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1 Peter · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  1 Peter 4, and I do spend a lot of time studying. I don't tell you that so you feel really great about me. I'm telling you so that you can think, oh, she really tries hard. Because it's a big deal to teach the Bible, and I love doing it. I'm blessed that you'll come and be here with me. But these verses, tonight we'll be talking about stewardship, and then next week...
• 0:29
  is persecution. And these, for whatever reason, these verses came together for me really quickly. I do the same thing for every time I'm studying to teach, no matter what. I'm kind of old school. I gather information. I read everything. I actually use books, you know, instead of my, I use books to read. I read everything I can. I listen to everything I can. I take notes, and then I compile my notes.
• 0:54
  And then I write out a rough draft because I was an English teacher and that's what you're supposed to do. You know, some people can straightaway type that into the computer and I just can't. It's against my, it's against everything I believe in. So, I write it out on a rough draft. I keep them all in the same book. Every message I've ever taught since the beginning of me ever doing that, which isn't that many, but it's all in one book and then I type it out. So, anyway, just in case you were wondering, I try really hard. So, I've been studying 1 Peter a lot. That's my point. And I am telling you, this is...
• 1:24
  Really good. It's really good stuff. All I need to do is read these 11 verses. You don't even need me to say anything. That's how good it is. And I hope that you've been blessed by this book. I hope that in two weeks when we tie it all up, you'll feel like you know Peter better. You'll feel like you know Jesus better. And that it will have been a summer well spent. So let's look at tonight's verses. We're going to talk about being a steward.
• 1:51
  Like I said several times in Chapter 4. And I have to tell you, I love the idea of stewardship. I'm like the steward police, but not in a good way. I know why the Lord gave me the home I grew up in, because I probably would be prone to legalism. And thankfully, for the grace of God, I don't apply it to other people's lives, just to my children and me.
• 2:18
  But I am. I'm like the steward police at home. Like, are we using our time wisely? Are we doing this wisely? Are we using this wisely? I tend to go a little overboard like I could relax a little bit. But the reason is because I didn't grow up in a Christian home. And when I first learned about the idea of being a steward, it was such a huge, I don't know, just a really cool idea that God entrusts us with something, be it our belongings.
• 2:46
  or our people, our relationships, our time, all the things that he entrusts us with, and that we get to be a steward of that. I love that idea. I love that idea. But don't worry, I won't be your steward, please, okay? Just at my home. Don't tell my children. Let's look at chapter 4. I'm going to read the first 11 verses. Since, therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
• 3:15
  So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you. But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead.
• 3:44
  that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the Spirit the way God does. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.
• 4:09
  Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I'm going to pray. God, thank you for these women, Lord, that you brought here tonight. Lord, I pray that your word would impact us all and that we would seek to be stewards of your grace varied to us all.
• 4:38
  Lord, that we would do a good job with that. And that if we're not, you would show us tonight. And if we are, you would encourage us tonight. Lord, I just pray for your grace amongst this church, Lord, that we would ring out like a bell to the people around us because we want to know you and we want them to also. Amen. Okay, so I gave you notes because, again, that's just how my brain works. Tonight we're going to look at three.
• 5:08
  Three things that I think these 11 verses tell us to be stewards of, okay? The first one is that you are a steward of suffering. And this one is probably maybe a little bit less thought about. I don't know. I thought it was a good idea. What I mean is we are to be stewards, right? Responsible for taking care of the suffering that Christ did on our behalf on the cross.
• 5:39
  And what I mean by that is, we are holding it, we're in charge of it, we're in charge of how it's portrayed to others, how it's told to others, how we live it out, right? That's what I mean when I say we're a steward of Christ's suffering. I also think we're a steward of our own suffering. That we are responsible for how we portray the difficult things we've lived through in our lives. Does that make sense?
• 6:07
  that you are a steward of the suffering that you've lived through. The things you have suffered through in your life can either arm you for a closer walk to Jesus. Don't you think? Those times of dark, hard things, that is a way for us to taste of the suffering that Christ also bore because it draws us closer to him.
