Where Are We Headed? Part 1

Subtitle: When Intervention Goes Too Far 

2 Kings 20:1-7 (Also, Isaiah 38/39).  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 13, 2022.

We are going to start a new series that asks a question about this world and humanity as a whole.  Just where are we headed as a world and as humanity?  Of course, there is what the Bible says about this.  However, I want to focus first on the things that the world is saying, so that we can then turn to the Bible and see what it says.

This approach is important because it pulls back the curtain on some big issues and prepares us for the debates that are happening now and looming on the horizon.  It also helps to protect us form becoming a lemming that blindly follows the herd.  Though it is now known that they do not commit mass suicide by running off of cliffs, lemmings will migrate outside of their proper habitat and die off in large numbers due to social stresses.  Of course, we have a lot of stresses on our world today, both real and made-up, which makes this question more important than ever.

Let’s get into our passage.

King Hezekiah is told God’s will

In this chapter, we find King Hezekiah who was the king of Judah, reigning roughly 716 BC to 687 BC.  He becomes king right after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by Assyria in 722 BC, just six years prior.  Though the timing is a bit unclear, our passage today is related directly after a siege against Jerusalem by the Assyrian leader Sennacherib.

Before we look at that siege, let me remind us of 2 Kings 18:5-7.  It tells us Hezekiah’s character and faithfulness to God. 

“5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. 7 The Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.”

Hezekiah had lived a faithful life that was comparable to David.  Then, the Assyrians surround Jerusalem (see 2 Kings 19) and threaten it.  In short, God protected Jerusalem when one angel in one night destroyed 185,000 Assyrian troops, ruining Assyria’s plans of extending their dominion.  On the heels of this great victory, tragedy strikes when Hezekiah become deathly sick.

Directed by God, the prophet Isaiah comes to Hezekiah and gives him a Word from God.  He tells him that he will not recover from the sickness, and he should get his affairs in order.  Let us recognize that this is not a doctor telling Hezekiah that he has no hope.  This is God telling him that his time is up.  There is a big difference between turning to God in prayer when the doctor says that you are going to die and turning to prayer when God directly tells you that it is your time to die.  This would hit anybody quite hard, especially coming from a prophet like Isaiah.  This is no crackpot who is guessing.  He has proven himself to be a true prophet of God.

Next, we are told that Hezekiah weeps before God in prayer, asking Him to remember his life of faithfulness and grant a reprieve.  One good thing about Hezekiah is that this is the second time in Scripture that we see him on his face before God weeping in prayer.  He did this when the Assyrians surrounded the city and now when he is told his life on earth is ending.  Would that we had much more of this in our churches, people on their face weeping over the condition of our communities, States, and The Republic.  Hezekiah was a righteous man who knew that God was his main hope.

At this point, God relents and listens to Hezekiah’s appeal.  Even as Isaiah is leaving through the courtyard, God tells him to go back to Hezekiah with a message.  God would grant him to recover and live for 15 more years.  Of course, this comes true and Hezekiah goes on to reign 29 years instead of 14.

On the surface, this appears to be another witness to the miraculous power of God and the power of prayer to turn the heart of God.  However, this event becomes a turning point in the way that the Bible describes Hezekiah and begs this question.  Were those extra 15 years a blessing or not?  Even the phrase “wept bitterly,” used to describe Hezekiah’s praying, seems to speak of one who is struggling with accepting God’s will.  He clearly had not reached the point that the apostle Paul had reached when he said, “I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”  (Philippians 1:23 NKJV).  However, the apostle Paul had dealt with tortures and much grief, whereas Hezekiah has had a comparably comfortable life.

The Bible gives us a glimpse of what happened in those 15 years. 2 Chronicles 32:25 says of Hezekiah, “But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem.”  Following a miraculous destruction of the Assyrian army and a miraculous recovery from a deathly sickness, Hezekiah’s “heart was lifted up.”  This is a Hebrew expression meaning that he had become proud.  Is it possible that the blessing of God can make us proud?  Oh yes, it is not only possible, but it is also the true test of blessing.  Will I become proud and arrogant in the face of God and my fellow man, or will I humble myself and recognize that it is His undeserved grace?  God was not please with Hezekiah’s heart, which demonstrated its pride in all manner of small and large incidents.

