Serving God is both an honor and opportunity. Although He does not need us, He wants us. As forgiven and loved people, we must enter our mission fields, sharing Christ, testifying boldly, and using our gifts for His glory.

In our series on 1 Peter, we’re on 1 Peter 4. We’ve highlighted four messages within this chapter.

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CHRISTIAN MESSAGE

By WARD PIMLEY

Pastor, Journalist, Author

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• “You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious [eager] to do the will of God.” – 1 Peter 4:2 NLT
• “As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.” – 1 Peter 4:10 BSB

                                        

1. CHANGED LIFESTYLE

“FOR YOU HAVE SPENT ENOUGH TIME IN THE PAST CARRYING OUT THE SAME DESIRES AS THE GENTILES: LIVING IN DEBAUCHERY, LUST, DRUNKENNESS, ORGIES, CAROUSING, AND DETESTABLE IDOLATRY. BECAUSE OF THIS, THEY CONSIDER IT STRANGE OF YOU NOT TO PLUNGE WITH THEM INTO THE SAME FLOOD OF RECKLESS INDISCRETION, AND THEY HEAP ABUSE ON YOU. BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO GIVE AN ACCOUNT TO HIM WHO IS READY TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.” — 1 PETER 4:3-5 BSB

[DON’T GET HUNG-UP over the term “Gentiles” in this passage. Although that refers to those of us who are not Jewish, in this context it means “unbelievers,” those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of God.]

I LOVE THIS VERSE. God, through His agent, the apostle Peter, is giving us a statement about our changed lives in Christ, how we used to engage in ribald behavior – the world calls it “fun” – but now we don’t. 

We’re chaste. We’re sober. We’re not profligate with our money. We don’t take unnecessary risks. We don’t cuss. We don’t condemn *other* people for their *otherness*. We don’t judge them.

Our women don’t flirt with other’s women’s husbands; our men don’t lust after other men’s wives.

We show compassion. We’re patient. We’re encouraging. We’re eager to help. We praise, rather than condemn. We joke, but it’s kind, not harsh or belittling. We don’t shame someone. 

We look out for the defenseless and the helpless and the hopeless. We cherish “the least of these.”

And, yeah, our friends notice.

Oh, how they notice! Some may be displeased; others might be jealous. 

It’s with sadness that I share that I lost a good “drinking buddy” after I came to the Lord. We drank together during graduate school – so many, many years ago – and met many times in the years following graduation, until it became apparent that only one of us was going to drink alcohol, and one was not, and that killed the connection.

I had the opportunity to share my faith with my friend, and he asked me various pointed questions, until I said, “You’re placing a great deal of trust in my answers to your questions, when you should be searching for those answers yourself. They’re available to you. Just ask God.”

2. LOVING ONE ANOTHER

“ABOVE ALL, KEEP LOVING ONE ANOTHER EARNESTLY, SINCE LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS. SHOW HOSPITALITY TO ONE ANOTHER WITHOUT GRUMBLING.” – 1 PETER 4:8-9 ESV

IF GOD WERE to give me an opportunity to delete some words from His sacred text, I would be tempted to start with these. “Love one another earnestly” and “show hospitality … without grumbling” are “no goes” for me.

I stand convicted, being very guarded of both my heart and my home. I even hate to loan someone a pen. I watch it carefully; fearful I’ll need to chase the miscreant to retrieve it. What is it with pens, anyway?

In theory – in the abstract, devoid of real-life experience – I agree with those two commandments. I just find it difficult to do them.

Aren’t there commandments you find difficult to keep? I’m sure there are. We’re all alike, weak-willed and sin filled. That’s why we need Jesus!

So, let’s just pass over the difficult-to-obey commandments and go on to the Bible’s next passage. Maybe the next one will be easier for us.

Right? Wrong!

That’s not the right attitude. If I’m convicted by God’s Word, then I need to ask Him to fill my heart with the right spirit, that I will honor Him and His call on my life.

Let me read the passage again: “Keep loving one another earnestly. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.“

This passage calls on me to think about someone else’s comfort, someone else’s needs, someone else’s perspective, someone else’s feelings. 

As Christians, we are called to refrain from asking: “What can you do for me?”; asking instead, “What can I do for you?”

Yes, those commandments are difficult for me. Yet, I serve a Savior who laid down His life for me. Surely, I should be able to ask Him to grant me a heart to think, feel, and consider the needs, wishes, and wants of someone else.

Even if it means I lose a pen. Ouch!

3. SPIRITUAL GIFTS

“EACH ONE, AS A GOOD MANAGER OF GOD’S DIFFERENT GIFTS, MUST USE FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS THE SPECIAL GIFT HE HAS RECEIVED FROM GOD.” – 1 PETER 4:10 GNT

DO YOU EVER play that church game where we striate the various tasks we see on campus? We place this task above that one, and honor this gift over another one, and simply ignore what some folks have labored over, and then labor over stuff that no one else notices.

Hey, wind me up, and I’ll tell you how I often feel slighted because my ministry – the senior center ministry – takes place *off campus* and so no one sees what we do, and few – apparently few — are motivated to step alongside us for what must seem like a difficult ministry. 

Many choose not to preach or sing or pray in a roomful of people whose best days are spent looking through the rearview mirror, whose minds drift off to a private world where loved ones were gathered, and everyone was active and joyful and full of life. 

One of our pastors rightly called this ministry a “special ministry.” [Actually, all ministries are “special.”]

