September 29, 2024 | Stewards of Grace

Transcript

This week, as I've thought about this text and thought about what Peter is saying throughout the book.

I've felt the weight. Of the fact that we have an enemy. Maybe we have a lot of them.

But we have one particularly, and it's where Peter goes later in chapter five, which we'll get to in a few weeks, where he says, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. It's easy to go through life and forget the evil that is against God and His people.

So this morning, as we get to this text, I want to start with a a story, a parable of sorts.

I want you to imagine with me. A good and wise and powerful king. He's accomplishing his purposes. He's building an amazing kingdom. He's defeating his enemies. He's cleaning up the villages and the countryside. He's gaining territory and the land that he rules over. He's beginning to thrive. He travels to the far edge of his territory. Where? He's going to finish his purposes.

And he's going to prepare the most amazing palace for his children to come and live and enjoy all of the luxury, all of the beauty. Everything that his purposes have won. He's preparing a place for those children to enjoy it. And so he tells them.

You are going to make a journey. You're going to travel across this land that I rule. And as you do that, coming to this, the grandest palace of them all. You're going to find the sights and the sounds of this kingdom, and there will be beautiful things to enjoy. And if you imagine three children, not really children, let's say teens.

Or young adult princes and princesses traveling across. But they're a little bit naive. Unknown to them. They're being stalked by an evil rebel who hates the king. Now he doesn't show up looking like an evil rebel. He shows up. He comes alongside the royal family, traveling, and he looks like a friend.

But his goal is to make them forget about the palace and end up in the dangerous sections of the kingdom. We can imagine if you. If you imagine the movie in your head of what this scene could look like, we know how it would play out.

Maybe the predator starts to talk to the youngest princess. He flatters her. He drives a wedge between her and her siblings. It must be hard for you to be mistreated and misunderstood. Taken for granted. He stokes her self-pity. Then he says, hey. I know something that your siblings don't want you to have. Come over here. Try what's hidden down this dark alleyway.

Probably doesn't start there, but he gets there. Come have a little drink. Your brothers and sisters don't want you to have as much fun. But really, what he wants is to get her drunk in the local tavern so that he can rob her ransom her, or worse.

If you watched a movie with something like that plot, it's like watching a car crash happening, right? Except you can't stop it. And you think, why would you be so dumb? Because you know things that the characters there don't know. If you could jump into the movie or let's be real. That story is not only in movies. Some version of that story has probably touched your life, or your family, or your friends.

If you could jump in the story, what would you say? How would you advise these people traveling? What would you tell them to do? How would you protect them? In many ways, we are like those young royals, children of the king, living as sojourners, travelers in this world.

And in First Peter, chapter four, Peter gives them the advice they need. He gives us the advice we need. I'll begin reading in verse seven. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

As each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion, forever and ever.

Amen. Let's pray. God, you are our King. And we read these words as citizens of your kingdom and as your children. Please give us joy. Give us confidence. Give us obedience. Give us strength through your word today. In Jesus name, Amen. First, Peter points us to this reality. The end of all things is at hand. Now that means more than just that.

It's about to stop. That would be true. But in our story, it would be like delivering a message to the travelers and saying more than just it's all going to end. Saying instead the purpose, the goal, the fulfillment of all that your king has been doing is at hand. It's coming about. In our story, the King is trying to defeat his enemies.

It's a message that says their defeat is at hand. In our story, the King is trying to clean up the kingdom and make it beautiful and wonderful and make it thrive. And he says, that's exactly what's happening. The end is at hand. This word end here is the Greek word telos. Maybe you're familiar with the word. It has the idea of fulfillment or purpose or goal.

That means the purpose or the fulfillment of history is at hand. It tells us a couple things about history, by the way. It means that history is purposefully governed. It's not mindlessly repetitive. Wandering around like, well, let's see what happens here and what happens here. No, it says there's a purpose being accomplished throughout history.