2 Kings 20:12-19 describes such an incident.  Having heard of his “good fortune,” Babylon sends some ambassadors to congratulate King Hezekiah on his recovery with a gift.  Hezekiah’s pride leads him to show them all the treasure, goods, and the armory that he had “in all his dominion.”  His pride set him up for a great fall.  Babylon would remember the great treasures in the nation of Judea.  Such a prize would later come to be too desirous to resist.

Hezekiah will die and 2 Kings 21 opens with Hezekiah’s son Manasseh beginning to reign at 12 years old.  If we do the math, we come to realize that Manasseh was born during those 15 extra-years in Hezekiah’s life.  This is how the Bible describes Manasseh in that chapter.  He, “seduced Israel to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.”  It goes on to describe him raising up the high places and worship of Baal.  He raised altars to all the host of heaven within the Temple courtyard, and built an altar to Molech where caused his son to “pass through the fire,” a reference to child sacrifice.

This casts a shadow over Hezekiah’s recovery and grant of 15 years.  Manasseh holds the title of the most wicked king that Judah ever had.  This brings us back to the difference between being told by a doctor that you are going to die, and being told by a proven prophet.  We are told to pray for recovery when we are sick.  However, Hezekiah becomes a cautionary tale that reminds us that we don’t always know what is best for us, and others around us.

Can we create a world that erases all tragedies, and should we try?

I share this story about Hezekiah because there is an impetus in our modern world to try and erase all tragedies, as if we could get to the number zero.  Imagine a world where nothing bad ever happens.  Shouldn’t we try to create it?  Wouldn’t it be our moral duty?

Even Christian groups have come to promote the idea that, when God prophesies that an evil will occur, He tells us so that we can work to avoid it.  The story of Jonah and Nineveh would be a perfect illustration.  Yet, I would caution us that repentance can never be primarily about avoiding an evil.  Ultimately, repentance has to be about the recognition that I have chosen a wrong path, and turn back to God regardless of how He will respond.  I do it because it is the right thing and I see the error of my way.  God is not required to relent when we repent, and we are not told in Scripture that all prophecies can be overturned.  Yes, in general, God warns of evil so that we will repent and be spared that evil.  However, some things cannot be overturned.  Can the judgment of the nations that happens at the Second Coming of Christ become merely a great earthly welcoming of heaven when Christ breaks the clouds?  I do not believe we can actually avoid the prophecy.  We can only kick it down the road.  The people of Nineveh repented and avoided judgment, but most generations do not repent.  Eventually, judgment fell on Nineveh, just like God said it would.

How about America?  How is our repenting going?  Of all the generations that have been born since 1776, what is our percentage of repenting generations to the total?  I believe it is abysmally low, and that we are in grave danger.  Repentance may grant us a reprieve, but that is not why we should repent.  We should repent because our sin is dragging us to hell, and only God can save us.

Is it our job as Christians to create Utopia?  It is interesting that Christ never told us to focus on fixing the world, but rather, to make disciples of those who respond to our sharing of the Good News.

One of the problems in this area is the law of diminishing returns.  Society has been on a trend of making laws to keep bad things from happening: seat-belts, bicycle helmets, social security, insurance, life-support systems, etc.  However, this has not removed all tragedies.  We are now at a stage where it is becoming vogue to take the right of choice from individuals and put it in the hands of wise, “all-knowing” elite in our society.  Now, the first laws we pass and the first things that we do can make a large difference.  Kid’s wearing a bicycle helmet will drastically impact the numbers of head injuries and deaths.  However, to get that next percentage will take far more drastic laws.  It will take more and more drastic changes in order to get less and less of a difference.

