First Peter chapter four, verse number seven. But the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Heavenly Father, we pray for your direction, your blessing, wisdom this evening, as we consider very briefly perhaps what should be a very simple subject. Whether simple or complex, we pray, Father, that you would bless us with your word. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Last weekend, in our Sunday school lesson, we looked at the Lord Jesus' parable of the talents, applying that to the work of evangelism. Matthew 25 tells us that that parable was given to the disciples just two or three days prior to the crucifixion. In Luke 19, we have a similar but different illustration with some of the details changed a little bit, and it's called there the Parable of the Pounds, and sometimes given other names as well. The context tells us that Luke 19 was given to the disciples much, much earlier in Jesus' ministry, It took place just shortly after the conversion of Zacchaeus. Please turn to Luke chapter 19 and verse number 12. Luke 19. Verse number 12. We're going to read this parable. We're going to do it a little differently this evening, just for fun. I will read one verse. You all read the second verse. I will read the third. We'll just alternate back and forth, just to make things a little different. Verse number 12. And Jesus said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he... We're going to have to work on this. I can see that. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass it to him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, We are well though good, sir, because thou hast been faithful in a very little. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, be thou lost over five centuries. And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. For I fear thee, because thou art a true man. Now take us up, that thou lay us not down, and leave us, that thou And he saith unto him, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore? For they gave it so, that my money did to the bank, that of my coming I might have retarded my foes. We'll stop right there. I know the parable goes on, but it's not pertinent to our lesson. This is an illustration of what Peter has just mentioned to us back here in 1 Peter 4. The lesson is obvious. The lesson is simple. I suppose that any one of you could get up here and teach the lesson as well as I could this evening, but that's not the way it is. I will share with you the few things that I have pulled and gleaned from this. Peter tells us to be cheerfully hospitable. using God's gracious gifts wisely. Our first question is this, to whom were these pounds or these talents given? The answer, once again, is that Peter is writing to Christians. He's writing to the saints of God. So this isn't instruction to lost people, and it isn't instruction simply to the servants over here or the masters over here. It isn't instruction to the ladies. We saw these in chapters two and three. It's not to husbands. This is to everybody, to everyone. And this brings us back into the context of the Lord's churches. One of the churches, this church. Calvary Baptist is a church body made up of eyes and ears and fingers and feet. We are a body. If there is not a proper sharing of the blessings from the eye to the ear, the body's not going to function very well. There will be an overall sharing of the food that I ate for supper tonight. And if there is a blood clot preventing proper flow of blood down a leg, then that foot may be in trouble. And if it's not cleared up, that body may lose the foot. or if there is nerve damage down that same leg. The foot or the leg may suffer some sort of neuropathy, perhaps making the whole body unable to walk about and carry on its responsibilities. This is what we're talking about here. As every man hath received the gift, So minister for the good of the entire church body. You have a gift, I have a gift. I see, you taste, you speak, you walk. We all have different responsibilities and they all come together in the Lord's church. What sort of things, what sort of pounds, what sort of talents has the Lord given to every man? Since Peter doesn't list anything specific, we have the opportunity and we have the responsibility to fill in the blanks, shall we say. Last Sunday morning, I suggested that one of God's blessings is the grace that we have received through the gospel. Salvation has been a gift that we have received individually, And we are to share. Paul wrote to the Romans, I am debtor, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise, because I have received God's blessing and I now must share it. So much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you people at Rome, as well as the other places where I've been preaching. While applicable to the gospel, we notice that what Peter says here is that our gifts are manifold, the manifold grace of God. We have been given a great variety of divine gifts, all under the umbrella of grace. Grace suggests that they are unmerited gifts from God. They aren't earnings paid for a job well done. They aren't part of an inheritance that we deserve because we have the right bloodline. As former rebels and slaves, everything we possess is a gift that the Lord has given to us. We don't deserve anything at all. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Now Peter says, as every man hath received the gift, so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Manifold, of course, does not refer to a very special part of the engine that drives your car. Manifold means many, and at the same time, diverse. Many diverse aspects. This word is most often translated in the Bible divers, which is very close to diverse, isn't it? In Hebrews, the rider points to the gospel and the salvation which has been preached to us or to those people. And then in the following verse he adds, God also bearing them witness, these things that have been given, both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles. and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. The Lord has supplied a variety of evidences that go along with the preaching of the gospel, including miraculous things sometimes. Whenever a person is saved, it is a miraculous thing. Every morning we get up. Every time we get out of bed, every day that we have a new day, we awaken to God's blessings and his diver's bounty. Going to the kitchen, we open our metaphorical cupboard or refrigerator to a cornucopia of divine gifts. Not only do we find coffee and cereal and milk and eggs and toast, but we also have the ability to see them, and we have hands to reach them, and we have knowledge to prepare them. We have so much that the Lord gives to us over and over and over again. I'm not trying to be silly. I'm trying to suggest that we are given more daily grace than we usually recognize, appreciate, and are thankful for. The opportunities of the day and whatever our health provides are a part of the Lord's diverse blessings. Our house, our vehicles, thousand other things are a part of the manifold grace of