We're called into the time of fellowship. If you recall in the Old Testament, the three primary sacrifices were the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering. And it was the peace offering was the one that the worshiper sat down and ate a meal, symbolizing the fellowship that he had with the Lord. And that's what we do as we feast upon the Word, and as we feast upon the table. We've been restored to God, and now here we have a time of peace and fellowship with him. Psalm 119, 105 says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths. Look, brothers and sisters, to God and to his word as a lamp and as a light as it's brought to us now. We'll be at the section just this last week, so just one more time, let me invite you to turn with me to this portion of God's Word to fellowship around it. This is the climax, center section of Peter. From 412 to the end of this book, chapter 5 to the end, Peter's sort of doing a wrap up, summarizing and giving the last final exhortations that he wants his people to hear. But this center section, as you know, has been focused and centered on preparing and equipping God's people to be men and women of Christ. The persecution was coming like a tsunami throughout the entire Roman Empire. And when the world was turned upside down, how would God's people respond? Well, chapter 2.11 through chapter 4.11 was what Peter exhorted his people with. And how could they do this? Chapter 1 through chapter 2. So, brothers and sisters, as you read these, as you fellowship with me, if you ask yourself, man, I want to do this, but how? Go back and read chapter 1 through 2.10. And you'll see the foundation upon which you and I stand. And that will enable us to indeed fulfill the call that Peter gives us in this section. So we're on spiritual gifts one last week. And verses seven through 11 is that final section in which Peter is writing. Let me invite you to stand together with me as we read. reverence and respect for the reading of it and his glory. But likewise, let us pay heed to this God's word. Let us read. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore be of sound judgment and sober in 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, let him speak as it were the utterances of God. Whoever serves, let him do so as 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. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the privilege of fellowship and the privilege of now sitting at this fellowship meal and feasting, not upon words, not upon a literal lamb, but feasting spiritually upon you as you are the servant, you are the waiter, you are the meal, you are the feast. Grant us the grace, oh Lord, now we pray to feast. Illuminate our hearts, open our eyes, and enable us, O Lord, to indeed understand, apprehend, in a greater way, who you are, the kingdom you have called us to, the calling that rests upon our lives, the privilege of that calling. So, Lord, bless this time, we pray, to your glory and namesake. In Jesus' name, amen. In Luke chapter nine, we read these words, for whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake shall save it. Colossians three, similarly, Paul wrote, set your mind on the things above, not the things that are on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ. When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Galatians 2.19, for through the law I died to the law, that I might live to Christ. I have been crucified with, and there's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. These are three of many passages I could quote, which teach the same thing, and that same thing is that Brethren and Sisters, When you became a believer, when you became a follower of Jesus Christ, you died. You died to self. That's what it means to take up your cross and follow me. You died to any claim, any rightful claim that you might have on anything in your life, your health, your jobs, your marriages, your family, your children, your future, everything about you, you no longer own. We don't own a thing. We have died, and the life we have now is a life given to us by God, and it's the life of Christ, Colossians 3, 4. We are living out the life that Jesus Christ himself lived. If you and I could just wrap our head around that very simple truth, it would radically transform the way you and I would live. It would remove every high stake in life. It would remove every sense of entitlement that we have. No high stakes, no entitlement. It would remove, it would destroy the ground and the soil of greed, discontentment. Because at every waking moment or sleeping moment, you would realize that my time is, this is not my time. This is not my life. This is not my money. This is not my rights. I have none. They're all gone. They're forfeit in Jesus Christ. All that I am belongs to God. Therefore, I claim nothing. I own nothing. I can claim no right on or for anything. And so it is, brothers and sisters, rightly so, when it comes to spiritual gifts. I've used the metaphor between spiritual gifts and talents, that when you're born, you're born with a skill, a talent that you can develop. Well, when you're reborn, you