Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] All right, turn to First Peter, Chapter four.
[00:00:10] Now as you turn, you know, I'm I'm sure that we can all think of many different gifts that we've received in our lives.
[00:00:20] All throughout different times, for different occasions, we've received all sorts of gifts. You've probably received good gifts. Maybe you can think of some good gifts even now.
[00:00:30] Maybe you've received some not so good gifts that you can maybe also recall at this moment.
[00:00:38] My favorite kind of gift is the ones that I don't even know I want, ones I don't even know I need. Thankfully, I have a really great wife who always finds those.
[00:00:51] Those are the gifts that get the most use, things I'm not necessarily asking for, but I need and I'm definitely going to need, even if it's a snack or a pocket journal or more socks.
[00:01:04] These things are my favorite types of gifts. They may not be the most exciting always, but they get a lot of use and I appreciate them a lot.
[00:01:12] Again, you might not ask for these, but they make great use. It's good to have different types of gifts like this.
[00:01:20] And this, of course, is what I was thinking of when I read about gifts mentioned in 1st Peter 4.
[00:01:26] God gives his people gifts by the measure of his as we'll see varied. Grace gives them different gifts, and these gifts are to be used for good, and they serve one another, and they're different now. The theme of first Peter again is suffering now, but glory later.
[00:01:45] I trust that you've really seen this throughout. It's not a hidden theme. It's very much on the surface for much of the letter, suffering now, but glory later. I'll just remind us to review that the recipients of this letter were elected by God for salvation, and they were living as exiles in a world of sin.
[00:02:09] They were suffering in various ways, especially by being persecuted by people around them.
[00:02:16] The most consistent theme is that of suffering well, and Peter continually harps on this point, and we'll see it even more next week.
[00:02:28] And this last week, talking about that same theme, he was emphasizing the importance of living in purity.
[00:02:35] You know, just before our text, Peter encouraged Christians to suffer because Christ also suffered.
[00:02:42] He went on to show how Christ the righteous died for the unrighteous, securing victory over death.
[00:02:51] The encouragement is that those who are in Christ are protected from eternal suffering, just as Noah was protected from and saved from the flood by being in the ark.
[00:03:07] That is where we left off this last week thinking about those things. Now, the main idea of this passage, 1 Peter 4:1 11, is because Christ suffered, Christians can obey God by avoiding sin, acting lovingly, and stewarding his grace. So because Christ suffered, Christians can obey God by avoiding sin, acting lovingly, and stewarding his grace.
[00:03:38] Read this passage, 1 Peter 4:1 11 since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.
[00:03:49] For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
[00:04:11] With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.
[00:04:18] But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
[00:04:23] For this is why the Gospel was preached even to those who are dead. That though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the Spirit the way God does.
[00:04:32] The end of all things is at hand.
[00:04:35] Therefore be self controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers.
[00:04:40] Above all, keep loving one another earnestly. Since love covers a multitude of sins, show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
[00:04:50] As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.
[00:04:57] 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.
[00:05:19] So I hope to take us through this passage as Peter unfolds it before us.
[00:05:24] This passage and sermon hinge on last week's text, kind of the end of it especially.
[00:05:30] That's why he says at the beginning, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, so we can take this as because Christ suffered for sins, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.
[00:05:44] So those in Christ are armed with knowledge. This knowledge compels us to avoid the wickedness that the world celebrates.
[00:05:56] Therefore, the transformed lives of those in Christ act soberly.
[00:06:02] They act with love. They use their gifts given to them by God in ways that honor God and serve others.
[00:06:10] Because Christ suffered, Christians can obey God by avoiding sin, acting lovingly, and stewarding his grace. So point number one is armed with knowledge, armed with knowledge. We see that in verse one.
[00:06:25] So arm yourselves with knowledge, because that is what those in Christ do, especially those who suffer during their lives.
[00:06:36] So Peter here is kind of building on what he has previously explained that Christ suffered for the sins of others.
