Moving Forward - Pt. 9
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
We have been walking through five emphatic truths since the beginning of the year. Our goal in this is to put truth in place that will help create a culture of Gospel-centered ministry.
As Paul said in Colossians 1, our goal is to present every person involved in our ministry as complete in Christ - as our vision statement says,
We exist to glorify God by making spiritually and relationally healthy disciples!
We desire to glorify God individually and collectively in healthy ways - and so we are striving to build a culture of Gospel-centered Worship, Transformation, Relationships, Service, and Outreach.
We spent last week looking at some preliminary thoughts on Gospel-centered service in Titus 3 and parked for a bit on the grace of God that motivates our service to others.
As you recall, Paul was encouraging Titus with practical truth. We saw in Titus 3 that:
We aren’t better than anyone else. We are all made out of the same stuff.
We all have a past that is darker than we would want anyone to know.
And regardless of how bad we really are, God in His mercy has poured his love and kindness on us sinners through Jesus and has washed and renewed the darkest parts of our past.
And in response to that outpouring of grace and mercy, Paul says in Titus 3:8
8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
Because of what God has done for us, we should respond in how we live.
You see, it is not only important to celebrate what Christ has saved us from, but as Kevin DeYoung says it, we need to celebrate what Christ has saved us unto!
Friend, Jesus didn’t only save you from your past, He saved you for the future! And yes, heaven is a reality to look forward to, but friend between the already of our salvation and the not yet of our glorification is the present process of sanctification - and it is here we live out our celebration of what Christ has saved us unto.
It is here, today, that we respond to the grace of God extended to us - and one proper response is living out Gospel-centered service.
Join me this morning in 1 Peter 4 - that is where we land together here in a moment.
But, as we emphasize Gospel-centered Service, we do so with this statement:
The church thrives when the body ministers to the body. Embracing the grace of God to us individually through the gospel, we extend grace through humility, generosity, and hospitality. We do not spectate, but wholly participate by using the gifts God has given us for the building of our church family and the glory of God! One way our salvation shows itself is through how we serve others.
Let’s break it down.
The church thrives when the body ministers to the body.
We talked about this a bit last week...
The church is not a building or a tradition - church is not an activity that we attend - the church (as emphasized in Gospel-centered Relationships) is a group of people called out by God to live for His glory, together.
And this called out assembly is likened in scripture to a body - as a unified group of people interdependent on one another. And this group thrives when the individuals that make up the whole commit to serving one another.
Now, as we spoke last week, these actions of service are issued out of an embraced grace from God. You see:
Embracing the grace of God to us individually through the gospel, we extend grace through humility, generosity, and hospitality.
As Paul encouraged Titus, God has been so good to you. And in response to this, live your live as an extension of that grace…
In 2 cor 5:15, Paul wrote
14 For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died.
15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
A life lived for God is initiated by God and enabled by God.
Because God initiates and enables, our service to others is an overflow of what God has and is continuing to do in us. So we serve (we extend grace) through humility, generosity, and hospitality.
Biblical Humility is grounded in the character of God - he regards the lowly as the psalmist wrote:
6 Though the Lord is on high, Yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar.
The incarnation of Christ is the greatest exhibition of God’s humility from the manger to the cross, we find this in Phil 2 which reads
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Christ is the ultimate example of serving in humility.
Further, biblical humility is a choice of unity, as Paul says in Rom. 12:16
16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
Humility is a choice to not make life all about you!
But gospel-centered service doesn’t stop at an extension of grace through humility, it also involves generosity.
The dictionary of bible themes defines generosity as the free and liberal bestowal of something you have to others.
As disciples of Jesus, generosity is to permeate our lives. If we understand that God is the giver of all good things, and that we are simply stewards of those good things, then our time, talents, and treasure actually don’t belong to us at all, they belong to God and He has called us to be good stewards of His good things.
So our kids aren’t ours, they belong to him.
Our money isn’t ours, it is on loan from him.
Our time isn’t to be spent how we see fit outside of God, every second is His.
Our job, our hobbies, our bodies, our affections, our everything is an opportunity to generously distribute the grace of God.
God has blessed you with the health and wealth you do have to bring Him glory! And He is glorified through your generosity.
So we emphasize a serving spirit of humility, generosity, and hospitality.
Hospitality is said to be the generous and gracious treatment of guests.
Church family, the reality of serving involves life outside of our gatherings. When you are at work, serve others. When you are at home, serve your family. When you are at the grocery store and you put your groceries in the car, serve the cart crew and the rest of humanity and put the cart in the designated area…
So have a gospel-centered approach in all of life, but let’s just talk shop for a moment when it comes to serving at our gatherings.
When I came 5 and half years ago there was a core group of people here who had been holding things together for a long time. You faithfully gave your time and money and effort and God blessed you for that. Through the last several years, God has blessed our efforts together and He has brought folks from all around our community into our faith family.
Now, we are thankful for the numeric growth He has provided and we are much more thrilled for the spiritual growth He is producing in us, but over the past several years, I have noticed two extremes when it comes to serving:
1. The first implied extreme is from a few of those who had been here at the beginning, and it goes something like this:
“I have been here serving in that way for way too long, it’s time for someone else to take over.”
2. and then the second extreme implied is something like this:
“There is a lot going on, and I am sure that someone else is already doing that. I do not need to serve, because someone is already doing that.”
Folks, I want to challenge you to avoid these two extremes. If you have been doing the same thing for a long time, invite someone along in that particular area. Develop a newer faith family member into that position.
If you aren’t currently serving somewhere, let us partner you with someone else who can help you learn a specific area better. You see, as our statement continues:
We do not spectate, but wholly participate by using the gifts God has given us for the building of our church family and the glory of God!