get spiritual gifts. Non-believers do not have spiritual gifts, they don't have access to them. But that metaphor falls down because when you think being born, if you're born fast, that means you're born physically with a certain proportion of fast twitch muscle fiber, right? That's you, man, that's the body you got. But when you're reborn in Jesus Christ, none of the spiritual gifts are in you. None of the spiritual gifts are part and parcel now of your spiritual makeup. You don't own them, they are the giftings of the Holy Spirit who is in you. Do you understand that? None of the gifts that you have that the Spirit of God says, I'm gonna give you this gift match, do you own them? You are simply a conduit through which God works and ministers his kingdom work through the gifts he's given you. Now get this, as we've seen, every one of you receive a spiritual gift. When you're redeemed by the grace of Jesus Christ, you all received a spiritual gift. Therefore, every one of us here has that glorious privilege of being used by God with regards to the spiritual enablings He's given us, but none of us own them. They're not ours. They're to be used as we recognize, as stewards, who have been given, as we recognize, they've been given to us for our use. Now, what does that mean? How do we do that? And that's Peter's point in this passage before us. Peter, again, is giving this final exhortation to God's people who are facing the Neronian persecution, the first worldwide persecution against Christianity. And he knows the very last thing he turns to, 7 through 11, is the relationships, or better yet, the commitment that we ought to have towards one another. Because, brothers and sisters, do you know what you call a lone ranger Christian? You call him a compromised Christian. There is no such thing as a faithful Christian who goes it alone. So Peter knows all the things that he's given from 2 to 11 on, these great exhortations, he culminates and climaxes with this statement. Make sure you pray for each other. Make sure you love each other. Make sure that you invest in each other and care for each other. And make sure, second half of this close, make sure that the spiritual gifts God's given to you, you are using them and operating them in the lives of your brothers and sisters, because if you don't, Don't stand. Lone ranger churches and Christians die. So he's saying, brothers and sisters, you've got to use the gifts God's given you unto his glory, unto his praise, to the building up of the body of Jesus Christ. Now, we've seen five characteristics, five truths. There are seven truths we derive here about spiritual gifts. We've looked at the first five this morning. We're going to look at the last two. Notice with me, without further summary or ado, sixthly, the by-product of the use of our spiritual gifts. Notice with me a sixthly, the by-product. When you and I use our spiritual gifts, what's a by-product of it? Verse 11, whoever speaks, let him speak as it were the utterances of God. So all the speaking gifts, of which there are four, use those, speak as if you were speaking God's word. Whoever serves, of which there are eight serving gifts, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies." Why? Henna claws. Some commentaries say this section from this point on is the doxology, and they're wrong, quite frankly. The doxology is the next phrase. This one is a teaching. He is teaching another facet of spiritual gifts. So that, in a close, why ought you to use your gifts, by-product, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. This is not an inscription of praise. to say to him, be glory and majesty and dominion. That's an inscription of praise. That's our last point. But this point, Peter is making a very important point. When you and I use our spiritual gifts, do you know what happens? The world sees, you and I see, God is real. God is the only true God. God is dwelling in our midst. When you and I use our gifts, people wake up and notice God is real. You know, we live in this world and we want God, we want the world and God's people, I don't know, God is real, right? We want that. Now, all of the miracle sign gifts are all gone, so when we think of showing the world our spiritual gifts, that they might see God's real, We think of the sign gifts. Well, those are all gone. And Peter knows it at this point. Those being gone, understand what Peter's saying. When you've got the gift of service and you serve, you demonstrate to the world that God is of substance. That's the idea behind glory. that God may be glorified, that God might be seen to have substance. That's the same word as the Old Testament, kavod, kavod. That's the same word. It means he's of weight, of significance, of substance. Why do you use your spiritual gift byproduct? When we use it, the world sees and we each see and therefore are encouraged, I don't know, God is of substance. Peter David wrote these words, when gifts are used in this way, God's power and will, rather than human goodness and ability, whether in speaking or serving, the two categories of our spiritual gifts, will be seen, with result that in everything, God