• 6:30
  So our suffering can either arm us for a closer walk to Jesus, a more eternal perspective, a more kingdom-mindedness, or our suffering can push us to discontentment and it can push us to bitterness, which ends in folly. Right? So that's what I mean when I say that we're a steward of our own suffering and then a steward of the suffering that Christ did on the cross. Look at verse 1. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh.
• 6:58
  Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. Peter uses a Greek word here for arm yourself, which is the heaviest kind of military garb you could put on. The armory that he's talking about isn't lightweight. It's hardcore. And what does he want us to arm? Look at verse 1. Does he want us to arm our buffed arms, shoulders? Does he want us to put on big, heavy boots? He's telling us to arm what?
• 7:27
  Arm ourselves with the same way of thinking. We are to arm our minds. That's the kind of heavy armory. That's where we're supposed to put it. We're supposed to protect and arm our minds. I think that's amazing. God's not saying, oh, you definitely need to have rock-hard abs to go into this battle. Right? I mean, I would love some rock-hard abs. But what he's saying is you need to be armed in your brain. Right? Your mind.
• 7:55
  He wants to make sure that our minds are strong and well-guarded. We are called to have the same mind as Christ. So that should then ask, we should ask ourselves the question, what kind of thought is that? What is the mind of Christ? Right? In verse 1, it's saying, arm yourself with the same way of thinking, or the mind of Christ. And I would say, okay, well, what does that look like? Don't worry, I already looked it up for you. The mind of Christ, right? The same way of thinking means that we would have, just like Jesus,
• 8:24
  A willingness to die. A willingness to endure suffering now. Right? That's the kind of thinking Christ had. And that's what our mindset is supposed to be the same. We have to guard our minds and have the same mind as Christ. And to me, the first thing that pops into my head is, from Philippians, to die is Christ. No. To live is Christ and to die is gain. Right? That's the mantra that I think.
• 8:52
  He's talking about. If you're going to arm your brain with the same thinking as Christ, you're thinking, okay, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. When I was in college, my first year in college, like I said, I grew up in a non-Christian home. And when I went to college, I really had not been around that many believers at one time. I really, it was shocking to me. And I remember I was just learning so much.
• 9:19
  I went to a Christian college. I went to a public high school. I lived in a secular home, all of those things. So it was like I was dunked into this crazy bath, right, of just all these things. I don't know if you guys have ever experienced that, where you just didn't know that that's what it could be like. And so I was learning a ton. I remember reading Luke 9, 24 for the first time. It was like my first semester in college, 1998.
• 9:47
  And Luke 9.24 says, and this is my paraphrase, that if you're going to lose your life, wait, if you're going to save your life, you have to lose it, right? And whoever loses his life for his sake will save it. Does that make sense? I probably said it wrong, but you know what I'm talking about. Luke 9.24. And I remember reading it for the first time. I had probably read it before. I went to youth group in high school, and it radically changed my life. I wrote it down to my youth pastor's wife. Her name's Terry. She's the one that...
• 10:17
  told me to go to a Christian school. They helped me get to a Christian school. I wrote it down, and I just wrote the verse, Luke 9, 24, and I said, I get it. I get it. And I feel like that's what's going on here. I suddenly understood how to arm my mind, right? I understood what my thought processes needed to be, that I had to have the mind of Christ, and that was that better is my life in heaven. This is not my home, right? That was my mantra. If you look at the end of verse 1,
• 10:47
  So it says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. When we are done on this earth, we're done sinning. Right? Sin is no longer a battle. And the tense of this verb, ceased, it means, it emphasizes that it's a permanent condition. It's done. It's not an ongoing process. It's ceased. It's completed. Free from sin. And Christians know, right, we know that.
• 11:16
  Death produces the greatest victory. Right? And we have loved ones in heaven, all of us, who were suffering here, and it's better for them to be there, and we're thankful. We miss them, but we're thankful. And so as a Christian, I think we know that. We can put on that. We can arm our minds with that to live as Christ on this earth and to die as Cain. We turn to 2 Corinthians 4. Left-hand turn in your Bible. 2 Corinthians.
