So we are continuing on this morning with our studies on the one another's. The focus of that is seeing how we as a church, together, interact with one another. How we are to look as a community. And we made the point in our introduction that Church is not simply coming and sitting in the pews or sitting in the chairs, right? It's not simply listening to the preaching. It's not simply singing, though those are major focal points of our church as we gather. but that the church is both gathering together on Sundays and Wednesday nights and men's fellowships and women's fellowships and reading groups. On top of that, it's also a family, right? That we are a community of believers that are to be pouring ourselves into one another. That if we are to be functioning as the church that God intends us to be, there is more to coming together than simply being isolated and sitting in our own chair listening to the message, right? Or sitting in our own chair and singing, but that we are serving one another as we do those things and then beyond those things serving one another. And these are the passages that point out to us in the New Testament how we do these things, how we interact with one another, how we go beyond simply just meeting together but how we are to interact and serve and love one another, put that love on display. Thankfully, we've already been in First Peter. So we have a little background already. What we did was we looked at First Peter chapter one for how we are to love one another, command of loving one another, and we are to focus. We saw all through In chapter 1, the focus on salvation and the way that we ought to live. Why? Because we are saved in Jesus Christ. So, already automatically, let me point out, as we look at this passage and we Look at God's Word here. I am speaking to us as if everyone in this room has put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I recognize that may not be so. That doesn't mean don't listen. means listen and you will hear the gospel as you just already heard the gospel as we remembered what Christ has done for us, dying for us, shedding his blood, having his body broken as a sacrifice for us for our sins. And that is what we are building off of here in 1 Peter chapter 4. And because of our salvation, And then, as we look at the context, we'll see, because the end times are drawing near, these are the reasons why we are to perform the one and others that we'll look at today. Let's open up in prayer, then we'll read the passage and jump in. Dear Father, we thank you once again for this opportunity this morning to gather together as your people, to have the privilege of worshiping you, to have the privilege of gathering together in unity, by the Spirit that you have given to all those who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. Thank you that we are able to look into your Word and have understanding because of the Spirit dwelling inside of us. We pray that this morning you would give us truths to see, that we would see the purpose for this passage in your Word, that we would come away changed. We pray these things through Christ. Amen. Let me quickly read through verses 7 through 11. It says, The end of all things is near. Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. If you look in your worship guides as well, you have a handout that you can follow along with, help you follow the teaching this morning. It's on page five. You'll see it's titled Hospitality, Gifts, and Power. And first, I want us to note the setting, all right? In chapter four, verse seven, we see here in this verse, the end of all things is what? near. So we see the setting is in light of God's judgment and the truth that the end is drawing nearer we are to obey the following commands laid out for us. As you see the word right after that we see what? Therefore, so it's a logical connection. It's it is as a result or because the end is drawing near. He gives us the following commands. So we see the end of all things is near. This is the driving truth of the passage. Verse 5 earlier on in this chapter says, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living in the dead. So there we see Peter's already mentioning the judgment. Alright, that's coming. Chapter 1 speaks of God being judge and therefore conducting ourselves in upright living. Do you remember that from setting the stage for the loving one another in chapter 1? The end is approaching. It may be today, it may be tomorrow, it may be in a thousand years, but the end is coming. Christ will return one day and our lives ought to reflect this truth. I want to give a quick illustration to help us think of this. For some of us, our childhood was closer than for others of us, but I think we can all think back upon our childhood, all right? And those kids here, this is a bad example, all right? So I'm throwing that out there. But I remember times when I was a child and my parents would leave me and my two sisters home alone. And as we were, the little natives that we were running around in our house, right? We would often knock things over, or break things, or take things out, or play with things, and the house would quickly become what? A mess, right? And as we could watch the clock and know roughly what time our parents were coming home, of course back then we didn't have cell phones, so our parents couldn't call us to let us know when they were coming back, right? We would be watching the clock and judging what time we think mom and dad are coming home. And as that time drew closer and closer, what do you think we started doing? We started putting everything back in place. Or when I was younger as well and I had my room right and Liz still tells me to do this to go clean my room but when my mom would say go clean your room and I would go up and I'd start cleaning up my toys and I had an imagination and as I'm putting away stuffed animals all of a sudden the stuffed animals would start talking and I'd start playing with my stuffed animals right And as I heard Mama Bear coming up the stairs, all of a sudden I switched from playing to what? To as fast as I could stuffing everything under the bed or in the closet, right? Because I knew she was coming. In a similar way, similar, all right? We know our God is coming again. Our