If you would, open your bibles to first Peter chapter 4. For those of you who are new, we've been working our way through first Peter for the last few months. The end is in sight. First Peter chapter 4, I'll begin reading in verse 7, which we looked at last week. The end of all things is at hand.
Jeffrey Heine: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.
Jeffrey Heine: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 for never and ever. Amen. This is the word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. Pray with me. Our father, I pray that in this moment through your spirit, you would quiet our hearts, quiet our minds. May we be attentive to your word. May we be transformed by the word that we encounter.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, for those who are hurting in this place, I pray that you would bring healing. Lord, for those who are stuck in their sin, I pray that you would convict them and give them a heart of repentance. Restore unto them the joy that you can give. For all of us, we need life, and your life you give us is imparted to us through your word, by the power of your spirit. So I pray in this moment that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Jeffrey Heine:But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Last week, we looked at Peter's call for us to be a hospitable people. How we're to be people who invites strangers into our living space, our homes.
Jeffrey Heine:And let me just say, a number of you I've I've talked with you over the last few days saying that you've done that this past week, and it was really neat to hear the stories of of the people who you've invited in. Some of the strangers that you've had meals with. It was very encouraging hearing that. And I think maybe in the weeks ahead, I might get some of you to come up and just share. It it's, it was an important message for us, I think, as a church to hear because hospitality, I really think is the key to evangelism going into the 21st century.
Jeffrey Heine:Tonight we're we're looking at what comes after that section on hospitality. For Peter, showing hospitality and using our gifts are the two ways that we demonstrate love for one another. We're hospitable and we use our gifts. And so, you know, just briefly look at the chapter again, the general flow of this text. Peter starts off by saying, the end of all things is at hand.
Jeffrey Heine:And if we understand this, this really shapes the way that we think. It shapes the way that we pray. It it helps us to focus on what's really important. And then he says, what's really important when you understand the end of all things is at hand. What's really important is that we love one another.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, above all, or give this the highest priority and light that the end of all things is at hand. Love one another. And then he tells you how we love one another. We're to be hospitable to one another, and then we're also to use the gifts God has given us in service to one another. Look at verse 10.
Jeffrey Heine:In verse 10, we read Peter. He says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Peter doesn't say, if you have received a gift. He he says, as each has received a gift, use it. Every Christian has received some gift from God through his Holy Spirit to be used in service of the church.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul says the same thing in 1st Corinthians 12, when he says to each one is given a manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Every believer has been given some gifts, some manifestation of the spirit for the common good. This manifestation of the spirit is what we call a gift. This word gift, both Peter and and Paul used this word. The Greek words, charisma.
Jeffrey Heine:That's where we get the word, you know, charismatic, or we get the word charisma. Charis meaning grace or mercy. And the ma is a suffix that denotes the result of an action. And so when you put those two things together, what you get is the result of grace or the result of mercy. That's what a gift is.
Jeffrey Heine:A spiritual gift is not something that you achieve. It's not something that you merit. It's never something that you earn. It is something, something that's simply given to you by the free grace of God. Completely undeserved.
Jeffrey Heine:Every believer has received this. The new testament, you're gonna find in 4 different places, different lists that go through all of these gifts. And we're not gonna go through all of those right now. But if you look at 1st Corinthians 12, you look at Romans 12, you look at Ephesians 4, you're gonna find gifts of teaching, healing, administration, tongues, encouragement, giving, mercy, prophecy, word of knowledge. And you get you kind of get the feeling as all these gifts are being listed out that Paul never intends to give an exhaustive list.
Jeffrey Heine:He kind of gives a scattering of the gifts in each one of his letters, but it's not an exhaustive list at all. It's kind of these are representative of the gifts that God gives. So we have things like, you know, leading worship, which I certainly think is a gift of the spirit not listed, or intercessory prayer, certainly a gift of the spirit not listed. But Paul wasn't trying to be exhaustive here. And in the text we're looking at tonight, the apostle Peter, he simply breaks down the gifts into categories.
Jeffrey Heine:He doesn't even give list. He just gives 2 broad categories for gifting. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. So, as good stewards of God's very grace, whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies.
Jeffrey Heine:So he breaks down the gifts into the to the categories of speaking and serving. Speaking and serving. Speaking would be gifts like prophecy, preaching, teaching, evangelism, tongues, interpretation of tongues. And Peter says that when we use those gifts, we should use them as if, we are speaking or saying the oracles of God. Or these are gifts that should be used by being saturated in scripture.
Jeffrey Heine:You should breathe scripture out as you're giving these gifts. That's what the oracle of God, oracles of God is is is is the holy Bible that is God's written word. And so when we talk, that needs to be the subject. We don't need to teach them whatever we wanna teach on. Say whatever we wanna say.
