Serving Jesus by Serving His Church
Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 4:7-11
Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter
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Sermon Series: Spiritual Exiles
Message: Serving Jesus by Serving His Church
Airdate: 10/26/26
Program: 2386
That’s worth clapping about some stories from, folks right here in our own church and just how meaningful and, what a blessing it is for them to serve the Lord and to serve his church. I still can’t get over the story Rick shared earlier about the man who served in our security team and apparently had communicated to his family that he wanted to be buried in his security uniform for the church. I mean, never heard that before until today, but I think it’s a powerful testimony along with what, you heard in this video of how meaningful serving the Lord can be and what I’m gonna suggest to you, ought to be for us as Christians, and we’re gonna get into that in in just a moment. Again, we’re celebrating we’re celebrating God’s work amongst us. We’re celebrating Jesus and the Holy Spirit equipping the church.
We’re celebrating the opportunity and the privilege. Like he said, at the end there, he says that the God of heaven would have some use for me is an amazing thought. And we want every single person here to have that thought today that you are somebody equipped by God to do something very meaningful in the church. That at the end of your life and for all eternity will be what you’ll look back on and say, I’m so glad that I invested in the church of Jesus Christ. You know, we’re celebrating it here today.
God celebrates this as well. I wonder if if you’ve ever thought about the delight that God himself has in the service and the and the the sacrifices of his people. And the Bible tells us that, you know, to serve the Lord, like we say, hey, I wanna serve Jesus. That sounds great, but he’s not around here, is he? I haven’t seen him here this morning, have you?
No. But what do we have? We have the body of Christ. Metaphorically, it’s called that. We have the church and ministry that is done within the church and ministering in the name of Jesus to people in the economy of God is ministry that is done to him.
This is what Jesus said in principle when he said, if you’ve done it to the least of these, my brothers, you’ve done it unto me and that just is such an inspiring truth, isn’t it? To realize that that child and that teenager or that difficult person in CR or as the testimony shared, that sort of hard-hearted guy in the balcony sitting there, you know, just like, why am I here? That these are all opportunities that we must minister to Jesus by ministering to his people. And to see that connection is what allows people to serve in ministry for decades as we heard earlier and to remain faithful to it. Now, today, we’re gonna move ahead just a little bit in First Peter.
We’re a little out of order, but you’ll forgive me, I hope, to chapter four verses, 11, I’m sorry, eight through 11, and a section where Peter talks about the privilege that we have to serve the Lord. So let me read this now, and this ends a section. It begins at chapter two verse 11 through chapter four verse 11, where he’s talking about living out faith in exile and doing so in community with one another. And he describes here what healthy church community looks like and feels like. Look at 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 and this will be the verse we’re keying in on. Verse 10.
“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.”
Now, we’re gonna spend two weeks in this, in this passage here, but I want you to see that Peter is describing life within the faith community in four categories of spiritual vitality. He says, first of all, prayer. Secondly, hospitality. Third, love, and finally, service. K?
So, prayer, hospitality, love, and service. In a church where things are healthy, these are going to be categories of, like, life and ministry that people are about and are zealous and earnest for. And all of these things, he says at the end, notice in verse 11, in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. So, I take from that that as the church body is actively pursuing these four categories of spiritual vitality, that God is honored and is glorified by that particular local church. At the same time, I believe the opposite is true.
A church that is not giving itself to prayer, is not hospitable, is not loving, is not serving, is not a church that brings honor and glory to God. Now you might ask the question, well, how why is God glorified in a local church that’s doing those four things really well? And this is a principle we talk about quite a bit around here because the Bible talks a lot about this. God is glorified when pictures of God represent what he is like. We’ve talked about this in terms of salvation that each of us, Romans eight, are being conformed to the likeness of his Son.
And so, God is God is honored in us as our attitudes and actions reflect those of Jesus, and so he is making us into Jesus’ juniors and delights then in seeing that character in us. But corporately, as a local church, God is also honored and glorified when we look like what he is like. And if you think about those four categories, all of them are what God is like. God is self-controlled. God is hospitable to strangers.
He loved us in our sin. God is loving and covers a multitude of sins, and God is a serving God. He is a God that sent his Son Jesus, and Jesus epitomizes that divine servanthood as he came into this world. He served us, and he served the church by dying on the cross for our sins. If you wanna think about who the who’s the ultimate volunteer in the church, like, wins volunteer of the year every year?
It’s Jesus. You know, so we have the competition again next year. Jesus wins again that year. Why? Not only did he serve the church in his death, but he ongoingly serves the church.