Savior is coming. We do not know when. And we ought to conduct our lives in a way that when He comes, He will find us serving Him. And we don't do that out of fear like the children. I'm going to stuff everything under my bed as fast as I can so I don't get a time out for not obeying and cleaning up my room. We are doing it as children who desire to please our Savior. We are doing it as children who love and have gratitude for the work for the costly salvation and love that God has bestowed upon us, that we would be called the children of God. So as the end of all things is near, how are we to conduct ourselves? How are we to be living as Christ comes back? The first command stems out that stems out of Christ's return is therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit. A couple of these verses we will go over very quickly because they're not the one and others. And that's the focus of the study is the one and others, all right? This would be one of those things. MacArthur put it this way. We'll sum it up very quickly. MacArthur put it this way. Being of sound judgment or of sober mind is to not be swept away by emotions or passions, thus maintaining a proper perspective on life. Not being swept away by emotions or the things that are going around us, or results of different things that happen around us, and all of a sudden the world is ending and everything's about that or this or that, and we're being drawn away and our minds are thinking upon every little thing, is that conducive for prayer life? Absolutely not, right? And we see that, verse 8, or continuing on in verse 7, Be of sound judgment and sober spirit. Why? For the purpose of... Are we looking at our Bibles? For the purpose of prayer. Alright? So, we are to not be swept away by emotions or passions and maintaining a proper perspective on life. Why? For the purpose of prayer. If one allows their mind to be worrying about everything controlled by every emotion they feel and following every whim of new fad or teaching or thing to pursue that the world offers, it certainly will take an ill effect on their prayer life. Rather, if we are focused on the truth that Christ will come again, will make us perfect, and that the hard times we go through and the temptations that we go through, that this whole life is but a vapor compared to eternity, which we are headed for, our heads will be certainly in the right place for crying out in prayer to our Father. This will help our prayer lives. So in light of Christ's return, we are to maintain a balanced view of life, enabling a faithful and good prayer life. Enabling a good and faithful prayer life. Next verse 8, we see, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. This is also one that we're going to move past slightly quickly, because we've already covered loving one another very thoroughly, alright? But here we see, I do want us to take a couple notes that are slightly different than the other passage we looked at for loving one another. We see it says, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another. So once again, we touch on love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We see it stated as being above all, so we consider Christ's return. We've already spoken much on love, so we're just going to once again move quickly through it. One word here we see is, how are we to keep our love? It is what? Fervent. And that is to be a characteristic. Last time we looked at love, we saw it is to be genuine, true love from our inner being for each other, right? Here we see it's supposed to be fervent. This idea behind fervent is persevering or constant. Persevering or constant love. And then he goes on, why are we to have fervent love for one another? Because love covers a multitude of what? Of sins. So folks, as we are functioning as a community, as we are performing the one another's, going out of our way to serve one another, looking upon the interests of others and not our own selves, being, as we'll see later on in this study, hospitable towards one another. and so on and so on, taking upon one another's burdens. As we are taking brothers aside who are caught in a trespass, are there going to be times where wrongs happen? Absolutely. As we continue to meet with one another and seek to love one another, there are going to be wrongs committed against each other. Whether someone does something to you that they're not supposed to do, or whether it's very obvious that someone should have maybe served you in this way and they didn't, they neglected showing love towards you, you will be wronged in life. And unfortunately, you will be wronged sometimes by your true family, your church family. And when those wrongs happen, you have an opportunity you can see them as an opportunity to shine brightly as one who has the love of God working in your heart. You have the opportunity to shine brightly as one who has the love of God working in your heart. This not only applies for personal wrongs, simply, but also in the congregation as a whole. There are going to be times in the congregation where we are aware of someone's struggle with sin And instead of gossiping or judging that person, looking down upon them in puffed up pride in an arrogant way, rather we can seek to admonish and encourage them, recognizing that we too are what? We too are sinners. On the flip side of this, let me make very clear what love, that love covers a multitude of sins, what that does not mean for church, alright? Because we need to be clear on that. This doesn't mean that someone is never brought before the church for church discipline. Christ laid out a plan for church discipline, right? So that doesn't, that is not negated by this command of love covering a multitude of sins. There are times to confront a brother or sister who has wronged you. There are. There are times for a brother or sister to be confronted by the church for continued unrepentant sin. Some, what it means is that we are to be slow to judge, we are to be slow to be frustrated or angered, and we strive to dwell in unity, patience, and love despite people's struggles with sin, despite our own struggles with sin. Scripture is very clear in 1 Corinthians 13, 6. Love does not what? Delight in evil. Love does not delight in evil. And we have a perfect example