All right, so 1 Peter 4, we'll start here at verse 7. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So far. Let us pray before we turn to the Word. Father in heaven, we thank you for your majestic word. We thank you how it speaks of you and it speaks of the human condition and of a great savior that came down. We just pray that as we turn to your word that you would open our ears, that we would hear and open our eyes that we would see this morning. Give me wisdom to speak your word faithfully, I pray. O Lord, we are but people. Lord, thou art the shepherd, and so would you lead us. Lord, may we look to you, Lord, as we expect from you to provide us all things that are needful for faith and godliness. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, so last time we looked at verses 8 and 9, and this morning we're going to be looking at verses 10 and 11. You've got to remember that this is all front-loaded with verse 7, where it talks about the end of all things. That's talking about the consummation, that final time when this earth and this universe will be wrapped up and we enter into eternity. And Peter warns and reminds the church to live with that expectation, that sober reality, that things are winding down, that we are living in the last days. And so we've seen from that he draws all kinds of consequences. Don't forget the word therefore in verse 7. Therefore be and sober, watch unto prayer, have fervent love, and use hospitality. All these things are driven from this consequence of realizing the end of all things is at hand. And so this morning, we're going to see three points. We're going to see a principle, a practice, and praise. So the three Ps, principle, practice, and praise. So the last kind of consequences in Peter's mind with respect to the end of all things. So first of all, the principle. As every man hath received the gift, he says, so minister the principle. So gift, the word in the Greek charisma, you've maybe heard of the charismatic movement, the movement that exercises quite extravagantly the gift of tongues and prophecy and holds to the continuation of those things. And so the charismatic movement simply comes from the Greek word charisma. which means gift. It is literally, the word means a gift of divine grace with respect to its New Testament use. And so when Peter says, as every man hath received the gift, he's referring here to the vast swath of gifts that God has given to the church. There's none specifically mentioned yet, but he's referring to the whole thing. This can range anywhere from the gifts of apostleship, to teaching, to miracles, discernment, faith, knowledge, tongues, healing, mercy, and many, many more that I didn't list here. So we have to be clear with respect to the charisma. They are all gifts. They're all gifts because the church didn't earn them. We didn't earn the right to have these gifts. Rather, they are freely given. That's why the word gift means gift. That's exactly what it means. And so even look at Peter's use here, very clear, as it says, every man hath received the gift. We've received these things. from God. Notice also in the text it says, as every man hath received the gift, the entire church is endowed with the blessedness of gifts. No one is left out. You all, every believer here, if you're a Christian, you have at least one gift, at least one. Could be many more that you have been given to use to serve the body. And just remember that it's peculiar to you. God gave it peculiarly to you that way, with that measure, so that it could be used for the body. And that's quite something to think about with respect to gifts. And then from there, we get the next phrase, what Peter's really after, even so minister the same to one another. So he says, minister this gift, but notice what he says, even so, minister the gift. So what he means here is, with respect to the measure that you have and the gift set that you have, with respect to that, minister. So don't try to be someone else. Don't try to say, oh, I really wish I was like them. I'm almost jealous of what they've done for the body, and I want to minister in the same way as them. And you want to almost hijack God's giftedness to that peculiar individual for yourself because you want the glory or you want that kind of results. There may be a good motive there, but Peter says, even so, minister, as you have received, minister. So let us keep that. that in mind, there's only ever going to be one Charles Spurgeon, one John Calvin, one Christestum, the golden tongue preacher from the early church, one Gladys Alward, one Elizabeth Elliot or Amy Carmichael, the greats that we would look at. God gifted them peculiarly to serve where they were at. So we read their stories, we rejoice in the blessing God gave upon their work, but we don't sit there and try to be them. The point here is don't be idle with respect to your gifts. Imagine it's your birthday and you're given a big box and you open up the box and inside is this beautiful gift that has an ability to bless the entire family. And so you say, wow, that is amazing. Thank you so much. And the day is over, you close the box, you put it back on the shelf and you don't touch this thing. That's