Right now, he is at the right hand of God. He is interceding for the church. His eye is upon the church. Read the early part of Revelation as he walks among the lampstands of his church. He knows the heart of this church.
He knows the values, and he knows the spiritual fervor of this church and he ongoingly ministers, sending his Spirit, praying for us, loving us, and coming back even as we just got done singing. One day, oh glorious day, coming back for his church. Jesus is the ultimate volunteer of the local church, But God is glorified in the pictures that look like him. And since he is a loving, serving, hospitable God, a godly church will reflect those qualities within their community, in the ethos, and the vibe, and the passions, and priorities of the church, which by the way, is the people of the church. We talk about the church like it’s some kind of institution.
A church is people, and so it’s the hearts of the people of the church and the lives of the people of the church reflecting what God is like. We picture what he is like, and God is is honored the more we look like what he is like. It’s like any picture. If I go to your home, probably, if we just jumped to the car, ran to your house, I’d probably find pictures in that home of loved ones that you have, friends, family, whatever. And they’re framed, and there, you know, mounted very beautifully in the in your house, and maybe there’s little candles burning in front of them if you really love them.
And you delight in those pictures because they look like they look like the one that you love. The ones that don’t look like them, you probably heard, oh, it’s a terrible picture of her. She’s much better looking than that. What do you mean by that? That picture doesn’t it doesn’t resemble her.
It’s a bad picture of her. And there are churches that are bad pictures of what God is like. They don’t look like him at all. But Peter is exhorting us to look like him. K?
Do you see the connection then? We honor God as we reflect his character. We’re a mirror to God. He delights in us. And the part that we’re focusing on today is this wonderful privilege that we have to serve the Lord Jesus by serving his church.
And this, of course, is what Jesus himself said. “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Why did Jesus come into the church? He or to the world? He came into the world as a volunteer for the church.
He came to ransom the church. He came to redeem the church by the precious blood of his own life. He died for the church. And for us to realize that in this world, the one thing, the one called an organization, but the one thing that passes on to eternity is the church. Jesus is coming back for the church.
Jesus said, I’m building my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So of all the things there are in this world to be excited about and to be sort of like investing yourself in, what has more enduring value than the church of Jesus Christ? And to think about how we get distracted in these other lesser things that are passing away and all the excitement about the sports team and all the excitement about some school or some other organization or, you know, your clubby thing you’re doing or whatever it is, fine. Do it. But it perishes, and the investment in those things does as well.
But what we do for Jesus, and his church lasts forever because the church lasts forever. So where should our priority be? What should we be fired up about? I would say it would be the church bought with the precious blood of Jesus, the ultimate volunteer. The center of this passage is verse 10, and this is what I wanna focus on with you.
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Here is the exhortation. The apostle Peter and the Holy Spirit exhorting us. Use your gift as a steward. Now, this might be a new concept for you.
If you’ve have never heard about spiritual gifts, let’s talk about this a little bit. Peter wants to talk about it. And the first thing that we see here is that every Christian has a spiritual gift. What does he say there? As each has received a gift.
We can go to the apostle Paul. He says the same thing. Here’s chapter 12. He writes this, “There are variety of gifts but the same Spirit and there are varieties of service but the same Lord and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
Each has a gift. If you’re a Christian here, you have a gift. God has given you some ability that he intends for you to use to his glory within the context of the church. Now here’s the definition I like. One of the guys I like, Wayne Grunem, defines spiritual gifts this way.
He says a spiritual gift is any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church. Now, there is a debate as to whether or not spiritual gifts are things that you’re naturally good at, that God uses in some you know, significant spiritual way or if it’s something that prior to salvation, you had no ability, then all of a sudden, you have this ability given to you by the Holy Spirit. I think it can be both and in reality, I’m not sure it matters because everything that we can that we have and that we’re good at, we ought to use in any way that we can for the Lord but the point is this, is that that gifting is something that you have that God gave to you and he intended for you to use it to bless the common good, it says there, for the for the common good of the church, for the building up of the church family. And this gift is something that we call it a spiritual gift. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a miraculous gift.
You might say, oh, it’s something that I can do and it’s like, you know, I’m calming the seas by my prayer or something like that. No. Cups of cold water given in Jesus name don’t themselves feel miraculous but what God does in using them in the lives of people is something that is truly supernatural and that’s the thing that is encouraging because you might be here going, oh, I I don’t know that I’m good at anything or I don’t feel like you’re talking about this so like gloriously but I don’t see in myself anything supernatural. The gifts are spiritual. The effects of the gift are supernatural because they are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
So that cup that is given in Jesus’ name, that cold water that is given in Jesus’ name is not it’s not miraculous to be able to do that, but the effect in the heart of the person receiving that grace gift is something that the Spirit empowers and does. So, you are not miraculous in that way, but God will use that gift in supernatural ways, which is a very exciting thing. Let me give you another example how true this is. What am I doing right now? Here I am up here.
