But we're looking at the Christian responsibility to one another, and the passage I've chosen is 1 Peter 4, verse 7. through 11. Now, do any of you remember, or hopefully most of you remember, the story that Jesus told of the talents and the three servants? This is found in Matthew chapter 25. You don't have to turn there. Matthew 25, verses 14 through 30. In this story, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a man, a wealthy business owner, who travels to a far country. While he is gone, he gives a portion of his wealth to three of his servants. Each one received a portion to manage and steward while the owner was away. The first received five talents, the second two, and the third received one. Now, it can be difficult to know exactly how much a talent was worth. Back then, they measured things in weight, and so the talent was actually a weight measure. They actually have found talent stones that were used. They'd have a big scale, and they'd put the talent stone on one end, and they would put silver or gold or some other thing on the other side, and when it balanced out, you knew you had a talent worth of that substance. They've actually found talent stones, and they usually weigh between 65 and 80 pounds. This could be used to weigh silver, gold, other precious metals, things like that. One talent here could be considered as 6,000 days wages for a normal laborer. Kind of a blue-collar, everyday person. 6,000 days of their wage. or 20 years of pay for a general laborer. This would equal in our money, and there's different numbers, but somewhere around $500,000 to $600,000 perhaps. Some measures are more, depends on if you're using silver or gold. So the point here though is that these talents are an almost astronomical amount of money. The point is not, Jesus is not trying to tell them exactly how much money he spent. What he's trying to communicate is that there was a massive amount that was left to these servants. Remember, the first servant had five talents, so multi-millions worth of dollars. The second had two, and the third servant had one. So what do these servants do? Well, the first servant works hard. He takes his capital, he invests it, he puts it to work, he buys businesses, he makes his money work for him, and when the master returns, this first servant had doubled his talents, taking five and making five more. The second servant does the same, and he doubles it from two to four. But the third servant, the third servant was afraid. He did not want to risk losing the money that had been given to him by his master. So he said, I'm gonna keep it safe. And he dug a hole and he buried it in the ground. And when the master came back, he said, here is your one talent. I have kept it safe for you. He didn't gain anything, but he also didn't risk losing it. Well, when the master returns in the story that Jesus tells, the first two are congratulated. They are given more. according to the amount that they have been faithful in procuring. And they're rewarded for this faithfulness. But the third servant was condemned and punished. And Jesus says in Matthew 25, 29, For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. These servants were given stewardship over their master's money. They didn't own these talents, but they were given to them to use for the master's benefit. In the story, the master even tells the third servant, at least you could have put it in the bank and gotten interest. But his fear kept him from risking or using the talent given to him for its intended purpose. So this is our concept today of stewardship. of being a steward, responsibility that you have been given. Stewardship is the responsibility of managing the possessions of another. A steward is one who is not own it, but is given the management responsibility in place of the owner. In the Bible, it was most commonly a household manager. So the owner, right, they had a very structured society. So you would have rich people and you'd kind of have everybody else. There was no middle class kind of like we have today. So if you had enough to give to somebody else, it's probably because you were a wealthy business owner, you had a lot of money, and so you would have a business manager who managed your household, who managed your expenses, who managed your things and your money. There's a really good example of this in the Bible. Think of Joseph in Potiphar's house. Joseph is sent down to Egypt, and he's a slave. He doesn't own anything, but the master trusts him enough where he gives him management of everything, except his wife. And that is stewardship. But today, as we'll see in 1 Peter, you are a steward of something very, very precious. Something more valuable than five talents or two talents or one talent or any number of talents. You have been given stewardship of a gift that comes from our gracious God, Father. It was won through Jesus Christ's redemption, and it was delivered to you through the Holy Spirit. God has granted you special talents, gifts, resources, and abilities as a Christian. This gift from the Holy Spirit, though it belongs to God, has been given to you to steward. You are its steward, and God expects you to use it to serve his people for his glory. And so, if you wanna know what the point of this message is, There it is. I don't usually do this. It's not my style. But here you go. For those of you who want to know up front what I'm going to say. You must be a good steward of God's gracious gift by dedicating yourself to prayer, maintaining fervent love, and serving for God's glory. Now we're going to go a little out of order here in the passage to follow the theme. So stick with me. Some of you will be annoyed by that. But look in 1 Peter. And look at verses 10 and 11. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak with the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So first, let's start off talking about what is this gift? Because we have to understand what is the gift before we can use it appropriately. God's gracious gift that we have seen here that you have been made a steward of, what is this? Well first, if you are a Christian today, you have received God's grace. If you have received salvation in Christ, you have God's grace on your life. God's grace is his favor. It's his smiling face. It's his pronouncement of blessing and honor. Grace is when God looks at you, he doesn't frown, he doesn't think of all the bad things that you've done, he has favor on you. He looks at you with honor, with blessing, caring for you, with positivity. Some of you know what it's like to have a parent that was more negative, where nothing you could do could make them happy. That's not our God. If you're a Christian, he looks on you with favor, with a smiling face. When you come to him, when you speak to him, he's ready to hear. That's grace. Now, in our natural state, in the natural state of mankind, do we deserve this grace, this favor? Of course not. You and I are not deserving of God's favor, of his grace. We are deserving of judgment. Just as our first father, Adam, sinned, we also have all sinned. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have fallen short of that perfect standard of God, which is his own perfection, his own perfect character. And just as God told Adam in the beginning, in the garden, the result of sin, the payment for sin, is what? It is death. What did God tell Adam and Eve, or Adam? The day you eat of this fruit, the day you sin, the day you break my one rule, you will surely die. And as we see in the New Testament, as Paul says, the wages of sin is death. you and I and every human on this earth, we deserve death for our sin. God would righteously and correctly judge us, destroy us in his wrath. But just like Adam brought sin and death to all mankind, so also life and forgiveness has come through one man, Jesus Christ. God's grace is not earned by you or by me or any of our good works. It is earned by the obedience of God's Son, Jesus Christ, and his perfect obedience even unto death. Jesus was conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. He was born without sin. He was perfectly obedient to every righteous requirement. He obeyed God's will, the Father's will, even to the point of death. As we see in the scripture, Jesus died for you, not because he deserved it, but because he took the death that you deserve. And Jesus provides life for those who don't deserve it, you and I. He deserved life, but received death. You deserve death, but through him can receive life. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says this, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. The favor that God the Father lavishes, the grace that he gives us, the grace that Jesus deserves is given to us. When Jesus comes out of the water as baptism, they hear a voice from heaven and the Father says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That attitude of favor is the attitude that you receive from God if you are in Christ. As Ephesians 2.8.9 says, So if you receive grace from God, if you are a Christian, if you don't know Christ today, if you have not turned from your sin, if you have not trusted in Him fully, then you are not under grace. You are under wrath, under judgment, but there is grace available. All you must do is trust in Christ. all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So you've received God's grace in general for salvation, but also you have received the grace of God's indwelling and empowering spirit. We know that Jesus did not stay dead. He rose from the grave alive and well. And not only that, but he ascended back to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father as the exalted Son of God. And from that place of authority and of honor, he sent his own spirit the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, to dwell in the hearts of his people, to dwell in the hearts of those who believe in him. And I did a whole sermon on this passage, so you can go listen to it, but Ephesians 4, 7 through 10 says, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this, he ascended, what does it mean except that he first also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things. What is this gift ultimately? It is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples, it is better that I go away because I will send another comforter who will dwell in