Picture global warming.  The weather and temperature of the earth is a highly complex system.  It is questionable whether humans can actually effectively change the temperature of the planet.  However, cleaning up the emissions of our vehicles and factories has made a huge difference in smog around highly-populated areas.  It will take more and more drastic measures, in dollars and freedom, to make less and less of a difference.  In fact, our attempts to make good things happen in one area of a complex system often have negative effects somewhere else in the system.  You can picture the proverbial plate spinner trying to keep millions of plates spinning at the proper rate all the time.  Humans can’t do this, and so we turn to artificial intelligence, AI.

Part of the problem is the physical frailty of humans.  Think of all the safety engineering that goes into the modern car.  We have lane assist computers with smart cruise control, so you don’t drive into the back of someone when you get distracted.  The car is designed with crumple zones and air bags so that you have a good chance of surviving accidents.  As amazing as all of this technology is, humans are just too frail to get the number of deaths, and even accidents, to zero.  Sure, we could ban all transportation of people, but do you want to live in such a world?  And, are there not other tragedies we should want to avoid, not all of them about mortality alone?  Trying to get tragedies to zero is a no-win game.  Yes, we can make a big difference, but there is a point at which we say that it isn’t worth it to keep beating the dead horse.

We will talk more about this in a later sermon, but we keep bumping up against this reality that we are simply too frail.  Our attempts to counteract the frailty with technology has brought us to the point of desiring to use the technology in order to change ourselves as a species.  As long as we are mortal humans, tragedies will occur and will never be zero.

At this point, we should see that there is an even greater problem that humanity keeps running from.  It is the problem of our moral frailty.  Our penchant for choosing sin is at the heart of this tragic world.  Sin is the source of all tragedy as seen in Genesis chapter three.  No matter how perfect a system we create, humans are always the weak link in it.  We amass great power to help humanity, and then certain humans use that great power to enrich themselves and make slaves of the rest.

This too presents another pressure for humans to take a path of becoming not human.  There is no path back from some decisions and the repercussions cannot be known in advance, though they can be suspected.  Only God can help humanity back from the decision to listen to that ancient serpent, the devil.  We are even now attempting to take hold of our evolution inside of labs all across this world.  Will we survive?

Christians should not be fatalistic and refrain from making the world a better place.  Yet, notice that it is not our goal, but a side-effect of discipling people to be like Jesus.  This will never make the world a zero-tragedy place, and it is not even our focus.  However, the lepers of India are sure thankful that Christians came to the shores of India and were moved by Christ to have compassion upon them.  In this, we must have all our hope in God and not in the technology of man taking His place.  Such interventions can go too far and open Pandora’s box.

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What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 8

Matthew 28:16-20.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday March 6, 2022.

We will finish our series today talking about sharing Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.

Everything that we do as a Christian should revolve around the worship of God.  It is a whole-life worship that demonstrates the worth and value of God when we CONNECT to Jesus and his people through an authentic relationship.  We also demonstrate His worth and value when we GROW spiritually through intentionally becoming like Jesus.  Again, we demonstrate His worth and value when we SERVE selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that God has given us.  Lastly, we demonstrate His worth when we SHARE Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.

Last week, we saw the passion side of sharing Jesus with others.  How could I not share Jesus, and who could keep me silent when he has set me free from a life of begging and being spiritually lame, like the man at the Beautiful Gate in Acts 3.  No one was going to shut that man up short of putting him in prison and executing him, and then his death would witness even more loudly!

Today, we will look at the command and duty side of sharing Jesus.  Passion is not always enough to keep us sharing Christ.  We can get angry, wounded, or hurt.  In those moments when passion is low, the command of Christ is there to challenge our flesh.  I may not feel like it, but the Lord has given me a command, and I do not want to disappoint my Lord.

Let’s look at our passage.

Jesus uses his authority to give us a command

We talked about this last week, but we should always keep in mind the Daniel 7 passage where God judges the empires of the world, and yet, he then gives the kingdoms of the world to a Son of Man character who represents Jesus.  This Son of Man receives comes to the Ancient of Days riding on the clouds of heaven.  This imagery helps us see why Jesus purposefully used this title of himself.  Yes, it is a phrase that can essentially mean a human.  However, this phrase also had a connotation that reflected a mystery human who can ride the clouds like Yahweh, and will rule over the nations.  Many of the Jews understood this character as the Messiah.  We must never let this pompous, bloviating world take our eyes off of the fact that Jesus is the King of heaven and earth, and we will be judged on whether or not we were faithful to him.