exactly what Peter's after, that we don't do that. That we, on our birthday, when we were born again to a living hope, we were gifted from on high. That's what it says in Ephesians. And so he has given many gifts and let us use them. Don't box up what God has meant to be used for his body. And so it says minister, the Greek word to minister is very familiar to us, diakones, where we get the office of the deacon from. A deacon is simply the office of the minister, the servant. And so we are all called, at some level, to be deacons, deaconesses, to serve, to minister in the body. So all the gifts, all of them, from apostleships ranging all the way to whatever you want to put on the other end, they are all gifts of service. It's really amazing, right? All of them to serve the body of Christ. And the point is, it's in the present tense in the Greek, which means it's a continual thing. It doesn't mean I serve today, I'll take tomorrow off. There's no Sabbath with respect to serving. Every day, the Lord calls his church to serve. And then he says, minister the same to one another. This is really interesting, because in the Greek, there's many ways you could say one another, but here he uses what's called the reflexive tense or the reflexive verse, ace autous, which really means, literally it would be translated like this, ministering it, the gift, to yourselves. You see the reflection coming back? So as we minister, as we serve one another, it's reflecting back to the whole body. And so the body in ministry reflects back to the growth of one, one body of Christ. And so that's a very peculiar use that Peter's using here with respect to service. And so to serve each other is to serve yourself in that sense because of the one body thing. Now notice also in the text it says after that, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, a steward is literally oikonomos, two words, oikos, house, nomos, law, the people that hold the law of the house, the people that were the managers, the superintendents of the house. Well, we have been called stewards or managers of the gifts we have been given. Think about that. You and I, believers, we are to manage the gifts that God has given to us. That's what this means. But being a steward means what? You're not an owner. It's a careful nuance, but we have to hear that. We are not the owners. He gave into us on lease, as it were, to manage this thing. And so one commentator, Gerhardt, he says this, we are liberal, not with our own goods, but with that of another. So let us remember that. And so we are called to a responsibility to serve. And it's not a privilege to squander, a responsibility to use, not a privilege to squander. Now notice as well in the text it says not just to be a steward, but it says be a good steward, right? Faithful, honorable, using the gift set in the way God intended it. A poor steward, what would a poor steward do? A poor steward would sit by when needs arise. Can you imagine going to someone's home and he has the steward to manage the home and you walk in with dirty feet, and the Lord of the house had asked the steward to take care of you and to minister to your need, and he says, hey! And he sits on the couch, kicks up the feet, turns the TV on, and does nothing. We'd say, that's a terrible steward. And so with the gifts we have been given, the man and the owner, God has commanded us not to kick up our feet, but to be active, to watch out, to be involved. When you see needs arising, go there. Look around for people you can help. A good steward is somebody who's willing to suffer. Are you willing to suffer in the stewardship of your gifts? A good steward is not averse to difficulty or the pain of service. You know, it's so easy to serve in the things that are convenient, comfortable, on our time and on our schedule. That's the easy stewardship, right? The nine to five type of thing. The good steward does not measure his willingness by how thankful the people are. Could you imagine what the church would look like if we had to measure our responsibility on thankfulness of others? Nothing would get done because often people can be unthankful, unruly, and selfish and won't give you a word of affirmation. And so a good steward doesn't wait for that, he serves. A good steward serves difficult people, not just the favourites. And so God has called you and me to be stewards of our particular gift set to difficult people, to the complainers, to people in the church, but to serve, to minister. If you took inventory of your past week, how would you say you fared with respect to this stewardship that you have been given? What are areas where you realize you might need to pick it up, where you've kicked up your feet, where you've checked out in your gift set that God has given to you? Notice what Peter says, then, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The word manifold means all sorts of graces. The church is given in gifts all sorts of graces. And you remember the word charisma, gifts? Listen to the Greek word for grace. So charisma and charitas. They're so close. They're almost synonymous. So within gifts, there's a grace. That's why they're called gracious. divine gifts. And so Peter piggybacks