1 Peter 4:10-11 (Service in the church)
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10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
This morning we ended our time by talking about how servanthood and humility is greatness in the kingdom of God.
We talked about how those who humbled themselves will be exalted,
And how in humility, we are to serve one another.
But how does that look? What does service look like within the church?
Because I think this is one of those things where we all know that we’re supposed to be servants.
But what does it mean to do that?
How am I supposed to serve?
Or another question is—
Does everybody’s service look the same?
And I think according to this verse tonight that it certainly does not look the same.
You see God gifts His people in a variety of ways, And it’s all intended to build up the body of Christ and glorify Him.
So your gifts may look different than my gifts.
Your work may look different than my work.
But we all have been gifted for service.
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
This verse tells us that each has received a gift.
So if you’re a believer, God has given you some sort of gift in order that you may use that gift to serve other people to build up the body of Christ for his glory.
What I want to do tonight is help us see some of the ways that God may have gifted us.
Sometimes I feel like we may not even know how God has gifted us.
And so we don’t step in to those things because we over look them.
Or worse, we may know we have that gifting and even know that it could be used for the kingdom, but we choose not to use that gifting because of fear or it could just be that we are being lazy.
If everybody knows I have a gift, they may ask me to use it.
And if that is you, this message is for you.
But mainly my point tonight is for us to see that God has gifted us all in different ways.
Let me walk through a few different ways that God blesses and gifts people for his service.
And we’re gonna spend some time on this tonight because I think this is really important that we see the different ways in which God gifts his people.
First—
We understand there to be Spiritual Gifts
Where the Lord has specifically empowered someone by the power of His Holy Spirit for a particular task.
There are fruits of the spirit, which the Holy Spirit produces certain virtues, but we distinguish that from gifts of the spirit.
These things are given by the Holy Spirit specifically and specially for ministry and edification within the body of Christ.
Let me read a passage that helps us here.
4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
And so in that passage there in Romans—Some examples of this gifting would be:
Teaching – explaining and applying God’s Word clearly
We see there also—
Encouragement (Exhortation) – uplifting and strengthening others
We see—
Leadership – guiding and overseeing ministry efforts
We see gifts of—
Mercy – showing compassion and care, especially to the hurting
We see the gift of—
Giving –Which means to generously supporting the needs of others and the mission of the church
We see there in Romans 12—
Service – meeting practical needs behind the scenes
According to Ephesians 4, some have the gift of
Evangelism – proclaiming the gospel effectively to those who are lost (Ephesians 4:11)
Some have the gift of —
Prophecy/Preaching – boldly proclaiming God’s truth.
According to 1 Corinthians 12:8, Some have the gift of—
Wisdom & Knowledge – offering godly insight and counsel.
8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
But in all these things, God through the power of his Holy Spirit gives different people different kinds of gifts for the upbuilding of his church.
And so even as I prepared for this tonight, as I listed out these different things, some of you popped into my mind whenever I thought about the way, God has gifted our church.
And its such a blessing to think about that.
And so God, very specially gifts people through the power of his Holy Spirit for certain ministry tasks within the church.
And so that is one type of gifting.
But there are other ways that God gifts people.
Some people are gifted with Natural Talent.
Some people have talent that is apart of their makeup and who they
(God-given at birth, but then sanctified for service in the church)
These aren’t always always labeled “spiritual gifts,” but God certainly uses these abilities when the person who has the talent is surrendered to Him.
Some examples of this gifting— is—
• Music, art, craftsmanship
• Hospitality and organization
• Administration and planning
• Technical skills (sound, media, design)
• Communication and writing.
Some people are naturally hard working people.
We may not always see this this way, but our talents, are gifts from the Lord.
But think about it— why do you think God give talents and gifts to his people?
So that we would use those things not to glorify ourselves, but to encourage each other into bless the church.
So you have the Spirit’s gifting of people for specific ministry.
You also have talent gifts that God gives that are sanctified for his use in the church.
And then one you might not think about as a gift is the experiences that we go through in life.
3. Life Experiences
God often uses our past.
Maybe it’s our struggles, our victories, our miserable failures.
He may use health struggles.
He may use marriage struggles. He may use family struggles.
He may use financial troubles
But in that the Christian has come out on the other side or they may be still battling it so they can testify God’s goodness and grace to them in the middle of that battle.
So they may help another believer who is battling or who may be about to go through that battle.
An example of this would be
-Someone who overcame addiction can mentor others
-A parent of special-needs children can support other families
-Those who have suffered loss can offer comfort and perspective
-Maybe a believer had a dark moment in their life where they were questioning life itself, but God was faithful to them.
-It could be someone who had a similar health trouble.
-It could be you’ve had to deal with the pain and hardship of a wayward child, and so God gives you wisdom on how to help others in that.
Y’all understand what I’m getting at here, right?
It may not be a specific talent.
You may not feel that you have any sort of gifting at all.
But have you considered your life and what you’ve gone through and the ability that you may have uniquely to speak into other people’s life who may be going through a similar trouble as you have.
Paul tells us in second Corinthians. This is the purpose of God’s comfort to us in our troubles. That we would be able to comfort each other.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
And so that hard experience that you’ve had to go through in your life that you wouldn’t wish on anybody.
Perhaps God could redeem that in someway and you could help someone else may be going through a similar situation.
Tell them what you wish someone would’ve told you about the grace and mercy of God in their specific situation.
Maybe it’s that you’re just a shoulder to cry on because you’ve been there before.