It is not an option to spectate. If you are going to be a thriving part of this body, you need to be serving in some way.
You don’t need to serve in every ministry we offer, but you DO need to be serving someone in some way. Because:
One way our salvation shows itself is through how we serve others.
Those who have truly experienced the grace of God will want to share that grace with others…
We gather these thoughts from many passages and themes in scripture, but specifically today, we are going to look at 1 Peter 4, if you will look there with me.
Peter is writing this letter to believers who were being persecuted for their faith. He was called the “apostle of hope” because he was encouraging them that regardless of what they were experiencing, they were to trust, obey, and fix their hope on God’s ultimate promise of deliverance.
Now, part of their perseverance involved properly stewarding God’s grace to them by serving one another for God’s glory, so Peter writes, beginning in v. 7:
7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.
8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”
9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
The context of this is that things were hard. Not only were they battling the enemy of sin within themselves, but they were battling the enemy of persecution around them. But Peter reminds them:
v. 7 - the end of all things is at hand.
It is not far off from God making all things new. And with the nearness of the end in mind, they were to be serious and watchful in prayer.
You see, the battle of perseverance is fought in dependence. We cannot independently continue in our own strength, we persevere to the end by depending on God.
And as Peter says here, this is a serious matter.
Both of the words serious and watchful hint toward clear-minded self-control. The idea is that prayer is the bridge to combatting the overwhelming anxieties of the persecution they were facing right then, to the future hope they had with God in time to come.
And this dependent prayer is the key to embracing the three elements of service we see in the next few verses… These three elements are:
Fervent Love
Cheerful Hospitality
Good Stewardship
v. 8 - Fervent Love
8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”
Peter replicates what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13 - above all things have fervent love for one another.
Even this love for others flows from the love we have received from God.
And this fervent love results in repetitive forgiveness… Peter says, love covers a multitude of sins.
Why would Peter encourage the persecuted church to love through forgiveness?
Because the church is full of imperfect people. And these imperfect people are going to do things that offend you. They are going to sin against you. There is an understanding that joining together with other broken people, that the shards of their hearts and life are potentially going to affect you.
You see, The scriptures are clear, those who have trusted Christ as Savior have already been delivered from the penalty and power of sin, but not yet from the presence of sin around and within us.
The church is an organization of people, and wherever people are there will be disappointments. There will be times when the frailty of our fleshiness affects someone else - and what do we do in that moment.
Get offended and leave?
Go tell someone else how bad that person is?
Give them the cold-shoulder and avoid contact?
No, you respond to their sin with Love. Because love leads to forgiveness.
Now, this is hard right? This is hard, and that’s why Peter is challenging the church with it.
If it was easy, there would be no need to write about it.
So church, Peter’s admonishment is to establish a fervent love for your faith siblings. Not based on their deserving of your love, but in spite of their lack-thereof.
So, Peter is challenging the church to be serious and watchful praying in dependence as they experience harm from outside the church and hurt from within.
But also, we see the second element of service in v. 9
9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
Cheerful Hospitality
Isn’t it interesting that each of these positive admonishes are tied to a negative aspect of our humanity?
You see, when life is hard (context - being persecuted for your faith), it’s easy to grow snippy and short tempered.
It’s easy to be gracious when everything is great. It’s much harder when things are hard.
So, Peter is establishing an element of serving the body that supersedes circumstances. And it lands with cheerful hospitality. Cheerfully extending grace to guests and strangers with generosity.
Practically, it’s volunteering in the nursery, not knowing any of the families who drop their kids off.
It’s supplying a meal for a family who recently had a baby or dish for a family following a dinner, not even knowing who they are.
It’s saying hello to that person you feel like is a guest. Or scooting down the pew toward someone else so the side seats are available for those who come in later.
It’s being present and remaining attentive when a guest speaker is here.
It’s opening your home to host a small group in the fall, or inviting another family from the church over for a meal to get to know them better.
Cheerful hospitality is embracing God’s good grace to you and extending it to those you don’t know well.
But Peter doesn’t stop there, he adds in the third element of serving in vv. 10-11.
Here we see Good Stewardship
10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Notice the language Peter uses - As each one has received...
It is understood that everyone who has accepted Christ as Savior, has been indwelt by the Spirit, and the abiding Spirit has gifted that believer with a spiritual gift.
And the responsibility of the recipient of that gift, is to be a good steward of this grace of God.
Now, Peter highlights two groups of gifts. As you survey the NT you will notice three primary groups of spiritual gifts. Sign gifts, Speaking gifts, and Serving gifts.
In Acts, you see the initial purpose and use of sign gifts within God’s plan. These sign gifts affirmed the work of God in the early church.
And as you progress chronologically through the NT as the written revelation of God came to completion and the apostolic era phased out, these sign gifts diminished.
And so you are here in 1 Peter, and he only mentions the two remaining groups - v. 11 - speaking gifts and serving gifts.
Now, Peter’s intention is not to discuss the absence of sign gifts. Nor does he give us an exhaustive list within these two groupings. But what he does say, is as God has gifted you, use that gift as a good steward of God’s grace.
And as you speak and as you serve understand the purpose - look at the last part of v. 11:
“that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Friend, God is glorified as you serve others from a sincere heart of love, cheerfulness, and stewardship.
There is no question that you are gifted and that you are to use that gift.
Spectating is not a biblical option. To come and sit and leave is not ok.
The question comes on how you are gifted and how that translates into the life of the church.
If you have never filled out a gift survey, there is a tool on the table in the foyer along with a list of current ministries in the church.
Take one on your way out and turn it back in.
God is good. He loves you, He died for you - will you allow that amazing grace to flow out of you by serving others in the faith family He has given you?
I hope you will obey and experience the joy that comes with it.