It's like a line. It started somewhere. Scripture describes it in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth, and it will end somewhere with a new heaven and a new earth. Peter says the end, the purpose, the goal of all of that is at hand. Which means the second thing, history is in the final stages. It didn't mean that it was going to end tomorrow.

It meant all the big pieces were necessary. Every piece of God's purpose in saving throughout history had been accomplished because Jesus died, was buried, and was raised.

So the first thing Peter does is say God is accomplishing his purposes, and that end that goal is at hand. Well, what is the end? What are the purposes? How do we know? Well, we could go down to the end of verse 11 and find one of the ends or purposes to Jesus Christ belong all glory and dominion.

One of the reasons that God does what he does in history is to display the glory that he has, and to display the kingship that he has. So Peter says God is fulfilling his purpose to display who he is, his infinite worth, and his rulership over everything. But that's not the only in Scripture. In fact, Peter earlier in the book says a different kind of end, and he uses this same word.

Tell us in chapter one, verse nine, where he says, you are obtaining the outcome of your faith, the goal of your faith, the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. One of God's purposes in all of history. Is that God would sustain his children all the way to the goal, that we would be guiltless before him and enjoy eternal life forever.

That's not just something God's doing in your little slice of a few years of living on this earth. That's something that is God's purpose in all of history. The King has been transforming his land to show how great of a king he is, how good it is when he rules, and how loved his children are. And the end.

The purpose is at hand. God is doing the same thing. Here's how great of a king he is. Here's how great it is when he rules and how much he loves his children.

So Peter says you're in the final stages of that purpose.

Right on the edge of God saying, mission accomplished.

Right on the edge of every knee, bowing before him. The end. The purpose. The goal is at hand. So what do we do? That's the reality. That's where he starts. Now he gives us a command in verse seven. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers. Now these two words translated here self-controlled and sober minded, they're interesting because they may not mean exactly what you think of with that first glance.

The word self-control is actually translated in another passage as be in your right mind. Don't be crazy.

The passage is used that way in is a demon possessed man who is acting crazy, like just doing all kinds of weird stuff. And then they come and find him and he's sitting by the fire looking normal in his right mind, looking the exact word that's used here. Self-controlled.

So be in your right mind. Has somebody ever seemed crazy to you before you knew all the facts? Now that we have earbuds, this happens all the time, right? You're walking in a store and you hear somebody talking to themselves. You're like, what are you saying? And then you realize, oh, wait, they're not talking to me. Or you see somebody across a distance.

If I were to see one of you teens walking across the upper parking lot here, and all of a sudden you go like, what is wrong with him?

Are they crazy? Or did they just walk into a spiderweb?

You see, you believe something is crazy if it doesn't match your understanding of reality. That's basically how we define what's crazy. And if you understand a different reality, you understand the spiderweb. Then it makes sense. Get it off of you.

The same action might seem perfectly sane if you understood reality differently. So Peter says, here's the reality. The end of all things is at hand. The goal of all things is at hand. If you think history is random and chaotic and wanders around and nobody has any purposes for all of it, you're going to act in a certain way.

And it makes sense. But if you see a different reality that there's a purpose in this, that God is displaying his glory, his kingship, and his saving grace, if you see that reality, then you act in light of that. It's not crazy. Might look like it to someone who sees a different reality. But Peter says based on this reality, we live in a way that's not crazy.

According to what I've just told you.

Or if I could paraphrase Jim Elliot, who had a famous quote, he's no fool who gives what he can't keep to gain what he can't lose. If we could paraphrase it, you aren't crazy. If you give up what can never satisfy to gain the best treasure.

Peter says, be in your right mind like that.

To a world that doesn't see Jesus and His glory, what Jim Elliot did. If you know the story looked crazy, but when you know the reality of Jim Elliot standing next to God's throne now and praising him, it's not crazy at all.

You have two choices. You can be crazy according to a godless world. Or you can be in your right mind according to the world's values and be crazy according to heaven's.

Somebody is going to think you're crazy. Either way.

Teens. I love being able to stand up here with you. I love seeing you on Wednesday and on Sunday morning. You're going to look crazy to somebody.