will be glorified, seen to have substance through Jesus Christ. Now, how does that work, brothers and sisters? Well, in this day, realize, There were multiple gods. People were pantheistic, multi-god, polytheistic. They believed in many gods. In fact, there were hundreds and hundreds of gods from Egypt alone. And thus, in that day, if your business failed, or you were in a battle and your side lost or won, it was believed that whatever goes on in the physical world is simply a refraction or a reflection of what has gone on in the spiritual realm. So if your business dies, that means the God you were serving got vanquished by a greater God. And so you would exchange gods. If you were going on a journey, you would always worship the god of the region in which you were going to go to because that god reigns there. Your god doesn't reign there. If he did, he'd be over there too. So you would worship that god. So you're always shuffling gods. If you got married, new god. If you had children, another god. You'd always be shuffling these gods. Now we know biblically that that's just a delusion. that there's only one God. One of the most controversial statements Jesus made, one of many controversial statements, is John 14, 6. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me. I'm it. Isaiah 45, 5 says that God is the only God. That's it. That is reality. There's only one God. And when you and I use our spiritual gifts, that one God shines. Now, at least understand it before I explain it. When we use our spiritual gifts, that God shines. Let me give you an example of that. Go in your Bibles, keep your finger in 1 Peter. Go back in your Bibles to Daniel chapter one. Go to Daniel, an incredible passage. Daniel 1-4 is the introduction of this prophecy. And in it, we're introduced to these four servants of God. Daniel first, and then his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And the first four chapters are given to proclaim. Now, Daniel was written in 605. It was written at a time throughout in the process. It wasn't written only at 605. It began at 605. All the events of 1 through 4 would have been taking place during 605 to 586. So that time when God's people were on three different times taken into exile. And when they were beaten, the Babylonian soldiers would have said, your God is inferior to our God. Your God is no God. Your God got vanquished. But yet, when God's people entered into Babylon, incredible nationwide proclamations on the part of Nebuchadnezzar that Israel's God is the only true God. Notice with me. So the first thing you got is Daniel with the food, right? Chapter one. And Daniel has the wisdom not to do that. And we get to the dreams. And Daniel chapter two. And in these dreams, through these dreams, God manifests and in glorious things about him. Notice with me chapter two, verse 47. Daniel, we read, the king answered Daniel and said, surely God's and the Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries since you have been able to reveal the mystery. Wow, your God is the only God. And then we read of the image, right? Friends unwilling to bow down to that image, and they're brought before Nebuchadnezzar, and they're thrown into the burning fire, and in chapter three, the proclamation, verse 29, therefore I make a decree, this is Nebuchadnezzar to his entire kingdom, that any people, nation, or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limp This is reduced to rubbish heap in as much as there is no other God who is able to deliver in this way. Wow, what incredible statement. And then chapter four comes. And this is that time where Daniel comes and once again interprets this incredible vision and then Nebuchadnezzar is humbled and then he comes back and through the ministrations of God through Daniel and then his providences, this is what we come to in chapter four, verse 34. I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. Nebuchadnezzar is saying this. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, what hast thou done? Okay, this whole four chapters, that's the proclamation, that's the message God's people got when they got there in Babylon. Now my question to you is this, based on your knowledge of the first four chapters of Daniel, very well known, plus I preached through it a couple years back, how did Nebuchadnezzar come to the knowledge of these great things about God? Answer? because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had the gift of faith. In Sunday school, we looked at every one of those gifts. You know what the gift of faith is? It's the gift of boldness. It's the ability to trust God in the face of unimaginable pressure. It's the ability to trust God. The gift of faith is manifest typically in prayer warriors. because they see God working when none of us else do. That's what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel had. They had the spiritual gift of faith. And then you add to that, they had the gift of service. Look at chapter one. Look at chapter two. Daniel, in addition to that, had the gift of the word of wisdom. He had the gift of discernment. He had the gift of the word of