• 11:47
  Chapter 4. All right. I'm going to say this a lot tonight, but I really love this verse, this set of verses. There are some amazing verses tonight, and it's not because I picked them. It's because God wrote them. I just kept reading them and thinking, oh, no, this one's my favorite. Oh, no, no, this one's my favorite. We're doing 2 Corinthians 4, 8 through 12. But let's just do 7 for fun because I like that one too. 2 Corinthians 4, 7 through 12.
• 12:18
  But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. That's so good. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake.
• 12:44
  so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. So if you want to know how to arm your brain, if you want to know how to be a good steward of Christ's suffering, and not only Christ's suffering, but the bad things that are happening to you now, how to practically not become bitter, and how to use those things to tell other people, yeah, this really sucks. This thing is happening and it's hard. But you know what? God.
• 13:14
  Jesus did this, right? We can live in such a way that people can see that. Verse 2. Let's go back to 1 Peter. Verse 2. So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. He's calling us to a resolve, right? To unwavering firmness, like a soldier entering into battle. And to live the rest of our life for whose will? For God's will.
• 13:43
  And then verse 3 says, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. He's saying, you know what, you used to live this way. Yeah, fine. Your past, you did these things, right? Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. Does that apply to our world today as much as it did 2,000 years ago? Yeah. Yeah, it does. And Peter is saying, you used to live this way in your past, but now live for God and for his will.
• 14:13
  Say goodbye to that and move forward. And I think the way to do that is what we were just talking about, right? The main verb of this part is to arm yourselves. If you don't want to be drawn into the things that you used to do. And maybe they weren't orgies. Maybe it was something else, right? But if you don't want to be drawn into that sin, then you have to be continually arming yourself.
• 14:36
  And verse 4 says, I like this, with respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery. And they malign you. Right? These people, remember when we were studying back in June what was going on for this group of believers that Peter was talking to? They were out of crazy, saved out of crazy circumstances. They lived in a world much like ours. But probably the people that he's writing to didn't have a...
• 15:03
  A Christian background like most of us do, right? So for them, it was a tearing away from what was going on around them. And he's saying, you're going to have people surprised that you're not joining them anymore. Do you guys remember that time in your life? Maybe it was, for a lot of us, it would probably be high school or college. For some of us, later. But maybe you had people that you were involved with before you became a Christian. Some of you have been saved since you were in the womb, so that's harder to come up with.
• 15:32
  There are people that go, wait, I thought that's different, right? I'm surprised you're not just jumping in with us. And we're going to talk about this more next week. I think that if there aren't people surprised in your life that you're not jumping in with them, then we're probably not doing it right. It should look different. People should be surprised. And if they're not surprised, then maybe you're laying low, too low, right? Playing it too even. And they're not thinking, well, that's a difference, right?
• 16:02
  I hope that makes sense. Verse 5 says, right, these people are going to malign you. They're going to be shocked and surprised you're not jumping in with them. But verse 5 says, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. They're going to give an account, right? And we are stewards of our opportunities of suffering or what it may be with them. We're stewards of that. And so he's saying, don't worry when you suffer for the sake of righteousness.
• 16:33
  Right? Look at verse 6. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead. That though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. The people Peter was talking to were a little, they were concerned. They were concerned that Peter hadn't written this book yet. They didn't get to read it. Right? So they were worried that maybe they didn't catch it. That it didn't work for them. But that's not how God works. Right? Verse 6 says, for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who were dead.
• 17:00
  They were saved too, and they'll be okay in heaven, right? They receive the same grace, and that's what verse 6 is saying. So, our mantra, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. You are a steward of Christ's suffering, so you have to put on his same mind. We also are a steward of our own suffering, right? So when bad things happen, put it away to be used for God's glory later, right? Don't let it be for naught.
• 17:33
  Right? We all know people that that happens to. Things happen and it allows a bitter root to happen and grow inside of them. And God can't use the circumstances that have been in that person's life because they won't let him. Have you seen that happen ever in your lives? And we can not let that happen by putting on the same mind of Christ, being a steward of our own suffering and his. Let's look at verses 7 through 9. The end of all things is at hand.
• 18:02
  Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Okay, the second point is we are stewards of our time. Our time is not our own. Now, when you're a mom, you know this, right? Your time is not your own. It's a very easy, tangible way to remember that.