All of that is to say that Jesus has left us with a purpose and a Great Mission, which is also called the Great Commission.  As we connect, grow, and serve, we are enabled to reach those who do not know Jesus with the Good News.

He could rapture us up to heaven the second that we believe, but that is not how God operates.  There is a spiritual battle for the souls of people happening on this earth.  Jesus shows us that God is not standing by silent.  We never become more like him than when we rise up to fight those principalities that hold humans in bondage through their own sinfulness (how sick the evil one is!).

It is easy to make the focus in this passage to be on the word “go,” but to do so is to miss the main point.  The main verb is “make disciples,” and it is modified by a phrase that explains just who we are to disciple, “all nations.”  Just so we are not confused, ask yourself who the subject of this command is.  Yes, it is his disciples, but not just those back then.  Jesus was to be with us to the end of the age, and therefore the mission is ongoing to the end of the age.  Since those original disciples are no longer with us, it is clear that Jesus intends this mission to be passed down from one generation of disciples to the next.

So, what does it mean to make disciples?  To make a disciple starts with being a disciple yourself.  We must become students of Jesus who are being transformed by the life and word of Christ.  This is the foundation of sharing the bad news and the Good News with others.  God’s Word is our powerful weapon because it is truth, and it is spiritual power energized by God’s Holy Spirit.  In essence, becoming a disciple of Jesus is another way of saying that we have connected to him as our Teacher and to his other disciples.  This means that we are a community of people who study and learn of Jesus.  Be must not become something other than that.

Jesus did not tell them to only reach other Jews, or any particular race, culture, etc.  The Gospel is to be taken to every nation as the Holy Spirit leads us.  We disciple those who respond to the drawing of the Holy Spirit no matter what their background, their sin, or their culture.  Not everyone fulfills the same task however.  There is a Sending, Giving, and Going aspect to this Mission.  Those who Go need a group behind them that are Sending them by continually praying and providing a support system.  Yet, we should be careful of drawing to strong of a distinction between those three aspects.  Technically, we are all called to go, but not always to go across the world to a completely different culture.  We should all be a prayer support for other Christians who are sharing Christ even if a person is a missionary. Can a missionary support another missionary in prayer and funds as needed?  Of course, they can!  So, we need to keep our eye on making disciples whether that is around the world or across the street.  All of us are working together in order to make disciples around the world.

Now, let’s look at the going component.  Going is necessary as I have already alluded.  We have to become a people who are learning to go to others.  I have to learn to step outside of myself, my comfort zone, in order to share Jesus with others.  Acts 1:8 gives us a picture of concentric circles moving out from Jerusalem.  “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

All of us go, just like our Lord who left the great halls of heaven in order to go to earth and battle for our souls.  We must be led by the Holy Spirit to go out from a life that is only focused on ourselves.  However, it takes greater sacrifice to reach the opposite side of the world.  Thus, God calls some people to be missionaries.  They will have to travel to areas in which they do not know the customs, and the language.  They will have much to learn.  They will need supporters back home who will pray for them and give money to support them.  Yes, this can become a racket if we let it.  Thus, believers at every part of this must become a people of prayer responding to the Holy Spirit.  We see this in the New Testament as many supported Paul in his evangelistic endeavors so that he could take the Gospel into the area of what we call Turkey today, and onto the European continent through Greece.

Another phrase that Jesus adds is that we are to baptize those who become disciples.  Jesus has them continue this practice as a symbol or sign that a person has joined the community of the disciples of Jesus.

There are some who become overly worked up over what is said when a person is baptized.  This is not a mystical ritual that must be done just right in order to “work.”  Rather, it is the response of a person’s soul to the Spirit of God.  This is what makes it effective.  Jesus emphasizes that disciples are being baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Yet, in other places it doesn’t use this “formula,” as some call it.  As I have said, I do not believe that Jesus is giving us a “formula.”  To connect to the Father is to connect to the Son and the Holy Spirit.  To respond to one is to respond to the others.  Yet, this process of becoming a disciple is operated by each of them in different ways.