[00:06:45] So the Gospel says, this is important because since the whole letter is encouraging them in suffering, we must point to Christ's suffering, because that was the pinnacle of suffering for the sake of righteousness. If we are to suffer for the sake of righteousness, we must look at how Christ did it.
[00:07:06] So with what knowledge do believers arm themselves? Maybe that's a little. How do you. What knowledge exactly is are we arming ourselves with? Well, believers arm themselves with the knowledge that it is good to suffer for righteousness sake.
[00:07:22] It is good.
[00:07:24] Those who are in Christ know that because they've seen Christ do that, they believe he did that, that he did suffer for the sake of righteousness. To credit you with his specifically, those outside of Christ don't understand that. They don't see this. They don't have that knowledge to be armed with. They don't have the same reasoning and hope to endure suffering.
[00:07:49] Peter uses, interestingly, this language of arming themselves as this very militaristic language.
[00:07:56] He's describing this knowledge as if it's a weapon to wield in a battle.
[00:08:01] And we can kind of understand that imagery, that battling suffering in the world is a battle, it's a war. We need a weapon. And the weapon that Peter is putting forward is knowledge that it is actually good to suffer like Christ did, to join in and participate in his sufferings.
[00:08:20] So being armed with this knowledge, according to Peter, helps you to live holy lives even while you're suffering.
[00:08:28] If you're in Christ, you are armed with the knowledge of how to suffer for Christ, which is exactly what Christians do.
[00:08:37] They suffer for Jesus and they do not sin.
[00:08:41] First John 5:18 tells us this. First John 5:18 says, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning.
[00:08:50] They do not continue to be enslaved by sin. This is what is meant by Peter when he says, whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. It's kind of a parallel statement to First John 5:18.
[00:09:03] What this means is not that you must be perfect now. Now all of a sudden, your perfection is how you are keeping your justification. No, that's not how this works.
[00:09:14] Instead, what he is saying is that your life of sin is ceased. It is done. That old self is dead, gone, and it will not be raised again.
[00:09:25] In fact, the fact that they have ceased from sin, they have cut off their old selves, they have stopped living this way is probably a large reason why they're suffering.
[00:09:36] I'll say that again. They're probably suffering because they've stopped their sin. They don't live in it any longer.
[00:09:44] Christians suffer for Christ when they suffer for not sinning.
[00:09:50] I think that this is the cause of the suffering because of the following verses. And so we'll kind of unpack that a little bit more in verses two through six. So now we're on to point number two. Avoiding debauchery.
[00:10:04] Avoiding debauchery.
[00:10:06] So believers in Jesus Christ, they live transformed lives.
[00:10:13] And because of that, they suffer for it. They suffer for living transformed lives. Again, that is part of Peter's very consistent message throughout the letter.
[00:10:23] These believers, these elect exiles, as they're called at the beginning of the Book. They have died to their lives of sin. They don't live that life any longer.
[00:10:33] Thus they must live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.
[00:10:43] They now live for the will of God, not for human passions.
[00:10:48] So I guess my question then for you students is that, do you claim to be a Christian?
[00:10:55] I know a lot of you do. If you do, that means that you have ceased from sin, that life is dead.
[00:11:06] You should be transformed. I'm not saying perfect. You should be transformed.
[00:11:11] Are you not listen to what Peter says in verse three? He says, the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do.
[00:11:21] So suffices. That means it is sufficient for doing what the Gentiles, or he's using that word in place of the word sinners.
[00:11:29] So the time that has passed is sufficient for doing what the sinners want to do. That's another way of saying that verse.
[00:11:36] So he's not saying, just to be clear, that you have done your fair share of sinning. I'm glad that you got your time in sinning it up. Now it's time to move on. And he's not approving of doing those sins. As long as you eventually grow up and stop doing them, eventually you'll get your life together and you'll cut that out and you'll live a normal life.
