Living In The Last Days

We’re going to read all the verses from 1 Peter 4:7-11, and then we’re going to go back and unpack them phrase by phrase. Peter says in verse 7, “But the end of all things is at hand,”—that is the theme of tonight’s message, ‘the end of all things is at hand,’ so the first command is—“be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 8 And above all things have fervent [love] among yourselves: for [love] shall cover the multitude of sins. 9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. 10 As every man hath received the gift,”—it’s speaking of the gift of the Spirit—“even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

It was recently that we watched with horror as the fires ravaged this area around Malibu and other areas of LA. Whenever we have fires like that and homes are gone and taken by the fire, I find it interesting as they interview people who loose their homes, and their homes are just starting to burn, many times they have to run in a very urgent situation and grab what is most important to them. I found it interesting the things they share they went in to grab, and thought to myself, What would I run into the house and grab if the house was burning. The idea is when our house is on fire that we have a moment of urgency and priority. Those are the two things that we as believers also have in light of the fact that the Lord is coming soon—urgency and priority. I have to act; I have to act quick, the Lord’s coming; and I have to have a priority of what is most important that I want to go in and save in my house or the priority of what I want to do with my life.

Just a quick peek at verse 12, they were going through a fiery trial, as I said we’ll get that next week, but in verse 7 it’s also what Peter says is in light of “the end of all things is at hand.” They’re going through a fiery trial at the end of time, so how shall they then live? They needed to have a sense of urgency and priority, so do we. Today we also face fiery trials, and I believe that if Peter wrote long ago that the end of all things is at hand, how much more are we at the end of all things tonight as believers in Jesus Christ.

What does Peter mean when he makes the statement, verse 7, “But the end of all things is at hand”? Some say, “Well, that was written so long ago, how could he have said that when still we’re here tonight and the Lord hasn’t come?” The phrase, “the end of all things is at hand” is meant to convey a meaning that is the Lord’s consummation or the Lord’s completion of His plan and purpose and His program is going to soon be completed. God sits on the throne. Amen? What God has purposed will be completed. The theologians call it the metanarrative, God’s purpose and plan—He created man, man fell, He sends a Redeemer—and then we’re going to see that Christ will come back for the Church. But the whole metanarrative, that whole purpose and plan, the consummation of God’s plan for all of creation, is about fulfilled. Peter mentions it. I believe we’re living today in the last days of the last days when the consummation of God’s plan and purpose will be fulfilled. We are believers looking for the coming again of Jesus Christ as what I believe to be an imminent hope of the Church.

I’m not here to teach on prophecy tonight, but I believe very strongly the Bible teaches that before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ that there will be what’s called the rapture of the Church. I think you need to understand those are two separate events. The rapture happens at least seven years before the Second Coming and, in between the two, there will be a period of tribulation and great tribulation when God will be pouring out His wrath upon a Christ-rejecting world. I don’t believe the Church will go through the tribulation. I believe in a pretribulational rapture. Today, it’s something that’s going out of fashion, and a lot of Christians are abandoning that position; but I think that very clearly the Bible teaches that “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The very next thing in God’s calendar to fulfill the consummation of His purpose and plan is the rapture of the Church. That rapture in the Bible is first spoken of by Jesus in John 14. Let me give you a little information about it. In John 14, Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled,”—neither let it be afraid—“ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions”—or abiding places—“if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” I believe that’s the first disclosure or revealing of the rapture.

By the way, I don’t believe the rapture’s in the Old Testament. I don’t believe it’s there at all. Some say that Enoch, being caught up to meet the Lord in the air to heaven, was a picture of the rapture; but I don’t know that that’s what God intended it to be. It’s a New Testament revelation which by definition means that which was hidden in ages past is now revealed to us.

The second place we find the rapture passage is where Paul says, 2 Corinthians 5:2, “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven,” so he says, 1 Corinthians 15:51, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” and goes on to describe the rapture and says, “ . . . this mortal shall have put on immortality,” he said that this body will be transformed and changed and “Death is swallowed up in victory,” 1 Corinthians 15:51 to the end of the chapter.

