Stewardship of God’s Grace Gifts

Transcript

GR1946
03/20/2016
Stewardship of God’s Grace Gifts
I Peter 4:10
Gil Rugh

We are going to I Peter chapter 4. It was encouraging to hear the testimonies tonight as we’re reminded of God’s grace and His continued work in lives. Encouraging to see these stand forward and declare their faith in Christ to be publically identified with Him. Appreciate sharing in the fellowship in the ministry of the body with them and with all the rest.

And that is something of what Peter is talking about. He is writing to Jewish believers going through various kinds of trails, pressures, difficulties. He is writing to encourage them in chapter 4 in particular he has reminded them of the power of God’s grace which has changed their lives. Christ’s death on the cross, what was pictured in baptism, His burial, His resurrection to new life these believers have been identified with Him and he is encouraging them as those who have died to sin to now live their new life. Verse 2: “To live the rest of the time in the flesh; no longer for the lust of men but for the will of God.” We have wasted enough of our lives he has said. We spent enough of life in foolishness and worthless pursuits, sinful activities and former friends, associates, the world around us may be surprised that we don’t continue in those things but remember, we have to give an account to God. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead as it says in verse 5 and that’s why we preach the Gospel. That’s why the Gospel, Peter said, was preached to those friends and fellow-believers that are now physically dead. So even though they are physically dead they might be alive in the life that Christ has given them, unending life.

Verses 7-11 are a unit. We have broken it up. We have looked at verses 7, 8, and 9. You note that verse 7 started: “The end of all things is near” and he encouraged them to be of sound judgment, sober spirit, to be in prayer. We as believers have to be alert, aware of where we are, who we are, the business that we are about. We are not just slogging our way through life in semi-drowsiness. We are expecting the coming of our Lord as we have talked about. We are living with the expectation. We are alert. We are ready to be used by Him. We are ready to speak for Him. We are diligent in prayer asking for His direction and blessing.

We noted the repeated use of “one another” in this section. In verse 8: “Keep fervent in your love for one another.” Verse 9: “Be hospitable to one another without complaint.” Then in verse 10 where we will be picking up, we are to employ our spiritual gifts in serving one another and drawing attention that when God saves us He brings us together into His family.

You know one of the ways we have to be careful is that we don’t get off track and get confused in our walk as God never intended us to walk a solo life. Indeed our relationship with Him is personal and individual. We walk in that kind of intimacy with the living God but He has brought us together in a family relationship with other believers so we are involved in one another’s lives. That is why He said in verse 8 “To keep fervent in your love for one another.” And since in a family relationship there are always rough edges and there are always things that are difficult but love covers a multitude of sins. It keeps things in perspective like your own children with all their flaws, with all their faults, things that may frustrate us in their lives, you remember what? They are family. That is what God says, “Keep fervent in your love.” Keep the love burning strongly and that will facilitate your relationship with one another and be hospitable with one another without complaining and being in one another’s lives and that is where we go in verse 10 and 11.

He is going to talk about spiritual gifts and how they are to be used and how they facilitate our relationship with one another. The picture that fits this so well developed in other places on the spiritual gifts is we are a body and the picture is the physical body and the physical body functions when all the parts function together and each of us are a part of the body in the local fellowship that we have been placed in by God. God never intended us to grow on our own in isolation. It is true each of us have a personal relationship with God through Christ. Each of us has the indwelling Spirit, each of us can be in the Word and growing and so on but you can’t grow as God intends you to grow without being a functioning part of the body in which He has placed us.

So it is encouraging. You know, it’s nice to know, we belong to the family. I am not in this on my own; an encouragement to these believers as well as a reminder. We have an obligation to one another, an obligation for one another for which we will be held accountable.

So look at verse 10: “As each one has received a special gift employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks in to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies.” Then the importance in all of this: “So that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belongs the glory and dominion for ever and ever, amen.” We want to have lives that bring honor and glory to Him in functioning properly with the gifts He has given in the strength He supplies. It brings glory to God.

So he picks up in verse 10: “As each one has received a spiritual gift.” And as we often note in Greek as in other languages because of the form of words and the ending of words, you know what the word is and you can rearrange the sentence to put emphasis on the words you want. So the first word in verse 10 is “each one,” putting the stress on that, a reminder – no believer is excluded here. Each and every one if you will and in a moment we will see as we look in some other passages this is a repeated emphasis when the spiritual gifts are talked about, a reminder there is no such thing as an ungifted believer in Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as a person who is a believer in Jesus Christ who does not fit in an important way in the body of Christ. That is the beauty of it. Each one has been gifted by God’s grace. You have it translated as “each one has received a special gift.” You note that word ‘special’ is in italics. It means they have added it for emphasis. The word ‘gift’ is the word ‘charisma.’ Now most of us are familiar the word grace is charis, charisma. It is a grace gift. A reminder these gifts are bestowed by God’s grace. It is something freely given. It is not earned. It is not worked for. Well, if I am a good enough believer and I am faithful then I will get a certain gift. Amazing thing is we are given the gifts when we are placed in the body. Again, we will look at further emphasis on that. That is one way we are sure every believer has it.