[00:11:58] That's not what he's saying. You know, that's maybe how the English words kind of hit our ears. I get that. That's what it sounds like to me. But that's not the heart of what he says.
[00:12:07] He's merely acknowledging that these Christians have lived very sinful lives.
[00:12:14] They have lived lives completely like everyone around them.
[00:12:19] And especially now that they're in Christ, they ought to have no need nor desire to do those things.
[00:12:26] Their love for those sins should die.
[00:12:30] Their compulsive needs should dissipate.
[00:12:35] I think of it this way. When. When I was a child, I loved pizza. In fact, I still love pizza. It's one of my favorite foods. Who doesn't like pizza? You know, not very many people.
[00:12:49] And for me, growing up, it really didn't matter where I got this pizza from. Could have come from Cici's, Little Caesars, Pizza Hut, Mazio's. Take your pick. It was no different to me. Chuck E. Cheese, it did not matter. Any pizza was good for me as a child.
[00:13:07] Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't eat any of those. I still would. But as I grew up, my palate was refined.
[00:13:15] I understand now that there is a difference between pizzas. Some are better than others.
[00:13:21] I'm not going to sit down at Andolini's and crave Little Caesars. I'm just not going to. My palate has been refined.
[00:13:32] Students, your palates toward your lifestyle should be refined. If you're in Christ being sanctified by his spirit, the old ways that you lived should not taste as good to you anymore. It should start to become disgusting to you. It should become gross.
[00:13:50] That's what he's saying. Sin should disgust them now.
[00:13:56] And it might look gradually in your lives. It might be immediate. But we should pray that we do hate sin. We should ask God to help our hearts align with that.
[00:14:07] And that's the key point here.
[00:14:09] But I also want to take a moment to reflect on the sins he lists just a little bit more for the sake of application.
[00:14:16] Of course, there are more sins than just these, but these are the ones he lists.
[00:14:22] He lists sensuality. This is kind of referring to an overly flirtatious and seductive way of living, you know, do you intend to seduce people in a romantic way? I think this is a heart problem that many people have.
[00:14:38] He talks about passions. You know, passions are.
[00:14:42] I've defined it this way before. Are like emotions that drive you.
[00:14:46] They take control.
[00:14:49] And so thus you are no longer in control when you are being driven by your passions.
[00:14:54] You guys, how many of you have seen. Just so I know if this is actually going to be helpful, how many of you have seen the movie Inside Out?
[00:15:01] Okay, so this is largely helpful. Most of you have seen it. Okay, if you haven't, I think it's a good movie, but it's not necessarily a super mature way to talk about emotions.
[00:15:14] It's maybe helpful for children.
[00:15:17] We would not let emotions determine how we act. That is not what we want. You know, maybe what is best characterized by what Peter is pushing these people to do is when all the emotions kind of share responsibility.
[00:15:32] But what a passion is, is when anger or, or sadness or anxiety take control and they're in the driver's seat. That is being controlled by your passions.
[00:15:44] Drunkenness is self explanatory, but it is very serious.
[00:15:50] It can easily turn into alcoholism, which, beyond just being sinful, becomes something that absolutely destroys lives. And it's something to be taken seriously.
[00:16:02] He talks about orgies and drinking parties and lawless idolatry. All of these things kind of fit together. I think he's kind of listing a pretty, I don't know, cohesive lifestyle. These sins kind of traveled in packs, if you will.
[00:16:18] This would be the culturally, the sorts of sins being committed around these Christians that they themselves would have participated in before they knew Christ.
[00:16:27] The recipients of this letter did those things.
[00:16:32] They lived like that. They weren't. These aren't Christians that were raised in Christian homes. They were raised like that.
[00:16:40] That's how they lived. And yet they're in Christ now. They're expected to be transformed because of that. So, students, I don't know what you've done, what you are doing currently.
[00:16:51] It might be really bad.
