Pilgrim Living in a Fallen World: Body Life, Spiritual Gifts, and the Glory of God - I Peter 4:9-11

 

Pilgrim Living in a Fallen World: Body Life, Spiritual Gifts, and the Glory of God

I Peter 4:9-11

Introduction: In his popular book from twenty years ago, The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren introduced the acrostic “S.H.A.P.E.” to describe God’s sovereign work in “shaping us” purposefully into the person we are. S.H.A.P.E. refers to our Spiritual gifts, our Heart’s desire, our Abilities, our Personality, and our Experiences being uniquely planned, providentially guided, and sovereignly bestowed by God to make us into exactly the person that we are, the person He designed us to be. The psalmist said a thousand years before Christ, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well...” (Ps 139:14).  The psalmist may have been primarily talking about his physical body being knit together in his mother’s womb, but the principle applies to every aspect of our being. God is the Potter, we are the clay, and He has been “shaping” us into the people we are, for His purposes.  

       After you came to faith in Christ, you were endowed with certain spiritual gifts. He led you to the “heart’s desire” or the sense of calling, the passion for serving that you have. You might work hard at developing skills, but he has given each of us certain abilities or aptitudes. Our “personality” is unique, but we are who we are because God has designed us to have a part in His story. The experiences you have come through may have been both exciting and devastating, joyful and heartbreaking, meaningful and mundane, but in all of it God has been present and working, forming you into the person you are. Your S.H.A.P.E., your spiritual gifts, heart’s desire, abilities, personality, and experiences, have been knit together by the Architect of the universe; they have been molded by the omniscient “Potter.” You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. Your story, by design, is a part of God’s story, His plan, as He builds His church.

       Now put this into our context in First Peter. The apostle is writing to exiles, pilgrims sown among the nations. They are Christ followers who are familiar with suffering, they are apparently experiencing persecution. Peter will tell them in the next verses that they shouldn’t be surprised by the fiery trials through which they are passing. He has urged his readers, in the light of the approaching consummation of God’s plan, to “Above all, keep loving one another fervently…” (I Pet 4:8).  Here Peter talks about showing hospitality and about using our gifts for the building up of the body. That is one way we show our love, by not withholding what God gave us, but using all that we have, all that we are, for the good of others, and for the glory of God.

The BIG Idea: We are called to love and gifted to serve one another for the glory of God.

I. Our love is revealed by ungrudging hospitality: The “one another’s” of the NT start with our attitude, including ungrudging hospitality (9). After the call to love in v.8, he says,

^“Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.”

       We touched on this verse last week, as we looked at vv. 7-9. Hospitality implies welcoming people into your home, sharing your time and space with others. Time is a precious commodity, we only have so much of it. Can we really open our homes and spend time together? Our lives are so busy! The early church did. They were breaking bread from house to house, taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.  And that is the idea here, “ungrudging hospitality.” 

       It begins with out attitude. In another context the Bible tells us that the Lord loves a “cheerful” giver. Grudgingly putting your offering in the box is like no offering at all. The principle applies to whatever we do for the Lord. I remember as a seminary student God kept giving me opportunities to preach almost every weekend. I remember during a busy time of the semester lamenting to someone, “I am so busy, and I have to preach this Sunday.” The guy wisely said, “Well, if that is your attitude, don’t bother!” It should be a pleasure to give, and an honor to serve. The principle here is that the Lord loves those who are “cheerfully hospitable,” finding joy in sharing their life with others.  If you have people over, and find joy in doing it, you are showing hospitality that honors God!

       Hospitality, welcoming strangers, should apply to us as a church as much as it does to our home life. I recently read this excerpt from a letter a researcher sent to his friend…

“I am presently completing the second year of a three-year survey on the hospitality or lack of it in churches.  To date, of the 195 churches I have visited, I was spoken to in only one by someone other than an official greeter—and that was to ask me to move my feet.”

I am quite sure his experience would have been different at our church. But even here we can sometimes get so focused on greeting our friends and enjoying a few minutes of “catching up” with them, that we don’t even notice the visitor who just dropped in that day. Let’s strive more and more to be a welcoming, hospitable church!

         Clearly hospitality has suffered during the pandemic. Still, we have families in our church who are freely hospitable. Many of you regularly host missionaries & visitors.  Some love to have people over for meals, or to host Bible studies, or just get together.  That kind of openness cultivates the sense of “family” that God wants us to have as a church. It also is a testimony to the world. Remember Jesus said, “By this they will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.” God gets the glory!