on that word and says, you are stewards not only of gifts, but they are gifts that just speak of the manifold grace of God. God has given this to us. The grace of God, thus, is the source of gratuitous blessings. So God has designed, think about this, what this all means is that God has designed the body of Christ to actually need each other. Is there an implication we can draw from that? You cannot be a Christian and sit at home and watch television sermons and say, I've gone to church. What are you then for with respect to using your gifts? You're a taker. That's all you are. Church for you is, how can that pastor, that minister, that book feed me? And I am my own little autonomous body for me. That is why this whole COVID thing has blown the lid off of the irresponsible theology of church for so many churches. That is not church. To avoid church is to be disobedient to the command to use your gifts. If you want to mature in your faith, which we are called to do, to be no longer babes tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, it says in Ephesians, but to mature, you can't do it without the church. You can't. And so to not be faithfully committed to the local church is you becoming the master and turning God into the steward. God, you provide me the people to minister to me. That's arbitrarily you setting the bounds. You become the law of the house. And that's dangerous. Are we not called to faithfully serve in the God-ordained way for the Church to flourish, the way He has gifted you? Are you doing this? Are you helping the Church to flourish? That's quite a question to ask yourself, isn't it? Go home and ask yourself, or maybe right now in your own mind, ask yourself, am I helping the Church to flourish? You might be sitting here thinking about this whole gift business. You might be thinking, well, I don't even know what my gift is. What is my gift? How do I know what my gift is? I'm struggling with the entire premise here. I don't get it. 1 Corinthians 12.7, I'm not going to spend a whole sermon here explaining how to know your gifts, but I just thought I'd take one verse here and spell out a little bit of a principle here. 1 Corinthians 12.7 says this, but the manifestation of the Spirit, so the revelation of the Spirit, is given to every man to profit with all, meaning the whole body. Manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man, every believer, to profit the whole body, the common good. That means this, your gifts will be discovered and realized as you serve the body, as you serve it to profit the body. As you serve in whatever capacity, in whatever way, in the most menial tasks, but as you serve and as the profit comes from that service, because your gift set will start to shine when you start to plug yourself in. it starts to profit the body. And in that, the Spirit's work in the life of the believer becomes clear. And when it becomes clear, people say, hey, you are really good at X, Y, and Z. Man, I never knew you could explain it so simply. Or, man, you're always there when people are hurting. You're that person that's right there for them. But if you never got involved, if you always stood back, if you never chimed in, they'd never know that. But as the prophet is experienced, the church will affirm the gift set because the spirit is at work. And that's the principle. God has placed Christians around you. God has put you in this community. God has put you among these people with the peculiar needs that are needed here. Whether you're 12 years old, 42 years old, or 72 years old, it doesn't matter. Serve. So you have to ask yourself this morning, please don't leave without asking yourself, how can I serve? What can I do to minister to the body? Are the menial tasks, those unthankful tasks, precisely the tasks that God is calling you to do? Who is God placing before you this week, tomorrow, today, this afternoon, that he says, I gave you an opportunity. You have been given a gift set. Serve. Serve them. Love the body. So that's the very first point, the principle of the gift serving. The next one is the term practice. Next point, practice. Because look at verse 11. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. If you want to look at those things in the heading practice here, first of all, notice that there's two main subsets here, if any man speak and if any man minister. And they're both led off by the same conditional phrase, if. Now, a conditional phrase can be two things. It could mean, well, if it ever happens or if it's ever true that somebody does, then. That's called a conditional meaning. But in this case, it's the indefinite meaning, for those of you who want technical terms. What it means here is that whenever or whoever in the body serves in this way or in that way, let them do it like this. That's what the if there means. In other words, No one can not perk up their ears and listen to verse 11. The if is for everybody. It's not a condition of, well, if it ever happens. No, it's going to happen, because the body's going to serve. So we all need to listen well, because what he's going to do is explain how to minister. It's one thing to say, I have a gift. It's another thing to say, I know my gift. It's