of what this does not mean in Scripture. The Corinthians were puffed up in pride because they allowed awful sin to be happening as part of their church. Right? And Paul made it very clear that that ought to not be happening. Very clearly. So love covering a multitude of sins, what does that mean? You're not easily offended. Somebody messes up, somebody says something, it's not a big deal. If you can see a sin in somebody's life that is a part of your church, and by God's grace you don't struggle with that sin, but they do, you recognize you have your own sins that you struggle with, and you don't judge them. and neglect them because you can see it. You allow your love for one another to cover a multitude of sins. We are to be a church that cares for one another and is not looking for other people's faults, but looking to serve one another. And this love is to be what? Fervent, it's to be constant despite the wrongs that happen. and is to be going on constantly, whether that person at that time deserves your love or not. And you know what? That all comes back to the fact that you don't deserve God's love. I don't deserve God's love. God, despite our sin and our wrongs, has reached out to us in salvation, and Christ is what He is coming again to call us home. Therefore, we ought to live in light of that truth. So here we see we are to constantly love one another, looking past one another's faults. And next in verse nine, we read, be hospitable to one another without complaint. as each one has received a special gift, employ it and serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So next we see we are to be hospitable towards one another without complaint. Hospitable is the idea here of welcoming or reaching out, helping take care of needs, giving a generous welcome, also a sustaining environment, right? You could say a desert is not a hospitable environment, right? Long Island is actually a pretty hospitable environment for nature, for trees and flowers and such, right? So, as believers dwelling together in our week-to-week interactions, we are to be hospitable towards one another. Also, let us note, one another here points to the fact that it goes which way? One way or two ways? Two ways. Goes both ways. So you aren't simply, let's say if, and we'll talk about this in a second, let's say you are not financially blessed in life. Does that mean you just simply look to those who are blessed financially to be hospitable towards you? No, all right. It's going both ways, and we'll talk about that in a second. So how do you have it go both ways? One family or individual in the church may be wealthy, right? And they can be hospitable through their finances, such as bringing others out for special times together, hosting someone in need at their home, which God has blessed them with. They have extra space. Other people may not be able to do things such as that, but they are able to be a warm welcome. create an environment of care for one another through warm greetings and probing questions so that they can be praying for the other people in their church. Back in the Bible times, hospitality to welcome people into your church and your homes was a vital key in the beginning of the church. Do we recognize that? Travel was hard, inns were often wicked, dirty, unclean, sinful. Therefore, Christians traveling about, especially those traveling for ministry's sake, depended upon the hospitality of other what? Other believers and churches. Think of Paul. Pastor John just touched this in Acts. Paul needed to stay someplace and who took him in? Priscilla and Aquila. They showed hospitality towards him for the gospel's sake. So, we are to have this giving attitude without what? Look at verse 9 with me without complaint. Alright, so we recognize that as you show a generous attitude, a hospitable attitude towards others, will you ever be used? Yeah, probably. You'd be very very lucky, if I could use the term lucky, or very very blessed to never be used. When you act like a servant, people will start what? Treating you like a servant, right? And therefore, in our flesh, We want to respond in retaliation or say, I've had enough of this, or complain or make known to other people the way in which you served and were treated like a servant to make the point that you served, right? We can do that in our hearts. But God knows our weakness and He knows how our flesh wants to retaliate sometimes or react when things like that happen. And He commands us here in His Word that we are to be hospitable and reaching out to others and be of generous attitude towards one another. How? Without complaint. We are to do it rather in opposite of complaining, joyfully and giving of ourselves because of God's graciousness towards us. Moving on, we see verse 10. I have it as a separate point, all right? Underneath a welcoming, generous hand of serving one another in that hospitality, but it really also goes right hand in hand with that, all right? It's really, to a degree, an explanation of how we are to be hospitable, how we are to show ourselves of being generous in nature towards one another. As, verse 10, as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Man, I wish we had more time to dig into this even deeper. This is such an incredible verse here. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another. Here we see another command right in line, as I just mentioned, with the above one. For each of us can show an attitude of hospitality and care for one another by extending ourselves out and making use of our gifts. We see as each one has received. Look at that in verse 10. So no one can say that they do not have a gift from the Lord for the sake of service in the church. See that? Each one has received a gift. And some people by the grace of God may be gifted in more areas or less areas, but you know what? We are all a part of the body and each gift is given by the grace of God and you are placed in this church as a part as a member of the body to use and employ that gift that God has given. God does not make mistakes in the giving of gifts. You realize that? God did not run out of gifts when he got to you. It's not like it was the end of the day when he made you and he was like, all right, time to make Kevin. Where are the gifts? Oh no, I don't