your hearts. That is the gift of Christ, the gift of grace. This is the grace of which you, Christian, have been made a steward. You have received the grace of God for salvation, and you have God's indwelling, empowering, comforting Holy Spirit that lives within you. That's the gift that he's talking about here. And this, every Christian, through God's indwelling, has received a gift. So you must be a good steward. You must be a good steward. The spiritual gifts that God's grants through his spirit are given to every believer. Notice in verse 10 of chapter four, what does it say? As each one has received a gift. So first thing here about this gift, every believer has it. Spiritual gifts are not given to some Christians and some Christians don't get them. Spiritual gifts are not given to some Christians after they're saved as a bonus spiritual thing. They are an integral part of salvation because they are an application of God's indwelling spirit. The gift that you receive from God is the Holy Spirit's work in your life. That is the gift that you have. I'll just note that because there are groups out there and churches, usually known called charismatic churches, not all of them, but many of them, that teach that spiritual gifts of God's spirit are something extra after salvation. You get saved, and then after you're a Christian, you have to seek this extra gift. That's not what Paul teaches here. Paul says if you're a Christian, if you have the Spirit, you have a spiritual gift by God's Spirit. Your spiritual gifts are the Holy Spirit's work in your life. Spiritual gifts are also very demonstration of God's grace. Notice what he says, right? As each one has received a gift, minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. What is this word manifold? It means multifaceted. It's multi-application of a demonstration. They're very demonstrations. Why? Because the gift that you have is the application of God's spirit in you. So is the gift that the Holy Spirit works in your life going to look exactly like the gift that the Holy Spirit works in someone else's life? Not unless you and them are identical in every aspect, which no one is. Spiritual gifts are a very demonstration of God's grace. The grace is the same, but how it looks in application is different for every person. The Spirit is the same, but the gifts that he grants to different people look different. God's grace is like a multifaceted diamond. Its beauty and value is demonstrated by its varied nature. The many different angles and cuts are what make a diamond sparkle. Your gift is not like everyone else's, and it shouldn't be. Do not let envy of other people's gifts, the things they can do, the abilities they have, don't let those discourage you. Their gift is different than yours. Also, do not let disdain for others' apparent quote-unquote lack of gifting lead you to arrogance. Some of us with more prominent gifts by the Holy Spirit might be tempted to look at others and say, oh, I can't even tell what gift they have. That's not what God wants because it is the Holy Spirit's work in each person's life that looks different. And that multifaceted, that varied and diverse nature of the one gift of the Holy Spirit is its glory. If we all were the same, if we all had the same gift, if we all had the same skills, if we all had the same talents, if God worked through us in all the exact same way, I mean, that'd be great. But what's more amazing is when the same God, the same spirit, the same grace comes out in many, many different ways in different individuals. That's this gift. Okay, so what else? This gift also is for service. Each Christian must use it, this gift of the Holy Spirit, in service for God's people as good stewards. Spiritual gifts are not given for personal spiritual growth. Notice, right, what is, look in verse 10 again. If each one has received a gift, minister it to one another. Minister is the idea of serve. It's like the similar word to deacon, to servant, to serve. Each one has received a gift, minister it to one another. If anyone speaks, let him speak the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies. Notice, spiritual gifts are not for you to grow spiritually, primarily. Now, you should grow spiritually in walking in step with the Holy Spirit, but the gifts that you can use in our church The gifts that are given to you to manage are not primarily for your own spiritual growth. They are for the service of others. It is God's grace that has been given to you to serve God's people. They're also not for you to serve yourself. They are not to build ourselves up. They are to serve God's people. That's why the Spirit works out these gifts in our lives. These gifts also are spiritual in nature and not simply talents. Notice, where does the gift originate? These gifts, these talents, these abilities? They originate in God's spirit. Now, do people have God-given natural talents? Yes. Some people are really good at music. Some people are really creative. Some people are great at physics. Some people are really good at all these different things. Your talent, your skill, your natural-born skill is not necessarily what we're talking about here. Because