another thing to say, I should be using my gift. But the question is, how do you use your gift? And that's what the practice point is all about. Now, like I said, there's two main categories in this verse. You notice it? If any man speak, and if any man minister. And so the first one here are the speaking gifts. You think here maybe of exhortation, and teaching, and preaching, and prophecy, and apostleship, and tongues. Those are the speaking gifts. And then the other ones are the service gifts, which, interestingly, it's the same Greek word, diakone. So we've got now a subset of ministry calling the service the hands-on gifts of the body. Those are the two main groups, which would be like giving, and leading, and ministries of mercy, and of helps, and of miracles. All these would fall under that subset of diakones, service gifts. But they're all ministry. They're all serving. Just remember that from verse 10. Okay, so those are the two categories. Now I need to take a few minutes here and make a little bit of an excursus, a side note, a footnote to something that our church holds to with respect to the gifts. So here's a small footnote, okay, a little excursus. Our church teaches and believes that the gifts which were part of the laying of the foundation of the early church and of the church as a whole have ceased. There's a lot of Bible verses that we could go to with respect to this. I will give you one, Ephesians 2 verse 20. I'd like you to turn there so that you've seen it. Ephesians 2. is respecting the church, right? I'll start at verse 19. So, Ephesians 2, 19. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit." What you see there is foundation was laid, and the church is built up as the temple. And so what that means is foundational gifts are unique. They are there to build upon. You don't go to a house, pour a foundation, build the first floor, and then pour another foundation on that one. You don't do that. You build a substructure. And from there, you build up. And so in the same way, these gifts that we believe our church holds to, gifts of apostleship, were unique. The gifts of prophecy were unique to the apostolic age. The gift of languages. I always translate it as languages because people have turned tongues into some sort of a charismatic thing. Glossalia simply means languages. So let's just remember that. So the gift of languages. And lastly, the gift of miracle workers. Remember when they touched Paul's handkerchief and everyone was healed? Those were unique to the apostolic era, to the building of the church, because those gifts, just like in other epochs when God started, he would use supernatural, super powerful events to establish the authenticity of these teachers. And later in the New Testament, you don't see these used anymore. It's very important to understand this. Our church holds to that. In fact, The LBC says this in chapter 1.1. The very first lead off of the entire confession says this, the holy scriptures, therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diverse manners to reveal himself and to declare that his will unto the church to commit the same wholly to writing the Bible. We now have the Bible, which maketh the Holy Scriptures most necessary, and then it adds this footnote, the former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased. And so that is what this church holds to. Like I said, I'm just giving you a five-minute cold-nose version of a massive theology, but I think it's important to understand here. In fact, by the time you hit 1 Peter, these gifts, we don't see them mentioned anymore in the Bible. So back to the text. So the speaking gift, if any man speak, notice it says, let him minister or speak as the oracles of God. If you had a King James here, you're going to notice an italicizing, right? Literally, it says, if any man speak, it says, as the oracles of God. If any man minister, as the ability which God giveth. The let him speak and let him do are italicized. They're not in the original. They added those so we'd help have an understanding. But you realize in both cases, the as as doing the oracles of God, as of the ability which God giveth, puts what at the center of all gifts, of all serving? Who's at the center? God. God is at the center. That's the only way to serve. Have you thought about what that means? That means that the church needs a vertical focus to do a horizontal ministry. If we're just going out there horizontally, steamrolling over the church, doing our thing, building our programs, visiting the poor, ministering to everybody, but we don't have God giving the marching orders, and we're not expecting from God, if we're not pleading from God, and understanding the authority from God, it will fail. And so, first of all, the speaking gift, it says, let him speak as the oracles of God. That means whether it is from the pulpit sermons, like this morning, or whether it is teaching in private or in public, whichever way the spoken word comes out, it says, let him speak as the oracles of God. Logia is the word here. It's very close to logos, but it's not quite the same thing. Logia literally means, in the Bible, the words or the utterances of God. Three other uses in the New