[00:16:54] It just might be really, really bad. You might even think, I'm probably the only person in this room struggling or maybe like one other person.
[00:17:01] But you are not alone. And your sin is not too great for Christ to bear.
[00:17:07] Christ's suffering for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. Not for the somewhat unrighteous, but just for the unrighteous. You can be as unrighteous as possible. You are not too unrighteous for the righteous one to redeem. Your sin is not too great for Christ to cover.
[00:17:25] This is absolutely true of Jesus. So we must not insult Jesus by assuming he's not powerful enough for my sin. He is.
[00:17:36] Peter points out also that they, as in the people around them, their peers, their neighbors, maybe their friends, the people around them are surprised when they don't join them in their sinful practices.
[00:17:53] I've mentioned before my time in college being in a fraternity, and I gained a lot of great experiences there, but some that weren't as great. And this aspect that Peter's talking about is probably what caused the most conflict for me during those years.
[00:18:11] Not only did I quit living in such a way that my friends enjoyed, which admittedly was a very brief time, but more and more brothers that came to know the Lord during those years stopped living those lives. They stopped partying like that. Guys that had been kind of hardcore in this type of lifestyle for much longer than I had.
[00:18:36] And I'm sure that these non believers felt that Christianity was taking away their friends and taking away their fun.
[00:18:44] Now it wasn't. That's what they're thinking.
[00:18:47] We must never worry or fret when non believers say terrible things about us, when they malign us, verse four, when they don't understand why you live a different life. Now you must stay strong, you must not waver under the insults of non believers because they will have to stick to their malicious words when they come face to face with the Almighty Judge.
[00:19:17] That will happen.
[00:19:20] That is very serious.
[00:19:22] So don't be hurt, don't get angry.
[00:19:26] Pity those people and proclaim the gospel to them.
[00:19:31] Now, verse six, then, right after those verses has raised questions about preaching to the dead. Now this is actually a very simple explanation. Thankfully, you know, at the time.
[00:19:45] I'll just read it so we can be on the same page. For this is why the Gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the Spirit the way God does.
[00:19:56] You know, at the time, Christians were being persecuted and sometimes dying for their faith and other times just dying Naturally.
[00:20:04] The non believers, the pagans, the idolaters, would have likely mocked Christians. You know, Christians who believe in the resurrection and believe in the return of Christ. These are things that the others did not believe in.
[00:20:18] They believe in Christ who raised from the dead. They believe that they too will be raised from the dead when he returns.
[00:20:24] And so they would especially mock Christians when they would die.
[00:20:27] You can imagine maybe some of the words they would say, why didn't your Christ come back before your friend died? Why doesn't he raise your brother from the dead now? If he can raise himself from the dead, why doesn't he do that? These are the sorts of questions these Christians would have been hearing. And Peter is saying even Christians that are dead now had during their lives the Gospel preached to them and it wasn't a waste of time.
[00:20:53] Even though they're dead.
[00:20:55] It wasn't a waste. They didn't believe in futility.
[00:20:59] They received judgment from sinners in the flesh. That means during their lives. But now they get to live in the Spirit the way God does, which means they are in the presence of the Lord now, they're in the Spirit with God.
[00:21:16] So it wasn't a waste because those non believers don't understand the timing and the plan of God.
[00:21:23] And this is an encouraging reminder to all believers.
[00:21:28] When you die, no matter how fiercely you've been oppressed and persecuted in this life, you go to the presence of God.
[00:21:36] You get to be in his blissful presence.
[00:21:40] So that should excite you, that should give you confidence in life, in suffering.
[00:21:45] Or it might terrify you.
[00:21:47] If you are not a believer, if you are one that maligned those who are believers because of the gospel preached to you, avoid living like your old self. Avoid living in debauchery.
[00:22:01] Point number three. Now act soberly and lovingly.
[00:22:08] Act soberly and lovingly. We're looking now at verses seven through nine.
