ever identified that it's the strange things that make the news.

It's not the normal, you know, hey Breaking news bill got up and had breakfast this morning.

You know, it's not like I mean the normal routine things don't don't Happen to make the news, but at the same time

How often do you spend time thinking about these things that the end of all things is coming

When's the last time you made a decision based on the end of all things? We live in a culture and society that truly believes the opposite of this statement, right on this point we must choose to believe the

New Testament or the culture around us that is going to tell you that technology is advancing us and ushering us into Some kind of a new world order where everything is going to just be great and there's going to be unity and all that now certainly has that been a little bit on the wane, you know, we go through an economic downturn and everybody goes

Oh, it's gonna be bad. And then and it kind of can't kind of comes back up again When I hear the phrase the end of all things is near.

I picture a man with a bullhorn and a sandwich board proclaiming repent the end is near, you know, maybe in Times Square or in a big city somewhere on the college campus and Any of you picture that when you hear the phrase the end of all things is near So so was

Peter our author Some skeevy dude in need of a shower who is proclaiming that the end is coming

Is that who our author is? Is that what he's like? I don't think so I think

Peter is proclaiming what needs to be and ought to be and should be by scripture a legitimate motivation for you and I it ought to fuel something in our lives it ought to Induce an insight passion within us for for certain things

The imminence of the return of Jesus was held up as a motivation to these

Christians during the life of Peter and if you think about it our

Rationale runs counter to logic. Okay, so we say okay They thought that it was imminent then right they were thinking and they were thinking in terms of it could happen anytime, right?

Jesus could return right now and he left us with that Sense in the church that it could be at any time right and he intentionally did that but our rationale goes this way 2 ,000 years have passed and Jesus isn't here yet So what are the chances?

What are the chances it's gonna happen? What's the way the chances it's gonna happen better than they were last week

Right, but our logic doesn't go there. Our logic goes 2 ,000 years and he's not here yet So I guess we've got a lot of time.

No, it's closer. That's the point It's closer today than it was yesterday and it's closer tomorrow if God tarries and Doesn't come back this evening to roll the whole thing up.

I'd love to be preaching when he returns. That'd be awesome But that's just a little personal thing there

But do you get what I'm saying in this the logic runs that that this passage worked for them in motivation

Even though Jesus didn't return. It's a it's a way of living. It's a way of life that says it could be today

It could be in the next five minutes it could be soon And so how do I want to be living and what do I want to be doing?

And what is it that is motivating me in this understanding that the end of all things is coming and it is at hand

Anytime our minds wrestle with this and so we have a tendency to put this off and Not allow it to motivate us the way that it should but according to Peter Because the end of all things is near We need to respond in a certain way and so he talks to us about three things through this text that ought to be impacted by the knowledge that Christ could come back at any moment.

It could be today And so the first thing is that we need to be disciplined in prayer

The second is that we need to be deliberate in our love and the third is that we need to be dependent in our service

So that's three points with alliteration two weeks in a row recast two weeks in a row

I don't know what's going on here, but the discipline in prayer deliberate in love and dependent in our service so when you think of the urgency of a statement like The end of all things is near I mentioned in my introduction.

What do you expect to follow that statement? so storm the gates Travel light and get busy winning souls

Get your life in order and get busy for the kingdom of God Get to the chopper

What do you expect to hear when you hear the end of all things is near? What comes next?

Peter says in this time of urgency The first thing

I want you to get is to be self -controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers

That your prayers might be powerful and fueled with a life given over to God He calls us to be disciplined in prayer

It hardly seems like a time to be studying prayer in The light of the urgency of the statement that Peter first makes

And if that resonates with you if you're kind of like well If the end of all things is is at hand then why why go straight to prayer?

Why is that so important if that if you if that resonates with you when I say that? Then you stand to be as convicted by this text as I have been this week because I think there's a fundamental flaw in our understanding of what prayer ultimately is and So why pray when you've got a busy day ahead of you because you have a busy day ahead of you you ought to pray

But we often don't think of it that way do we? We often think too busy to pray not too busy not to pray

Prayer is our communication with central command during wartime operations

Prayer is the connection to the one who has the entire battlefield laid out on Display before him and to carry this analogy forward of kind of a battle sequence

Lacking self -control and sober mindedness are barriers to communication while we're there on the front lines a

Lack of self -control a lack of sober mindedness our interference on the channel of communication with God Being self -controlled is the concept of subjugating our passions and our impulses those things that would war in the immediate

Against what we know God desires for us in the long term and so a lot of times the

Impulses and that lack of self -control leads to just acting on the carnal impulse of the moment and I know we've all been there

I don't need to see a show of hands of if sometime this week you acted on that impulse of Passion or zeal for something that does not does not help you in the long term and is sin towards God and I know that All of us have responded in that way at some point but self -control is subjugating those passions subjugating putting under control those

Impulses that we know ultimately carried to their furthest extent would destroy us

Say no to those things That we know would crush us

Being sober minded means having clear thinking It literally in Greek is the opposite of being drunk.