It is just like a baby and you see the new baby. Many have been talking about new babies here and we have been blessed with the birth of these little ones. They are born with all the parts. Now, learning to function as they should is a process. That is part of the growth and development. That is true for us as a body of believers but every person has a place. They are gifted.

We talk about charismatic gifts and again you see the word ‘charis’ is that, charismatic. They are grace gifts. A reminder to us God has bestowed these in grace so they are not earned. There is no reason for pride or arrogance and this is a continued concern when the gifts are talked about to be reminded that you didn’t earn it. It is not something you deserved but God in His grace has bestowed it upon you.

Each one has received (and we noted) this happens at the time you believe. We will note that in a moment as we look at some other passages. There are several lists of gifts in passages that talk about the gifts. The most extensive will be in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians wherein over three full chapters he talks about spiritual gifts.

But let’s go back to the book of Romans chapter 1. Here Paul has entered into the section after his doctrinal discussion and teaching then he begins chapter 12 by saying, “I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to be used for God.” And then as you move down into chapter 12 he is going to talk about spiritual gifts. In verse 3 he picks up with his own grace gift. “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you.” So again, everyone is included here and Paul is speaking with his authority as an apostle and an apostolic teacher he started this letter by identifying himself as an apostle. So that is the grace that was given to him and “through the grace given to me now, I am instructing you,” Paul says. The first thing he wants to tell them is “not to think and I say this to everyone because everyone is gifted.” Each one is. “Not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think but to think so as to have sound judgment.” Remember Peter talked about “having sound judgment, sober spirit, a clear headed way of thinking as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” That is talking about the distribution of the gifts and you noted they are allotted to each.

The same emphasis we had in I Peter 4. Each person is by God’s grace distributed what is called here, “a measure of faith.” I take it that explains or helps us appreciate the gift. God gifts you with a certain ability to function in the body. It is like when He created the body He created a hand with its fingers and that to serve a certain function. That is what our part is. And the measure of faith that comes with that gift which gives you the faith to trust God and exercise it. Sometimes we look at other believers and say, “I could never do that.” That may be true because maybe you don’t have the measure of faith that goes with the exercising of that gift. I can’t just decide well I will do it because that is a good gift to have and to use but it may not be the gift that I have.

Now we all function in a variety of ways but our strength will be in the area that God has gifted us. Now, how we find out what that area is, is usually by just functioning in a variety of ways doing a variety of things and we find out that we settle into an area and we find that we seem to be most effective and most comfortable in a good sense in recognizing this is where God seems to use me in a special way and you have the faith to function there. So it is a measure of faith. We ought to recognize it that yes; this is where God uses me.

So it is not sitting down looking at a list of gifts and picking out one. Often it comes by functioning and you see well, yes, God is using me here and you have, we would maybe say, the confidence which comes from trusting God in an area. Not self-confidence in the wrong sense but the recognition, yes. It often comes with a desire and an interest in that area. I don’t want to think that well I wouldn’t want to be looking with where I might want to function because that might be selfish. That might be the Spirit directing me and guiding me. So the process goes; so each is given a measure of faith.

“Just as we have many members in one body all members do not have the same function. So we who are many are one body in Christ. Individually members one of another.” That is crucial. That is why Paul says there is no room for arrogance. That is why he said in verse 3: “Don’t be thinking more highly of yourself than you ought” because we are individually members one of another and even though parts of the body are more prominent, that doesn’t mean that those parts are of any value if they are removed from the context of the rest of the parts of the body. No matter how much I appreciate this hand and its ability to do so many things and pick up things and all that you cut it off from the body, it just lays there. It is in the context of the rest of the body and all the body working together. You don’t look for reasons to have divisions and conflicts in our body and when we do it is a malfunction and we look to have it corrected. That is how we ought to deal with the body of Christ. That is why Peter said that “Love covers a multitude of sins.” You know there is not to be conflict in the body that the hand is complaining about the ear or the ear never does anything. Never picks up anything, never works. I mean what does it do? It hangs there. Well inside the ear it is doing things and you know all the parts have a working. We don’t all have the same function. There is unity, there is diversity. One body, unity.