even an unsaved person has talents. Even an unsaved person has skills. These are spiritual in nature. They are spiritual gifts that God, through his spirit, supernaturally gives to you. He supernaturally enables you to serve him and his people with your resources and talents. Your spiritual gift is the Holy Spirit's empowerment in your life to fill the needs of his people. Now, can God use your talents and skills? Of course. But the gift is not located in the talent or skill, it is in the Spirit's ability to use that talent or skill for the benefit of others. That is the Spirit's gifting in your life. It is spiritual, it comes from God's spirit. And really, this is beautiful because in our natural unsaved state without God, we have talents and skills and abilities, but what do we most use it for? For ourselves. And when we're saved, God takes those talents and skills and abilities and he transforms them to be used for the benefit to fill the needs of his people. This is what you must be a steward of. of the gift that God has granted you. And this gift is not just the spiritual gift, but remember, it's the gift which the Spirit gives you, which was from God's grace through Jesus Christ. It does not belong to you to use for yourself. It must not be buried in him. Remember the third servant in the story? What did he do? Well, he didn't lose it. He also didn't use it. He said, I'll bury it, and that way I'll keep it safe. That's not being a good steward. Being a good steward says, I have been given this to use. God doesn't reward an overabundance of caution out of fear. In some ways, according to that story, God actually wants us to be passionate, to be ambitious, to be, aggressive's not quite the right word, but he wants us to use what we have. If we put it in the ground and never use it, then it's a waste. It's a tool given to us to use. If you are not actively involved in using God's gifts, for the good of his people, then you're living in disobedience. You can still be a Christian, but you're not doing what God wants you to do. This grace is not just given to you to hoard, it is given to you to use for God's glory. This is not for me or someone else to judge. Please remember that. We're not to walk around looking at other people and saying, well, I don't think they're using their gift like they should. No, no, that's not our job, because every gift is different. Right, didn't we see that? Every person's gift is different. Some are more obvious, some are more private. Some are bigger, some are smaller. Some are in things that I appreciate, and some people have gifts in things that I'm like, oh, I don't really understand that. But for you, as a Christian today, you should take it seriously to think, what has God given to me to use, and how am I using it? Deal with God yourself. So this is what we must be good stewards of. So we kind of went ahead to look at the gift. What is the gift? Every one of you has it if you're a Christian. Every one of you has a responsibility to use it. It is for the good of God's people, for his glory. So let's keep going in the passage here. So what does this look like? By being a good steward, be a good steward by a couple things. First, be dedicated to prayer because Christ's return is near. Look at verse seven. But the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers." What does he mean by this? The end of all things is near. You might be like, Peter, it's been 2,000 years. You said it was close. What's going on? Please understand that what Peter is saying is it is near in the sense of it's imminent. It could happen at any time. We are in the end times. The death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus has inaugurated these last days. Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father, and what are we waiting for? For him to come back. Just as the angels told the disciples, just as you saw him go up into heaven, so also you will see him come down. This is the doctrine of imminency. There is no prophecy that must be fulfilled before Jesus returns. This could happen at any time, and I know it's hard sometimes for us to grasp, we lose sight of it, but Jesus could return today. Could be here tomorrow. As it says, Jesus himself said this in Matthew 24. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man, Jesus. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together immediately after the tribulation. Those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the great clouds of heaven with power and glory. and he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds and from one end of the heaven to the end to the other. It's like a lightning flash. He says in this passage, it's like a thief in the night. We must recognize it is imminent. It could happen at any time. And though it did not happen as Peter was expecting it, maybe any time, it still could happen any time today. This is sobering, because our Master, the one who's granted us this gift of grace, who's given us this stewardship, through the Spirit, He is returning. The disciple wants to honor Jesus. Now please understand, if you're a Christian, we are not afraid of judgment. We're not afraid of being