Our High Calling to Glorify God in our Speech and Service to One Another
1 Peter 4:7-11b
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes for young children to answer are throughout sermon)Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Turn to 1 Peter 4. We are continuing our study of the section of 1 Peter 4:7-11. This morning we are concentrating primarily upon verse 11. As you are turning there, I will get us reacquainted with what Peter has been pressing in his contextual flow of 7-10. The substance of Peter's thrust is to urge God's people toward doing the truly Christ glorifying things during our short time we have left on this planet. The things we should be doing are things like being sound in our judgment. This requires having a sober attitude. This requires seeking to have spiritual discernment in all the circumstances we are experiencing. The main action item for this sober awareness, Peter says, is for the purpose of prayer. Above all, there is something that is the most important thing. It is that we (as God's people in Christ) must be fervent in our love for one another. The great gift of love is what should govern us, and drive us, as we demonstrate it. Love is both our privilege, and our duty. It is both our gift, and what we give. We are called to love; but there is more to it. We are called to love "fervently." We are to love relentlessly and enthusiastically which means to keep on giving love from the love of God that has been put in our hearts. We are to do love, and give love, like we are a perpetual river of love that never runs dry. Then the Spirit gives the reason for all of this. Peter has the body of Christ in mind. Peter refers to the body with amazing language. He tells us that we are living stones, that are being built up as a spiritual house, 2 Peter 2:5. He recognizes that we are the set apart nation according to the priesthood of the King. The Spirit has edification of His spiritual house in mind. He has grace in mind among His living stones. This is why Peter says that "love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8. Along this line, Peter urges us toward tangible manifestations of fervent love that can easily be identified. But evidently there is a problem. Tangible manifestations of love are not always shown. This is why Peter urges these things in fervency. Being hospitable to other Christians is one clear way. But Peter wants us to crave to be fervent in every aspect of love; so Peter says to be hospitable. But for us to let the fruits truly come forth in organic, vine ripened, and not chemically modified, sweetness, we must do these things without complaining. You see, this is the true manifestation of the Spirit. Then Peter touches upon the gifts that God gives each of us. Everyone is different. My gifts are not necessarily your gifts. Your gifts are not necessarily mine. But the Spirit assures us that each of us has "a special gift" as Peter calls it. And, God has given each of us a special gift for a purpose. Your gifts are for that great manifestation. What is it? It is to love fervently. The way we do this with our giftings is in the easy to understand work of serving others in various ways. This is how we are good stewards of all the different aspects of the grace of God. Serving others as the set apart nation, according to the priesthood of the King, is our calling. This is what Peter is concerned with as we come into the continuation in verse 11. This is what we are concerned with too, as we read starting in verse 7 for the flow,
"7 The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. 8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaint. 10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen." 1 Peter 4:7-11
Please prepare yourself to learn, with me, in this sermon with the theme,
Our High Calling to Glorify God in our Speech and Service to One Another
[Prayer]
Serving God by serving others. This is what God is calling us to do in our speech, and in our actions.
/1/
This is the first principle thing, then, that I want us to explore in our high calling to glorify God in our speech and service to one another. It is our speech. It is your words. Notice the details,
"11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; [or God's words; oracles] ..."
@1 God wants his children to speak as people who are speaking His _________________________________. 1 Peter 4:11
In the Bible, we read of various gifts that God gives for building up the body. The speaking gifts are especially important for ministry. Whenever we talk about the speaking gifts, we are talking about various ways of relating God's truth. The Scriptures focus upon teaching, preaching, prophesying, evangelizing, and so on; and they all have that commonality--they are gifts that manifest relating the utterances of God to others. As we look at what Peter is saying, I think we should pause a moment and consider the stark weight of what it is we are urged to speak. We need to have reverential awe considering this command. Peter is not saying that we need to be speaking friendly things, even though we should be speaking friendly things. Peter is not saying that we need to be speaking wise things, though we should be speaking wise words too. Peter is not saying that we need to be speaking wholesome things, though we should speak wholesome things. Peter is saying much-much more. What Peter is saying is something that causes the greatest self consciousness because it has to do with a God-consciousness in governing our self actions in which we are seeking to mimic our Father. We are to speak as though we are speaking the very words that the One true God of the Universe would speak. I really want us to pause for a moment and consider the weighty profoundness of this urging. God's utterances are always friendly to His children. They are always wise. They are always wholesome words. But God's words are also much more. They are always the truth. They are always right. They are always holy, and important. Think about His words. His words can sometimes be words of rebuke. They can be words of wrath, concern, and correction. Sometimes God's words, are words of grace, of healing, hope, and assurance. For us living stones, they are words that always have love as the core. Even if God rebukes you, and corrects you, He does so out of love. The encouragement that the Spirit is giving us is that He wants us to speak His words as words of love in every aspect. The goal in this principle is to reflect our Father in rebuke, encouragement, light comments, simple statements, conversations, and in anything that we use words. As we consider the seriousness of this directive as our standard for speech, then we recognize a sobering fact that lays a lot of responsibility upon us, doesn't it?