So, verse 6: “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” That is what determines your gift, the grace given to you, the measure of faith given then we function accordingly. If your gift is prophecy then you exercise it according to the portion of your faith and there will be variation in the gift. Some prophets were used in greater ways than others and that is true in every gift. I want to use my gift to the fullest possible extent but it still may not rise to the level of someone else who has the same gift that I do. I function to the maximum with the gift that God has given me and the measure of faith He has allotted to me. That is true in every area. That is why comparisons, while I can learn from others who have the same gift, but I have to be careful. That is where pride and jealousy and those kinds of things have no place because if God has given them a greater measure of faith and their gift has a greater impact it does me no good to be jealous. If my gift is greater than someone’s it does me no good to be proud because God gave it and so there is that individual accountability and then the responsibility within the body.

You will note what he says here is what I alluded to earlier. You come to emphasize the area of your giftedness. That doesn’t mean you never can do anything else. But if they are gifts in the area of serving, then function in serving. “He who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” You see in each of the gifts that doesn’t mean as we read these, you know, we all are giving. To use that gift since we take an offering in the service but there are certain ones who have the gift of giving. The other gifts go on. We all want to be learning. We all want to know the Word but we won’t all be teachers. The gift of serving is a special gift. That is not just something you start out with and outgrow. I was talking here in the last week or two about the impact in our body with the many people who serve. Some gifts, you need numerous serving in them. Scripture warns, “Not many are to be teachers.” But there will be far more with the gift of serving. That is not a put down, it is not a limitation. We bring God glory when we function with the grace He has given to us with the maximum extent that we can with His grace. That is the beautiful thing of it. We are all serving together but we are not in competition with one another. We are all serving together but we are not in conflict with one another and as every part if functioning; it is amazing. It is God’s plan.

And the old style churches and I guess I can use it that way but the pastor was the do-all person. He was the one who preached and taught; he was the one who went to the hospital; he was the one who did this; he was the one who did that. I could not have survived. I am too limited. There are people who seem to, you know, have a breadth in their ability to function and God places them sometimes in unique situations. To function in a smaller church God perhaps gives a breadth.

I have many people surrounding me that do many things. We have to appreciate one another and you do it with a proper attitude. When you show mercy, you do it with cheerfulness. “Let love be without hypocrisy.” In each of these love comes into play. Peter did it, Paul does it here in Romans. He is going to break up in I Corinthians. We will go there in a moment. But chapter 12 he talks about the gifts. What does he do in chapter 13? What do we think of with chapter 13? It is the love chapter and then chapter 14 he goes back to the gifts because we are going to sacrifice in serving one another. In love we are going to be looking for ways to use our gift for the benefit of others in the body because we love them like the sacrifice you make for family. You do those things, why? Because it is important for them. We make sacrifices for our kids. You make sacrifices for the family. We don’t want to be hypocritical in our love. It has to be genuine. “Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another and honor. Don’t be lacking in diligence. Be fervent in spirit in serving the Lord.” The Lord didn’t gift us so we could ho hum. He expects there to be some kind of fire. We have a song, “You deserve a fiery love.” “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.” We are about His work. God, You have been so good to me. You have blessed me so greatly with enabling me to function in the body and I want to be the instrument You use in other people’s lives to help them grow so together we bring glory to You. And on he goes down talking about these gifts.

Come over to I Corinthians chapter 12 and he emphasizes variety and sameness in verse 4: “There are varieties of gifts, the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God.” So we have here I take it, the three members of the trinity involved in this work. I mean there is no reason for not functioning effectively. That doesn’t mean that I will be as effective in this as someone else. That is not what God has called me to do but I can be as diligent with what He has given me as I possibly can be and you will note the emphasis on “each one.”

Verse 7: “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit.” Down in verse 11: “The same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually.” And he will bring it up down in verse 18: “But now God has placed the members, each one of them.” So that emphasis the same as we saw in Peter, the same we see it in Romans. No one is excluded. There are no “just observers” in the body. That doesn’t mean that when someone comes new there isn’t a time when they adjust. They can’t just come in and say, “Here I am.” A new believer takes times but that is why we have various to get involved. Don’t say, “Well, I haven’t figured out my gift yet.” Well, just look for an area of opportunity. How might I be used? I didn’t start out being a preacher. I did a variety of things. They were good. You learn, you grow. They weren’t my strength the way they were with somebody else that was gifted but I could do it. I could learn and I would have a greater appreciation for the people who did function in that area and were so much more effective than I could ever be.