People around you are going to think you're nuts if you say, my life is really all for Jesus. Not everyone around you, but some of them.

Peter says the end of all things is at hand. God has a purpose in what he is doing throughout history for you. Don't be out of your mind according to that reality. The second word is translated sober minded. Really. The word minded is coming from the first word and the way they translated it. It could just be said be sober.

So if the first one's don't be crazy, this one's don't be drunk. So that's kind of specific work. Well, when someone's drunk, they're disconnected with reality. Their judgment is impaired so that they might do things from the outside, look foolish. Doesn't seem like a problem to them. Peter's saying this to you. Don't be drunk with the world so that you have poor judgment relative to God.

It's a very similar point to what he made in the first one. Don't be crazy. But you're crazy because you believe the wrong things. That's why it looks crazy. Here he says, don't be intoxicated with something else that will draw you away from the reality. And the world system of thinking is so intoxicating, isn't it? It's seductive. We find pleasures that make us want more and more and more and more and more, and lead us to harmful decisions, foolish decisions.

Or maybe it's not pleasure so much. Maybe it's that just like in our illustration, and the predator comes up and starts talking to the youngest princess. Start saying, isn't it rough to be mistreated and taken for granted? And he stokes your self-pity so that, oh, poor me, poor me. If I just go and indulge in this mental sinful fantasy, it'll be fine.

And it's the deceptive predator coming alongside. Who wants to get you drunk? Ultimately.

It might be drunk with alcohol. It might be drunk with sexual pleasures. Or the pleasure of a little more money. Or the pleasure of revenge. Peter says the end of all things is at hand. Don't be drunk by any of those things, or there's a different kind of pleasure. Maybe not the the sensual, physical kinds of pleasures, but the pleasure of approval or success.

And our world system will say, yes, we think you're the good kind of Christian. We approve of you. And it feels kind of good. And pretty soon we can be drunk on that approval, doing foolish, harmful things, or just saying, I've just got to have a little bit more.

Or maybe, maybe it's not either of those kinds of pleasures. Maybe it's pride. You know, pride is addictive, right? You feel good about yourself and you want to feel a little bit better about yourself. You think I can have control of my life? How many messages do we see in our society that essentially bow down to make whatever choice you want?

You're in charge. And it's the predator sidling up on the bench saying, hey, have a drink of this. Control tastes really good, doesn't it?

Satan stokes our fear of the unknown. Wouldn't it be nice if you could have a little self-reliance? And that's how he starts? Have a little sip of self-reliance. Have a little sip of. I can control my life. It's kind of funny, actually. We talk about the fear of the unknown. But you. You realize everything in the future is unknown to us.

Technically, you don't know what it'll be like when you walk out of this room. You don't know if you will walk out of this room.

Satan says. Decide for yourself, control your own life, and be drunk on that power so that you act in a way that makes absolutely no sense. If you rely on Jesus. He seductively, step by step, just like the story intentionally seeks to intoxicate you with worldliness, with pleasures, with approval, and with control in a million different disguises. He doesn't give you the bottle with skull and crossbones on it.

He says, wouldn't this be good? Or, as John describes it, don't love the world and all that is in it. The desires of the flesh. Pleasures the desires of the eyes. Approval and success. And this kind of pride that's there. Or the pride of life is control. Just like our parable, Satan is an abuser who wants to take the world's system of thinking.

And he wants to prey on you. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, he wants to prey on you. And his desires are not pretty or harmless.

I don't want to be over the top, but I do want us to see what Satan wants.

Satan wants believers so drunk on the thinking and the loves of the world that we are lying in our own own vomit on the side of the street, unable to grasp our reality.

That's what he wants. And he wants this not because of you. It's not that he just hates you so much. It's because he hates the king. And you're made in the image of the king. You're. If you're a believer in Jesus, you're his child. And he wants to mock the king. He wants to mock God through you by convincing you to turn from the satisfaction God offers you, and to convince you to act like a raving drunk lunatic.