Jesus then emphasizes that they are to teach the newer disciples.  This connects to the earlier make disciples, but it is more explicit.  We don’t just hand a bible to new believers and leave them on their own.  The older disciples are to teach the newer disciples, not in a sense of being between them and Jesus.  The Spirit of Christ is the ultimate teacher, but Jesus wants the mature disciples to come alongside of the immature.

One might ask, “Isn’t the Word of God and the Holy Spirit sufficient?”  Sure, they are completely enough for any disciple, but it is not a question of sufficiency.  God has provided a community that new believers enter, and He also gives a command through the Lord Jesus for us to help each other.  Thus, we surrender to the will of God rather than lecture Him on the theoretical sufficiency of the Word and the Spirit.  All disciples need to keep their eyes upon Jesus and learn from him as he uses others to teach us.

Just like God is teaching us to battle the spiritual forces arrayed against His people and those who are lost, so He is teaching us to become spiritual parents that help His new children mature spiritually.  Spiritual maturity can be defined as simply learning to obey the commands of Christ through an intimate relationship with Jesus.  Thus, I can be a follower of Jesus for over 30 years and still be infantile spiritually.  Of course, it is not possible to be the essence of maturity in one day, but some grow into maturity much faster than others.  Of course, we should restrain ourselves from judgments in this area because we cannot see the heart, and some who appear mature may not be what they seem under pressure.

One last thought on this teaching issue is that you don’t need an official title or position to do it.  We are all supposed to become like Christ who was a teacher.  Thus, we are all to teach even while we are students to those whom God brings to us.  No human teacher has ever arrived.  They are still learning themselves.  In fact, I believe that you never learn more about Christ than when you are trying to teach others, that is if your heart is open to the Holy Spirit.

Well, that’s the mission.  It is still the mission of Christians today, whether you have been saved for decades or days.  Yet, Jesus ends this with the encouragement that he will be with us even to the end of the age.  He has not left us alone. This is more than a human saying that they are thinking of us.  Jesus is present with us today as if he was standing here in our church, or sitting there right beside you.  When you are in the most difficult place, remember that Jesus is with you.  He will give you the words; he will give you passion; he will give you wisdom, strength and courage! 

The enemy is raging against God’s people in our society today- all over the world in fact.  Yet, until God calls us home, He is not finished yet, and so, neither are we.  Let’s go forward with our Joshua, who is Jesus, and know that he will be with us no matter what we face.  Then we will connect lost sinners to the abundant life that can only be found in King Jesus!

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What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 7

Acts 4:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday February 27, 2022.

We continue looking at this question of what does God really want from me.  We have talked about Connecting to Jesus and his followers, Growing to be like Jesus, and Serving one another like Jesus served us. 

Now, we turn our attention to our final purpose, and that has to do with Sharing Jesus with those who do not know him.  Again, we do so to connect them to Christ, and as an outflow of our living connection to Christ.  It is a part of our spiritual growth when we share the good news about Jesus with others.  Also, we are serving people who are spiritually lost when we do this.  Yet, it is unique enough to deserve its own place as another purpose that God has for us.

We should share Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.  Some of those people barely know anything about Jesus, and they often have misconceptions about him.  Others will say that they are Christian, but they are clueless about what that really means.  This wide range of people who are spiritually lost is very diverse, and the believer needs to be led by the Holy Spirit in sharing Christ with each one.  No one tactic will “work” with them all.

Sharing Jesus involves more than a message, or a downloading of information.  The message of who Jesus is, what he has done, and what he is going to do, has ramifications for every person on this planet.  They really do need to know the information.  However, we are more than people with information.  We have come into relationship with the one who is presently changing us.  Thus, we share a message and the powerful effect of having Jesus in our lives.  In short, we share Jesus himself with them in a spiritual way that they will not understand at first.

Of course, this needs to be a passionate endeavor.  If I am truly in relationship with Christ, then I am will be challenged to connect, grow, serve, and finally share Jesus, by the Spirit of God working within me.  This is the work of God’s Spirit stirring us up to do the good works that God has prepared for us to do!