You're either drunk or you are sober minded Those are those are those are kind of two categories.

You can't be in both at the same time But he's certainly not talking about literal literal lacking drunkenness.

Of course that certainly helps I mean, you know that it's hard to be spiritually sober minded when you're physically drunk. Did you know that so being drunk is not

Something that the Christian should ever be But the person who is sober minded is evaluating the battlefield with a clear mind they are being attentive and serious about what is going on around them and So being self -controlled is an internal aspect

It's a way of thinking about yourself internally and how you're responding and acting towards the world around you

But then being sober minded is a way of viewing the world so he's saying view yourself and your behavior correctly and Equally view the world around you with attention to what is going on.

How many of you have ever I Think I could probably just raise your hand for you, but you've ever just sat down and been like I need a little bit

Of veg time. I'm just gonna sit and watch the TV Anybody anybody want to raise your hand on that one?

And and it's like a couple hours pass and there's just a little little drool Running down this corner of your mouth as you just kind of like sit there and you're zoned out and you don't really have a

Whole a whole lot in your mind about what you've just taken in You can't really you have never and you haven't analyzed it

You haven't thought through what messages you've taken in and that is a lack of sober mindedness.

Would you agree with me on that? And we've all done it I mean we've all sat through a two and a half hour movie and just kind of gone

Wow, that was so cool shiny lights and you know stuff happening and explosions and seven

Did did you realize that the producer the writer the author the scriptwriter had an agenda for you a

Sober minded person is attentive to that agenda is paying attention that the world has a plan for you

The world has a desire of what it wants to communicate to you. I'm not telling you you can't go see movies

I'm not telling you can't watch sitcoms. I'm saying we ought to have our brains engaged while we're taking in this stuff

Is it beneficial is it helpful is it furthering me along in the kingdom quest is in this battle time strategy, is it helpful?

What is it that the world wants to communicate to us are you getting me on this being sober minded

Person who is sober minded is evaluating as I said the battlefield Attentive and serious about what is going on in the world around them and in their culture and a person who is controlling their wayward

Passions is demonstrating Self -control and a person who is clearly assessing the risks and trends and pitfalls of their culture

They're sober minded about everyday life is a person well equipped to report back to central command

Channels are open Lines are open attentive purposeful in our prayers

Recognizing the cultural trends around us Recognizing our own tendencies towards be being pulled here or there.

We've got a lot to talk to God about Do you agree with me on that? Got a whole lot of communication to be had there

Just on those two fronts of our behavior in the world and the world's impact on us

And the way we live will affect our prayers and the way we pray

Affects our sense of connection with God And the way we connect with God affects the way we live and the way we live

Affects our prayers and the way we pray affects our connection with God and gather in that cycle

There's a cycle here Pray connect with God live pray connect with God.

Live pray connect with God live Peter I love this.

I love that we know this author. A lot of times it takes a little bit of time and sometimes it's a commentary that helps me to make this connection and sometimes like this week it just the connection just sticks and settles on me.

But Peter, on the night that Jesus was betrayed they went off to the

Garden of Gethsemane in the dark and there they sat and Jesus said

I'm gonna go off for a little bit and pray and you guys just pray with me. He was he was desperate and he was earnest and he knew that his hour had come and he was gonna face the torment and the torture of our sins placed on his shoulders there on the cross and so he said please

Peter, James, John, you guys just just pray with me. Comes back a little bit later and what are they doing?

Sleeping. Sleeping. Wakes him up. Guys, just pray.

Sweating drops of blood. He's he's in torment and torture knowing what is facing him the next day. Just pray with me guys, please.

They fall asleep again. And Peter, that Peter, is now moved to say be disciplined in prayer.