According to spiritual things. So how do we live? If that's the danger we face. And it is if that's what Satan wants for you, what are we supposed to do? What else would we tell these young royals traveling to their father's palace? Well, first Peter says, pray. Why does he say be in your right mind and be sober for the sake of your prayers?

Prayer is talking to your king. It's connecting yourself to the reality of his heart and his power and his purpose. It's like if while that accuser is beside the young princess trying to seduce her, trying to get her drunk, the king steps beside her and says, touch. You know I love you more than that. And she can talk to him and he can say, run away from this guy.

He wants nothing. Good for you. We pray you think of the Lord's Prayer. The more you are drunk on worldliness, the less you will want to pray. These truths.

God, you're my treasured father. Bring about your purposes and fulfill them in me.

When you love the pleasures and approval and control that the world tries to offer, you don't really want to pray that.

Please provide. Father. Please forgive. Please protect. If we paraphrase the Lord's Prayer. Those are the requests. And the more you dwell on the end of all things and what God has done for you, the more you say, I don't want what the world offers to intoxicate me. That's why Peter connects these two things. Be in your right mind and be sober minded, so that you'll pray like you should, so that you'll stay connected to your king so that you won't end up on the side of the street, passed out and robbed.

But it's not just about you individually. In fact, this text probably isn't even mainly about you individually because the commands are actually plural. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, you all be sober minded. You all be in your right mind. He's not telling you. You do it yourself and hope everybody else figures it out. How do you know that in addition to it being plural, notice as soon as he finishes that in verse eight.

Love one another. Show hospitality to one another. Serve one another. Peter says, if in our story the royals are walking along, the abuser wants to isolate, right? Wants to take one and start feeding lies into the the most naive or the most discontent one. And to convince them that he really wants good for them. And what needs to happen is the other members of the Royal family come alongside and say, no, he wants to kill you.

We go into the palace.

So he has three marks, three commands. What are we supposed to do if that's the danger we individually face? How do we help one another? Because I know.

If anybody was trying to do something like that to deceive. One of these young people. Everybody in this room would be ready to do whatever they could to protect them.

But Satan wants to do that with your hearts this morning. So how do we protect one another? First. Keep loving one another earnestly. Continually. Notice he doesn't assume they haven't been loving and says, now you've got to make sure you love. I'm not saying you don't love people. I'm saying keep doing it. Say, I've loved people for a long time.

I'm kind of tired because people do the wrong things. They do. Keep loving one another earnestly to protect one another. Because love covers a multitude of sins. He's not talking here, by the way, about loving your unbelieving friend. Although you should love them. Scripture commands that. But that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about you as believers, as sojourners.

Strangers. You keep loving one another. Honestly.

If God is accomplishing his purpose, if the end of the hand God is displaying how great he is, how great it is to be ruled by Him and His saving grace. It's crazy to look at people God has loved like that. And for you to say no, I don't want to love them. I'm loved like that, but I don't want to love them.

That would be crazy. That would not be in your right mind. So he says, look at the people around you and love them for every relationship. It's like there's there's two different extremes. There's a relationship that's based solely on performance. You've done these good things for me. And so I love you. It's very transactional. There's a relationship that's based solely on grace has nothing to do with what you did.

If it's only based on performance, then the only way you're really going to love that person, if it's the extreme, is if they don't sin, which means you're never really going to love them because they sit.

But how did God love you? Been read it earlier.

God loves you and his love has provided the ultimate covering for your sins. Your relationship with him. If you come through Jesus, it is not based on your performance at all. Praise God because my performance is not great and neither is yours. But it's not based on that. It's based on his grace and his love. So since he has loved you like that, do the same for others.

Love them even though they've done wrong to you. Because love covers a multitude of sins.

In our story, as they travel and the abuser tries to isolate one, the other brothers and sisters come alongside and say, I love you. Here's where we're going. And if they let petty sibling squabbles and fights drive them apart, they leave somebody in danger.