       If Ronald Reagan was right that, “All great change in America begins at the dinner table,” then we are responsible to shepherd our family, and also, through hospitality, to reach out to our friends and neighbors, our oikos, the people in our close sphere of influence, and to show them Christ in our life and through our testimony.  As a missionary teaching at the seminary in Brazil I would spend time in the lunchroom with the students to be available to them to chat about issues they were facing at home or in their churches.  That kind of “Table Talk” sometimes is just as impactful as what is learned in the classroom.  As parents talk to their children at the mealtimes, they can begin to show them that their faith is relevant to life.

       We have been encouraging you to embrace your calling as a missionary, right where you live. 95% percent of the people who come to faith in Christ have primarily been influenced by one or more people they know, people with whom they are in a close relationship. Why? Because the people around you have been watching you, they know you. You aren’t perfect, and they know that, but you have earned a “hearing.” So, we want to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us. Peter has just said that the task is urgent and the time is short. God has included us in His plan! He said we should fervently love on another. That points to the BIG Idea in these verses: We should love and serve one another, for the glory of God.

II. Our love is demonstrated as we use all that God has given us for the good of others (10). Our gifts were freely given to be freely used for the good of others. Be Faithful in service: Use your gifts for the good of the body and for the glory of God.  Each of us has a spiritual gift(s) to use for the good of the body, and we are required to be a good steward of that gift (10).

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied [manifold, multi-faceted] grace…

       First, Peter says, “...each has received a gift...” You may or may not feel that you know what your spiritual gift(s) is (are). We are all included, “each has received a gift.” That includes you. There is no possibility that God left you out, if you know Christ as your Savior, you have “…received a gift…” He formed you into the person you are, He guided the path of your life, and then, when you turned to Him in faith, He gave you a spiritual gift for the building up of the body.  We are what we are by the grace of God.  The church is composed of many members. Each of us has gifts, and each of is called to use those gifts “to serve one another.” The church is not for spectators, it isn’t a social club. We are a Body, fashioned by God to carry out his mission in the world.

       Notice Peter speaks of the “manifold grace of God.” The idea is “multi-faceted.” This points to the diversity of gifts that God has given in the church. I don’t believe that we have an exhaustive list of spiritual gifts in the NT. It refers to any supernatural endowment that God has given us to build up the church and carry out His mission. And we are all different. I don’t every gift is explicitly listed in the Bible. For example, there is no specific “gift of encouragement” listed in the Bible. In fact, we all are called to “encourage one another.” But when we look at the life of Barnabas, we see an example of someone who was especially empowered to encourage others. We had someone like that on our missionary team when we went to Brazil. Terri was constantly encouraging us and others on our team. I believe she had a gift. Likewise, we are all called to give, to support the ministries of the church, but some have a special “gift of giving” in that God has enabled them to earn at a high level and to give generously to His work. One family I know of has felt that God would have them tithe at 25% of their substantial gross income. It’s not a burden for them, it’s a joy, a privilege. You too have a gift from God, along with every other aspect of the S.H.A.P.E. He has given you.

       You might think, “I just don’t know what my gift is!” Don’t stress yourself trying to name your spiritual gifts. Look for opportunities to serve in the church. None of us should be content to go to church week after week, sing a few songs, hear a message, put something in the offering, and then go home.  I read a paragraph a while back about the need for all of us the be involved...

There were 4 Christians, Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was a special job to do... Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody, and Nobody did it.

Somewhere I have a book by Kevin DeYoung entitled, Just Do Something! No one can do everything but everyone can do something. What you find to do, and find fulfillment in doing, will begin to reveal your gifts to you and to others. Remember, God has formed you purposefully into the person you are. He is the Potter, you are the clay. The gifts you have been graciously given, the desires and burdens you feel in your heart, the abilities that have been developed over many years, maybe over your entire lifetime, the personality that you have, the experiences you have passed through, God’s hand has been in all of it, guiding your story to prepare you to fulfill your part in His story. We are responsible to use all that we are for the good of others and for the glory of God.

“God has placed in our trust a measure of time, a unique set of talents, and sufficient resources to carry out His will for each of our lives. Our task as faithful stewards is to manage those blessings in order to bring the maximum glory to His name.”      