Testament. Listen to how they're used. Acts 7, 38, there it speaks as Moses receiving the Logia, the lively oracles of God. Romans 3, verse 2 says, to the Jews were committed the Logia, the oracles of God. And then in Hebrews 5, verse 12, it talks about, do not abandon the first principles of the Logia of God. So clearly, Logia means the word of God, the authoritative oracles of God. Now, there's one passage in the Old Testament I'd like you to look up because I think it might really establish this word for you. And that is a funny situation with Balaam. That's in Numbers 24. Let's turn there, please, and let's see how that ties in. Numbers 24. And we'll start here, verse 15. Because remember, Balaam was called by Balak, the guy in the Moabite, to go and curse Israel. He can't. God intervenes. And instead, he's going to actually bless Israel. And he's going to speak prophetically. But look how he words this in Numbers 24, verse 15 here. And it says, and Balaam, and he took up his parable and said, Balaam, the son of Beor, hath said, and the man whose eyes are opened hath said, he hath said, notice all these speaking words, he hath said which heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the visions of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyes opened. You see the language, and actually in the Hebrew, when they translate it to the Greek, they actually used there in verse 16, which heard the Logia of God. And so Balaam is uttering precisely the word of God to those he's prophesying to. He falls into a trance. So to speak as a believer, to teach, to preach, means you are uttering. You only can utter the very words of God, the authority of God. Now, that raises all kinds of questions. Because the first question is, so does that mean, then, Peter says that every time a teacher teaches or a preacher preaches, he's making the Bible thicker. We have new revelation. We have the oracles of God being brought forward. That would mean this Bible would be very heavy after one person's life, because the Bible would keep getting thicker, right? As teachers teach, we get a thicker Bible. That makes no sense. I don't think Peter's saying that. In fact, the word graphe means scripture. There's a difference, a nuance there. What it means, to speak as the oracles of God, means that our teaching must be grounded in, find its authority in, and accordance with the holy scriptures. That everything the teacher teaches must be according to scripture. Johann Peter Long, writing in the 1700s or 1800s, puts it well. He says, let the speaker speak with the conviction, with the reverence, with the earnestness, and with the humility which flow from the consciousness that it is God's holy word which we, as lowly instruments, lend our mouths to. That is speaking as the oracles of God. That puts a burden on us, in one sense, to be very careful. It means that we have to hear Paul's charge to Timothy with new vitality when he says, I charge you, Timothy, preach the word. He says, don't start to preach according to the fancies of men, what their itching ears want to hear. Those of us who have been gifted to speak and to teach and to preach, do you see the weight of speaking this morning? The ministry of speaking is a weighty stewardship. Because it means that from the pulpits, we are not to invent our own ideas about God and man. It means when you're leading Bible studies, you can't just be creative with the truths of God and make your own theology because it's kind of neat and it fits what the world is thinking. Speak as the oracles of God, and that's it. Don't add to it. Don't diminish from it. That's the marching orders for the speaker. I'd encourage any teacher among us, any speaker among us, to go home today and to read Jeremiah chapter 23, and read it again and again, because in that you will see these words. I'll give you one verse here. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. Why? Because God says they make you vain. They make you empty. You know why he says that? He says because they speak a vision in their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Right? And God later says, have they stood in my counsel? They haven't. They're not in the Word. For the believer today, for the preacher today, for the teacher today, are we in the Word? Sermons, then, are not to be motivating speeches. Evangelism is not to be reduced to an altar call to persuade people. We must bring the word of God, and that is it. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 17 very explicitly. It's almost as if you hear Peter's words echoing through this verse. Listen well, he says, for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, genuineness, but as of God, speaking the oracles of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. Fathers among us, When you lead family devotions, you can read the Bible. And when you then take up to explain it, make sure that you're explaining the Word of God faithfully. Mothers, when you are teaching your children for homeschooling or schooling, be careful that you are within the bounds of Holy Scripture. Seek not to add to it. Seek not to diminish from it. Be faithful. And so the stewardship of speaking this morning at some level falls on many of us in different roles. But I will say it must involve then diligent prayer, because otherwise the vertical connection is missing. It must involve earnest study. Dads, you are leaders of your home. Do not abdicate the responsibility to be ministering to your soul by way of good teaching, good books, good literature, ultimately the Word itself. And you need to be patient with those you teach in gentleness, bringing the Word of God. Ultimately, the Apostle Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 2, when he brought the word to Corinth, which was this magnet of all kinds of idolatry, he was intimidated. And he says this in 1 Corinthians 2, he says, and I, brethren, I came to you not with excellency of speech. He didn't have a big sermon prepared. He was no Apollos. or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of Christ. But he says, for I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. At the center, the litmus test of all teaching should be to dip the stick, the litmus test stick, into the teaching and ask yourself, is it proclaiming the glory, the majesty, and the holiness of Jesus Christ? And if I fail to bring Jesus, I fail to speak as of the oracles of God. He is throughout scripture. We must know Jesus. Secondly, if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. Again, I said this is the word diakone, to serve, to minister. And here it simply says much the same, to only do it with the strength of God, of his provision. It's interesting in the text when it says, with the ability which God giveth. You'd think you'd miss over something. But the word giveth is a really unique word. It actually was used in classical Greek, so that's before the Bible times. for a generous benefactor, a generous donor who would be funding a massive orchestral performance, a huge chorus that would cost a fortune. Can you imagine like at the Jubilee and you're funding the whole thing, you're furnishing the instruments, you're furnishing the facilities, you're furnishing the heat, the building everything needed to make that orchestra beautiful, you would furnish it. You would fund the whole thing. That's the word that Peter uses here with respect to the ministry of the body as the hands-on ministers are at work in the body. They say, do it with the strength which God richly provides to the church. That's amazing. That means we should see in God a insurmountable and a bottomless provision for the ministry. Sometimes ministry can be so hard and you're like, I can't do this. I don't know how I could ever help this person. This is beyond me. Look to God. He's going to help. He's the strength of the church. Are you seeing new needs arising out of this COVID business, the fallout from COVID? And maybe you're overwhelmed on account of that. And let us remember then from this text to minister in such a way that we depend on God, to realize I'm not able in myself to help, but God is my strength. As Paul says, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory. through Christ Jesus. And to remember Isaiah 40 when it says, even the youths will lose their strength, but those who wait upon the Lord shall what? Renew their strength. They shall mount upon wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not be faint. That is what it means to minister in that strength when everything seems lost. Remember his rich provision when they take away everything from us as they may do as we see the noose tightening on the church and you're wondering how do we carry on oh lord how do we carry on because they took our homes they took our incomes they took our our belongings, they may have placed us in prison, remember the strength that God will provide. He ministered throughout the ages to the distraught. He ministered throughout the ages to those in prison, those in camps, anywhere and everywhere. God is our refuge and our strength. And so finally, when we've done all that and when we see all that as we minister, last point here, praise. That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom we praise and dominion forever and ever. You know what that is? Peter erupting in doxology, in praise to God. And do you see the word there that leads off this doxology with respect to all this ministry? Look at it carefully. That God in all things may be glorified. That little word, that, hina, means the purpose, the purpose of all ministry, the purpose of all gifts being used to minister to the body as we look from God is in order that God is glorified. So think about what that means. It means the chief end of all ministry is the glory of God. Whether you served in the most unthankful, the minutest place where nobody saw you cut wood, and nobody knew you cut the wood. The pile was there the next morning for that poor woman who needed it. God saw it, and he was glorified. And whether you are on a pulpit ministering to thousands like Charles Spurgeon, God is glorified in all of the ministry of the church. He is glorified in Africa today. He is glorified in Canada today, where people are ministering to God's glory. And therefore, A word of caution for all ministry, all use of our gifts, let us be oh so careful not to try to steal that glory from