Using Your Gifts to Serve Others
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
1 Peter 4:10
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
James 1:2-4
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Please open your Bibles to 1 Peter 4:1-11
(explain where 1 Peter is found in the Bible)
The Apostle Peter wrote the book we know as 1st Peter to churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.
I remember that this reference to Asia used to confuse me. I always thought of Asia as the continent of Asia; like in this picture …
(map of Asia including the Middle East, Central Asia, Russian and the Caucasus, East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.)
And I remembered one time when the Apostle Paul wrote that he wanted to go into Asia but the Holy Spirit stopped him from doing so. (Acts 16:6)
But when we look at a map of the area called Asia during the Roman Empire we see the five areas Peter is writing to.
Does that mean that the book of 1st Peter is not applicable to us?
Of course not. I certainly hope not because we now have three memory Scriptures that have been taken from 1st Peter.
With that in mind let’s read: 1 Peter 4:1-11
(Prayer for help)
When Peter was writing this letter it was much like the persecution of Christians is in China now in that the persecution was not consistent throughout the empire.
There are areas in China where Christians are suffering severe persecution and other areas where they may be harassed but not imprisoned or tortured.
It was much like that in the Roman Empire when Peter wrote the book of 1st Peter. Perhaps that is why he chose the areas those particular areas to receive this letter.
We in America have a difficult time understanding this type of persecution because we have never experienced it.
Let’s take another look at one of the verses in 1 Peter 4:3
“For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do - living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.”
Is that not an accurate description of a major portion of the society in America today?
We live in a nation of people filled with spiritual emptiness and despair.
Imagine if you will the emptiness that drives people to use mind altering drugs.
Our hearts were filled with sadness the week before last when we attended the funeral of a young lady whose life was lost to a drug overdose.
Just how lost is our society today?
Imagine drug use as an iceberg. And, imagine that the 70,000 Americans who died of drug overdose are only the part of the iceberg that extends above the water. How many are represented by the part of the iceberg that extends below the waterline?
In 2017 19.7 million Americans were struggling with substance abuse problems.
Of that 19,700,000, 14,600,000 or 74% were addicted to alcohol.
Another 38% or 7,500,000 were addicted to other drugs.
Now, you might say that 74% + 38% is more than 100% and that is right.
What this means is that around 2,400,000 were addicted to both alcohol and another drug.
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine 18-24 million men, women and children are estimated to be sex addicts. This includes pornography, prostitution and sexual predators. Sexual predators are those who pursue others for the sole purpose of their own sexual gratification and who have no other interest in the other person at all.
The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that 2 million Americans are addicted to gambling. An additional 4 to 6 million people, would be considered problem gamblers, people whose gambling affects their everyday lives.
On the other end of the spectrum are the drug cartels, drug gangs and drug pushers, the producers of pornography, the pimps, the owners of the gambling establishments; all of whom know beyond the shadow of a doubt that what are doing will kill people, destroy lives, destroy marriages.
Why? The “addictors” themselves have addictions to money, greed. The people feeding the addictions and making money from the addictions are actually addicts to greed or power.
It is all a gigantic mess!
Addictions. Sin. Hollow empty lives.
Lives without meaning. Lives without Jesus.
America is awash in lostness; hopelessness.
Where is the salvation? Who will rescue them from their lostness?
Can’t we see it? Doesn’t it concern us?
Think about this …
Did you know that when the Titanic sank there was a ship called the Californian which was only about 30 minutes from the Titanic?
The crew of the Californian knew they were in an ice field and had stopped. The radio operator of the Californian tried to warn the Titanic about the ice field but were told to “shut up” by the operator on the Titanic. He was too busy sending messages from happy passengers to listen to the warning.
Soon afterward the radio operator of the Californian shut off his radio and went to bed.
So, what on earth or what in heaven’s name does that have to do with us?
We are surrounded by people who are lost and drowning in a sea of drug and alcohol abuse; in a sea of pornography and self-centered sexual addiction; in a sea of gambling and greed and a craving for power and in a sea of apathy
.
Most of these started into their addictions believing themselves to be “unsinkable” like the Titanic. It will never happen to me!
So, what does that have to do with us?
What if we look at the world like the Titanic and the church like the ship called the Californian?
At one time the church was like the Californian sending out messages of warning. “There is certain death ahead.”
And the world has often responded like the radio operator on the Titanic telling the church to “Shut up! I’m busy!”
But, are we in the church like the crew of the Californian?
Have we “switched off our radios and gone to bed?
Shouldn’t we be broadcasting a warning message?
Are we in our comfortable bunks while the world sinks into a lost eternity?
Now, let’s try to connect all of this to our memory Scripture.
1 Peter 4:10
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
(The NIV is one of only a couple of translations that have the word “should” in 1 Peter 4:10)
It is said that in 1 Peter there is an imperative command in one out of every three verses. What is an imperative command? Stop! That’s an imperative command.
Peter says, “Each of you … use the gift …to serve others.”
What gift do we all have as Christians? Salvation.
What does the gift of salvation give us? A story. A testimony.
What can we do with the story of our testimony? We can tell it.
Do you understand that this is one gift that you can give away as much as you want and you will never have any less than you had before you started giving it away?
Do you understand that Jesus Christ died to give you that gift?
Do you understand that if someone had not shared their gift of salvation with you, you too, would be dying in your sin?
Are you going to let others die in their sin?
The Lord has put you where you are to be His witness, His ambassador, His missionary, His light of truth.
Just recently I joined the Holland Rod and Gun Club.
I spend too much time in the church and in the office and with the people of the church but I don’t spend enough time with those lost in sin.
When the membership officer of the club was introducing me to the club board members she told them that I am a pastor and jokingly said that, “maybe I can save some of them.”
I pray that her statement is a word of prophecy.
What is it that gives us a sense of urgency to witness?
Knowing that we were in the grip of spiritual death and facing eternity in hell.
And knowing that by God’s grace alone we have been spared from that fate.
And knowing that others need that same salvation.
Final thoughts and prayer.