We recognize that we should only seek to speak the actual points, and phrases, that convey the ideas that we think might be the actual words that God would speak.
This was the standard of the apostles. Of course they were entrusted with special revelation to write the Bible in laying out the foundations of the faith in the emerged church, but we should follow their example of carefulness, and their awareness, in this. Paul the apostle gives us an example when he pleaded with people to be reconciled to God. Paul said,
"we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God," 2 Corinthians 5:20
Paul says that He was speaking in such a way as if God were making the appeal through him. In this way, Paul's ministry practice is colored by the intense realization that when Paul spoke, it was to be as one who spoke the very utterances of God Himself. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
"we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God," 1 Thessalonians 2:13
@2 The Biblical teaching of the apostles really is the _____________ ____ ____________. 1 Thessalonians 2:13
Paul was a primary apostle who learned His revelations from the Lord. Notice that whenever people listened to Paul as Paul ministered in the speaking gifts, they accepted Paul's words the way Paul was anointed to speak, and the way Paul wanted to speak those words. In other words, the acceptance followed the reality. The question for us, then, is:
How do we follow the example of the apostles?
We know that God wants us to speak as if we are speaking His utterances, right? We also know that this is a very lofty undertaking.
So, how do we make sure we are speaking as if speaking the utterances of God?
The answer is not as mystical as some might try to make it out to be. Think about the words of the apostles that are the utterances of God. Where do we have them recorded for us to reference? We have them here in our Bibles. This is God's revelation to us. We accept the revelation, as Paul says, "for what it really is, the word of God" 1 Thessalonians 2:13. We literally have the "word of God" recorded for us. We can take it in hand. We can read it. We can study it. We can memorize it. We can learn the history of God's people from Adam, to Christ, to the emerged church of the first generation. We can glean doctrines and precepts concerning God's will. The point is that we have God's sure word, and we have His word to use. This is very key for this particular life ministry action. By using the word of God that has already been provided for you, you can speak it; and as you speak, you can know for sure that you are actually speaking in such a way as speaking the utterances of God. Directly quoting scripture is the height of this practice. But it does not have to be direct word for word quotation. Repeating the principles is another way to speak as if speaking God's utterances. Doctrinal words that are based upon the sure word of God, are words that you speak as if speaking His words. Governing common comments, and conversation, by the standard of Scripture is the same thing. The point is that whenever you speak precepts, principles, and instructions, from God's word, or when you govern your speech with the clear checks and balances of scripture, then you are glorifying God. Glorifying God is our big goal. In this way, it does not matter what the reaction of other people may be. What matters is that you have proclaimed the life of the words of the Spirit. Then what happens? Now it is the continuing work of the same Spirit to do with His word what He wishes once it has been planted on the soil. We are the planters. His word is the seed. But He causes the growth. This reminds me of a marriage counseling experience I had which illustrates this principle. I was counseling a man whose wife had left him. She ran off to live with another man in the sexual sin of adultery. They had a 15 year old daughter who is a Christian. The mother, who also claimed to be a Christian, told her husband, that she had been wondering if their daughter was going to disapprove of her sinfulness. Her husband was saddened as he related this to me. He explained to me that his wife's biggest concern was that because of her sinful actions, the daughter would "take sides" with him--her father. When this husband, and father, told me about this, he said that he was leaving the decision of the daughter (in either taking his side in opposing the divorce, or his wife's side in seeking the divorce) up to his daughter. I immediately told him that his response, and method, was deficient. I sought the Lord in what to say. I was endeavoring to give the man some God glorifying counsel. I did not want to give the man mere philosophy. He did not need philosophy. Speculative opinion, which is philosophy, is found everywhere. How did I want to speak to that man? I wanted to speak to that man as if speaking the utterances of God. I told him that he needed to tell his wife and daughter that no one is to be taking anybody's side except the side of God. In doing so, he needed to start speaking into his family situation as if thinking, respecting, and speaking the very utterances of God himself. I explained that God's word has already spoken into this issue. There is no room for philosophy. There is no room for clever approaches that play mind games with life scenarios. The whole situation should be approached from the one, sure, solid foundation. To do so is to proceed in such a way where everyone involved is expected to affirm God's utterances. It is to talk in the arena where everyone who names the name of Christ is to abide by those words with no compromise. I want us to think about this real life illustration. Think about that husband: Whenever the husband speaks forth the love words of God, then what He is doing is glorifying God. His sinful wife is either being obedient to the word, or she is not. His daughter may approve of the mothers foolish, and sinful, harlotry and abandonment, or not. What matters is what God says; and in respect to this husband who God has called to be the spiritual leader of the family, he must do nothing less than speak as though he is speaking the very utterances of God. This is what matters for you too. What matters is what God says, and what matters is that you speak it and get it out. I went on to discuss the Scriptures with that man. We covered how God's word addresses various aspects of the man's family situation. I went over what God says about the husband's role as the Spiritual leader. We went over the man's own failures, based upon God's word. We discussed the right road that the man needed to proceed down. I particularly focused on the fervent love that the man should continue to manifest toward his wife during this difficult time; and while doing so, he should not compromise the clear directives of the Lord from His word. This is the only way we can be sure that we are speaking forth those things which glorify God. If we have doubts, then we should remember that while we take God's side according to His clearly revealed word, then whatever follows in our own lives are the actions and thoughts that He says for us to take. Your doctrine will drive your actions; and when it comes to our tongues, they are the rudders that guide the whole ship in respect to our obedience to God in Christ. Hopefully, when we speak God's word into the lives of others, then they will be driven by the utterances of God too.