Our experiences are gifts that we can use to serve others.
But I think there’s other things as well.
I think God gifts people with different passions.
4. (What burdens you or excites you for ministry?)
God often aligns your desires and convictions with a need in the church.
A heart for youth, missions, the elderly, outreach, discipleship, etc.
I think God in his grace places burdens upon people’s heart to accomplish his will, and so that they will be obedient to that passion.
We often don’t even know how God’s going to use that passion or that burden.
I remember whenever I got saved at 18, all I knew was that I wanted to teach God’s word and help strengthen the local church.
Out of my life experiences, I had played the cultural church game where I went to church because that’s just what we did.
But getting saved, God, place it on my heart to hopefully help other people dive deeper than that.
And so I started preparing towards that passion.
God then gave me opportunities to serve and to exercise those passions.
Exercising of those passions, my calling became clear.
I felt called to Pastor a church.
I didn’t know where, but I knew this.
I love the country.
I love Horry County.
I love the traditional local church.
I didn’t even know Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church existed at the time of my calling, but yet her I am.
What’s amazing is how God aligns our lives and our opportunities with our passions.
And he’s gracious to do that.
When this brings me to the final thing, I think God gifts us with.
5. Opportunities and Open Doors, People
Some of God’s gifts are the opportunities we are given.
Sometimes its an open door to serve the local church.
Sometimes, God’s gifts are people placed in our life.
When I look back on my life, that is obviously the case.
God in different times has placed the right people in my life to help me.
Those people gave me the oppurtunity to serve.
And what I found through that is this—
Sometimes, you may not know what you’re gifted at. But your gifting becomes clear as you step into roles—even before you fully “feel ready.”
The opportunities that God gives you to serve his church are gifts.
We have to be willing to walk through those doors in order to exercise those gifts.
One of the things I’ve asked Will to do over the next few months is to plan out for our church some service projects and mission trips here in our area.
Just small little things that we can do as a church to be useful to the kingdom in this community.
I encourage you to take advantage of those opportunities and open doors and it’s a step into those things because through those things God may give you a passion to serve his church in even greater way.
Now, very quickly- Let me summarize all of this tonight..
Look at 1 Peter 4:10
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
I. Every Believer Has a Gift
This verse tells us this
“As each has received a gift…”
God has given every believer a gift—no one is left out.
These gifts are not earned or deserved; they are received.
They are from God and they are for his church.
They are from God and they are for each other.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Its from God for you to share.
II. Gifts Are for Serving Others
The next part of this verse says this..
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
Spiritual gifts are not for self-glorification but for building others up.
The church is healthiest when every member is functioning and serving.
This is not a one-man show. In fact it cannot be a one-man show and even be a church. Biblically speaking.
We are the body of Christ.
A body is composed of parts.
In fact, to even be called a body would have to include all the parts that generally speaking make up the body.
4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
So as a body Works, so also is the church to work.
We are to serve each other with our gifts.
Where to help each other and each other’s walk with the Lord.
We are to rejoice with those who rejoice we are to weep with those who weep.
And so -Are you using your gifts to serve, or are they sitting idle?
Who in your church or community needs your gift right now?
Look at the next part of this verse.
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
And I hope that this helps us realize why we can’t just sit back on our gifts and not do anything with it.
And that is
III. We Are Stewards, Not Owners
“…as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
What does a steward do? let them answer.
A steward manages what belongs to someone else—in this case, God’s grace.
God and his grace gifts people with different things that they are to do in the church, and you and I are to be good stewards of that grace that we’ve received in Christ.
He says we are to be good stewards of God‘s varied grace.
Which means we have a responsibility before God to utilize these gifts that he’s given us by his grace.
We have to understand as well that we are accountable to God, but if he’s given us this gracious gift that we would use it well for his glory.
We also have to recognize that being a steward means God has a purpose for why he has given us these gifts.
And so we areto check our heart and find out whether or not we are aligned with his purposes for us.
We have to be good stewards of God’s varied grace.
I love this.
God doesn’t just give everybody the same thing.
That’s really cool.
It’s amazing to think that God specifically gives to you and me what the body needs.
“Varied grace” shows the beauty in the diversity of gifts within the church.
Your gifting may look different than mine, but it’s all for the glory of God.
But here’s what we know. We all have to be faithful.
1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
Am I being a faithful steward of what God has entrusted to me?
How does my use of my gifts reflect my view of God’s grace?
Now the final thing I want to mention tonight.
We’ve talked about service, but what about humility.
You know this morning, we talked about humility being properly, assessing ourselves in lotta who God is.
If we do this, we have to recognize that all that we do and all that we have been gifted with is not so that other others would look at us and just be amazed about how awesome we are.
We have to recognize that if there’s anything good in me.
If I help you at all as a pastor, you have to recognize that that is God’s work.
And whenever you help me as a church member, I have to recognize and glorify God for God’s work in your life.
All of this is for his glory.
This is why Peter follows up verse 10 with the verse 11
I know I said we were only gonna cover one verse tonight but we have to cap it off with verse 11.
11 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.
IV. All for God’s Glory
Everything we do comes from God and it’s for God.
And so, Our ultimate goal is not just service—it’s God’s glory.
Conclusion:
• You have a gift.
• It’s for others.
• You’re accountable.
• Use it well—for God’s glory.
Why do you think it's easy for people to hold back from using their gifts in the church?
How does recognizing that we are stewards—not owners—of our gifts change the way we view service in the church?