condemned, because we stand not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ. So we don't look forward to this out of fear of punishment, but we should look at it as a serious sobering thing because he's been given us this stewardship of which we want to be faithful. The return of Christ means we cannot live empty, pointless, vain lives. We cannot waste our time living for ourselves. Instead, we must be serious and sober-minded. This doesn't mean we aren't joyful. It doesn't mean we don't enjoy life. It doesn't mean we don't put stuff into retirement accounts. No, okay, we still should plan, be wise. But it does mean we take our spiritual lives and the spiritual pursuits seriously. The Master who has appointed us as stewards could return at any time. And we must be what? Serious and sober-minded. For what? For prayer. Watchful for prayer. Nothing indicates our serious regard for the return of Christ like our prayer lives, or the lack thereof. Prayer draws us into alignment with God. Prayer submits ourselves to God, and ultimately, prayer is a cry of dependence. Now, the line, nothing indicates our regard or disregard for the return of Christ, like our prayer life or lack thereof, yeah, that's convicting, even to me, to me as well, because I do not pray like I should, always. It's a prayer of dependence. Do we depend on God? Do we truly trust him when we are in need? You know, our culture, human nature really, will always tell you that there's an apocalypse coming, especially in this last century, in this century, right? It's global cooling, it's overpopulation, it's nuclear disaster, it's global warming, or climate change, or it's COVID-19. There's always something that's gonna be, the end is near. And, you know, when we say the end is near, I always think of some cartoonish, you know, crazy man with the hair going crazy, a big beard holding the, you know, holding the double-sided sign, the end is near. Yeah, we don't want to be like that, but we should take seriously. Peter is saying the end of all things is at hand. You know, you might think, you might, I've never heard this one before. This is the most important election of our country's history. I'm pretty young, but I think I've heard that for every election I've been alive for. And it may be true in some ways. You may hear someone say, if we don't win this election, then it's the end of our country as we know it. It's possible. But Christians live with the end of time always in our view. We're not frightened. We're not afraid. We don't live in fear. The world will tell you to hyperfixate on the worst potential scenarios. Some will even try to bind you with fear by telling you not to live your lives, don't have children. You don't know what the future will bring. That's not what God wants of us. I saw someone online, someone I don't know. It was an anonymous person. Well, someone I don't know. But they literally said, because the election is coming and there's so much uncertainty, if you're planning to have kids, just wait till after the election. Which, funny, because you're like, if you already do, there's not much you can do about that. But the point was, you're so worried about the future, don't do the things that God has called you to do. The Christian does not become bound by these fears. Instead, the Christian is moved to a sober-minded focus on that which truly matters. Notice, this focus on the end times, the apocalypse, the coming end of time, does not mean that we should go weird or crazy or become Illogical, what is the focus back on? It's back actually focused on the very normal, practical, everyday things that God has called us to. You know, are you a prepper? I don't know if anyone in here is a prepper. I do know some people who are preppers. You know, if you're like prepping for the apocalypse, is it okay to prep a little bit? Yeah, if you wanna prep a little bit, go for it, okay? As long as you're not being unwise, you can have your foodstuffs and your ammunition and your water and everything ready. But you know, do you pray as much as you think about prepping? You know, do you worry about this election that's coming up? Or do you default to prayer as often as you default to watching the news, or listening to political podcasts, or thinking about your activism? The actions in being wise in this life is appropriate, but what does Peter point us back to? Prayer, because prayer points us back to the one on whom we truly depend, the one who we truly trust. Who we trust in is revealed by our prayer life. And you know what I see in myself. I trust myself far more often than I trust God. Because when tough times hit, when difficult things happen, when I'm worried about something, you know what I do naturally, my natural inclination? I gotta start planning. I gotta start thinking. I gotta start researching. I gotta start doing pros and cons and I can think my way out of this. Some of you may be warriors. Some of you may have different things that you default to, but what should be our default when we consider the end is near, that Christ could return at any point? Prayer. Serious and sober-minded dedication to prayer. How serious are we about prayer here at