The classic passage is in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. One thing about this teaching in the Bible, if you study the rapture passages and you study carefully and look at the details of the Second Coming passages, they are separate, different events. They describe different events. In the rapture, the Church is “ . . . caught up . . . to meet the Lord in the air.” In the Second Coming, Revelation 19, the Church comes back with Jesus Christ to the earth. In the rapture, only believers are involved as we get “ . . . caught up . . . to meet the Lord in the air;” in the Second Coming, “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” There’s a lot of different contrasts between the two. The Church is “ . . . caught up . . . to meet the Lord in the air.”

I don’t believe that there’s anything that has to happen before the rapture can take place so the sense of urgency and the sense of priority. I believe that we should be living with constant expectation that the Lord could come tonight. I believe the Lord could come before we finish this service tonight—and that’s not because we’re going to go long, either—because Jesus said “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” We need to be ready for the rapture. The rapture is the Church caught up to meet the Lord in the air, we’re with the Lord in heaven, we come back in the Second Coming with Christ at the end of seven years of tribulation, then He establishes His Kingdom on earth for one thousand years, that’s the Millennium; and at the end of the Millennium, there’ll be a new heaven and a new earth, and then there will be the eternal state.

So, “ . . . the end of all things,”—the consummation of all this—“is at hand,” so how should we spend our time? Urgently serving the Lord with a great priority of getting out the gospel and winning others to Christ.

Peter’s epistle is not only doctrinal, tonight we’re going to see it’s very practical. Notice in verse 7, “ . . . be ye therefore,” he says therefore in light of the coming of the Lord, in light of the end time, in light of “ . . . the end of all things is at hand . . . therefore,” and he’s going to give us five commands. If you’re taking notes, you can write them down, right from the text five imperatives or commands of how we should live in light of the Lord’s coming. The first one is be sober. Look at verse 7, “ . . . be ye therefore sober,” stop right there. This phrase, “be ye sober,” again is an imperative, which means it’s a command. It’s what’s called an aorist tense, that means it’s an urgent and decisive action. You take action urgently and decisively, “ . . . be ye therefore sober.” It was used for a person who was in his right mind. It means to be self-controlled, balanced in your reaction. It basically could be translated, keep your mind steady and clear. When things are going crazy in the world around us, don’t freak out.

I don’t know why it is, but Christians can get so crazy sometimes. They’re always looking at the things going on in the world and freaking out. I remember Y2K when people were quitting their jobs, selling their homes, moving to Montana, building bomb shelters, buying food, stocking up, “The Lord’s going to come,” selling books, that there’s no way we’re going to live past the year 2000. Everything was going to blow up. Everything was going to go crazy, and Christians are freaking out. This is what this verse means: Keep calm. Don’t lose your sense of balance. Don’t go crazy. William Barclay translates it, “Preserve your sanity.” I love that. The New Living Translation has, “ . . . be earnest and disciplined.” Don’t flip out or go crazy.

The context, again, is the end of time, so don’t get unbalanced when it comes to biblical prophecy. Keep your cool. There’s a Scripture in Thessalonians where Paul was writing to those who were thinking the Lord was coming so soon that they were going to quit their job and just live off others—others could feed them and they could sleep on their couch and hang out at their house—until the Lord came back. He said, “No. If a man doesn’t work, he shouldn’t eat.” Don’t get weird, basically, because of this “end of time.” Don’t be unbalanced. Don’t freak out. Keep your cool. Believe in Bible prophecy and understand it, but don’t panic. Don’t lose your head. Keep your cool. Be balanced.

Here’s the second command in light of the coming of the Lord; that is, watch and pray. Look at verse 7, “ . . . and watch unto prayer.” Now, to be true about the text, the phrase in verse 7, “ . . . end of things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer,” is grammatically one imperative. I’m the one that broke them into two, but the text is actually one imperative. The text would actually read, “Be sober and watch unto prayer.” Sobriety and prayer go together. How do we not lose our minds? How do we not flip out, go crazy, and become imbalanced and sell everything we have and move out into the hills? By prayer. Prayer must be connected to this concept of sobriety. Again, sobriety would be used of those who were intoxicated—not thinking clearly, not thinking straight. So, have a clear mind. Don’t be intoxicated by the values and the ideas of the world.