knowledge. Those spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, exercising through these sinful beings, produced these incredible recognitions on the part of Nebuchadnezzar that God is awesome. That's exactly what Peter's saying in 1 Peter chapter 4. Go back there. When you and I exercise our gifts, a result is that so that the purpose, the reason why we do it, so that God may be shown to be heavy, weighty, the only God, the only true God, the righteous one, the glorious one, the reigning one, that is what spiritual gifts do in a body. And that's what it does in a society. How does it do it? Okay, I see it in Daniel. I see what the text is saying, but I don't believe it I just don't believe it brother and sisters. The reason you don't believe is because you don't understand what a spiritual gift is Go to Hebrews chapter 4 one more explanation verse and then we'll stay in in first Peter Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews 4 is written to a group of people, or Hebrews 6, I'm sorry. Hebrews 6 is written to, Hebrews is written to three groups, right? Genuine believers who love Jesus Christ who are Jews being persecuted. You have those Jews who have rejected Christ as the Messiah, and then you've got those Jews who are on the fence, not sure whether or not they should trust the Messiah, Jesus, or not. Well, Hebrews 6 is written to those people who have rejected Christ. And he's demonstrating to them if you reject truth, there's no other truth out there there's a lot of people today who think that there are many roads that lead to God and Christianity is just one of those roads. That's wrong. Jesus is the only way. He's the truth and life. No one comes to the Father but through him. So that if you leave Jesus, if you leave that path, there is no other way to be saved, period. That's what Hebrews 6 is saying. But notice how he says it, verse 4. He says, For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, now that doesn't mean saved, that means awakened to the reality that Jesus Christ is God. He's claiming to be God. I've woken up to the reality is this is a man claiming to be God. And these Jews woke up out of that and have tasted of the heavenly gift. This is speaking of Christ and his ministry and all the different things. He's the heavenly gift. He's the manna that came from heaven that they came down and they tasted, not salvificly, but by gazing upon and seeing what he did, raising the dead, all his teachings. They saw all that and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. Guess what that is? Spiritual gifts. You've been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God. The result of these spiritual gifts is the teaching, explaining, the giving of God's word. So this text is talking about spiritual gifts. Notice what it says about them. So if you have tasted of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. Do you understand what a spiritual gift is? It's a, it's a taste of the powers of the age to come. Do you understand that? So you think that a spiritual gift is just, Oh, I can just, I speak and people learn because I can, I've got, I've got this, this innate talent. No, no, no, no. Spiritual gift brothers and sisters. I want you to imagine a room with There are 17 doors in it. Round room, 17 doors. And each of these doors are portals into the treasure house of God's grace. And each door is a different door. One door is the 17 spiritual gifts. One door is service. One door is sympathy. One door is healing. Name it. But those doors all access the treasure house of God's grace. And when you open up that door, does the grace of God come rushing in? That's what a spiritual gift is. It's an enabling that the Spirit of God gives into your life, such that when that door is opened, powers of the ages to come come pouring through you and therefore lead to growth and grace, encouragement in Jesus Christ, et cetera, et cetera. Do you understand that? That's what Peter, or that's what the Hebrew writer's saying. You taste it of the powers of the age to come by these spiritual gifts, by God's word. Now you go, Greg, this is Bozoland. I mean, this is, you know, weird land here. Not Bozoland. This is a weird land. I can't believe you're talking like this. I've never heard you talk so weird. Okay, brothers and sisters, this is part and parcel of Christianity. It's a supernatural religion. It really is. It's not just a physical thing. It's supernatural. For example, Romans 6.23. We know this verse. For the wage of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life." What's eternal life? We've defined it so many times. It's not ceaseless existence, because non-believers have ceaseless existence. What's eternal life? Translated literally, it's life pertaining to the age. What age? The age to come. We have this misnotion in the church that it's when we die we enter into our final state. You know, finally I get the life God wanted me to have. That's completely wrong. When you trust Jesus Christ, that's when you begin the life you will continue to live for the rest of eternity. So get this, in Christianity, you've already begun living according to the