Do you think that maybe he had some regrets that night? What do you think? About not staying awake with his

Lord and praying? I'm sure that that came back to him at times. Now he tells us be disciplined in prayer.

The second thing we should do in light of the imminence of the end is love one another earnestly.

Verse 8 begins setting this part above prayer, setting it above these other things.

Verse 8 begins with above all, over all virtues, over all things, keep loving one another earnestly.

He's, by the by the phrase above all, he's indicating that this is not merely one among many commands, that this is central to the life of someone who recognizes that the end of all things is near.

Love earnestly. Notice his command, by the way, is not just love but keep loving.

This implies, might be a stretch, but it implies that you do love one another.

It takes for granted that within a body of believers that there is love, that you care about each other, that you give deference to one another, that you are concerned about what's going on in each other's lives.

Keep loving one another. But that he commands us to keep loving one another also equally implies that you might be tempted to quit.

There's gonna come a time in your life where you're tempted to quit loving one another. Some of you have seen that.

You've identified that in yourself and in relationships and in family and in society and in your workplace and there there can be strains and stresses and fractures that that form in relationships where it's like I don't feel like loving anymore.

I don't feel like giving the benefit of the doubt anymore. I don't feel like bending over backwards to help others anymore.

He says keep loving one another.

He doesn't just leave it there. Keep loving one another. How? He tells us in what manner, to what degree.

Earnestly. With a boiling fervency, love one another.

With a raging fire of passion for the benefit of others, keep loving one another earnestly.

Let it boil in you. I'm sure that as pressure comes to the church in this era that Peter's writing and potentially in our era as well, that as pressure comes on the church from outside to conform to society or we begin to face persecution out there, the heat begins to turn up in the church as well and it can become more and more difficult even within the church and there can be frustrations and animosity and some people give in and some people don't.

And to use a current illustration in this, and I don't talk about this very often, but just to give a cultural illustration to this notion of what can happen out in the culture that could challenge our love for one another.

As the culture that we live in expects everyone to accept homosexual marriage, those churches who stand for a biblical understanding will find that they not only feel pressured from the culture at large, but even within the church there's all kinds of potential for infighting and a lack of love as that subject comes to a head in our culture.

Peter says, keep loving one another earnestly.

Be zealous for the needs of others. And then he quotes from Proverbs 10 verse 12.

He only quotes half of it. Proverbs 10 12 states that love covers a multitude of sins.

This is not all at all saying that sin doesn't matter or that we should just overlook it. As a matter of fact, we know that sin is significant and serious, serious enough that Jesus Christ died for it.

But instead this quote in context has more to do with the hard attitude towards one another, giving the benefit of the doubt.

Do we expect bad things from others? Are we looking to stir things up? The opposite of this, by the way, if you quote the entirety of Proverbs 10 12, it says hatred stirs up strife, but love covers a multitude of sins.

In other words, love within the church sets an atmosphere and attitude of hope, peace, and kindness towards one another.

We are not looking for things to disagree about. We are not looking to stir things up, but rather we are a culture that ought to be seeking to give one another the benefit of the doubt.

A further manifestation of this urgent love, he goes on to say, is hospitality. This is not strictly limited to having people over in your home, but I believe that a church that has each other over for meals regularly is a church that will prove to be close.

Hospitality in this ancient culture was a bit different in that it was a cultural expectation. It was expected of you that when there was someone from out of town there that you would indeed open up your home and be hospitable to them and allow them to stay, and it was something that could be undertaken with a good attitude or bad attitude, grumbling.

In our current day and age, we can just avoid, right, like if you have a bad attitude about hosting somebody, you just can say no, right?

You don't have to invite people over to your house ever. You just don't like that kind of thing. You're just kind of like, I'm not, I'm out.

I don't want to do this. But in that culture, you couldn't just say no to hospitality and still be considered a good citizen.

It was a, it was contingent upon you to do this if you were a good person. Traveling preachers in that time, exiled

Christians, new house churches were always looking for places to camp out, and Peter tells the church to invite others in without grumbling.

But this difference in our culture, as it comes to us in 2015, could stand to be a bit corrective to us in our individualized, modern lifestyle.

I want to confess that I've been guilty in just this past year of talking with Linda about selling our house and looking for a home that's better suited to hospitality.

Now you might say, well that, what is that? Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? And I don't know, it's not completely off the table, but the problem is that a lot of those conversations come about in the realm, in the area of grumbling, of complaining.