I love Romans 12 where it says, “I [beg] you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies as a living sacrifice . . . And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Don’t let the world press you into its mold. Keep your calm, keep your head clear, and turn to God in prayer.

What a great author, that is, Peter, to write about the need for prayer and keeping calm, right? Remember when Peter was in the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus said to him, James and John, the three inner circle, “Stay awake. Watch with Me and pray.” Then, He went deeper into the Garden and came back a few minutes later. What were they doing? Sleeping. Isn’t it amazing how when we should be praying, we’re sleeping? Do you ever get down the side of your bed and fold your hands and bow your head. You put your head in that perfect little cup right there, fits perfectly, and you’re just elevated over the bed enough to breathe. You start to pray and start to fall asleep. You wake up an hour later with a big red dot on your forehead, “Oh, Lord, sorry. I’ll see You in the morning.”

We shouldn’t go to sleep like Peter. Peter had the gift of sleep; I have the gift of sleep. We need to be careful we stay awake, we stay alert, and that we couple that with prayer. When Peter learned his lesson in the book of Acts 4, when he was brought before the magistrates for preaching the gospel and being persecuted, it says that they gathered with the believers and they prayed. They prayed for three things. First, they prayed saying, “Lord, You are God. You made the heavens and the earth, nothing is too hard for You.” They got a perspective on who God was, that God was sovereign, and God was all-powerful. Then he said, “By Your mouth thy servant David said,” so he first focuses in prayer on God’s person.

Secondly, he focuses on God’s promises in the Bible. Thirdly, they prayed for boldness to speak the Word. They focused on God, they quoted the promises of Scripture, and then they prayed for more boldness. They were praying for more of what got them into trouble. They weren’t praying, “Lord, please protect us. Lord, deliver us. Lord, help us. Lord, save us.” They were praying, “Just give us more boldness to go right back out there and face the opposition and to preach boldly the gospel.” Jesus is coming, “ . . . the end of all things is at hand.” Don’t fall asleep at this time. Be clear-minded. Be alert. Be serious, and be prayerful.

Here’s the third, if you’re writing them down, have fervent love. This is where we see Peter’s practical side, very practical side. Keep your head clear, keep on your knees and pray, and have fervent love among yourselves. Notice verse 8, “And above all,”—over all, of most important priority. Not only should there be urgency but a sense of priority, keep fervent in your love, which is the Greek word agápē, one for another. Why? Because “ . . . [love] shall cover the multitude of sins.” This is actually a quote from Proverbs 10:12. He takes it from the Old Testament, but it’s a very practical command, “ . . . have fervent [love] among yourselves,” one for another. This is in the Church, the family of God, the body of believers.

As the world gets more hostile toward Christians, we need to draw deeper into our fellowship with believers. That’s why I said you’re to be commended you’re here tonight. You should be involved in a small group. You should be involved in a fellowship prayer group. You should get to know other believers. You can’t live the Christian life apart from fellowship with others. You can be a Christian, but not a good one. People say, “Do you have to go to church to be a Christian?” No, but you have to go to church to be a good Christian, a healthy Christian, a strong Christian. You need to be connected with other believers. You need to be fellowshipping with other believers in Christ. You can’t isolate yourself. You can’t say, “I don’t need the body of Christ.” We need one another.

Peter actually says, “And above all things,” in light of the end of time and God’s plan coming to completion that we should, “have fervent [love]”—one for another, the need for love and fellowship of believers. Peter moves to relationships in the Church, the body of Christ, the Christian community. There’s one thing that should mark a Christian community, it should be love. What did Jesus say? He said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” We should love the brethren, we should love believers, and be a part of a fellowship of believers.