Crossroad? And like I said in the first service, anytime you bring up prayer, it's like instant conviction. Because none of us are perfect. And it's like one of the easiest way that we know we're faulty. As I remember, prayer is hard work. Prayer takes dedication. It takes work. It doesn't just happen by accident. You think of it as something easy that we should be able to do easily. No, it actually, in the Bible, it's work. It takes effort. It takes dedication. I'll just note, we spent some time praying this morning, and on September 22nd, for our first service, we're gonna focus on prayer from then on for a while. So if you're serious about praying, I would love for you to join us on September 22nd, starting at 9 a.m. or in that hour. So what does this mean the end is near for the unsaved? We've seen what it means for the Christian. If you are here today without Christ, then the imminent return of Christ should cause you a little bit of fear. You should fear Jesus. Because at his second coming, he's not gonna be the weak, passive, just affirming Jesus that our culture presents him as. At his first coming, he was humble. He was laid in a manger. He suffered as a sheep, led to the slaughter. They took him to the cross, he didn't even open his mouth, he didn't complain. He could have called a legion of angels, and yet he didn't. But at his second coming, he's not gonna be a suffering lamb, silent. He's gonna be a roaring lion. He's gonna come as a conqueror. Jesus says himself in Matthew 25, from the same passage we read, we talked about at the beginning. And he will set up the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we feed you? When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison or come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, as surely as I say to you, and as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me. But then he will say also to those on his left hand, depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Revelation 19 presents Jesus as the conquering king on a white throne, or white horse, with the sword coming out of his mouth, conquering. So if you're here without Christ, what must you do? Just repent. Turn from your sin. Turn to Christ and throw yourself on his mercy and grace. His grace is available. He died so that you don't need to face death and judgment. Do not harden your hearts. Do not delay. Today is the day of salvation. You do not know what tomorrow will bring. Let go of your sin and pride. Trust in Jesus if you have not. So we've seen, first of all, be a good steward of God's gift is to be dedicated to prayer. But secondly, it's to maintain fervent love for one another. Look at verse 8 of 1 Peter 4. And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. What does he say here? He says have, really the idea is to keep having. Maintain this love, this fervent love. Stoke up love for one another. This must be ongoing for your fellow believers. We must love one another and work on maintaining our love. You know, the world will preach that love is something you fall in and you fall out of. Sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don't. That's not reality. Sometimes you do feel it and sometimes you don't. But real love is work. Real love is maintained. The feelings of love often follow our dedicated work of love. Now this is true in marriage. This is a little bit of a side. This is true in marriage. If you say, man, I don't feel in love, and you say, well, then I'm not gonna act loving, well, then guess what? You'll probably not feel in love again. Your feelings often follow your actions. At the beginning, your actions follow your feelings, because you're twitterpated and you're intoxicated in the feelings, but eventually, you get married long enough, you're married long enough, guess what? Your feelings follow your actions. Same thing with people in your church. Sometimes we walk around in our church saying, I just don't feel like loving them today. I don't feel very loving to these people. Well, our responsibility is to keep, to maintain, to be dedicated in our love, whether or not we feel it. To have fervent. Fervent is eager and constant. There's no days off. There's no downtime. Christ's love for us never ceases or wanes, and so our love for each other should remain fervently constant. And why? Because love will cover a multitude of sins. This is quoting Proverbs 10, verse 12. You know, sometimes the problem is we don't love our church members because we don't want to cover their sin. We'd rather be angry about it. You know, I want to be upset at them. I want to be angry. I want to be a little bit, you know, grumpy. That's not the love that God wants. Would you rather hold on to your offenses and keep a record? And I'm going to keep a list of all the things that my fellow church members have done to me. If you don't desire to cover their small offenses, then you will never choose to love them. Do you wish to overlook the offenses of others? Then as Jesus taught, you must overlook their offenses in love. One commentator says, Peter is not suggesting that we sweep under the rug every bad thing that happens or in the name of love let people run roughshod