God, because the human idolatry wants to take the glory that belongs to God and feed ourselves. So we've got to be careful. We have to be very thankful when believers affirm your gifts and your ministry. But we should, at the same time, be very fearful of praise. And hold that tension. The Church affirmation is very biblical. It's all throughout the Bible. But do not seek the praise of man. Do you notice the two qualities in this last doxology that are ascribed to God? Glory and strength. Glory and strength all belong to God. Now, interestingly, you don't see it too well here in our version, but it is very clear in the Greek. It says, to whom is the glory and strength, or to whom be the glory and strength that belongs to him. It doesn't say to whom might be the glory and strength. It doesn't mean this. As the church ministers, God becomes bigger. That's not what it means. It rather means God is already the infinitely glorious one, and as the church ministers, that glory is put on display. That's what happens. It's ascribed glory. It's not intrinsic glory. It's not like we're adding to God. It's not a wish, but a reality. And do you realize that the ministry you and I do, if we do it to God's glory, is magnifying Him, it's telling the world, it's telling the church, He is infinitely worth it. I'm willing to give it all up because of Him. And then it says, forever and ever, into the ages of the ages. And is that not the best summary of taking the end of all things as at hand and talking about the ages of the ages, beyond the end of all things, and saying, beyond the end of all things, God's glory will still shine and radiate forever and ever and ever? That's the point. And that is why at the end in the book of Revelation, when the 24 elders are gathered around the throne representing the Church of the Old Testament, the Church of the New Testament, what do they do with all the crowns they have on their head, which means glory, right? Crowns are glory. They cast them before the throne of God, and it says this in the Bible, they say, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. What have I missed? in this section, in this doxology. Did you catch it? I missed something. Look at it carefully. That God in all things may be glorified. through Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ. Without Jesus at the center, we've created mere social institutions. We will have empty sermons. If we prop up our own righteousness and our own service, it will be rotten to the core. Christ alone is the message of the church. Christ's strength radiates through the church. Christ is our hope. Christ is our sufficiency. Christ is our supply. Christ is our righteousness. Do you know this Jesus? Do you know this Christ? Have you realized that your life is bankrupt without Jesus Christ? And maybe you're here this morning and you're overwhelmed, you're lonely, you're fearful, you're perplexed. Maybe the world unraveling before you makes you wonder what's all happening and you've been looking to government to give the answers and you see the government doesn't have a clue what it's doing in many ways and you start to despair of government. Your solution is not going to come from science. It will not come from medicine. It's not going to come from the volumes of human reason. It's not going to come from Bertrand Russell. It's not going to come from Immanuel Kant. It's not going to come from any of the philosophers. It won't come from the Renaissance. It won't come from the Enlightenment. It will not come from the Greeks. Where is the help and the hope of all people of all ages? Jesus Christ alone. Your greatest problem is not COVID. It is the problem that you will stand before Jesus Christ, who is the judge of the living and the dead. And today, God is commanding you to renounce your idols, to stop chasing after the emptiness, to stop your life of rebellion and sin, and to yield to Jesus Christ. Who is this Jesus? It is Jesus Christ, who is the eternal Son of God, who was born into this world. through a virgin, who lived the perfect life, yet was condemned a criminal and hung on a cross, and he rose in triumph over death, so that his death might be your death. Do you believe that? So that his life would be your life. And so I leave you this morning urging any of you who have not embraced Christ Jesus by faith, I urge you to embrace his gift of life, to embrace the free gift that he gives. I urge you to repent of your idols, the crutches, to embrace the solid rock, Jesus Christ. And I urge you to do what everybody who is thirsty wants to do. They want water that satisfies them. Jesus is the living water. And then, Church of God, let us serve, let us minister, and let us join in with the doxology and the last word, amen and amen. Amen means it is truly so. And so, amen to the glory of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have given us so many gifts to use for your glory. Lord, help us ever to keep Christ before us. May Christ be truly the love of the church, and may in all ministry he be magnified. Lord, may we plumb deeply from the strength that you provide. May we speak as the oracles of God, that in all things your name is magnified. In Jesus' name, amen.