Jeffrey Heine:Speak as if it's the oracles of God. Then Peter says that there are gifts that involve serving. These are the gifts like administration, encouragement, giving, healing, hospitality, mercy. And now none of these things are what we would call talents, but these are gifts given by the Holy Spirit after conversion. And the purpose of these gifts is to equip the church to serve one another.
Jeffrey Heine:They're not they're not for your own personal enjoyment. He didn't give you a gift just so you could sit around and enjoy. The best way instead of thinking gift, I like to use the word tool. God gives everybody in the church tools. Tools that are to be used for service.
Jeffrey Heine:One of our church fathers, Chrysostom, he said that, sweat and labor are implied with the gifts. You're given a gift to work. With every gift, there's an implied task that goes with it. You know, if I come home and I I open up the door, and Lauren, she meets me, and she hands me a mop, and she gives me a bucket, and she says, you would not believe the mess your kids made. And then she's out of there.
Jeffrey Heine:I know. Like, I I know what I'm supposed to do with these. There's an implied task that comes with this. I'm not supposed to just sit there and stare at my gift. I'm not supposed to study my gift, to journal about my gift.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, take some exam to see what the gifts are. This, you know. I'm not to admire my gift or anything like that. I'm supposed to use it. I'm not supposed to sulk about the gift that I was just given, and hope that my wife would give me something else.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm not supposed to say, you know what? I bet when James got home Stephanie gave him a hug and a beer. You know, and here you know, you're giving me these things. I want that. The tools that I'm given is given to me for a task that I'm to do.
Jeffrey Heine:And I don't even have to know exactly how to do it. I just need to start using these things, and I will grow in my use of them. Peter said, each one of us has received a gift to use to serve one another. If you are not somehow serving in some capacity in the church, just know you're not using the tool or the gifts that God has given you. And when you're not using your gift, you're not showing love, which Peter says should be your highest priority.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. So how do we know what the spiritual gifts are? I I get this question a lot. It's a it's a fairly modern question to ask. How do I know what what my gifting is?
Jeffrey Heine:It's a modern question, because throughout the vast majority of church history, people just assumed, church fathers just assumed that people knew what their gifts were. Actually, very little was ever written about spiritual gifts throughout the entire history of the church until recently. So if you read through Saint Augustine, or Martin Luther, or John Calvin, or John Wesley, or Jonathan Edwards, or Charles Spurgeon, you're gonna find very, very little written about gifts, and how you can know what your gifts are. And I would say Paul and Peter assume this as well. Nowhere in the Bible does is does it teach you how to figure out what your gift is?
Jeffrey Heine:Nowhere is there teaching about how you can figure out what your gift is. But don't worry because thankfully today, you know, we have those spiritual gifts inventory test. You know, how many how many of you have taken those? Don't be ashamed. Okay.
Jeffrey Heine:Be ashamed. Now I've I've I've I've taken those as well. But can you imagine, you know, if this is a gift we're talking about, can you imagine like after Christmas morning, and you've been given a gift, and you have to take an exam in order to tell people what your gift is. It's like, you know what your gift is. It's right there.
Jeffrey Heine:You get, you got socks. You got a new shirt. You know, it's there. We know. You don't have to have a test to explain what your gifting is.
Jeffrey Heine:So why is it that the Bible does not teach us how to identify our gift? Yet most books that are written right now about spiritual gifts fixate on how you can find that spiritual gift that God has given you. I've mentioned this in the past, but I've taken 5 or 6 of the spiritual gift exams, because every time I've been confused. The last time I took it, I had the spiritual gift of martyrdom, which which I've said the gift to use once. So I'm currently not exercising my gift, right now.
Jeffrey Heine:What what I have found is that these gifts are really good at telling a lot about your personality, but actually rarely are they helpful in you finding out what your spiritual gift or your spiritual tool is. I have found that when people finish these tests, and they look at the results, the result displays the Christian that they want to be. Not the Christian that they are. You know, and so you're you're gonna get questions like, you know, when I see somebody who is depressed, I, a, I try to give them an encouraging word, usually from scripture, or b, I tell them to snap out of it. People in Sedan have problems.
Jeffrey Heine:You don't have problems. Which do you choose? I choose a. You know, you choose who choose a. I mean, everybody's gonna choose a.
Jeffrey Heine:Nobody's gonna choose b. Nobody wants a spiritual gift of discouragement or hatred. You know, you don't you don't want those things. And and so you're like, of course, this is me. It's who you want to be, but it might not be who you really are.
Jeffrey Heine:Do do you want to know the best way to identify your spiritual gifts? The tool that God has given you and how you can grow in it. Look around, see what needs to be done, and do it. And then if you find you're really good at it, it's probably your gifting. But just look around and see what needs to be done and do it.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, I I look around at people to church, and it's obvious to tell, you know, what their gifting is. You know, Jessica, she she leads worship. She saw that as a need. She went up and she did it, and she's really good at it. David Fleming, you know, I remember he said, I would love to have a choir.