Let’s look at our passage in Acts 4.

The controversy of proclaiming Jesus

It is understandable that it would be controversial to publicly proclaim that the leaders of Israel had unjustly executed Jesus.  However, Peter and John are not just crying out publicly for justice against an unjust government.  At its core, Christianity is a call for all men everywhere to repent, be they an individual who has a low position within society, or be they part of a criminal cabal that rules a nation (even the whole earth).

Let’s dig a little deeper into the background of our passage.

This event happens about seven weeks after the crucifixion of Jesus.  Peter and John had been preaching under the large portico called Solomon’s Colonnade.  It is sometimes called a porch, but it wasn’t attached to any building.  It was a series of columns with a roof that gave covered access to the courts surrounding the temple.  This preaching was giving a stir itself as many started to believe them.

Acts 3 records an event that shocked the temple crowds.  There was a man who had been lame since birth.  People would bring him to one of the gates at the temple compound so that he could beg for alms.  Of course, this would be a target rich environment because the people are generally coming there for spiritual reasons.  This man would have been a regular fixture that everyone would recognize.  “Oh, that’s that blind man who begs by Gate Beautiful.” 

This man is begging for money when Peter says to him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  Peter then took him by the hand and the man was able to stand up, start walking, and even started leaping and running.  This is a miracle on many levels.  It caused such a stir and a crowd that Peter tells the crowd that this is done by the power of Jesus of Nazareth, and that they need to repent and believe on him.  Simultaneously, the commotion draws the attention of those in charge of the temple.  Peter and John are arrested and held overnight.

In a sense, the foundational human authority on this planet begins within each one of us.  You have authority over what you think, say, and do.  Peter had faced the truth about Jesus, and the truth about his own failure to stand with him.  The failure in that moment represented a greater failure of Peter to love God with his whole being.  Only such a person can then call others to face the truth about their own actions in the face of what God has decreed.  Without Christ, we are all rebels against the Creator-King of the Universe.  The Gospel is at once a sword into our heart, and a cure for our sickness.

This message of repentance sends a ripple up through the authority structures of this world, and challenges every authority (not just Israel).  You must bow the knee to Jesus, or perish as his enemy.  Verse twelve is a valuable statement of truth.  “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  This is an unyielding decree of God the Father, and the world chafes at it from the high and mighty to the low and powerless.  The reality of Jesus ruffles everyone!

We can focus on the miraculous healing of the lame man.  However, operating in the power of the Holy Spirit is more than doing miracles of healing.  Peter’s ability to challenge the people and the leaders with the blazing truth of God is itself a miracle.  His public declaration of the truth about Jesus was directly empowered by the Holy Spirit.  This is how we should operate in all that we do for Christ.  Parents must pray that God will empower them to speak and teach their children the truth of God in a powerful and God-led way.

Being responsible for a child can be intimidating in and of itself, but the challenges become greater as we scope out to where Peter finds himself that day, in front of the national leaders of Israel.  For the believer, however, this should be no different.  When you have grown spiritually to depend upon the Holy Spirit for whatever you face, then in that moment, you become like David when he faced Goliath.  He had already faced lions and bears by himself in the field.  God has prepared you for whatever moment you face, but you will still need to rely upon the power and direction of the Holy Spirit.  Whether you witness to a person on the street, or speak before Congress, the Lord will be there to help you in that moment.

The corrupt leaders of Acts 4 want to know by what authority Peter and John are doing what they are doing.  Who gives us the authority and power to call all people everywhere to repent, to call the great powers of the earth to yield and repent?  Yes, it is Jesus, but it is not us using Jesus as a poster child for holding governments accountable, or speaking truth to power.  It is me bowing the knee to the Lord of heaven and earth.  It is me agreeing with God the Father that I am guilty of a capital crime against heaven, and yet also rejoicing that He has given terms of pardon in the person and work of Jesus. 

We are all like that lame man of Acts 3 who suddenly finds that he can walk after 40 years of begging.  He was walking and leaping and praising God!  Who could shut him up?