When you love God's people like this, though, you guard the body from worldliness in at least three ways. One, you give them a practical experience of something better when you love them, even though they've done wrong to you. You remind them that when the world says, come, do these things and you'll find all this great acceptance. It's a cheap imitation.

It's not as good as the love God gives to us through his people. If you love them like that, you don't desert them when they sin.

You don't say, well, you did the wrong thing here. So I guess I'm just going to let Satan do whatever he wants to, and I'm going to have no part of it. Good riddance.

Keep loving one another earnestly.

Given the reality of what God has done for you and God's purposes in history. You'd be crazy to not love his people. It doesn't fit the reality we claim to believe. So it's crazy.

Second mark or way that we protect when others we show hospitality to one another. The kind of love that covers sins has hands and feet. Two. It does practical things for one another. Sometimes we get hospitality and we put it only in one box, like it's having people over for dinner. And that's the only kind of hospitality that can happen.

That is hospitality. But it's not the only kind. Hospitality basically means you've got some kind of friendship or social group, and you take somebody who's an outsider from that group, and you treat them at least temporarily, like an insider. That's all it really means. We don't call it hospitality. When I sit down for dinner with my family, because my kids are in that circle, it's just how it works.

I'm not bringing someone from outside to inside, so it's not hospitality. But if somebody if I invite someone who's not normally there, that's hospitality.

And so Peter says, show hospitality without grumbling.

So if you invite someone to your house, don't grumble that your house isn't as nice as you wish. It was.

It's okay. The point isn't about a Martha Stewart competition of who has the best house. The point is, my house is a place that I can use, and it's a circle of love and friendship. And I can help this person come and be part of it for a while.

I'm showing love. And you might even on that day be pulling them from next to the accuser who's whispering in their ear and really wants to get them crazy and drunk and saying, come enjoy real love. Protecting them. Don't grumble that you have to clean up more. If people come over. Kids, that's you to.

Think about their context where they didn't have extra and they didn't have refrigerators. Not only that, when they talked about showing hospitality, what was often the cases believers were traveling and they needed a place to stay. And it wasn't like, hey, come for a meal. It was often going to be here for two days. That's a different kind of hospitality.

They're both hospitality. They're both real. But when he says, without grumbling, they had some pretty good reasons to grumble. Sometimes. Show hospitality without grumbling about what you have or don't have, or about the cost. You can show hospitality. You know you you don't have to have food. I know that's weird because the definition is here's friendship and I'm inviting somebody to be part of it.

When you have a group of friends, teens, when you have a group of friends and somebody comes to you, abide and you invite them to come be part of it. Hey, come talk to my friends. Let me introduce you to this person. This person you. You're showing hospitality. You are when you do that as adults to.

It's part of protecting other believers from the predator of their souls. Invite them into friendship. Like that. I ran across I want to give you three really quick, practical ways we can as a body show hospitality on Sunday mornings when we gather like this. Saw somebody posted this. Thought these were really helpful. One if somebody is alone in your gathering, that's an emergency.

If somebody is alone, how can I go help them not be so alone? Maybe you're not inviting them into a huge group. But just don't let them be. They're isolated and then wander off.

Friends can wait till later. See, we get so locked in our little circle here that we forget to reach out and say. How do I get to know this person? Friends are good. Friends are important. I think deep friendships are important. But if you need to go and address an emergency, somebody alone, somebody's hurting you. Go do that.

And friends, can we. Last thing. Introduce a newcomer to somebody else. If you ever meet somebody in one of our gatherings or really anywhere else, this is just a great way to be polite in any context. You meet somebody. Introduce them to somebody else. It's hospitality. It's. Here's my group of people. You're not normally in that group. I'm going to invite you to come be a part of it, at least temporarily.

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. The last thing that he says to do to protect one another is to serve one another. Notice the way he talks about it, starting in verse ten, as each has received a gift. Use it to serve one another as God, as good stewards of God's varied grace. When God made you his child, he gave you grace.