God. We could spend a considerable amount of time making lists. This is such a wonderful thing. This is another wonderful thing. You know, it might be helpful sometime to sit down and make a list of the things we possess which God did not give to us. That'd be a much shorter list. And then when we look at it, we might find out it's not a very good list anyway. Maybe we shouldn't have these things. Every good gift, every perfect gift that we possess has been given to us by our Father in heaven, the Father of lights. as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. For what reason have we been given these gifts and blessings? It doesn't matter of what particular grace you may be speaking. What you have been given has been given to you as a steward of the Lord, a servant of the Lord in not just do this, do that, but manage this, take care of this, share that. Obviously, if the Lord has given you an elk or a steer or a potato or a tomato, Ah, we need to take some of that and maintain this body and maintain the lives of our families. I can't remember where it was, but recently I heard about a child who was offended by the safety instructions that she heard on the airplane as she made a recent trip. Did anyone else hear this? Okay, I don't know where I got it, but within the last week, I remember where it was. She listened as the stewardess said, this and this and this, the seatbelt and exits are over here. And if there's a drop in the air pressure in the cabin, then above the head of your mother there, there will be a mask that drops down. Mother, you take that mask and you put it over your face. And you start to breathe, and yes, the bag doesn't have to fill up, but you'll get the oxygen. And then, after you've done that, take care of your child. And this little girl was thinking, well, this isn't right. I'm just a helpless little child. I should come first. Mom should take care of me. I'm expecting her to take care of me. How unfair. Now, in this case, the adult means to do whatever is necessary for herself in order to be a blessing to others. The Lord has blessed us. He's given us so many things. It's not wrong for us to take care of us before we share the bounty with others. That's all that I'm trying to say here. We've been given gifts of oxygen and vitamin and provision, nutrition, as one of God's servants. And when your needs have been sufficiently met, Not overdone, necessarily. Be hospitable. Share what excess you have with others. As I say, you could teach this lesson. Nothing's upstanding here. Why did God grant us this gift, whatever the gift might be? Ultimately, it has been given to us as an opportunity to glorify the Lord. It's for the Lord's glory. Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do it all for the glory of God, 1 Corinthians 10 31. Whatsoever you have been given, whether food or drink, minister the same for the glory of God. Austin was pointing out to us, I think it was Sunday night, just to a couple of us that, We serve God by serving the people right in front of us. We glorify God by giving the lost the gospel, by sharing what we have with others. Among other things, we glorify God by hospitality, by being hospitable without grudging. We magnify the Lord and we thank him for his grace by ministering the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. More specifically, what we must do, what must we do with what God has given to us? I'm repeating myself, but we minister it to others. The word minister is related to deacon. We are to be servants to others with the grace that we have received from the Lord. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. Use. The other day I had to fix the self-closing door between the garage and the kitchen in our house. There were two hinges, there were three hinges on the door, but two of them were these closing variety and they had worn out. They needed to be replaced. So I went to Lowe's and got the new hinges and I came home and read the instructions four times to make sure I was doing it right. Then I went and I got the proper tools. And I used the tools to put the hinges in the right place and lo and behold, I was successful. Surprised myself. We use hospitality as tools. As tools. Tools for the grace of God, or tools for the glory of God, I should say. But just in passing, I find it interesting that in the Greek, there is no verb in verse number nine. The word use is not to be found in the Greek. Hospitality, which is a noun, is written as the verb of the sentence. Strange. It's not the way we do things in English. I don't know if that makes any sense. But what I'm trying to say is the sheer existence of God's blessing, the fact that we possess a surplus of something automatically demands that we use it. The hospitality, the grace itself is demanding use. And what should be our attitude in this re-gifting as they say these days? I don't know that I've heard that more than the last year or so, seems to be a new word. What should be our attitude in this re-gifting? We are to use hospitality one to another without grudging. I see the omniscience of God here. I see Peter looking through the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 19th, 20th, 21st century at us and he sees a bunch of Ebenezer Scrooges. Use hospitality one to another without murmuring, without complaining. In Philippians, Paul summarily says, do all things without murmuring or disputings. Chapter two and verse number 14. It's often been said, and perhaps you will agree, that we live in the me generation. When we're not everything, we ought to be the first thing. If it's not all about me, then at least I need to be first in line for whatever's coming along. Just the attitude of the day. This is not the Christian perspective. And it's not a coincidence that this exhortation to hospitality follows immediately on the exhortation, and above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, charity is kind. Doesn't say hospitable, but he could have. Charity is kind. Where God's abundant love is received and appreciated, it will be shared. If we don't appreciate it, then we may hoard it. When hospitality is rooted in God's love, there won't be any room for grudging. And by the way, Use hospitality one or another without expecting any hospitality in return. Many of us live with a quid pro quo mentality. And again, this is not the Christian way of living. The Latin phrase literally means something for something. So many of the me generation think that in giving something, we should get something back. Oh, it doesn't have to be right now, but if I'm being hospitable to you, then you need to be hospitable to me sometime within the next three months, or the world will come to an end. It'll just be off kilter or something. No. Again, that's contrary to Christian principles. We have been saved by grace, and therefore we should be gracious people. Freely have ye received, freely give, the word of God says. What more can I add to that? Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gifts, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of heaven.