• 18:30
  And we talked about this in June, that one of the main themes throughout 1 Peter is that we are aliens in a strange land, right? This world is not our home. And Peter is saying here, the end of all things is near. It's almost over. And if we read that, I don't know about you, but we should be propelled, I feel propelled, to live in a way that makes the best use of my time. So we are stewards of our time. And I think within these three verses, there are three little sub-points.
• 19:02
  in ways that we can be really practical on how we can do a better job being a good steward of our time. Does that make sense? So the first one is prayer. The second one is love. And the last one is hospitality. I'm going to go over them again, but just if you want to write them down. Love, I mean, prayer, love, hospitality. You remember when Dina taught, she said, and that was my favorite thing, and Dina, I think, even mentioned it, but the beginning of good is always prayer.
• 19:34
  If you want to do good, the beginning is always prayer. And here we are called to be sober-minded and self-controlled. There's lots of other places in the Bible that we're called to be sober-minded and self-controlled, but this is specific to not just our attitudes, but to prayer. We are called to be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of praying.
• 20:00
  Pretty amazing, and it goes right back up to verse 1 when we're talking about putting on the mind of Christ, right? We're putting on a certain kind of attitude. We cannot overemphasize how important the Christian mind is, right? If you want to kill sin, it starts with your brain, right? Mortification of sin has to start with your head. It starts by deciding and killing it in your head.
• 20:29
  We, if we're going to arm ourselves with the mind of Christ, and we're going to be renewing our minds, then we have to pray. And that's what Peter's calling us to do. We have to pray. Let's look at another verse. It's my favorite tonight. It's in Romans, to the left, to the left, to the left. Romans 8, verses 26 and 27. Romans 8, 26 and 27. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
• 21:05
  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Have you guys ever felt that? Have you ever felt like you should pray for somebody and it's so deep, it's so like you've got to do it right now? I don't know about you, but that happens. And you guys, that is the Holy Spirit inside of us. And he helps us. He tells us who to pray. He guides us.
• 21:30
  Extraordinary. And verse 27 says, And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So now go back to 1 Peter. Self-controlled. We're supposed to be self-controlled and sober-minded so that we can pray. And self-controlled here literally means to be in your right mind. To be in your right mind. To be of sound judgment.
• 22:01
  And this was interesting. To not be carried away by a wrong view of oneself. I would tell you all the Greek, but it wouldn't matter to us, right? I looked it up. But these are the words, right? This is what it meant. To be in your right mind, to be of sound judgment, and to not be carried away by a wrong view of oneself. So think about that. Think about why you're called to be this way when you go to the Lord in prayer. And especially considering the verses that we just...
• 22:31
  read in Romans, that God, the Holy Spirit inside of you, intercedes and helps you to know what to pray, right? And if you don't have an accurate view of yourself and who you are before the Lord and you go to pray, I'm not saying that God doesn't work through that because he's amazing and he figures it out and usually humbles us, but he's saying if you're going to come to him, make sure you are sober-minded. I mean, self-controlled, right? Sound judgment. Not to be carried away with the wrong view of yourself.
• 23:02
  Sober-minded means spiritually observant. Spiritually observant to think and act discreetly. So I just want you to think about those two things, those definitions, and apply them to your prayer life. Now, God wants us to pray all the time. Pray without ceasing, 1 Thessalonians says. And sometimes, sometimes we're praying out of extreme emotion.
• 23:29
  I don't think that's wrong. I'm not saying that that's wrong. And we might say, oh, that's not self-controlled. But you know when you have to come to the Lord because he's interceding on your behalf. His spirit inside of you is telling you who needs that prayer and what. But if you are to be arming yourself, right? Let's use that again. How should you come to the Lord in battle, right? You should be sober-minded and self-controlled. And I think in light of verse 7, the end of all things is near.
• 23:59
  When we remember the shortness of our lives here on earth, we are reminded and stirred to be watchful and prayerful. We are coming to these verses, not this week, but the next week, about a roaring lion. You know that's coming, right, in 1 Peter, that Satan is like a roaring lion wanting to devour us. And when we get to that verse on the 15th of August, I want you to think about these verses. If you want to battle that, you have to have this.