Not complaining about having people over, but complaining about our house or just kind of thinking it's not sufficient or things like that.

But we ought to be done with the notions that our house has to be perfect, that our house has to be spotless in order to host others, that we have to be like Martha Stewart and on Google making centerpieces and, you know, folding the napkins correctly and all of that stuff.

And one of the things I miss the most about the British Church, when Linda and I lived there, we were connected with a small church that met in a community center and they did it kind of set up and tear down, kind of like we do here.

A group of people that love Jesus, small. You talk about a culture that was beset by, a church that was beset by their culture, and they met in this community center in a, in the middle of a population of Muslims, probably 80, 80 percent of the houses within a stone's throw of the church that we met in were

Muslims. One time we were having a meeting and somebody threw in like maybe an M80. We thought it was a grenade. We thought we're all gonna die.

This was an old wooden, you know, wood floor, wood side. I mean, it was so loud we thought we're, I mean, but, but we, they faced real genuine persecution in that church and they loved

Jesus, but particularly their hospitality was, was off the charts. It was routine.

It would be a strange Sunday that we were not invited after church to somebody's home for dinner.

One particular family who had been best blessed with many children had us over routinely and she made no apologies for the mess and it was fairly messy.

I'm not gonna lie, but the only thing she ever said about that was to say that if she had to wait until everything was in order before hosting, it's gonna take her about 20 years to invite anybody over.

So they just had people over and I tell you what, I loved their attitude.

I loved their hospitality and I grew to love their family because I got to know them in the context of their space.

You're getting what I'm saying? Didn't have to be spotless. Didn't have to be perfect and I didn't look down my nose at them.

I was just grateful for their kindness towards me. What about a little bit more of that in 2015 here at Recast?

Going out to eat with someone, that's kind of cool. That's fun. There's something about having people into your home and getting into somebody else's home that you learn something.

You learn, you, you, you become adopted into their culture in a sense. That's a beautiful thing.

If we made 2015 a year of hospitality here at Recast, of actually inviting others in and accepting the invite of others,

I'm convinced that we would be a stronger church going into 2016 next year. If we just, if that, if that thing was one of the things that we took on.

It's clear that the love of a church is reflected in sharing with, with each other and we are told to above all love each other earnestly.

They will know that we are Christians by our, by our love. And that looks like sacrificing our right to fight against others when we're wronged and it looks like sharing real life with each other.

So a life lived with urgency is a life of disciplined prayer, a life of deliberate love, and lastly it's a life of dependent service.

According to verse 10, each one of us has received a gift from God. Have any of you ever taken a gifts assessment?

Like you've taken an actual online like tool and you kind of have figured out what your, what your spiritual gift is? A handful?

A couple people? Excellent. We can get so caught up on this phrase that each one of us has received a gift that we can actually get to the place where we, we were trying to figure out what our gift is and we become inwardly focused, which is the exact opposite of what

Peter wants to tell us here in this text. It's not all about us. And what he goes on to say is that yeah, you have all received a gift from God, but there are two common pitfalls as we consider the reality of our spiritual gifts.

First, we can fall into the notion that our gifts and our talents have been given to us for our own benefit.

Think about this. How often do we think in terms of our talents or our gifts in terms of this phrase, self -fulfillment?

God has given me gifts so that I can feel useful, so that I can feel joyful in helping others, so that I can be self -fulfilled.

We imagine that our gifts have been given to us to make us happy or even, like I said, to make us feel useful.

But have you ever thought that your spiritual gift is not primarily given to you for your happiness?

That's not the primary reason you've been given a gift. Let me carefully suggest to you that I do believe that if you're serving

God in an area where he has specifically gifted you, that you will see results. It's gonna work.

Okay, it's gonna click. Things are gonna mesh. If you're operating in the realm of your spiritual gift, if you have the gift of evangelism, you know what you're gonna see?

People come to faith in Christ. Should all of us be out doing evangelism? Yes. Are some of us gonna lead people to Christ?

Yes, and I hope even this year. But the evangelist has great success at it, and the ministry is gonna go well.

But let me suggest to you that that doesn't mean that everyone who is an evangelist always has fun and joy and kicks and giggles while they're evangelizing.

It's not it. If I can use myself and what I'm doing right now, it may help to illustrate, and obviously these types of things that I say,

I'm only hoping that it sheds light somewhere on the Word of God, but right now what am I doing? Is that live now?