We are called to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. We see an illustration of the principle of stewardship in the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob. When he was sold into slavery by his brothers he came to the house of Potiphar, and eventually was put in charge of his household. The Scripture says that Potiphar entrusted all that he had into Joseph’s hand (Gen 39:4). He was to be a “steward” of his master’s possessions. Paul said to the Corinthians that “It is required of a steward that one be found trustworthy” (I Cor 4:2). In our passage, Peter calls on His readers to be “good stewards of God’s varied grace.” A good steward uses responsibly what God has entrusted to him.  There is a little poem by Rick Warren that states the idea,

“God gave me a gift, not for me but for you, and God gave you a gift, not for you but for me. If you don’t use your gift, you’re depriving me; if I don’t use my gift, I’m robbing you.”

This is God’s design for the church! He could have made each of us independent agents to bring the Gospel into the world. But instead, He made the church. None of us alone is complete. But all of us are important. WE NEED EACH OTHER.

        Paul uses the metaphor of the church as a “body” in I Corinthians 12 and in Romans 12. Each part is important to the proper working of the whole. I recall once just a few years ago, when we went to the park with our grandchildren. I don’t know what happened, but as I was trying to spot my grandson as he climbed down the bars, suddenly I felt a sharp pain, like I got stabbed in the back, and I went right down on the ground. The little guy came over to me as I groaned on the ground, tapped me on the head and said, “Feel betta, feel betta.” It hurt but I had to smile. That was the end of our play date! Grandpa was done!  The body is a picture of the church. No believer is complete by himself, we are to minister to one another, as a family. We need each other. Peter has called us living stones fit together in God’s building. He says you’ve been given a gift, “use it to serve one another,” not in our own strength, but “by the strength that God supplies...” Because God is at work, He gets the credit. With the ultimate goal of the glory of God we should love and serve one another.

III. God is glorified as He uses us to carry out His mission in the world (11).

        As we use our Gifts God Himself is working in us and through us (11a).  Peter is calling his readers to realize that something supernatural is happening as we are engaged in God mission. The Gospel is God’s “Good News,” the Bible is His Word, and His work, His mission, must be carried out in reliance on Him. It seems to me this is one reason that Jesus asked the disciples to “wait” for the promise of the Father for 10 days, from the day of His ascension in Acts 1 until Pentecost. It was only after the Spirit was poured out on the church that they could carry out the mission. They needed His presence and His power, and needed to understand that they could not carry out the mission in their own strength.  Peter says in 4:11,

…whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies…

Peter summarizes: God’s Word is spoken, God’s Work is done… What an awesome thought: God is working in us and through us! Paul said that in Philippians 2:12-16,

 …work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,  ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.  ¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling or questioning,  ¹⁵ that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,  ¹⁶ holding fast to the word of life…

       Do you see how Paul puts divine sovereignty and human responsibility side by side in those verses? In our passage Peter is not naming specific spiritual gifts, but he refers to two general categories of gifts: speaking gifts and serving gifts. The point is that our desire should be to do what we do in God’s name for God’s glory. It isn’t about us, but rather God working in us and through us for His purpose.

        That brings us to the Goal of our Mission: the glory of God (11b). Peter says,

 …in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

       Whether speaking or serving, we are to use our gifts to this end: “…in order that in everything God may be glorified…” The paragraph ends with this beautiful doxology... first He states our purpose and then he states a declaration of praise to God, to Him belong glory and dominion forever! Amen.

What is God saying to me in this passage? God gets the glory when we love one another, and when use the gifts He has given to serve one another.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? God’s glory is where this passage ends and it’s where we should start. Is His glory of first importance to you?  Our desire should be to see the fame of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ spread through the world, starting here. That means it isn’t important to us to get the credit for what God does since we really don’t deserve the credit. He is building His church, He is carrying out His mission in the world! Don’t get me wrong, it is not bad to be recognized, or for people to express approval or appreciation. Paul, in many of his letters, voiced thankfulness for the believers in the churches. But even then, he thanked GOD for them.

       God gets the glory, because He has made us, and empowered us, and despite our weaknesses, He uses us in His program.  Do you believe that God is working in the world today? Can you believe that He has “S.H.A.P.E.(d)” you to have a part in His program? And, as we have said repeatedly, He has placed you where you are, for a purpose.  Are you willing to allow Him to use you, however He chooses to us you, for His glory?  May we all say, “Here I am, send me!” Then we’ll see what God will do!   AMEN.