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In the King’s Service
1 Peter 4:1
We’ve been talking about spiritual gifts for quite a while - laying the foundation for where we are now.
Last week we took a shift - still talking about spiritual gifts, but from the perspective of the objective - which is to serve one another.
I did not know what the shift was until this past week.
Now, I don’t put a lot of emphasis on sermon titles or series - but this shift warrants a title - one that I think is important.
I’m calling the series
In the King’s Service.
The shift took place last Sunday when I encouraged us to crown Christ as Lord - to pledge our fealty to Him as King.
When a person pledge’s their fealty to a king, they’re pledging their allegiance, faithfulness and they’re offering their unconditional service.
That is the call and the joy of the Christian - to be In the King’s Service.
Let’s continue to look out our service to the King in 1 Peter.
Now the context of 1 Peter is important.
The apostle Peter wrote this letter around 62-63 A.D. to the churches (PIC) throughout several regions.
This is what we call a circular letter - one letter to be circulated among as many churches as possible.
The believers in these regions were being persecuted for their faith.
So Peter wrote to encourage them.
Now, we often encourage others by saying, “hang in there.”
And we often pray that God would fix the situation - making the elimination of problems our objective.
Nothing wrong with that kind of encouragement, but it often falls short of authentic Christian encouragement.
Throughout the letter, Peter says keep your eyes on your salvation, be holy, fear God, live such good lives among the pagans that they will glorify God.
He says love one another, be compassionate, and live for God - and all that within the context of persecution and suffering.
The objective is not the removal of trouble and hardship -
Our Objective, even amid persecution is to serve
serve Christ; to serve one another.
The expectation here from God is to use our gifts without excuse (too busy, too persecuted, too stressed etc.).
God expects us to manage what He has given - therefore we have a responsibility, which means we will also be held accountable.
Putting our spiritual gifts into practice is not just an obligation, though - it’s also a response to the joy of salvation - the joy of serving our King and the following in His footsteps (1 Pet.
2:21).
Sometimes we think that being a servant is a lowly position - but our King served.
T.W. Manson wrote -
“In the Kingdom of God, service is not a stepping-stone to nobility: it is nobility, the only kind of nobility that is recognized.”
T.W. Manson.
We are never more noble, never more like our King than when we serve in His name.
Remember, being a servant is the objective.
To reach our objective, we’re using Backward planning - identifying the steps necessary reach our objective.
1) Crown Christ as Lord
(from last week - set Him apart as King of your life)
2) Think like our Lord
Here’s an axiom -
If we think like our King, we will behave like our King.
The command here is to equip ourselves - meaning the responsibility is upon whom?
The individual.
Each person must take ownership of his or her spiritual development.
Q – Who or what is the greatest hindrance to your spiritual development?
Some of you take your spiritual development very seriously - others, not so much.
What might be the difference between the two?
There are many factors, I understand that, but there is one that might stand out above the rest - it’s called motivation.
What motivates a person to pursue Jesus?
It comes from a relationship with Jesus Himself.
See,
Jesus is our motivation.
The text says, “because Christ suffered.”
We do what we do, because Christ did what He did on the cross.
When we keep Christ at the forefront of our minds, when we keep our eyes fixated on Him and what He did for us - it should motivate us to serve.
Paul said that we should make it our aim to please Him (2 Cor.
5:9).
Here’s another axiom:
We will aim to please someone - so why not aim to please Jesus.
I may have mentioned this before, so forgive me if I have.
When I was in the Army (10th Mtn.
Division, Ft.
Drum, NY) I served under Captain Marti - looked like a Marti.
Intelligent, knew what he was doing, he took the mission seriously, but he was also humble and kind.
We worked alongside each other for about a year.
I had a lot of responsibilities to ensure that he could do his job.
And here’s the thing - I enjoyed serving him.
I enjoyed helping him be the best captain he could be.
I didn’t put it in those terms back then, but looking back, that’s what I was doing.
Pleasing my captain was my motivation (relationship!).
Because pleasing him was my motivation, all my responsibilities became less of a burden.
It was actually, a little more on the joyful side.
See, when we fix our eyes on duties, and obligations, on people, problems and even on self – we lose our joy.
But
When we fix our eyes upon our King – joy emerges – and serving becomes less of a burden.
Let’s go back to this word equip.
We are commanded to equip ourselves to think like Jesus.
Again, we must take ownership of our spiritual development.
Now, the word Equip is an interesting word - (hoplisathe – from hoplizo ὅπλον).
Peter is referring to a hoplite (PIC).
If you remember your history, a hoplite was a heavily armed soldier (arms were huge) in ancient Greece.
Hoplites (PIC) were impressive to look at and they were fierce warriors (PIC).
But being impressive and fierce didn’t happen without extensive and intentional training, hard work and dedication, which began at a young age.
Hoplites were disciplined citizen-soldiers - always prepared for action – mentally, physically and even spiritually.
That is the image of what means to equip ourselves to think like Christ.
It takes intentional preparation, dedication and discipline.
There is no such thing as instant spirituality, and this should not surprise us.
Look, if you want to lose weight and be healthy, it takes time and dedication.
If you want to play an instrument, it takes time and dedication.
If you want to get better job, get a degree – it takes dedication and hard work.
It you want to become a godly man or woman, effective in the service of the King – it takes hard work and dedication.
We must equip ourselves.
What is the best way to equip ourselves to think like Jesus?
Let’s go back to Cpt.
Marti.
I had lot of respect for Cpt.
Marti – thus I wanted to please my captain.
In order to please him, I had to observe him.
The more I observed him, the more I began to think like him - and before long, I could anticipate what he needed.
For example, we would be in the command tent with other captains and majors and colonels -they would have their meetings and strategic planning - I would be at my station observing
When he needed a marker, he’d turn around and bam - I had it.
“How did you do that?”
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