• 24:27
  I mean, I know those things go together, but it's been so powerful for me to arm myself in that way. 1 Peter has been called a handbook for holy living. I think I said that in June. It was one of the things that people describe it. It's a handbook. It's a practical guide. And I think that this is a key component to that, is prayer, that we are to have the same mind as Christ, and we are to pray because we have an all-access path.
• 24:56
  Right? We have an all-access path, and we can use it. We can be in constant communion, and we need to. We need it. We need it for battle. Because Satan, because we are stewards, right? I read this quote. It said, Watching sights the enemy, but praying fights the enemy. I like that. Watching sights the enemy. When you're paying attention, when you're sober-minded, you can see it. When the Holy Spirit and you are in communion, you've got eyes to see.
• 25:26
  Right? And the praying, I almost said the praying, the praying is the battling. Okay. I think I've hammered that enough. Another way that we can be a steward of our time, that little number two, is love. And I think we need to remember that love is like our Trump card. Not as in President Trump, as in the Trump card when you're playing poker. It's the best card we have. Right? And this verse, verse eight.
• 25:57
  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins we've talked about. It's another huge thread in this book. And this kind of love is sacrificial, not sentimental. This kind of love requires stretching and straining. This kind of love takes every spiritual muscle that you have in spite of insults,
• 26:25
  Injury and misunderstanding. I'm going to say it again because it's so good. Right? This kind of love is a muscly kind of love. And it takes all of your might to use it. And it loves in spite of insult, injury, and misunderstanding. And I think we can see it in my other favorite verses in Colossians. So move to the left again, if you will, to Colossians.
• 26:55
  Chapter 3, talking about love. You guys are so quiet. Good listeners. Hopefully awake. Colossians 3, verse 12. And I really do love these verses. Colossians 3, 12. You guys know these ones. 3, 12 through 14. Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.
• 27:36
  So one time I taught these verses to a younger group of girls, and I put on a layer of clothing for each thing. So when it was put on kindness, I put on my kindness shirt. And when I put all these pieces on, you know, as a...
• 27:53
  A visual, thank you. And then I had my trench coat at the end, my trench coat of love. I put the trench coat on and I tied it up. And that's the visual I want you to think of, right? The way you can be a good steward is with this kind of love, with a trench coat, if you will, of love. You can tie up all those other things and gloss over so many things.
• 28:22
  When you feel offended or hurt, right? If you choose to put on that trench coat of love. How do we love? Do we strive to love? Do we have this? There are people that it takes work to love. Are we doing that? Are we using those muscles? Are you straining every muscle to do that? Are you easily offended? Because this isn't that kind of love. Are you easily irritated and not quick to forgive? You guys, when you think, oh, the end of all things is near.
• 28:51
  We don't have time for that kind of love. Does that make sense? We don't have time to not be loving, to not be forgiving, to not bear one another's burdens, because the end of all things is near, right? Put on your trench coat of love, I said, and tie it up with sincere, brotherly love. And I think, oh, it's in the next part. Never mind. I'll save it. Let's look at verse 9. Back in 1 Peter. Go to fruit.
• 29:21
  Verse 9, show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Don't you love when the Bible tells you not to grumble? And I wrote, hmm. It's hard when it says do not grumble, right? Because we are prone to complain. I always tell any class that I'm teaching little kids my number one rule. I usually only have three, but my first rule is always no complaining. Because I feel like if we don't complain, we're on a pretty good trajectory, right?
• 29:52
  And I think we tend to complain when things aren't the way we want them. We didn't have a lot of time to get our heads around what we wanted, and so it's got to be fly by the seat of our pants, and it tends to create a grumbling spirit. Maybe not for you, I'm just saying. If things aren't perfectly coordinated, perfectly organized, and then we find ourselves in a place where we're supposed to be hospitable, but instead we feel grumbly about it.
• 30:20
  This hospitality literally means to love strangers. It means to take that trench coat out past your little circle of friends and wear it around and be hospitable with people that you don't know or that you don't know very well. And it's interesting. I wrote it down, but I wasn't sure if I'd share it, that this last couple of weeks, two times, and I'm telling you because...