And we all have different experiences of grace. He saved you through different things. He's given you different abilities. He's given you different desires. And as he's given you that grace, you steward it. He's given it to you. What are you going to use it for? This text says you don't have to meet everybody's needs. Nobody can do that except for God.

But where God's given you grace, use it to help to serve his people.

You say, I don't know how I can best serve. Well, think about the grace God's given you and use that. As stewards of God's very grace. Well, what kind of grace? What does he mean? Varied. He gives you two categories speaking grace and serving grace, or speaking grace and anything that's not speaking. He says when you speak, speak as one who speaks oracles or truths of God.

There's specific applications, obviously, to people who stand up here and speak this morning that included Ben Dodson, and he spoke truths of God. Every time I speak from this pulpit. It should be truths of God. Every time you lead a Sunday school class, it's not your advice. It's truths from God. Every time you lead a Bible study or you speak before communion, God has given you grace.

He's shown you truth. Now you deliver that truth through your words to others. Steward. The grace he's given will. But it's not just public speaking. It's any time that you speak to brothers and sisters. Whenever you talk to a fellow believer, are you talking in a way that says the end of all things is at hand? God's purposes are good, and I love him.

And here's why you should love that. Or do we talk in ways that help Satan to deceive? It's one or the other. When you have opportunity to talk, when you talk with your friends and their struggles in their lives, and you speak back to them, you speak counsel and every one of you, if you have received God's grace, then you have grace to give.

I don't think God is ever teaching you a spiritual lesson that he intends only for you. Whenever God teaches you something, he's giving you grace so that you'll steward it and give it to others. That might be your children, or your parents, or your friends or church members. But he's giving you truth. He's teaching you. Yes. So it will shape your life, but so you can give it to others.

So whoever speaks as those who speak the oracles of God, whoever serves as those who serve in the strength that God supplies, we always serve not with the mindset that I have all the things God needs, but that God has given me his grace and I want to steward it because God has the strength that I need.

So God has given you as believers, all kinds of grace. Some of you who's given you grace of leadership. Some of you, he's given you grace of passion for different things. Grace of experience. Grace of forgiveness. Grace of insight or wisdom? So since God has given you all these different kinds of grace, use them for the good of his people within this body.

Because Satan wants them to be drunk and crazy.

So why do we do that? Why do we serve in a way that's not reliant on self? That's the next section. The end of verse 11. In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. That's why that's the essence of who we are. Where people who've been called out of darkness to proclaim his excellencies, we're worshipers at its heart, that's the root of Christian identity.

We're worshipers of God.

That's why when we go to revelation and see throne room scenes, what are they doing? Worship worthy is the lamb who was slain. They praise him over and over because that's who we are. Satan, therefore, because that's who we are as God's people. He hates that. That's why he wants to deceive you. That's why he wants to deceive God's children with lies.

And he wants to intoxicate them. Don't ever believe the lie that Satan wants. Good for you. Satan wants you drunk in the gutter. God wants you to delight in his glory. Peter says, remember that. Remember it over and over. Be in your right mind. Be sober. Know your King. And use his grace to guard and love one another all the way home.

I've been thinking this week.

Of different struggles that I've faced and times that I've thought. What seemed so natural to me.

I've looked back this week and I said, God, that was Satan trying to get me drunk.

That's grace that God gave me that I would see it. And my prayer for you. If you're a believer in Jesus, my prayer for you is that God would continue to do the work he's promised and open your eyes to Satan's schemes. That he'd strengthen you to be the kind of person who comes alongside. That young. Naive Prince.

Or that older prince. And helps guard them from the predator who wants to kill them? Who wants to disgrace your king?

And if you're not a believer in Jesus today.

Satan wants you to believe his lies. Scripture says, apart from Christ, we're enslaved to sin. That's what Satan wants for you. God offers you something so much better, and we would love to share with you the joy that God has given us.

So I invite you to take a moment. Just respond to God in prayer. Ask him to open your eyes to Satan's schemes and to fill you. With the sight of who he is. I just invite you to do that silently, and then I'll pray.