age to come. And at times, God's power from the age to come breaks through via spiritual gifts. And what does that power do? It encourages, it builds up, it strengthens, it educates, it confronts, it convicts. Think of what spiritual gifts do. What is the point of speaking gifts? What is the point of serving gifts? But to encourage, build up, strengthen people in their salvation. How does that happen? Through something that you and I possess innately? No, through the grace and the power of God working through you and me through these gifts. That's what a spiritual gift is. And thus in Ephesians 1.13 we read this, In Him, Christ, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, now get this, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance. What is a pledge? A pledge is a down payment. What's the payment of? This text says, our inheritance. What is this saying? Well, in Paul's day, just like ours, you and I could go purchase something with a pledge. This thing costs 400 denarii. I only have 30. So I'll, in pledge, give you 30. with the promise that I'll pay you 10 denarii every single month, and I'll take home on credit that which I'm purchasing. That's what's going on here. You have received, you and I have received in Christ the down payment in the form of the Holy Spirit of your inheritance. What does that mean? You are enjoying your inheritance today. What is that? the age to come, the life that you and I are going to have in the age to come. And what is that life in the age to come? John 17 3, is it not knowing Jesus Christ, walking with Jesus Christ, fellowshipping with Jesus Christ? Isn't that the essence of the life we have? Well, that's what is defined in John 17 3 as eternal life. And that is why in Romans 8.23, Paul speaks of the first fruits of the Spirit. First fruits mean He's just the beginning. We're enjoying something today. You have in your possession today and you're enjoying something today that's supernatural, that goes beyond the present world in which we live, that transcends this life, that goes into eternity and will come in its fullness there. But today we enjoy facets of it. Let me give you an example of that. How many of you have ever had divine peace in the midst of difficulty? Don't raise your hand, these are rhetorical. In glory you will have nothing but peace. Here sometimes we have it. What is that? That's glorious future peace that someday we're gonna have in total, but today we sometimes have peace, love, joy, patience, all the fruits of the pledge of our inheritance given to us by grace we can enjoy this day. You're already enjoying supernatural characteristics of the future life. Today, joy, peace, all of those fruits. So brothers and sisters, when we come to our text this morning, 1st Peter, and Peter says, the purpose of serving and speaking gifts are that, henna, purpose cloths, so that in all things God may be shown to be powerful, to be alive, the only wise God, to be glorious. Do you understand what the byproduct of our spiritual gifts are? When we exercise those gifts, they are for the building up of the body of Jesus Christ. In our last point, glory and praise, but a byproduct of that, you and I see that God is, that He's the only wise God, that He's glorious, that He's heavy, that He's weighty. You go, really, I see that? No, I experience brothers and sisters. This morning, I was blessed by the word of knowledge. I was, sitting in that pew just now, hearing the Word of Knowledge spoken, explaining God's Word, sitting back going, wow, taste and see that the Lord is good or, you know, I name it. Brothers and sisters, what Stuart shared blessed me. That's a taste of salvation. It's a glorious feasting upon it. And when you and I do that, you're tasting You yourself are experiencing the reality that God is, that he's awesome, that he's glorious. John Owens put it this way, spiritual gifts are the powers of the world to come, those effectual operations of the power of Christ whereby his kingdom was erected and is preserved. It's the future powers of God preserving his kingdom through you. Now, it doesn't come from you, it's not from us, it's from the Spirit, but it's through us. Okay, so that's the byproduct of spiritual giftings. That leads us then to the telos. The end, the ultimate end. What is all this about? Notice, whoever speaks, them speak as it were the utterance of God. Whoever serves them, do so as by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To whom belongs, and to whom there is God and Christ? The answer is yes. To whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. It's a doxology. Doxologies are inscriptions of praise. To him, through you, when you and I use your gifts, our gift, it is God who receives the glory. That's what we're after. Now, by way of footnote, this doxology closes. The reason we know this section ends at verse 11 is because of this doxology. So because of this doxology, we know 2.10 or 2.11 through 4.11 is one section. So it closes the entire section. But boy, what a wonderful climax of the little section that we're on right now when you and I exercise our spiritual gifts. We could go back as