• 30:49
  You know, we're just always paying attention to this. There have been two different cases, one a couple, one a single lady, who said they were having a hard time breaking in to groups of women at the church. And I'm being really honest. I'm just throwing it out there. And they were older women, not younger women. And I think sometimes, I don't think it's because anybody's trying to be malicious or they don't want to get to know people, but we're used to our little...
• 31:18
  comfort zone right and we come to church for ourselves and we forget to think there might be somebody who doesn't have anybody else to sit next to or somebody else to relate to that this might be their first time or their fifth time but nobody's noticed them you know we have to again it goes all the way back to the beginning of these verses put on the right
• 31:42
  viewing goggles, if you will, have the mind of Christ. And obviously we're talking about suffering, but the mind of Christ is to be looking for those people. And so it's a challenge for us to remember that we are a steward of our hospitality. We are a steward of our time on earth. And we can use that to reach out to other people, or we can be self-focused, right?
• 32:07
  I think about Peter in these verses. Can you think about how many homes Peter stayed in on these journeys? Paul, too. They were in countless numbers of homes, I'm sure. And can you imagine when he was writing this? Think about him writing this when he's talking about people being hospitable. I'm pretty sure there are people that came to his mind, right? This person who reached out to me and told me to come to their house or brought me food. And I'm not saying that that's the end all.
• 32:37
  having people over or entertaining them. That's certainly not it. It's reaching out past your circle, right? And really engaging with people who you don't know. And I'm sure Peter was a witness and a testimony to people who could do that very well and people who didn't have the mind of Christ. To be hospitable. Do it cheerfully, right? To one another.
• 33:04
  You are not the owner of your home. You are not the owner of your stuff. You are simply a steward of it. Steward only. Those are what I wrote. Steward only on everything. I want to put a sticker on everything. I'm a steward only of my time. I don't own it, right? Freely we have received and freely we should give. We know those things. Big point number three. Last point. You are a steward of your spiritual gifts.
• 33:33
  So let's look at verses 10 and 11 of chapter 4. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Each of us has received gifting. Are we using it?
• 34:01
  Do you see yourself as a steward willing to use the gifts that God has given you? Or are you happy to hoard those to yourself? Maybe it's because you don't think they're good enough. Maybe it's because they're really good and you don't want to share them. I don't know. I don't know what it is. But are you using the things, right? Some of us are timid and shy and it's hard. Some of us don't know where to fit, how to use them, right? Some of us forget that every little.
• 34:32
  serving, doing, being aspect is a gift to be used in the body, right? I can't sing. Nobody asks me to sing. Praise the Lord, right? It doesn't matter. And I think sometimes we compare our gifts to each other. Sometimes we don't know where to start. And Jen, when she tried to give a practical way to say, jump in. Jump in if that's changing diapers, if that's cleaning something, if that's...
• 35:00
  Honestly, if just reaching out to people on a Sunday or a Wednesday or praying with somebody or holding Diego, any of those things, that's my gift. I just decided. That is my spiritual gift. All of them are vital. All of them are vital. We have to use them obediently. Even if they're small, even if we feel like they're insignificant, we are called to use them. We are all unique, masterfully created to bring glory to God.
• 35:30
  interconnected and woven together in his way. It's just like what Jen was saying at the beginning, right? We were all chosen to be here for such a time as this, at this time, at this place, and we can choose to work our gifts together or not. One way goes well and one doesn't, right? Okay, one more last look up. To the left again, 1 Corinthians. Back to 1 Corinthians, and you bet, these are my new favorite verses.
• 35:59
  1 Corinthians 12, we'll start in verse 14. And these are probably familiar to you. 1 Corinthians 12, 14 through 25. I think these are powerful, powerful verses. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.
• 36:32
  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
• 36:49
  The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker or indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
• 37:21
  So, you are a steward of your gifts to be used in your own body and in this body, right? In the body that you are called to at this time. And the time is close to the end, right? Time is near. There isn't much time, and so we need to do that responsibly. Okay, so to review, you are a steward of suffering, your own suffering.
• 37:50
  and the ultimate suffering of Christ. So, arm your mind with that kind of thinking. You are a steward of your pilgrim days on this earth. So pray, be hospitable, and remember that love covers a multitude of sins. You are a steward of your spiritual gifts. Use them obediently so that God may be glorified here.