[00:22:12] So it says the end of all things is at hand. If the end of all things is at hand or coming soon, you might want to get your act together, right?
[00:22:23] So how are Christians, regardless of their sufferings, to act?
[00:22:28] Well, he gives some examples. First, be sober minded.
[00:22:33] This and self control are closely related. So they're kind of parallel here in that to control oneself necessarily includes the mind. So if you are self controlled, you will also be sober minded. If you're not sober minded, you will not be self controlled.
[00:22:49] They go together. You should be calm and wise and thoughtful, not driven by your passions. You should also be controlled in how you act, avoiding sin.
[00:22:59] But it is helpful to know as we go through these ways to live to be self controlled, even in particular, this is something that must be produced in you by the Spirit.
[00:23:13] You can't make this up, you can't conjure it. You can't manufacture your own self control.
[00:23:19] Now, yes, people apart from Christ can be very self disciplined. But true self control is produced by the Spirit.
[00:23:29] You cannot fully control yourself in your mind without the help of God who made you.
[00:23:35] But the Lord graciously does give his spirit to those who believe in his Son.
[00:23:41] So if you are in Christ, if you trust in him, then the Spirit does produce in you fruit, including self control.
[00:23:50] And there is a significant, perhaps surprising reason.
[00:23:54] What does he say?
[00:23:56] For the sake of your prayers? That's at the end of verse seven, for the sake of your prayers.
[00:24:03] This maybe surprised me a little bit.
[00:24:06] An old theologian named Martin Luther helpfully explains this. He says, but if prayer is to spring from the heart and be offered in sincerity, then the person praying must be of sound mind and sober.
[00:24:21] If we're not sound in mind, if we're not sober in spirit, then what will our prayers be? They will be not controlled, they will be not sound, they will not be sober.
[00:24:34] Because prayer springs from the heart. It springs from within us.
[00:24:39] That's what Luther explains.
[00:24:41] So first, be sober minded. Second, love one another, love other believers and non believers, love others. Because as is so famously quoted, I'm sure you've heard it numerous times in your life, love covers a multitude of sins.
[00:24:58] Now this doesn't mean that we love in order to cover our many sins as a way to compensate for our sinfulness. Well, I've sinned a lot. Well, now I need to love a little bit more to cover those. That's not what he means.
[00:25:13] You know, I understand why we might think that that is not what he means. What Peter means is something even more radical for you.
[00:25:21] It's more radical for you. If you truly love someone, if you are really loving someone, then you will overlook not one, not two, not three, but a multitude of their sins.
[00:25:34] You will overlook their sins. You will cover them up and consider them to not be there. They might wrong you or offend you or hurt you, but if you love them, you look past all that.
[00:25:48] You look at that person in the best possible light.
[00:25:52] That is what love does when it covers a multitude of sins. It looks at people in the best possible light because you too are a sinner. You too will offend people and hurt people.
[00:26:05] And you would want people to love you like that.
[00:26:07] So do you love one another?
[00:26:10] Think of that. Do you have that attitude toward those around you even now?
[00:26:15] So love one another and then third, and finally, show hospitality.
[00:26:19] Show hospitality.
[00:26:22] I would see that in verse nine.
[00:26:24] So when is the last time I want to ask. You can reflect to yourself that you initiated conversation with someone new here or even someone that you have not spoken to.
[00:26:37] You know this should be done frequently, whenever you can, whenever you notice.
[00:26:42] That is what being hospitable looks like.
[00:26:44] And when is the last time you invited someone new to spend time with you or your friends or even to an event?
[00:26:51] Think about these things. Look for opportunities to be hospitable. I know especially now it's increasingly difficult for people to be outgoing and to be hospitable. But the Bible calls us to do this. And so we have to go against our comfort zone here and be hospitable. That's another way to love people.
[00:27:12] Now again, I cannot emphasize enough, as I've just gone through these applications, that these moral ways to live, these moral applications are not useful to you in eternity unless you first trust in Christ.