Love is to be “fervent,” notice that, verse 8. The word “fervent” is actually a word used for an athlete when he would be running a race in the Greek Olympics straining to reach his goal. The word literally means stretched out. Have you ever watched these guys run the 100-meter dash and they’re so fast and they lean forward and stretch their muscles out to cross the finish line first? That same agonizing, that same stretching, that same effort we need to put into loving one another, loving the brethren. Are you working hard at loving the brethren or hardly working at all for loving the brethren? “Give it all you’ve got,” it could be paraphrased. It’s not easy. It’s hard work, but we need to work hard at loving the brethren.

It’s kind of like a marriage relationship. Many of you have been married for some time, maybe many, many years. If you’ve been married for any length of time, what do you have to do? Work at your marriage, right? You have to strain sometimes. You have to work at your marriage. You can’t just give up on your marriage. You can’t just bail out on your marriage. You have to…I hate to say it, but the word is agōnízomai. You have to sometimes agonize to make that marriage work and you’ll reap the benefits. How hard are you working at loving the brethren? It’s so very important. It’s not easy, sometimes the brethren are difficult, and sistren, too, by the way. That’s what it’s all about. We need to learn to love each other, and, we’re going to see, to forgive one another.

Why should we have fervent love one for another? Look at verse 8, “ . . . for [love] shall cover the multitude of sins.” Why should we love the brethren fervently? Because love covers a multitude of sins. Again, that’s Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.” What does it mean when it says, “ . . . but love covereth all sins”? What it doesn’t mean, it doesn’t mean that love condones sin. Love doesn’t hide sin. Love doesn’t smooth over sin. It recognizes that it’s sin, but what it means is that in love we forgive and we forget the sins of people who have sinned against us.

When the Bible says that we are to forgive someone, it involves forgiving them and then treating them as though it never happened. It doesn’t mean that we forget mentally, we don’t do some kind of mental gymnastics and forget the offense, but it means that we treat them like it never happened—which, by the way, is what God does with us. When God forgives our sins, He forgets our sins. God’s omniscient, He doesn’t literally forget our sins, He treats us like it never happened.

In the Church, in the body of Christ, sooner or later someone’s going to offend you, someone’s going to hurt you, someone’s going to say something that’s going to bother you, and you can’t just run away. I’ve told people so many times that if you run away from a church because someone hurt you, you go to another church, you’ll have to run away from that church. If you go to another church, you’ll have to run away from that church. Until you learn to forgive and to reconcile and to restore that relationship…now sometimes it’s not easy and sometimes it’s difficult, but that’s how we grow.

I believe that sometimes we rub each other wrong in the body of Christ, but God uses that to mature us, to grow us, to strengthen us, to make us stronger believers. But if we run away from the very thing God has allowed to grow us, then we’re never going to grow. We’ll be spiritual pygmies the rest of our lives. We need to stay put and bloom where we’re planted. Unless the Lord’s calling you for specific ministry or purpose, don’t just run from your problems, ask God to give you a heart of forgiveness to love one another. That’s what it means when it says there that we should “ . . . have fervent [love] among yourselves: for [love] shall cover the multitude of sins.” We keep our heads cool and our hearts warm. In Ephesians 4:32 it says, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Amen? Be committed to loving the brothers and the sisters.

Here’s commandment four, use hospitality. Look at verse 9. He says, “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” If you’re going to be a hostess, be “without grudging.” Don’t grudgingly show hospitality, one to another. Love opens its heart and its home. Love opens its heart and its home. It’s important. In Peter’s day, it was very high on the list. They didn’t have hotels, airbnb’s, or campgrounds, so you would open your home. You would love the brethren. You would give them a place to stay. You would have them in your house, and you would just open your heart and open your home to the brethren, and we should do the same today.

There is a gift of the Spirit of hospitality, but I believe that there is also a command here in the Bible that, as a general rule as believers, we should show hospitality. We’re actually commanded to do that. When we think of ‘hospitality,’ it’s not what the Bible means by “Be hospitable.” When we think of hospitality, we think of our good friends—people we like, people we know, people we want to hang out with—inviting them over to our house for a meal and for fellowship, right? We’re getting together.