Okay, stage fright. I'm being uncomfortable. I've always struggled with stage fright, and I'm talking like the worst grade that I received in high school was a communications class where I refused to get up and give impromptu speeches.

I will not do that. And so the teacher called on me. She said, I'm gonna call on each one of you twice during this class.

On the spot, I'm gonna give you a topic. You're gonna stand up. You're gonna give me ten minutes on it. That's how a class is gonna roll. She called on me.

I said, nope, not gonna happen. I said, just give me, give me an F. That's fine. Literally, okay?

I mean, I'm talking like a college class with six other students, a communications class, and just cotton mouth, dry, just not able to hardly even speak.

So God says, I want you to preach. I want you to get up in front of people and talk.

I've never once, when I'm sitting in that chair down there, I've never once stood up and came up here when

Josh is praying and not had butterflies in my stomach. That hasn't gone away. That hasn't gone away.

I'm not asking you to pity me, by the way. This is going somewhere. But I don't believe it's an overstatement to call preaching a burden.

It's a burden. And at the same time, I feel the pleasure of God when I preach. And God and I have kind of this, this, this standing joke that I have stage fright, and he says, you're gonna preach, and I'll give you the strength to do it.

So I do. It's one thing

I do each week that I truly identify as a gifting that God has given to me.

Can I improve it? Yeah. Yeah, and I hope I do improve. Do I do it because it makes me happy?

No. No, I don't get up here because I'm full of myself or because I think I've got great things to say or I've got words for all of you or boy, you could just learn so much from me.

I get up here because I believe God has called me to it. Do I believe that God has equipped me for it? Yeah. Yes, I do.

But I know people who are gifted teachers. This is not at this church. This is at a different church. I promise you this.

But I know people who are gifted teachers who use their gift all week long in public schools or in different places.

And this particular person came to me at a previous church and told me, I teach all week at school, so I don't want to teach at church.

I refuse to teach at church. I don't want to judge motives, but I would suggest that the person with a gift for teaching that doesn't teach should seriously wrestle with verse 10 here.

Ought to wrestle with verse 10. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.

It doesn't say use it so long as you feel fulfilled in it or use it to make yourself feel useful, but use it in the service of others.

You have a gift that is for the blessing and benefit of others. And you've been called to be a steward, the text tells us, of God's multifaceted grace.

Multivaried, varied. It's got a lot of faces to it. A steward is someone who manages property, by the way, for a master.

The gifts, abilities, talents that you have are not yours. You don't possess them.

You don't own them. They are on loan from God. And a steward gives an accounting for the way he or she manages the property of their master.

And I love how Peter chooses to avoid a long list of gifts. Paul likes to give lists, and so Paul's got a couple of lists in different chapters and verses about spiritual gifts.

Peter doesn't give a list. Peter calls the grace of God multifaceted, the gifts of God multifaceted.

There are many gifts. Some have the gift of giving, some have the gift of administration, some are teachers, some are helpers, some are musically talented, some are prayer warriors, some are evangelists.

But in verse 11, Peter gives two broad categories of gifts. Summarizes them under two categories.

Some are speaking gifts. Some employ their mouths for the kingdom of God, like teaching, preaching, encouragement, tongues, prophecy, exhortation.

While others are more prone to employ their muscles. They don't need a lot of words, but they use their muscles in service.

And both are to avoid the second pitfall of gifts. The second pitfall is that we might depend on our own strength to speak or to serve.

God does not want us to be a church full of people who consider themselves doing great things for God.

He wants a church full of people who in humility shine out His glory, His mercy,

His kindness, His goodness. And so those who speak should consider the source of their words.

Those who provide encouragement, those who teach, those who preach. What is the source of your words?

When I preach, I recognize that the only thing of ultimate value is that the source is from God. His word is the foundation, is to be the foundation of everything in the church.

And only in as much as my words are consistent with His words are they of any value.

Where my speech diverges from what God intended to say, I would suggest to you that not only is my speech worthless, but I would suggest to you that it's dangerous.

So any good that comes from a message that I preach goes to God's credit.

I want to speak as one who speaks the oracles of God. And I hope that those who encourage, exhort, teaching children even right now, or teaching teens, those who utilize any gift in the church that involves speaking,

I hope that they recognize that the glory goes to God as the originator of all beneficial speech.

And equally, those who serve with physical work, those who set up the chairs and tear down at the end of the service, those who employ muscles and their bones to play music, those who run the soundboard, those who type up worship folders, those who run copies for the kids ministry, those who pick up the donuts, those who brew the coffee, amen?