[00:27:25] I'm not intending to give you a list of things that Peter has given us so that you can feel better about yourself, so that you can have a better resume or anything of the sort. You must trust in Christ.
[00:27:36] You must be one with Christ through faith so that he will give to you his spirit, so that you can actually be transformed, not just cleaned up around the edges.
[00:27:47] The Spirit of life gives you the ability to honor God. You need the spirit.
[00:27:53] Service to others begins with God's gift to you.
[00:27:58] Before you think about your life and how to clean it up, you need to know God first. First, if you know God through Christ and have his spirit within you, then you will notice over time a gift or gifts that the Spirit equips you with. You will notice your life transform.
[00:28:16] This is what he gets into in these last couple of verses and our point number four.
[00:28:22] Access your gifts for others.
[00:28:26] Access your gifts for others. So find your gifts and utilize them. Access them.
[00:28:32] The key in these verses is stewardship.
[00:28:37] Stewardship.
[00:28:39] The idea of stewardship kind of flows from the idea of hospitality.
[00:28:44] To steward something well, we could say, means to be a good manager of it. You've been given something and you need to manage it well.
[00:28:54] Managing well is important. Having good managers is important.
[00:28:59] When I was a proud McDonald's employee, I had a not so good manager. I remember, I think because of her. Now, it's not all her fault, you know, this is some responsibility on us, but because of her, we violated probably a lot of health codes. Probably too many more than I am willing to share.
[00:29:19] We were very, very slow, a very slow McDonald's on Yelp. We had two stars.
[00:29:25] It was a very bad McDonald's. Many of us not knowing what to do, starting the job, and them saying, oh, just look at the instructions of how to make the food. You know, not a good manager. We were not happy because we did not have a good manager.
[00:29:40] But now, of course I am happy. I do have a good manager. Now, manager is probably not the biblical way of referring to our pastor, but we should be good managers.
[00:29:50] But God is not giving you employees if you are in Christ. He gives you gifts instead to manage.
[00:29:58] You should not be selfish with your gifts. You should use them for the church, use them for others. Use them to honor God.
[00:30:06] He gives a couple examples. One is speaking. So are you gifted in speaking? Not many people feel gifted in speaking, especially when they're your age. Maybe that comes out over time.
[00:30:16] But if you find yourself able to speak well, he says, speak oracles of God. Or in other words, maybe God has given you the ability to communicate the gospel well. Maybe he's given you the ability to teach the Bible effectively.
[00:30:32] Doesn't need to be public Speaking necessarily. But if you can speak, then you should teach.
[00:30:37] Maybe you can practice by starting and leading a Bible study.
[00:30:42] Maybe as you get older, maybe some of you boys want to ask a pastor what it would look like for you to learn to teach in the church.
[00:30:50] Maybe you're gifted in service. Are you gifted in service?
[00:30:53] You know, I think I know a lot of you are. A lot of you are certainly passionate about service.
[00:30:58] Well, serve by God's strength is what Peter says. Always be thinking about whether you are serving out of your own ability or serving out of the strength that God supplies you.
[00:31:11] Students. Do you want to see if you can serve? Well, firstly, you can all learn to serve because we are all called to serve one another.
[00:31:19] So we can love people by serving them.
[00:31:23] Maybe here's a very practical thing you could consider. Consider coming on the Kansas City mission trip.
[00:31:29] Just a good plug there. Consider coming and seeing what it's like to serve other people, even people that you may not see again unless you go back the next year and you know again. Ask me about it afterwards if you're interested in that. You know, if you. If you're a member here, if you've been baptized here, then ask how you can begin to serve the church. I'm sure there are ways that you can. I know many of you already do, but I do want to dispel a couple of misconceptions about serving and gifts. I think there's maybe some of this. Some baggage that comes along with these terms.