over us and others. We're not talking about injustice. We're not talking about great sin. We're not talking about just letting abuses go by. But what we are talking about is the small little offenses, the small friction points that any relationship will have. And when love flourishes, we are not easily offended, but we are willing to endure those small things. He also says, be hospitable. One of the prominent and practical ways Christians must love and serve each other is with hospitality. Now, in the days of the New Testament, okay, the days of the New Testament, hospitality was even more important because guess what? They didn't have Motel 6. They don't have Holiday Inn. They don't have Airbnb. They can't just ring up a place and stay. And no, they didn't have cell phones. They didn't have any of these things. So when you went on a long trip, you know what you did? You maybe sent a letter, but the letter might not even get there. Who knows? And you just go on your trip, and when you get there, you show up at somebody's house, somebody you know, a family member, or somebody in your religious community. And you say, hey, I am a traveler. I'm on the road. I need some hospitality. And you know what? Everybody was kind of expected to serve them, because if you didn't, they're out on the street, and it's dangerous, it's dark, they could be killed. So that's the hospitality that he's talking about, and we're not used to that, because in our culture, we all pretty much live our independent lives. We take care of ourselves, and we kind of expect people to take care of themselves. So if hospitality doesn't look the same, what does it look like? What does it look like? I should go back. Before I say that, Peter encourages this hospitality just like they would show to their family members. So also you should take care of the people of your church, fellow Christians. This of course required a great deal of hosts. It could become uncomfortable. It could become demanding. Take sacrifice. That's true love. Well, how do we serve our fellow believers in our church? We may not be called to that kind of hospitality, but what can we do? Well, I'll be honest with you. We don't need a place to meet. For instance, another way that they did hospitality was in the New Testament church. Most places, they didn't have a church building. They would meet in people's houses that had larger houses. And if so, if people weren't willing to open their houses for the church to meet, they might not have a place. Well, we're not usually asking that of you because we have a building. But you know what we can't do here? We can't build the kind of community that the New Testament church had. True community, family-type love and care for one another, is not built by sitting in pews listening to me, as much as that's important to hear the preaching. What does it take? It takes people meeting together, sharing in their homes. This is very kind of, you know, not set in our church. I lost the right word. It's something that you must do. to make it happen. You know, hospitality in our church might just start with an invitation. It might just start with you saying, I'm just gonna invite someone to come over. Can be if you're a meal, can be just hang out. You know, older people, people who've been, have experience, I should say, the experienced ones among you. You know, in our culture, people my age, people around my generation and younger, they often don't have good father figures, good parents, good mentors. They don't have older people who are truly invested in helping them building relationships. People of my generation, you may think that most people of my generation wouldn't be interested. I don't know if that's true. Younger people would probably jump at the chance if you said, hey, just come on over and hang out with us. You all have a lot more experience, wisdom, relationship to give. That's one way, just a practical way. What can we do for hospitality? Well, caring for the needs of one another, being willing to sacrifice to serve one another. What do you have that you can use for hospitality? Your home shouldn't only be a retreat from the world, but it should be a place of ministry. Can you use your home, your time, your emotional and relational energy in service of others? It's not that complicated, but sometimes it's difficult. But it just takes an imitation. Hospitality. And our last point. Serve one another for God's glory. We're kind of back at chapter, verse 10 and 11. And we already went through a little bit of this, so it's just gonna be a shorter one this time. What does he say? What's the point of this service? What's the point of being a good steward? Of loving one another, being hospitable to one another. It's to serve one another for God's glory. Notice, each Christian must serve with God's gift and not their own strength, so that God is glorified. Verse 11, if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers or serves, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Christ Jesus. God is glorified, God is made seen great when you serve with his gracious gift to you. The ability and strength for service does not come from you, it comes from God. God