I’m teaching, preaching. I think God has given me a a gift for this, and I I want to use this gift. But in reality, what am I doing? I am flapping my gums up here. That’s all that I’m doing.
Blah blah blah blah blah. You’re very kindly listening right now, acting like you’re interested. But my my words, my voice, the amplification of it in the microphone, these things don’t themselves have any power whatsoever. Nothing. No matter how oratorically beautiful it is, they have no power.
But the word of God through the gift of God does something in the hearts of the people of God. Not because it’s my words, but it is the word of God and the Spirit of God using it. And that’s the beauty of what we’re talking about here. You have a gift that if you use it, God will use that in the life of the person you’re ministering to in a way that you yourself can’t do, which ought to inspire us to say, wow. I can have this opportunity to bless and to build and to equip and to encourage the church.
Yes. You can. Yes. You can. You have a gift.
We’re exhorted to use it, and we all love using gifts, don’t we? I mean, if you get a new set of golf clubs for Father’s Day, right? You’re on like on the phone right away. Can I get a tee time tomorrow? I wanna try these things out or if you get a gift card to one of your favorite restaurants, how long do you wait to use it?
Or do you do you use it? Of course, you use it. We love using gifts and spiritual gifts for us ought to be the same if we realize the opportunity that they provide for us and the blessing that it is to use them. This also tells us that we shouldn’t glory in our gifts. That’s what the Corinthians were doing.
Right? They picked a few gifts, they said, oh, man, if only I had that gift. And they wanted the public gifts, and they thought that was the key one, and the other ones didn’t matter. And Paul’s Paul says this, “If the eye says, I wish I was an ear, where’s the sense of seeing? And if the ear says, I wish I was the eye, where’s the sense of hearing?”
All of a sudden, you realize everything in the body is important. Like this week, I’ve had terrible back problems this week. My lower back, and I don’t think about my back except when it’s not working right. Right? Or when some little thing goes wrong in your body, all of a sudden, you’re like, man, this thing’s important.
I need to get it fixed. And how easy it is for us to think these other gifts don’t matter when everything matters in the body of Christ, and the Spirit gives us these gifts so that the this this local body is not as effective as God intends it to be when you sit on your gift, and you leave it in the closet and you don’t use it. There is something missing. We’re not hitting on all cylinders here. God has given you a gift.
He wants you to use it. May I ask you? What would you say is your spiritual gift or gifts? I think there can be more than one. And how effectively are you using it?
One great way to know what your gift might be is to ask yourself, what is life giving and joy giving to me when I when I do it? I think that our gifts are generally meaningful to us, And that there’s gonna be a variety of these things. What I like doing and what’s joy giving to me is gonna be different than you because God has gifted you differently than he’s gifted me. And so that’s the beauty. We had all these different gifts here.
These variety of gift, one Spirit, variety of gifts, one to Lord, but all of them are critically important. What brings you joy? What is the thing that you kinda get involved in and you leave there, and you go, like, that was awesome. You look back and like, that was that was a highlight in my life. What shirt do you wanna be buried in?
Might be an indication of where your gifts lie. Notice secondly that Peter says, it is to be used to serve one another. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another And here is the privilege that we have. First of all, as stewards in the using of it, but also secondly, in the direction of the using of it. These are not self-serving gifts.
These are not gifts that we take and we say, I’m gonna go bless IBM with this. These are gifts that we use. He’s writing to the church. So, I believe primarily the context for where we sort of invest our giftings and our servings is within the church and the blessing in the building up of the local congregations. Jesus said it this way, “it is more blessed to give than to receive” I believe there is more joy in a life lived to the service of Jesus.
Then whatever else you might put in there instead. Think of Laura Frank. Thirty-six years serving children in this church. Now you compare I’m sure we probably have somebody in our church who’s gone here maybe around that long, and they’ve sat on their gift the entire time. Now who has the better story?
Who has more meaning? And in the end, in eternity, who’s glad they live their life the way that they did? My money’s on Laura Frank. More than the guy who sat on his gift but had a a two handicap on the golf course or whatever thing you wanna put in there. You see where my thoughts go.
