Our Sunday gatherings have become a very special time. The Word has been very through and soaking like the times when it rains all day and all night saturating the ground. As always, we encourage you to keep rehearsing the teaching.
There’s also something unique about the way the Lord is knitting our hearts together. It is an awesome thing to behold. Now as we prepare to launch a summer of very intentional outreach to our families and friends, we just felt compelled to share this passage of scripture with you.
1 Peter 4:7-11 reads: But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
In this scripture, we find four admonishments:
- Be sober and watchful in your prayers
- Have fervent love for one another
- Be hospitable without grumbling
- Minister your gifts to one another
Peter knew that he was coming to the end of his life and he was writing to some very discouraged Believers during a time in which thousands of Believer’s were being tormented, tortured and killed because of their faith in Christ. In the midst of great trials, he simplifies the Believer’s focus to these four things.
We share this with you today because that’s what it all comes down to for our church family. We can sense that exciting things are happening in our church. People that we have been inviting for weeks, months and even years are now beginning to come. We can feel the explosion about to come forth.
Yet, the focus for us is to first be sober. This means we are to be of a sound mind, to exercise self-control, to put a moderate estimate upon ourselves (to not think more highly of ourselves because of what God is doing in our church), and to curb our passions.
We are admonished to be watchful in our prayers. In this scripture, the meaning of watchful is to be temperate and circumspect. We find it interesting that the first thing we are told in the midst of crisis or excitement is to not let our feelings and thinking run out of control as we pray. We’re going to continue to seek God’s face and not His hand. We’re not going to start making request for all sorts of blessings to only benefit ourselves.
In fact, Peter says that above all else we are to have fervent love for one another. This means unceasing love, intense and earnest love. Peter was talking about the kind of love that not only expresses benevolence, but also the kind of love that covers, hides or veils another person.
You see. We’re going to get to know one another really well and we’re going to discover some not so good things about each other. When that happens, we are to demonstrate covering love. In fact, one of the definitions for this kind of love means ‘to hinder the knowledge of a thing’. Isn’t that amazing? This kind of love holds a family together. It’s the kind of love that we need to demonstrate here in Harrisburg because this community has been devastated by people uncovering one another’s faults and sins.
Peter moves on to say that we must be hospitable without grumbling. This Greek word for hospitable means: to be generous to guest. You know how generous and open we are to guest when they visit our homes. We are extra polite, patient and accommodating to their needs. Peter tells us to be that way with one another on a regular basis. Normally the more familiar we become with one another, the less hospitable we become.
Finally, we are encouraged to minister our gifts to one another. One of the most powerful definitions of minister is: to attend to anything that may serve another's interests. This definition includes such specific word images as waiting on a table to offer food and drink to guest like a waiter or waitress in a restaurant. We are encouraging YOU, our dear church family to serve one another, with the gifts that God has given you.
Peter concludes the four points by telling everyone the purpose for doing these things. The reason for doing these four things was so God would get the glory. We aren’t doing these things so that Urban Life Church would be proclaimed or its pastors would be celebrated.
Family, we appreciate the acknowledgements and kind words that have come our way, but we don’t want you to put any emphasis on us, or our ministry. The true goal of all that we do is so that ALL GLORY WILL GO TO GOD! He gets all the credit! He gets all the attention! So determine that in all you do, that God will get the glory through your life!