is glorified when we serve in our weakness as we rely on him. For instance, the glory of a preacher, glory of a teacher, of a speaker, is not found in his eloquence, it's not found in the rhetorical flourishes he uses, It's not found in my own human opinions. The glory of a preacher is found when he proclaims, what is it, the oracles of God, the messages of God, the word of God, the gospel. You know, there's a lot of preachers out there who will love to give you all of their opinions on every aspect of life. And I'll tell you honestly, do I think sometimes there's wisdom you need to know? Yes. But I'm not some guru. I'm not all competent. I don't know everything. The wisdom that I have comes from God's word. The wisdom I have comes from the gospel. So you should be careful, because there are people who want a preacher to just tell them, what should I do in every single scenario? You know, you've got to be careful because the speaker should not be speaking from his own opinions, from his own wisdom, from his own ideas. He must speak the message, the oracles of God. That's his glory. What about the glory of a server? It's not in his or her own abilities or skills. It's not in his or her own accolades or acknowledgements. The glory of a server is found in his or her reliance on God's strength. So are you nervous about serving? Are you intimidated? Well, first, don't seek to serve in an area in which you are not gifted. Don't seek to serve in an area in which you are not gifted. But what has God put on your heart? When you are walking with him, when you're submitted to him, what burdens do you feel for those around you? You know, you may walk into church and you may notice things about other people and what's going on with them and their needs that other people don't notice. That may very well be God's Spirit showing you your gift. What do you desire? You see a problem and what's your desire? If you're walking the Spirit, if you have a desire to fill that need, maybe that's the Spirit leading you. If you feel that, if you notice these things, if God gives you burdens, then jump in. Don't fear for your own weakness. Don't say, I see that need and God gives me a burden, but I don't think I can do that. It is God's gifts that empowers you to serve. You do not have to be all-sufficient. You do not have to be perfect. You do not have to be omni-capable. You simply have to act in love, trusting God's spirit within you, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians. Chapter 12, he says, and lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities, his weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in sickness, in weakness, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Your weakness is what brings glory to God. It's not your strength. So often we think that God only wants us to serve out of a place of strength, but no, it is our weakness, our frailty, it is the humble which he uses. Because when it's your weakness, when it's your frailty and your failures, then nobody thinks it's you. People know it's God. And that brings glory to him. As Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, Because when we serve out of His strength, not our own, it demonstrates Jesus Christ's redemption within us. Who bought us this gift? Who purchased this gift of grace? It's Jesus. So who are you serving with your gifts? Are you serving yourself and the church gets the leftovers? Whose glory are you demonstrating? And please understand, I'm not talking necessarily about all the formal stuff of the church. I'm talking about serving God's people. That can take place outside of this building without me even knowing about it. I'm not saying you need to do what I want you to do. I'm saying, do you care for the people of our church? Are you serving the people of our church? Are you using your own strength or God's? Are you demonstrating God's glory or your own? This means you must be dedicated to serving the people of your church. As an aside, this is why another reason why every Christian, I believe biblically, is called to be a part of a local church. Because you cannot fulfill these things if you're off on your own. You can't do these things by yourself, live in your own life. If you're a Lone Ranger Christian, you're not, you cannot be a good steward of the gift that God has given you to serve his people. You've been given stewardship of something incredible. Jesus Christ has set his own spirit to dwell within you. The Holy Spirit is God in you. He is our comforter, our teacher, our guide. He gives us strength and grace to live for God's glory and to serve others. You must be a good steward of your gift. Be a faithful steward. Don't bury your talent. Don't be like the unfaithful steward who says, I'm too afraid to risk it, so I'm just gonna bury it in the ground. Be dedicated in prayer. Love one another. Be hospitable. Serve one another for God's glory. Be a faithful steward. Don't hide your gift. Live for God's glory. Trust Him. Live in light of His return. You must be a good steward of God's gracious gift by dedicating yourself to prayer, maintaining fervent love, and serving for God's glory. You must be a good steward today.