Jeffrey Heine:Never on my radar to have a choir. It's like, I think I could do this. He does it, and we have a beautiful choir for special occasions. It was his gifting. You know, Natika, she takes over the children's ministries.
Jeffrey Heine:Like I see it as a need. Is it a gifting? I have no idea, but it's a need. Well, she finds out she's really good at this. And so finding a need, jumping in and doing it, and then God equipping you, finding yes, this really is your gifting.
Jeffrey Heine:So if you see a need, try to meet it. If you're in a home group, and you see that there is a need for intercessory prayer, pray. Or if there's a need for teaching or for wisdom, try to share some insight into scripture. See if God blesses that. See if it speaks to people.
Jeffrey Heine:If you know somebody who's discouraged, try encouraging them. If you know somebody who's lost, try sharing the gospel with them. And with this, let me I feel like I need to just kind of give a little warning. If you're gonna come up to me after the service, you know, people do this all the time and say, Joe, I really kinda wish that, that our church would do this. Warning, you don't wanna say that to me.
Jeffrey Heine:Because I'll stare at you until it gets awkward, and I'll say, well, aren't you part of the church? Well, yeah. So let me ask you. So why aren't we doing this? We have this idea that it's the paid professionals who are supposed to be the ones who do everything in the church, but it's the priesthood of all believers.
Jeffrey Heine:All Christians have tools. We have the gifts to be used in this service. So if you see a need, do it. And maybe the Lord will bless. Maybe you'll see that really is my gifting.
Jeffrey Heine:Possibly the best way to identify and grow in your gift is through home groups. I would encourage you to be in one if you're not. J I Packer, he he said, home groups are where ordination happens. Home groups are where ordination happens. And and what he means by this is when you are serving in the context of a really tight knit community with others, those people are gonna let you know what your gift is.
Jeffrey Heine:They're going to affirm your gifting. So, you you you're not gonna know if you have the gift of teaching until you maybe say something in home group. Maybe you you teach a little bit, and people come and say, wow. You know, I really benefited from that. I really learned from that.
Jeffrey Heine:That's a kind of ordination or an affirmation, if you will, that this is your gifting. You might think you have the gift of teaching, and you might be terrible at it. You know, or you have the gift and nobody has a gift of, you know, hearing you that's that's around. But the only way to know is if you exercise those gifts in in the context of a small tight knit group, and they can affirm you in that. Either that you have this gift or, you know, next time maybe you could just keep it quiet.
Jeffrey Heine:But you know what your gifts are, you know what your gifts are not. You're ordained in your gifts in the context of a home group. So this is how you discover your gifts, how you can grow in them. Find a place to serve and serve. Find needs, try to meet them.
Jeffrey Heine:What you don't do is just sit around and wait for this great feeling, or for God to give you some incredible passion about something. You know, you kind of just like, you know, just strike me with a lightning bolt. Do something. Give me some huge passion for and then you're gonna go, and you're gonna go off and do that. Don't wait for that.
Jeffrey Heine:That's not how it works. If you read through Paul's letters to Timothy, both both in his first letter and in his second letter, He has to tell Timothy to fan into flame the gift that God has given him. You don't have to encourage somebody to use their gift if they're passionate about it, if they really enjoy it. You have to encourage somebody to fan this thing in the flame. It's in danger of dying because a person has this gift and they really don't like it, and they don't want to use it.
Jeffrey Heine:And so so Paul is saying, you gotta you gotta fan this thing in a flame. I know you don't want to be using this, but you got to use this. Remember the gift isn't about you. It's about the church. It isn't about what you feel.
Jeffrey Heine:It's about how you can edify others with that. Don't let it die down. Fan it into flame. You don't wait for some passion. You know, on a personal note, you know, I can speak to this about preaching.
Jeffrey Heine:For those of you who who knew me years back when I was doing college ministry, which I did for about 10 years. I sick image that the pulpit was a guillotine. I went up there to die. I dreaded it. Twice, I walked off the stage mid sermon.
Jeffrey Heine:I couldn't take it anymore. And it was just, you know, the worship leaders are all scrambling, you know, what do we do? And I'm just I'm like, I'm just gone. I'm going home. I'm like, I can't take this anymore.
Jeffrey Heine:I would often hug trash cans right beforehand. I would preach with a taste of bile in my mouth. For years, I hated it. It only became somewhat of a joy and a passion after I would pray My words fall to the ground, blow away. Now just kind of feel God's anointing at that moment.