[00:32:03] First, I want to say it is okay to be gifted in one area but not another.
[00:32:08] That doesn't make anyone better or like more important or less important because someone has a gift that maybe puts them more in front of people and another person has a gift that's more behind the scenes. Neither of those people are more important than the other.
[00:32:23] Peter says, be good stewards of God's varied grace.
[00:32:28] Whatever his varied grace gives you, steward it. Well, his grace does not always look the same for each person.
[00:32:38] That's a modern notion that we should not bring into the church the idea that equality means sameness.
[00:32:47] Being the same is not the same as being equal. Equality does not mean that we are all the same.
[00:32:54] I don't think we are even. That we can all do the same things. We can't all do the same things. There are lots of examples of this. You know, Paul even writes to a church that is obsessed with the gift of tongues. But he tells them that he wishes they would prophesy instead.
[00:33:10] The church is not healthy.
[00:33:12] If we all have the same gifts. If we're all doing the same things, that is not a healthy church.
[00:33:20] God gives varied grace to believers in the church because that makes the church thrive to have people that are different, that look different, that act different, that are different, doing different things, using different gifts for different purposes. That is a healthy church ecosystem. And so if you do have a different gift, praise the Lord for that.
[00:33:43] Second thing to dispel is sometimes you might need to practice a gift to get better.
[00:33:49] This may have just been me, but I kind of always grew up thinking, well, a gift, like a spiritual gift, is just something I'm going to be good at. How do I know what I'm actually good at?
[00:33:59] Well, sometimes you actually get better at it.
[00:34:02] You may not feel comfortable welcoming people, for example, but you can become more comfortable doing it.
[00:34:09] You may not be able to sing on the music team now or play your instrument, but you can get to that point.
[00:34:17] People do get better at that. You may not be able to teach.
[00:34:21] You know, if. I guess if 9 year old me was up here teaching, it wouldn't quite be as good.
[00:34:28] And hopefully, lord willing, in 20 years it'll be better.
[00:34:32] People get better at teaching.
[00:34:36] We don't serve with our gifts and improve in our gifts because we are good at them already. We serve according to verse 11 in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
[00:34:49] That is why we serve. That is why we practice our gifts. If you serve for any reason other than to glorify God through Jesus, you've missed the whole point. You are supposed to be reflecting the Savior who came to earth as a humble servant.
[00:35:06] That's the point.
[00:35:08] And that is why all of these commands and applications are pointless for you unless you submit your life to Christ.
[00:35:16] Verse 11 says, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Glorifying yourself is divine theft.
[00:35:25] He owns all the glory, so we must give it all to him in everything we think, say and do. He has dominion to do with the world as he pleases.
[00:35:36] So do not remain God's enemy, but come to Him. If you trust in Christ, then His sufferings can be applied to your sin.
[00:35:44] You can die and cease to sin since you have trusted in Christ because He has accomplished that already.
[00:35:53] Glorify God then, by submitting your life to Christ, for He already has dominion and authority over all things.
[00:36:03] Love Christ and His love will cover all of your sins.
[00:36:07] And if you are in Christ, then you must avoid sin, live a transformed life, have the same mind with Christ, be self controlled loving, hospitable steward any gift that he might give you.
[00:36:21] Make sure your gifts are always used to bring glory to God and not yourself. And remember, because Christ suffered Christians and can obey God by avoiding sin, acting lovingly, and stewarding his grace. Let's pray.
[00:36:36] Father, thank you for your word and for the gifts that you have given to those in Christ. God, we pray that you would call those outside of Christ to yourself tonight, that people would repent of their sin and trust in the Lord that you would transform lives. Lord, help us to live lives consistent with the transformation that you provide through the sufferings of Christ and through the gift of the Spirit.
[00:36:59] Lord, help us to be armed with the same way of thinking as we might suffer in this life.
[00:37:06] Lord, to you belong all glory and dominion forever and ever, in your Son's name. Amen.