I’m wearing an Olympia Fields shirt today, for goodness sakes. All things in their proper place. Oh, that’s funny. Now you might be here saying, man, all this talk about serving the Lord, it almost feels like these people are trying to earn their salvation by doing these things. I mean, is this one of these sort of creepy cultic churches that we’re in where they’re all trying to earn their salvation?
No. We believe that salvation is by faith in Jesus. It is God’s grace to us. It is a gift to us. But we have to realize that the same Bible that teaches that that says that we’re not saved by serving, it says that we are saved for serving.
There is something that God wants to do in us as a result of this work that he has done or through us as a result of this work that he’s done in us. That’s better said. Listen to the beautiful balance of this in Ephesians two. Grace and service. Paul writes, “For by grace you’ve been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.”
Okay? We are not saved by our efforts. We are not saved by our service. We are not saved by our sweat. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus.
“It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast.” But verse 10 is sometimes missed. “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We delight in electing sovereign God that purposed our salvation in eternity past, but a part of what he also prepared beforehand was the life of ministry and service that we would also offer to him, not to be saved, but because we are saved. It is the fruit of, you know, it’s it, if, if, if, if it’s, in fact, this is interesting.
It is God’s grace to us in order to be saved. You know what the word is for gifting? Charismata is the word. It literally is grace gift. Salvation is a kind of charismata to us, but our service is also a charismata.
It is me taking the grace of God that I have received and through my gifting, extending that grace to other people. I have been saved by grace, and now I wanna give it. And I want to serve in the church. I want to bless other people. I want to build up.
Build the church, the gates of hell not prevailing against it. And so, friends, this is you. We’re not talking about some ethereal person. If you’re a Christian, you have a gift from God. You have been empowered in this by the Holy Spirit to serve, and you’re called to be a steward of it, which is how he ends here.
Serving Jesus is stewardship and it is worship as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Now, what’s interesting about Peter bringing up stewardship is if we go back in Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a servant whose master put him in charge of the house and then the master went away and was going to be gone for a long time. Well, this servant, knowing the master was going be gone for a long time, thought to himself, hey, I got the run of the place. I’m going to do what I want, and he was lazy, and he mistreated the other servants. He was a terrible, terrible servant.
Well, guess what happens? The master comes back before he had said and discovers this servant not doing what the master had told him to do, being lazy, and all the rest. And Jesus makes this point in that parable. “Everyone to whom much was given of him; much will be required.” You know what disciple asked Jesus?
What does that mean? You look it up. It was Peter. And I wonder if maybe as he’s writing this letter, some of that kinda echoes in his mind regarding the need to be a steward of the opportunities and the giftings that God gives to us? How many in the church are like the lazy servant who think, oh, someday I’ll get serious about it, or someday Jesus is coming back, and their life is invested poorly and unwisely.
We will all give an account. Realize that. We are all going to give an account of our life. The Bible calls it the judgment seat of Christ and that judgment for Christian Christians is not a judgment of whether we are saved or not. It is a qualitative judgment on the quality of service that we offer the Lord in this life that we are living.
And, again, too much is given, much shall be required. What do we wanna hear on that day? “Well done, good, and faithful servant.” I mean, if when I’m standing there in my heart, I’m gonna be going, well done. Well done.
Well done. That’s what I wanna hear from Jesus about my life as he makes a qualitative judgment of the quality of the service and sacrifice and investment that I made in my life. What’s he gonna say about you? Are you actively involved in kingdom work? Is it the highest priority of your life?
I would say that it ought to be for all of us. And further, you know what the Psalm says? Psalm 100 verse two, “serve the Lord with gladness.” What better master is there out there than the Lord Jesus Christ? Who could we find that we could serve that loves us more than the Lord Jesus Christ?
We ought to serve him not out of duty but out of delight and with gladness and joy. Look what he has done for us. I think about my life. I’ve been a pastor for twenty-three years, almost exactly right now, would be about my anniversary of ministry. And one of the things that I love about vocational ministry, and I know most here are not in a vocational sort of way, but one of the things I love about vocational ministry is the opportunity that I have day after day to sort of give myself to these things.
And it’s a joy to me. Now is every day a joy? No. Not every day is a joy. Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before.
That’s a lie. K? We’re never singing that song again at this church. But that’s not because Jesus isn’t sweeter. It’s because I’m a fallen, wretched sinner who is selfish and too often in it for myself.
But I’m here to tell you that it is a joy to me to serve the Lord. There’s nothing more that I would want to do. And I believe that all of everybody here can serve the Lord in vocation. We believe a high view of vocation, and we serve the Lord in our families, and we serve the Lord in many different ways. But we are primarily called to serve the Lord by joining Jesus himself in the building of his church and in the ministry to people.