/2/
This leads to the next principle when it comes to these fervent love actions that we do to edify the body. It is the effort of intentionally glorifying God with our grace gifts in serving,
"... whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; ..."
This serving is the same word as "ministering." The speaking gifts are given by God to people for serving, but the sense here is a distinction that is meant to cover all the other areas of service in the body. What the Spirit is talking about is being a blessing to other Christians in what you do for them. But the Spirit is pressing something else here too. He wants you to serve as one who is not serving in your own fleshly strength that can waver whenever you get tired of giving your self for the body. Rather, God wants you serving as though you are serving by the steadfast, fervent, strength which He supplies. God's strength does not dissipate, and this is a huge part of Peter's point. To really understand this, I think it is important to recognize that this word that describes serving is expressed in many different ways in the Scriptures. I mean the serving is manifested in different ways. I'm going to give some examples, and as I do, I want us to think about this in respect to our own selves being empowered by God to do the same kinds of things for our brothers and sisters. For example, this same word is used for when someone was providing meals for others in the Gospels and in Acts. The same word was used for visiting Christians in prison in Matthew and 2 Timothy. This same word is used for the provision of financial support in Luke, Romans, and 2 Corinthians. To consistently do these kinds of things in fervent love, even when we are worn out, requires doing so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies. Now think about how we do this in fervent consistency that keeps on giving even after the desire to give begins to wear down.
How do we do it?
We do it for the glory of God.
We do it so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Let's think about Peter's contextual reference in the previous sentence. It is concerning our calling to show hospitality. Okay, we can clearly see that this is a practice that involves serving others. God wants to be glorified in your relentless practice of this godly hospitality. After all, He is the one empowering you to do it. He is the one who is telling you to do it through His enduring word. The point is that the power is there. In this respect, God does not want us to act like we don't know what He is talking about. We know what He is talking about. So, this means that there is almost and endless number of ways that we can serve one another. It can go from bearing one another's burdens, to building one another up in other ways. There are too many ways to serve to make a list. In fact, whenever we think we have served, we can still serve some more. It is a manifestation of fervent love. The point is that we are to be making it our God glorifying ambition to be doing service things; and the fact of the matter is that to serve means to work. So, God is calling us to work; and God is saying that we are to be serving as work because we should be doing it as those who are working by the enduring strength that He continuously supplies. I want us to think about the bottom line issue in how we accomplish this kind of Spirit led, and empowered, service.
The bottom line issue on this is our faith.
You see, whenever we serve God, and serve others in our service to God, we must be having a realization, in our faith, that the person of the Holy Spirit is in us. We need to recognize that His power is what is working in us. This takes faith because of our daily condition. Our daily condition often distracts us to walk by sight in the apparent circumstances of life. Walking by sight is the weakness of the world. The weakness of the world keeps us from walking by faith in what God is doing in the midst of it all. Our daily condition is not an easy existence. So, we must have faith in the Lord that He will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory for the task. It sounds easy to do, doesn't it? But there are some problems. Let's call them obstacles. They are subtle areas, and they are very insidious. What I mean is that serving with conscious faith in the fact that we do so as though it is with the strength that God supplies, is something that can be eclipsed very quickly even though we are ministering and we are ministering for the Lord. It can happen very quickly and unexpectedly when we start to look at our own sense of compassion, and schemes of how to serve, as being something that we came up with ourselves. We can look at our "special gift," that Peter describes, as being our gift that we have produced ourselves. A lot of Christians can fall into the trap of trying to become religious athletes that think they are elites that are better than others. But there is another way that is just as much a problem. Christians easily go another bad direction. What I mean is that we can just give up because we think we are worthless. We might think we can not do anything right. It is easy to become spiritually timid when we are focused upon our selves for success in spiritual service. Essentially, we can look at our selves in such a way that we lose sight of the fact that it is the Holy Spirit that is producing the good works in us that we should walk in. In other words, the Spirit wants us to consciously realize something about His relationship with us as we operate in the doing side of Christianity. It is not so much that we are employing our special gift to serve. Follow my point because I do not want to be taken wrongly. What I mean is that it is more:
It is that we are employing our special gift while consciously realizing that it is God's gift. It is that we are employing our special gift to serve while giving God the credit for what we are doing. It is that we are employing our special gift to serve while giving the Spirit all the credit for any outcome produced.