When I was first saved, everybody always wanted to go out and get doughnuts after church. I though doughnuts were part of the Christian life. I thought that’s how you grow spiritually—doughnuts and coffee. You’re always hanging out with the people that you know, the people that you like. The word translated ‘hospitality,’ do you know what it is literally in the Greek, the etymology of the word? Loving strangers. The word literally means loving strangers. You say, “Well, I don’t do strangers. I don’t hang out with strangers.” That’s what the Bible tells us to do. I thank God for those people in our church that reach out to newcomers, “Hey, would you like to come over for a meal? Would you like to get together and fellowship?” They introduce themselves. They reach out. “Well, I don’t know them. I’ve never met them.” Well, go out and meet them and reach out to them. It’s loving strangers. It’s reaching out to people that we don’t even know.

There’s an interesting verse in Hebrews 13:2. It says, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Think about that. Be careful, that stranger that you’re running from may be an angel unawares. I remember one time I broke down in my son’s…I was babysitting my son’s ’68 VW bus trying to fix it up for him while he was gone on a long trip, I broke down here in Menifee, and I stood by the side of the road for hours needing someone to help. I didn’t have a phone. I hadn’t shaved. I was wearing a hat and grubby old clothes. You can’t believe how many people from the church drove by and thought I was a hobo and didn’t stop. It’s kind of like, “Hey!” “Don’t look. Don’t look,” and just drove by. If you see Pastor Miller hitchhiking, pick me up.

Remember when Abraham opened up his tent to those three visitors, strangers, and showed hospitality? One of them was the Lord Jesus Christ. It turned out to be not a person but a Christophany, an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament. You never know. Not only may the pastor show up incognito, but it may be an angel unawares.

Here’s the fifth, use your gifts, verses 10-11. I love this. “As every man”—and it’s person—“hath received the gift”—the chárisma—“even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If any man speak,”—he mentions two gifts in this text—“let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth,”—and the reason for their gifts being used—“that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” This is a great passage where Peter tells us in light of “ . . . the end of all things is at hand,” not only keep your head clear, keep your knees bent, keep your heart warm and open, be forgiving toward others, but God’s given you a gift. Use that gift for others to be built up and edified and for God to be glorified.

There are four places, I want you to get a pen ready and write this down, in the New Testament where the gifts of the Holy Spirit are mentioned. In Romans 12:6-8, we have seven gifts mentioned: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and mercy or showing mercy. A second list by Paul the apostle is in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. We have nine gifts mentioned, none of the lists are the same: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits or discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues or speaking in an known language, interpreting of that language, the gift of interpreting tongues. In Ephesians 4:11, we have five gifts, which are actually gifted individuals given to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and in 1 Peter 4:10-11. If you get all that down, study those lists, you’ll have a pretty thorough covering of all the gifts of the Spirit that are given by the Holy Spirit.

Let me give you some other facts about spiritual gifts in the last days that we need to use. First, every Christian has received at least one gift. You might not know what your gift is, but there is a gift given to you by the Holy Spirit, verse 10, “As every man hath received the gift,” notice that. Also, 1 Corinthians 12:7 where Paul says that the Holy Spirit divides “ . . . to every man severally as he will,” a gift. I believe the Bible is clear in its teaching, every Christian has a gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, some have more than one gift, but everyone has at least one gift.

You say, “Well, how do I find my gift?” Romans 12, “ . . . present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable”—act of worship or—“service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove”—or discover—“what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” for your life. Don’t get bogged down trying to figure what your gift is, just focus on Jesus, focus on His Word, focus on growing in grace and in the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If God opens a door for service, step into that trusting God to guide you and to lead you. You know, it’s pretty hard to steer a parked car, right? When a car starts to move, you can turn it and steer it, so be serving the Lord.

Too many times Christians are just sitting and waiting for the Lord to give them a vision or an audible voice or for Billy Graham to call them up and say, “I want you to preach for me in the Crusades,” or for something else to happen instead of just saying, “Lord, here am I. Help me to be busy serving You. Use me,” and dedicating and consecrating your life to service, and God will begin to lead you and guide you.

First, every Christian has received at least one gift, verse 10. Secondly, it is to be used for others. Look at verse 10 again, our text, “ . . . even so minister the same one to another.” Spiritual gifts are not jewelry for you to show off. Spiritual gifts are not toys for you to fight over with other believers. Spiritual gifts are tools for you to use for others’ good and edification and building up. They’re not for you, they’re for others.