He said it takes a special heart to serve the underserved, but what he neglected to add – perhaps because he was not aware of it – is that the blessings received from doing this ministry are enormous, way out of scale to the effort put into the service. 

Frankly and honestly, I’ve been surprised, myself, at the level of asymmetry between effort out and reward in.

We find most people are drawn to working with those who come after us because we feel we have something to share, to help them grow in their walk with the Lord; but how many feel called to minister to those who go ahead of us, to that place that beckons to us, “Come to me; you’re next.” A place where sickness and death await.

We have the privilege of ministering to a population that deeply appreciates us and what we do for them. 

There is a gifting that God provides us as His followers. While we take evaluation tests to determine our giftedness, God can surprise us. He has His own metric to use, and it’s faultless. 

When God plugs you into something, you can feel confident He has placed you in the right spot – just where He wants you and just where you are needed.

This verse also calls us to consider each of God’s giftings as valuable in His eyes. There is no striation in His plan. Preaching over painting? No. Teaching over Training? No. Evangelism over Encouraging? No. Singing over security? No. Cleaning over carpentry? No.

All spots – both volunteer and paid — are valuable in God’s sight, and all are blessed in serving the Lord and the Lord’s anointed.

If we are using our gifting to benefit the church body and the community outside our doors, then we are serving God according to His plan for us. There is no room for boasting. No room for comparisons. No room for envy. No room for friction. No room for complaining.

We are to be good managers and use our gifting to benefit others. 

4. SUFFERING FOR CHRIST

“IF YOU ARE INSULTED FOR THE NAME OF CHRIST, YOU ARE BLESSED, BECAUSE THE SPIRIT OF GLORY AND OF GOD RESTS ON YOU.” – 1 PETER 4:17 LSB

“FOR IT IS TIME FOR JUDGMENT TO BEGIN WITH THE HOUSE OF GOD; AND IF IT BEGINS WITH US FIRST, WHAT WILL BE THE OUTCOME FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT OBEY THE GOSPEL OF GOD?” – 1 PETER 4:17 LSB

IF YOU’RE LIKE ME, and you are – because we’re alike – then you shiver whener you read in God’s Word that we’re called to suffer with Christ to join Him in glory, and we think – “Lord, maybe we just focus on the glory part there and soft-pedal the suffering part.”

But whether we are called, as Christ was called, to suffer bodily harm, torture, and death for the Gospel, or we just suffer the stares and whispering and cold shoulders of those who want to push us and our Gospel-peddling aside, we will suffer at some point.

We often express fear of antagonizing a neighbor or a co-worker – or even family members gathered around the Thanksgiving Day table – with our God talk, but today – even today – our brothers and sisters in many other countries are worshipping in secret or fearing a militia raid that will lead to the rape of the women, the crucifixion of the men, and the burning of the huts. 

After the raping and looting comes the slaughter as men, women, and children are butchered, their bodies torn apart, the pieces left rotting in the hot sun. 

For what crime? For worshipping the Lord as Christians.

And you’re worried about the cold shoulder and some whispering?

Really?

It saddens me even to talk of this, to present to you this unpleasant truth – too many self-proclaimed Christians live lives indistinguishable from the rest of the world and never breathe a word of their faith to anyone.

[Have you led anyone to Christ? More importantly, because you cannot control someone else’s response, have you tried? Have you? Is that commandment even important to you?]

God does not hold us responsible for someone else’s response to the Gospel message, but He does hold us responsible for trying – or failing to try.

When I meet Jesus in Heaven, I do not want to field a question like, “I died on the cross for you, son. What did you do for Me?”

Let’s refocus on today’s text source. “As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.”

Can you just let those words simmer in you for a moment and blossom? You are God’s chosen child.

We are to share the gifts we were given with others. We are to do so in thanksgiving and with praise. All we have, and all we are, is part of the mosaic, the fellowship, the church. 

We are the body; Christ is the Head. 

Let us be faithful stewards.

FINAL WORDS

SERVING OUR LORD in whatever capacity He calls us should be seen as a great opportunity for us, just as it should be viewed as a great honor.

God wants us. God calls us. God chooses us. God looks for us. God forgives us. God loves us. 

God does not need us, but He wants us.

He does not need us, but He wants us. (I know I repeated those words, but they bear repeating.)

CHURCH: As we leave fellowship this morning (afternoon), let us respond to God’s gifting in our lives with our love, our praise, and our worship.

Let us resolve to enter our personal mission field, ready, able, and willing to share the Gospel entrusted to us, to testify to the change that Jesus Christ has made in our lives, and to use our special gifting in service to King Jesus. 

PRAYER

O LORD, OUR GOD, When we in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Your hands have made. We see the stars; we hear the rolling thunder, throughout the universe displayed. 

And when we think of God, his Son not sparing, sent Him to die, we scarce can take it in. That on that cross, our burdens gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away our sin. 

Lord, Your goodness, grace, and mercy are more than we can imagine. Your vision for us is so much better than what we’ve managed to hold onto. 

We are so grateful, so thankful, for how You have rescued us from the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, brushed off our dirt and grit, bathed us clean and fresh, and restored our souls in Your sight to righteousness.

In response, we can only fall to our knees (even if we do so only in our minds), and humbly sing Your praises and say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus! Thank You.”

We lift this prayer in the mighty name of our Savior, Jesus, the Christ of God.

AMEN and AMEN