The point is that we only serve because we are God's servants. But we are only serving because of His strength that He supplies in the first place. We need this realization when we get worn out and don't want to go on. We need this realization when we get stuck on our selves and our accomplishments. We need this realization when we think we are worthless. Humbleness recognizes the truth in this principle. It recognizes that it is God's power. It recognizes that He supplies you with it for service. Humble obedience, in this way, is how we avoid the subtle trap of glorifying ourselves when we should be glorifying God. Notice Paul's prayer,
"16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man," Ephesians 3:16
The power, and the strength come from God through His Spirit in your inner man--not you. This is the service according to the enduring strength that God supplies.
/3/
But I want us to remember that important goal when we talk about His power through His Spirit. Over and over, the Spirit wants us to focus upon God whenever our focus is on the task of serving. Peter goes on to say that it is,
"11 ... so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."
@3 God wants us to serve as if serving by the strength that He supplies so that in all things God may be ________________________ through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4:11
This is the simple summary of what the Spirit has been teaching us. The much overlooked aspect of fervent love, of hospitality, of using our gifts to serve, is the glory of God through Jesus Christ. All of our actions are meant for God's glory. That's why you were saved in the first place. You were saved for God's glory. You just happen to be blessed because God is blessing Himself with you. I mean there are benefits to salvation; but, primarily you were saved for His glory. You were saved because God determined that He wants you for His own good pleasure. You were not saved because you wanted Him for your own good pleasure. So, all of your actions, now that you are saved, are meant for God's glory. This is what we want because this is what God wants. We want God to be glorified in every single thing; particularly through Jesus Christ. When Peter says "all things" in this context, he means that there is no pretended distinction between the so called "sacred aspect" of our lives over here, and the so called "secular aspect" over here. No. The Spirit is not empowering us to glorify Himself for only a few moments today while we are all gathered together as a biblically defined church body. Whenever we are in the work world, the same Spirit is burning His energy within us all day long because you and I are "the sacred" while in the work world. We are the temple stones. We are the royal priesthood while there. God is wanting that energy to come out and be manifested in doing everything to glorify Him. When we interact with our spouses, it is the same way. The Spirit is welling up inside. He wants to burst out into our conversations and into our actions with our spouse. The same goes for how we relate to our children. We are to manifest the Spirit to the glory of God. The same way goes for how we relate to our parents. Children, whenever you speak to your parents, you need to speak as though speaking the utterances of God. You need to serve them as though you are serving your parents by the power that God supplies. Having a bad attitude accomplishes nothing but what the devil accomplishes. It is a rebellious dead-end that may get you attention, but it only makes things worse. God wants us to manifest Christ out of ourselves. The foundational truth that the Holy Spirit is pressing here, is that we need to be checking ourselves in everything we are doing. We need to be considering every ambition that we have;
"... whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31
This is what we want, so let's recap the things we have gleaned concerning the Christ glorifying things during our short time we have left on this planet. We want to be glorifying God in our speech. We do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. We can do this by quoting scripture. We can do this by speaking forth principles from Scripture. We can do this by checking our words with Scripture. The point is that Scripture is the foundation. But we must consider the goal. Glorifying God is the goal. It does not matter what the reaction of the other person is when we consider that what we are endeavoring to do is glorify God. What matters, in the grand scheme of things, according to God, is that you have proclaimed the divine truth of the words of the Spirit. The faith issue is that we trust the Spirit to do His work with His word that has been planted on the soil of people's hearts. Then along with our speech, let's also remember the rest of our service in fervent love. The goal is edification. Our service can be expressed in things like providing meals. It can be visiting Christians in prison. It can be in financial support. It can be in showing hospitality. It is all of these kinds of things. The point is to be doing something as a first principle, yet doing it with an even deeper foundation under girding, and empowering, what we do. We need to do so as people who are recognizing that we are serving by the strength which God supplies. And what does this do? It brings all glory to Him; Amen.
@1 God wants his children to speak as people who are speaking His _________________________________. 1 Peter 4:11
@2 The Biblical teaching of the apostles really is the _____________ ____ ____________. 1 Thessalonians 2:13
@3 God wants us to serve as if serving by the strength that He supplies so that in all things God may be ________________________ through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4:11