Jeffrey Heine:And then it became a joy, and an ever increasing joy over the years. But, I mean, I could tell you that the last thing and my wife can testify to this. The last thing I ever wanted to do was get up and preach every single week. But I found that when I taught, people grew. And so my wife was good.
Jeffrey Heine:Other people were good to just fan help me to fan that in a flame. Fan that in a flame so that the Lord would use that. And it became my passion. You know, a strange phenomenon has happened over the last 30 years of the church. More has been written about spiritual gifts in the last 30 years than in the last 1900 years of the church.
Jeffrey Heine:More has been written about spiritual gifts, yet people serve less. So much written on identifying your gift, finding out what that special gift is, and yet less people are actually serving. And one of the reasons is that we use our spiritual gifts now as an excuse for not serving. So you're gonna have some neighbor who is spiritually lost going to hell, and you're gonna be like, you know, I would share, but not my gift. Hands are kind of tied on this one.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, I'd like to, but God really hasn't given me a gift of evangelism. It's like, I know I should, you know, invite the stranger into my house, have a meal, but you know, once again, hands are tied. I'd like to help, I just can't do it. Not my gift. And so we use our gifting as a cop out.
Jeffrey Heine:Yet everybody's commanded to share their faith. Everybody's commanded to be hospitable. Everybody's commanded to give. And you'll find in context of doing what the Lord has commanded all of us to do, and some of those things you're uniquely gifted to do them really, really well. But don't use your spiritual gifts as a cop out for not doing what God has clearly called everyone in the church to do.
Jeffrey Heine:So find a need, try to meet it. Find a place to serve, and you're gonna find out what your gifting is. Do something a little different here, but before we even move on, anybody have any questions about that before I go to the next point? Throw it out there. Anybody have any questions?
Jeffrey Heine:I know when it comes to spiritual gifts, we all come from different persuasions, different backgrounds, and we've done this in coffee health settings. Anybody? All right. Speak now, forever. Hold your peace.
Jeffrey Heine:Okay. Every time spiritual gifts is mentioned in the bible, every time, it's in the context of love and humility. Just go go through and read through spiritual gifts every single time. Love, humility. The the those are the those are the things that fuel, if you will, for the spiritual gifts.
Jeffrey Heine:Our ceiling's collapsing and dripping on me. I love this building. So so read through 1st Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1st Peter 4, and all of those places are gonna link the gifts to both love and humility. Because your gift is never about you. It's always to be used in service of others.
Jeffrey Heine:This brings us to this table here. This brings us to Jesus, who had every spiritual gift. He was given the spirit without measure. And yet we find in John 13 on the night that he was betrayed, he gets down on his knees in front of people and he washes their feet. I did a wedding yesterday, and I was I was with the the groomsmen in a a room, and I'm wearing my robe, which everybody always they want me to wear a robe here.
Jeffrey Heine:It'd be so awkward. But but you have that that stole that goes over the robe, you know, it's usually really fancy. Most people don't know the origins of that. Why do why do ministers wear this stole? And it actually comes from John 13.
Jeffrey Heine:It's supposed to be the towel that the pastor uses as he goes around and he washes the feet of the people in his congregation. And we see Christ modeling, Christ given the spirit without measure, Christ serving out of love. Even Judas who would betray him, that he would wash his feet. And so we remember this when we come to this table. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, after he had washed his disciples' feet, he took bread and he broke it.
Jeffrey Heine:And he said, this is my body broken for you. In the same way, he took the cup and he said, this wine is my blood. This is the blood of the new covenant poured out for the forgiveness of your sins. When Paul would talk about communion and taking this, he would say, whenever you come to this table, basically the love and the humility that we should be reminded of, and he he says, don't come just because you're hungry, wait on one another. You serve one another.
Jeffrey Heine:When we look at this, we see how Christ gave his body to create a body. We see how Christ served us so selflessly, and we're to remind ourselves to do the same. And I actually want us to take communion that way tonight. We're gonna have three lines up here. And what I want you to do is, you know, break off some of the bread and just dip it, and then take it.
Jeffrey Heine:And then you're gonna be handed the elements. You're gonna be handed the bread and you're gonna be handed the wine. And I would like you to turn around and to serve the person behind you. And then after they take, just keep handing the elements off to the person behind you. Keep serving the person behind you.
Jeffrey Heine:So in a very tangible real way, we can remind ourselves why Christ gave his body, why he gave his blood, what this should remind us of. If you would, pray with me. Father, I pray that in this moment, we would remember Jesus. We would remember his sacrifice. We would remember his love and his service.
Jeffrey Heine:We'd remember his humility. That as often as we eat of this bread and we drink of this cup, we would proclaim his death until he comes again. Spirit, you're welcome here. I pray that you would move in our midst in this moment, that you would truly lift up high the name of Jesus. We pray this in your name, Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.