Thirdly, we are to be good stewards of God’s gifts. Notice he makes reference to that in verse 10. He says, “ . . . as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” A steward was entrusted with his master’s goods. It didn’t belong to him, they were entrusted to him. God gives us a gift, or gifts, and He trusts us to use them for others’ good and for His glory and to be faithful. One of the chief characteristics of a steward is faithfulness. When we hear those words some day, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” it’s because God gave us a gift, and we faithfully used it for the good of others and for the glory of God. If you get your mind off yourself and get your mind on how you can serve others, you can find your gift, you can faithfully serve as a good steward.

Now, that stewardship concept, too, by the way, reminds us and conveys that one day we will have to give an account to God for how we used the gifts entrusted to us, and we should take that really seriously. God’s going to call us into account, “What did you do with the gifts and the abilities I gave to you for others’ good and for My glory?” Did you bury it in the earth or did you use it to multiply? Did you use it for the good of others?

We’re not going to be judged when we go to heaven for our sins. Jesus took care of those on the cross as we celebrate tonight, but we are going to be judged—listen carefully—for our service. We won’t be judged for our sins, but we will be judged for our service. I believe it’s possible that there’ll be some Christians saved, but just so as by fire, by the skin of their teeth, and that they’ll be ashamed when they get to heaven because they buried their talent, they buried their gift, and they didn’t use it for God’s glory. We are going to give an account to God for what we did with what God entrusted to us—your time, your treasure, and your talents—you should all use for the glory of God.

Notice the fourth, about the gifts, verse 10, they are “grace” gifts, and he speaks of them as being, “ . . . the manifold grace of God.” The word “manifold” means many-colored, variegated, many different colors. They come to us by God’s grace. If you see someone that is really gifted by God and really being used by God, it is not because of who they are, it’s because of God’s grace. They are grace gifts. They are grace endowments. That’s where we get our word “grace,” by the way. It’s the Greek word cháris, so they are grace endowments. They are not because of us and our abilities and our talents, they are given to us by God’s grace. You should never envy someone else’s gift because they are a recipient of that gift by the grace of God, and so are we.

Fifthly, lastly, there are many different kinds of gifts, and I gave you the different lists, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4, so don’t get hung up on just one particular gift, and don’t be picky as to whatever gift God wants to give you. He gives you by His sovereign grace the gifts He wants you to have, so you humbly, faithfully use them for His glory and for the good of others.

Here Peter mentions two kinds of gifts, speaking gifts, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God,” so if you’re teaching or preaching or speaking or sharing a word of encouragement or a word of the Lord, that you do it for the glory of God, but you do it as the mouthpiece of God, you “ . . . speak as the oracles of God,” especially when you’re speaking God’s Word or serving. In my King James translation it has, “if any man minister,”—which is actually the word ‘serve,’ it conveys the idea of being a slave—“let him do it as of the ability which God giveth.” Again, notice that. God gives you the ability. By the way, that’s one of the ways you know what your gift is—God gives you the ability.

I’ve had people come to me and say, “God’s called me to sing.” “Really?” “Yeah.” “Sing something for me.” They start to sing, “No, no, no. I’m sorry to tell you this, God hasn’t called you to sing. Please don’t sing.” If God’s called you to sing, He’ll give you a voice. If God’s called you to preach, He’ll give you the gift of preaching or teaching. If God’s given you a gift of hospitality, He’ll give you a heart that loves strangers. If God’s given you the heart to serve, He’ll give you a servant’s heart. That ability comes from God.

The sixth, actually is the last point on the gifts, and I love them, the gifts are to be used to bless others and to glorify God. Verse 11, “ . . . that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” This text ends with a doxology. It ends with a hymn. This is a hymn in the Bible. This is a doxology, “ . . . to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen,” or so be it.

We want to hear one day those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant,”—Amen?—“ . . . enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” So, sober-minded prayer, sincere love, showing hospitality, and sharing your gifts. Let’s pray.