Anybody glad that there are people who brewed the coffee this morning? And on and on, those who serve in physical tasks,

Peter says that they ought to serve by the strength that God supplies.

Who is the source of the strength required to place the chairs down on Sunday morning?

Serve with the strength that God supplies. If we're honest, doesn't this seem like nothing more than a mental exercise?

One person says, I serve with God's strength, and another says,

I serve and honor God with my strength. You say potato,

I say potahto. But where you start out dramatically impacts where you end up.

Whose strength are you serving with? Whose words are you using to provide encouragement? You say,

Don, well wait a minute, um, you know, shouldn't thanks go to the right place? I mean, those guys who come here early in the morning and set up these chairs, shouldn't we give them thanks?

Absolutely. I'd like to just give them a hand right now, seriously. Let's just say thanks to those who came here early and set up.

Simultaneously, as we acknowledge that they did so, they ought to be contemplating and considering the source of their strength.

They ought to be saying, my strength comes from God. My ability comes from God. Even the response to say, yes,

I will respond to this, comes from God. All of it comes from Him. He is the source of all strength.

He is the source of our speech when we are gifted, and it is having an impact on people.

Where you start out, considering the source of your strength, considering the source of your gift, dramatically impacts where you end up.

Why are we speaking with, about having a mind to God giving us the words? Didn't my tongue, didn't my brain speak to my tongue and tell my tongue to say these things?

Why are we talking about serving with considering that our strength is supplied by God? I mean, hey,

I work out. I'm, you know, I'm strong enough to obviously carry these chairs and set them up and things like that.

So why so much dependence on God in our service? Why does Peter want to go there with us? Why dependence in our service?

The text tells us, in order that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

If the Church of Christ is anything, it is a people redeemed from self -centeredness, focusing inwardly at my ability, my strength, my words, towards a

God -centeredness, no, towards a Christ - centeredness. We want all glory to go to Him, because to Him, according to Peter, belong all glory and dominion forever and ever.

So be it. Amen. So the end of all things is at hand, recast, and the urgency that comes out of realizing that the return of Jesus could be at any time should motivate us to be disciplined in prayer, deliberate in our love, and dependent in our service.

All of this is ultimately to reflect the glory and dominion of God, and particularly Jesus Christ, forever and ever.

Prayer, by the way, I don't know if you notice the connection here. Prayer shows the dependence that the people of God place on Him.

We pray to Him to demonstrate and to show that we need you, God. We need you involved in our daily lives.

We need you connected here. Love shows the radical transformation that God is working inside His people and in an outward flowing towards others.

And service shows the place where dependence on God and transformation mingle. But we know that all of this is centered on God's amazing love demonstrated towards us at the cross.

Without His sacrifice, we would not have no connection with God upon which to base our communication in prayer.

We would not have a source of sacrificial love to offer to one another in the church.

We would not have anything of value to give to others in ministry. So as we come to communion, we come back to the source of healthy prayer.

We come back to the source of healthy love. We come back to the source of healthy service.

If you've asked Jesus Christ to save you, then I'd encourage you to go to one of the tables, and as you take communion, consider the deep riches of a connection with God.

His deep love that is the foundation of our love for one another. And consider the strength for service that flows from that place of sacrifice for you.

Recast church. The end of all things is near. Be disciplined in prayer.

Be deliberate in your love, and be dependent in service.

Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would give us the strength as we take on this understanding, certainly as Peter speaks to the church, speaks to those who are genuinely given over to Jesus Christ, who have recognized his sacrifice for them.

Father, I pray that you would empower us in this room, who are indeed your children, to go out from this place.

That you would convict us in the realm, in the area of prayer, Father. I confess that that can be such an area, even for me, to struggle with.

And as a pastor, I know I struggle, and so how much more difficult is it for those who are just out there trudging along, working?

Father, I pray that you would continue to provide us with a drive for prayer.

Father, a love for one another. Father, I thank you for the cross.

I thank you for hope. I thank you for the opportunity we have to serve one another. I ask that you would empower us by the power of your

Spirit alive in us. And then as we come to communion, Father, we come to this table where we remember the body of Jesus broken for us, the blood of Jesus shed for us.

Father, I pray that you would help us to renew this commitment to love you with our lives, to testify to others around us of your goodness to us in Jesus' name.