far as chapter two, verse 11, when you and I are keeping our behavior excellent among the Gentiles. Verse 13, when we are submitting ourselves to the Lord's sake, to every human institution, when we're dwelling with a difficult spouse, graciously, when we're suffering in the name of Jesus Christ and all the different things that he touches upon, to God be the glory, to God be the glory, to God be the glory. And when you and I exercise our spiritual gifts, it's to God be the glory. Now I wanna end this by sharing with you the privilege that is ours at this very moment. Do you understand what Peter's saying here? We have the privilege, when you and I exercise our gifts, it is God who shines. That's what we're after. And what is the significance of that? Do you understand, brothers and sisters, this is the reason you and I were made, right? Man's defense to what? Towards that end I want to close as a closing illustration with Revelation 3. In your notes you've got a map of the seven churches of Revelation. Revelation 2 and 3 contains seven letters to seven churches that were churches in Asia Minor at this time. And they represent not only the churches that were in that era, seven types of Christian churches, but also the kinds of churches that would characterize the age in which we live between the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. So these seven churches are the seven kinds of churches that you can find in the world today. And quite frankly, Bethel, we are not just one of these. We sort of dwarf, or what's the word, morph, into different churches at different times. Well, one of these churches, the sixth church referenced, is the Church of Philadelphia. And this was the faithful church. And in this church, there's no criticism, there's no exhortation, like you're doing bad, this is what you need to do to fix it. Only commendation. And 3 verse 12 is the commendation, listen to it. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. And he will not go out from it anymore. And I will write upon him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God and my new name." So brothers and sisters, we are right before. What is it in Toy Story that you know that you're important to Andy, he puts his name on you, right? How do you know how important you are? God places his name. But he puts his name upon people who, would you notice, are pillars in his temple. Now, what's a pillar? It's an interesting statement. You are one of my pillars. Christian, do you understand? You're one of my pillars. What's a pillar? You go, it's a base of support. If you think that, you'd be wrong. Not because you're wrong in that statement, but because you're wrong in the overall picture here, okay? Pillars in the ancient world do not recognize people as support. Pillars were recognized by the common people as testimonies of the glory and the greatness of the deity represented by that temple. So I've given you two different pictures in your bulletin. First, you have one of the seven wonders of the world, the Temple Artemis. It had 127 pillars, didn't need them all. They were donated by kings, each one of them as a statement of reverence and respect to the God of Ephesus, of Ephesus, Artemis. And they were all there. Almost every one of them were there, not to hold up the ceiling. They were there to proclaim the glory of the deity. You see the Parthenon, which was the temple dedicated to the patron saint of Athens, Athena. 69 pillars, not all of them are necessary, but they're there. They're there to proclaim. the greatness, the glory, the majesty of the deity it represents. God says in Revelation 3, I'm making you a pillar. You say, but they're for support. I know they are. Of course they are. But brothers and sisters, they were not all of them for support. So the common man looking at pillars saw how beautiful You can go, wow, what's the physics behind those things holding up that ceiling? They look at the pillars and say, whoa, Artemis is amazing. Whoa, Athena is amazing. God is coming to us and saying, I'm making you a pillar. Unless you doubt that, listen to 1 Peter 3.15. Don't turn there, just listen to it. Paul writes, in case I'm delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of the living God, the church of the living God, which is the pillar and support. Notice he makes a distinction between the support of the church and a pillar in the church. The church is the pillar and the support of the truth. As a pillar, what is it? A declaration of praise unto God. That's what a pillar is. Do you understand what your role is as a Christian today? Your role as a Christian. is not necessarily to do a thing. Now I'm not suggesting that you do nothing. That's the praise of a rock, not a Christian. Rock to do nothing. So I'm not suggesting, but brothers and sisters, you don't have to do a thing to glorify and honor God. Okay? God saved you to be a temple, to proclaim His glory. You may not be holding up the roof, but you proclaim it by His saving you, by His working through you, by name and name and name. So brothers and sisters, you know the last resolve of spiritual gifts? You and I proclaim to