The church is people. I was struck as I was sitting here during the interview how they talked about relationships. What is it about? It’s about relationships and love and care and meeting the needs of others to be a servant to the world. Again, as Jesus said, whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.
And I just think, you know, people, we don’t connect. I don’t think we connect very well that child with what I do to him or her in God’s economy, he views it as being done to him or that in CR, that difficult person who is still in their addiction or is still in their struggle and they’re acting that out to see ministry to that person in God’s eyes is actually being ministry, you know, to him. Wouldn’t that change the way that we view service? Because all too often, what do we do? We view it like this.
I’ll see if I can work it in. Or I’ll do that when it’s like convenient for me. I don’t wanna be inconvenienced. I don’t want it to be awkward. I don’t want it to be uncomfortable because I just, I don’t know.
I just don’t want to. Right? And yet we look at the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. Aren’t you glad Jesus didn’t view his volunteer that way? His volunteering that way?
Aren’t we glad that Jesus didn’t go die on the cross, Father? I don’t think so. It’s uncomfortable. Incarnation into a body, it’s just not really what I was thinking. Can we do it on a different schedule like never?
Aren’t you glad Jesus didn’t volunteer the way so many of us view volunteering, but that he was faithful to the call and that he obeyed the will of the Father, and he voluntarily died on the cross for our sins. We look at volunteering and serving in the church. We can always know that Jesus bears the heavier load, doesn’t he? It’s like the song. I love that line in the song that we sang.
Such a tiny offering compared to Calvary. Nevertheless, we lay it at your feet. Everything that we could do, a whole life lived in service compared to what Jesus did is a tiny offering. Yet, that is what we have to offer to him. This one life that we have, to offer it to the Lord and to intentionally think about my time, talents, and treasures, and to say, what can I do to to bless you, God, by blessing your people and ministering to those whom you love?
Can you imagine if Jesus came walking into church here this morning? Like, you know, in the commons, all of a sudden, there’s Jesus and people are like, it’s Jesus. Oh, what’s he look like? And where is he? And you know what?
I think we all would do first. Fall on our faces and worship, right? So, there we all are on our faces before the Lord. But eventually, somebody’s gonna go, hey, Jesus. Is there anything I can do for you?
Can I park your car for you? Hey, Jesus. Can I shine your sandals for you? Can I do that right now? Hey, Jesus.
Can I walk you down to a seat in the auditorium? We’re so glad you’re here. Hey, Jesus. Is there anything? Anything.
You name it. I’ll do it for you right now. If it was Jesus standing right, there. And yet, the church is the body of Christ. Jesus isn’t showing up here on a Sunday or any day of the week, But here we are, and that person sitting next to you and that child and that, teenager and that, you know, senior citizen who needs the leaves raked or whatever it is, ministry done in Jesus’ name to them is ministry done to him.
And for those of us that love him and want to serve him with our life and do anything we can to bless him, it motivates us in a faithful enduring way. How do you how do you teach kids for thirty-six years? Part of it is seeing that as ministry to Jesus himself. And that’s what allows us to stay faithful in ministry. And, again, thank you.
I mean, we could pull so many people up here to share stories and testimonies about how you have faithfully served here. That’s the big thing that we’re doing here. I’m exhorting, but we’re also celebrating God’s great servants here in this church. We could not do this ministry without you. You are the church.
You are the church. I’m the guy flapping my gums up here. But in terms of what really makes this church go, it is the people of this church. It is you and your gifts and God using you in the profound and wonderful ways that he is. And why do we do all of this?
“In order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory forever and ever.” And may that be the story and the legacy of this local church as we strive to bring honor and glory to him. Okay. Here’s what we’re gonna do now.
We’re enduring we’re ending totally different than normal. K? Again, this is the volunteer appreciation day, and we want to just pour the love on to all of our volunteers here. So, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna stand.
In fact, why don’t we do that right now? Can we all stand? I’m going to pray, and we have a reception right outside these doors. Actually, these doors on this side, just go down the hallway. We have a tent and tables.
There’s, mocha coffee and snacks and leaders there to say thank you to you and we want any regular volunteer in any ministry of this church, and we’ll let you define that in the way that you want. You are invited to come to that reception. I’m gonna hustle my buns out there so that I can show appreciation as well, and we just want you to know how much we appreciate everything that you do. And so that’s how we’re gonna end this this service. So, I’m gonna pray, and then we’re kinda dismiss out that direction.
* This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