God the Father has overruled all corrupt authorities, starting with myself.  Jesus is the Anointed King that He has installed over all authorities in heaven and on earth.  All people everywhere are under a death sentence until they flee to Jesus for shelter.  Each Christian is a person who has been set free from death by the grace of Jesus!  How can we keep silent, and who can shut us up?

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What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 6

1 Peter 4:10-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 20, 2022.

We continue today looking at the third purpose of serving one another selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that God has given us.  We are going to go back to 1 Peter 4, which we looked at during the purpose of spiritual growth.  You might read verses 7-9 just to refresh yourself on the context.

God gives gifts among us

Peter has been teaching us that a follower of Jesus will live in the light of the truth that all things are under the judgment of God.  Instead of looking at the things of this world and this life with the eyes of flesh, we look at them for the purposes of Christ. 

Part of that is loving one another.  In verse 10, Peter points each one of us to the gifts that we have received from God, and he tells us to use them to serve one another.  This is his main point.  It reminds us that we have the gifts we have in our life for God’s purpose and not just to bless ourselves.

Before we get into serving one another, notice at the end of verse 10 the phrase that Peter uses to describe how we should serve, “as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

Everything started and will end with the grace of God.  Peter tells us that it is a manifold grace.  The word manifold means that there are different kinds of God’s grace and lots of them.  They are spread all over the world and some of those are gifts are within ourselves.  We have received them from God.  Imagine all of the things that are the grace of God that are all around us, and which we often take for granted.  This great diversity of God’s grace comes to all of us.  However, part of this sea of grace in which we swim is a particular gift that God gives to each one of us.

The word that is used for gift is where we get the word charisma.  Now, there is a Greek word for a gift that emphasizes that it is something that has been given.  However, the word used for gift here emphasizes that it is a result of grace.  It is literally the word grace and a suffix that tells us it is a result of grace, a gracious thing, thus a gift that has been given to us.

This word is used by Paul in the context of spiritual gifts, but it doesn’t only mean spiritual gifts like: healing, prophecy, a word of wisdom, and all the others.  It is a general term that speaks to both the natural and the spiritual gifts that God has given us.  The gifts that He has spread out among us are just a small part of His provision of a smorgasbord of grace.

Now, Peter gives two examples of gifts in verse 11: the gift of speaking, and the gift of serving.  These gifts are not a badge of honor to distinguish us from one another, but as an empowerment to do a service for God among one another.  This empowerment, or enabling, is two-fold.

First, there is the giving of the gift into our life.  Peter tells us to be good stewards, good managers, of this gift that God has given us, and to use it to serve others.  This is a way in which we love one another as he told us in verse 8.  However, it takes time to discover the gift that God has put in you.  Am I a stingy manager, or am I a manager who is using all of the stock for my own pleasure?  Am I a faithful manager who is serving others on behalf of Jesus?

Second, there is an enabling that comes from God as we step forward in faith to exercise our gift.  He enables us in the moment of serving and speaking.  In verse 11, Peter says that we should do so with the strength, and ability, which God supplies. 

It can be easy to be intimidated and shrink away from trying to bless others, but God is calling us to step out in faith out of a motivation of loving one another, and a motivation of faith in God’s enabling.

We must always keep this ultimate purpose in mind.  Serving others is God’s purpose in my life, but it serves a greater purpose too.  It brings glory to God the Father through Jesus Christ.  As Christians, we are representatives of Jesus.  It is important that we are connected to him, growing to be like him, and serving like him.

Just as the only way to the Father is through Jesus, so the only way to bring glory to Him is through Jesus.  Jesus is the solid ground (foundation) upon which we stand, and He is the strength and empowerment by which we do so.  Also, He is the one that we will be like when He is finished working on us in this life.  He is the one to whom belongs all the glory, and all the power of ruling, in this universe. 

Always remember that when you serve others, you enter into this holy act of bringing glory to God and take your place beside the Lord Jesus Christ.  May God help us to selflessly serve one another and bring glory to God the Father!

Serve part 6 audio