the world, God is God. We are servants of the Lord. We love Him. He is the Savior. He is our God. He is our husband. Okay? So that's the that tell us. That's why God ultimately is going to use a spiritual gift so that you and I might fulfill the function He created us for. To glorify, to exalt, to praise God's name. Now how do you do that with a spiritual gift? You know how you do that? You take your focus off self. As we've seen now multiple times, no spiritual gift is given to you for you. You and I get out of the business of service. It's not my service, it's Jesus' service. This is Jesus' hands. If I'm at the front door handing out bulletins, this isn't my hands handing out bulletins, this is Jesus' hands. If I'm setting up nursery, this isn't my hands setting up nursery, this is the service. And therefore, this makes this Jesus' hands setting it up. If I'm teaching, how do I teach? As if they're the utterances of God. How do I serve if I'm serving by the strength It's why? So that God might receive the glory. So brothers and sisters, you all have spiritual gifts. I hope this little series at Sunday school is at least knocking a little bit at your door saying, hey Christian, wake up. You are needed in the kingdom of God. God's given you gifts through which he plans to build up Bethel Presbyterian Church. Now, will you hear this series and walk away saying, man, I'm going to forget about the image in the mirror and just walk away? Or will you take this and prayerfully now begin going before God saying, God, I don't know my gifts. Because as we've said, how do you discern a gift? By using them, by just serving. I don't know my gifts, but God, here I am. Use me. I want to be used by you to let the world know you are a God of substance. Hear that, I'm not sure if I've sold you on that yet, but what is it that 1 Peter 3.15 says, right? Man, serve God. And when people say, how do you explain that? To share about the hope that's in you. And if there should be any kind of, man, you know, you're a very gracious individual. Don't just take it in like carrot, you know, and then get eaten up by worms, you know, don't do that. No, rather take it and say, well, praise God. I'm thankful that I can be used by God towards that end. And if they don't know of the Lord, use that as a springboard to hopefully share a little bit more of your faith. Brothers and sisters, that's what spiritual gifts are. They give weight. They proclaim that we give weight. They proclaim to the world that our God is a weighty God. They proclaim to you and me. This morning, again, I was benefited by that, Psalm 27. One thing I've asked from the Lord, that while I shake and seek, I will dwell in the house all the days of my life. to behold the beauty of the Lord. Would you believe that if there was no hell? Would you say that? Man, brothers and sisters, amen. That encourages me to say, yes, my God is a God of substance. I serve Him not because of what I don't get. I serve Him because of the beauty of His character. He's so awesome. That's why I'm serving Him, Christians. use your spiritual gift and give glory to God, but then use your spiritual gift and serve as a pillar in his temple, whereby God would be glorified. Let's pray. Father, we bow before you this day, thanking you for this incredible climax of this incredible section, where Peter gives us these seven glorious truths about these gifts that you have implanted in every one of us. Many of whom we, Lord, many of which don't even know we're gifted. God, I pray this, by this, that we would serve as, no doubt, you intended the original recipients of this letter to have responded, that Lord, we would, we would serve. We would encourage, we would lift up, for we know lone ranger Christians are compromised Christians. Lone ranger Christians are dying Christians. So Lord, we need you and we need the spirits enabling that you give through each other. God, give us the grace, therefore, this afternoon to not talk about COVID, but the caveat of God, the weightiness of you, our Lord. Give us the grace this afternoon, oh Lord, to be preoccupied and enraptured, not with what the latest is going on in our politics, but Lord, with who you are and what you're doing in our lives individually and corporately and in the world. God, grow us as a people, mature us as a people, and give us a sense of urgency that comes from knowing that through us, the powers of the ages to come, the age to come, operates or can operate. And so, Lord, give us the grace to live our lives as if we are standing and walking in the Holy of Holies on a holy ground as glorious witnesses of you. And if, Lord, the net result of our lives is to be a pillar that doesn't hold up the weight-bearing load, but stands to proclaim and adorn the gospel of grace. God, that is enough. That's all we need to know. Use us accordingly, we pray. And towards that end, oh Lord, I pray as we take this meal now, that we would eat and it'd be a glorious time where we, as well, enjoy another portal another vessel by which you give us the grace to taste and see that the Lord is good. Feed us richly today, we pray, in this meal, in Jesus' name.