have any to give him. God does not make mistakes. So we see as each one has received a special gift, we are to do what? Use it. Employ it. In serving one another, we are to employ this gift. It is not given to sit on the shelf. It is given so that we can put it to good use, and it's not given so that we can serve ourselves with it. It is given so that we can do what? Serve one another with it. Next, we see as good stewards of the manifold, grace of God. This word steward here, it is the idea of a servant or a worker who does not own but looks after. All right? By God, God by his grace has given us gifts for the sake of showing love to the bride of Christ and as we, and we as servants and children of God, get to be stewards of these gifts and put them to work. This cancels all opportunity for pride, doesn't it? We are simply stewards, not owners, but stewards of the gifts of God given to us in service for one another by the grace of God. The gifts you have are not your own. They are given to you by God for you to use to serve others. as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And we see another wonderful explanation word, manifold. And we see this grace shows itself in different ways. It manifests itself in different places. God's gracious gift for one person may look completely different than in others. But that is all a part of God's gracious plan. Think of the body. Feet are supposed to be what? Feet. Eyes are for seeing. Noses are for smelling. Ears are for hearing. Memorize the passage on that. God has shown his grace and his gifts through different ways, through different places, in different people. But every gift that is given is given by God and his grace and is meant for the service of one another. That is a wonderful, wonderful truth. As we finish up, we're going to look at verse 11 now. The end of verse 10 in verse 11. We're to put to good use the gifts which God has given us by His grace, dependent upon His power. So here we see, whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies. So here we see he addresses those who would teach, that they are to speak the utterances of God, recognize that the message they preach is not their opinions, not their words, but what? God's words. Then next, what we'll spend our time on quickly is, whoever serves is to do so as one who serves, serving by the strength which God supplies. We're going to focus on this. Why? Because everyone in this room ought to be doing what? Ought to be serving, using the gifts which God has given them for one another. What he focuses here on is what? You are to serve by what? The strength Witch God supplies. I'm going to give a real brief illustration. And it's going to be involving kids here today, so this will be fun. Friday night at Kids Club, as maybe many of you have noticed, there is a pull-up bar down in the basement. Alright? Above the closet door down in the corner. All right, and the kids noticed it, or they know it's there, but some of the visiting kids noticed it, and they wanted to try it, and they bring chairs over, but you know what? Some of the chairs were too short for them to even reach, but as they reached up and got it, Daddy came along, right? And as they went, they tried to pull themselves up, and they moved like maybe an inch or two, because they're kids, and they're not strong enough yet to pull themselves all the way up, all right? So daddy comes along and he puts his hand on them and he lifts them up, and by the strength of daddy, they're able to do a what? A pull-up. Alright? So as that happened, who's actually doing the pull-up? Daddy is, right? In a sense. Is it daddy that's doing it? Yes. But is it also the kid that's doing it? Yeah, let me explain that. Why? Well, what if the kid was not willing and simply let go of the bar? Would there be a pull-up? No. All right. What if the child wiggled and screamed and kicked because they wanted to do it all on their own? Would there have been a pull-up? Nope. It is a team effort dependent upon the willingness and decision of the child, yes, but also dependent upon the strength of daddy. And what is even more wonderful is we know that God is the one who gives the willingness when? In the first place. It's God who works the willing and the doing. So the illustration continues. Those kids could not reach the bar in the first place to even attempt a pull-up, right? So Daddy had to place them onto the bar in the first place. It is that same way in God's work in our lives. God gives us the gifts by His grace. He gives us the strength to perform and serve using the gifts for the sake of others. And we need to, in order for that to happen, be what? Be willing and do it upon His strengths. But who's the one who even enables us to have the willingness? God is. It is all dependent upon God. And therefore, as we do this, quickly in closing, we see continued on in verse 11, so that in all things, who may be glorified? God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. All this work amongst ourselves in the church, the love, the hospitality, and the work of gifts is for one purpose and one purpose alone, and that is the purpose of God's glory. In all things, All things, so this can be carried to all things in the church, right? So from the preaching to the cleaning of the toilets, all things can be done in service unto whose glory? God's glory. We serve one another in love, and it is to point to Christ which glorifies God. Lastly, His is the glory and dominion over all things, so don't you think He ought to get the glory for your little acts of service? So then, let us be people known for our consistent love, our hospitality and service unto the glory of Christ, unto the glory of God. We do these things. We serve one another. We love one another. We be of generous spirit towards one another, hospitable towards one another, by the grace of God, using the gifts which God has given us, enabled by the strength which God gives us. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your love for us, for giving us, each one in this room has been given a gift. to serve you. May we employ those gifts and service towards you for your glory. May we depend on you, use our gifts for others and not ourselves. We pray these things through our Savior's name, Jesus Christ. Amen.