Sometimes we talk about the hospital visits. I used to make hospital visits. I never was very good at it. You know the Lord just blessed those people in spite of that. I remember one of the doctors I knew at the hospital one day, he put his arm around me walking down the hospital hall and he said, “Gil, let’s talk about your hospital visits.” And I thought, let’s not. I am just waiting for the Lord to provide, not looking to get into it deeper but I appreciated his input and learned from it.

So that is what he is talking about here, “Each one, each one, each one.” That is why we encourage one another and we look for ways, maybe a person not involved you know and we say, “You know, I think you might be used of the Lord in this area.” “Oh, I don’t know if the Lord could use me.” Well there is an opportunity there. Sometimes we invite people to come into an area where we are and we are not offended if people move on because you know they want to be where the Lord wants them.

Note a couple of things here, verse 7: “To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit.” That is why I said you get your gift when you believe because you get the Holy Spirit when you believe because “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ.” And the exercising of your spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Spirit’s presence in your life. This is not ability. This is supernatural ability. This is a manifestation that the Spirit, verse 13 of chapter 12, “By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and made to partake of one Spirit.” Water baptism was a physical manifestation of what happened to us spiritually and when we are identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection, that resurrection to new life, the Spirit of God took up residence within us and one of the ways He manifests His presence is with the gift that is given to us.

So it is a manifestation of the Spirit’s presence and work in our lives and it is for the common good; my gift if not for my benefit. There is blessing that comes to me in the exercising of my gift because that is the part I play in the body but my gift is not so I can go to my study and read and study and talk out loud into the mirror and enjoy what I am learning as I study and prepare. I grow and I learn in doing it but that is a by-product of what, exercising my gift and teaching others. There is blessing for you. You know you go and the Lord uses you to be an encourager in someone’s life to be one who can show mercy and that special and effective way and the Lord uses it. You go away thankful to the Lord that He uses you and how He uses you. It is for the common good.

Then he reminds them. Everybody has different gifts and that doesn’t mean they aren’t overlapped. More than one person has each gift but there is the diversity. “To one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, another word of knowledge, another faith, another gift of healing, another effective miracles,” all of these going on. But verse 11: “One and the same Spirit works in all these things.” That is why there should be no conflict. I mean we should be conflicting in the exercising of our gifts in the negative way because the Spirit does not conflict with Himself. Someone is out of step with the Spirit when we have these conflicts because if it is the Spirit working He is not working in conflict with Himself. It is the same Spirit working in you that’s working in me so I want to be careful I am not arrogant and say, “Well, if they didn’t do this they wouldn’t….” We want to stop and say someone is out of step here and it may be me. It may be my attitude. So we want to be careful and you will note: “The Spirit is the One who is working and He is distributing to each one, individually, just as He, the Spirit wills.” That is why I say, “You don’t get a gift by saying this is what I want any more than a baby born just has a pile of parts that he picks from. What would the body of Christ be like if people got saved and just say well throw them into the body. Well, everybody has a place, a role, a function and not everybody knows it yet. Again, new believers have to grow. They will function in a variety of ways and be used of God in a variety of ways. Part of the way God is using them is just the blessing like we heard tonight in testimony in seeing a new believer and helping them grow and helping them as they learn to fit into the body and be used. So the process goes on but it is the Spirit who has gifted them. Verse 12: “Even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.” He is talking about the local church here.

Come back to I Corinthians chapter 1. These aren’t just general gifts thrown out there. The local church is the manifestation of the universal church. The terminology, the invisible church is not helpful. Part of the church is invisible because it is in heaven; believers who have died in the church age. There are other believers who are not part of this local church but there is no invisible church on earth now. They are all visible in local congregations around the world.

Look at chapter 1 of I Corinthians. He is writing in verse 2 “To the church of God which is at Corinth” and that church is comprised of those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, they are saints. A reminder at the start because as we have seen in the letters to the Corinthians you could sometimes forget that but he reminds them in verse 5: “That in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” They are not lacking in any gift so God intends they’re part of this, the body, not by accident. We want to be where God wants us to be. That doesn’t mean that sometimes God doesn’t move a person to another body so He can use them there. If I have somebody leaving Indian Hills for wherever I say, “Well, be in that body because you are committed and convinced God wants you. Pour yourself into that ministry to be used of God to make it the strongest ministry that it can be. That is the way we want to function and people who the Lord brings here we want to say God brought you here. That means this is where He wants you to function and serve and grow. And you are needed here. He is the sovereign One. He is the head of the church, not me, not anyone else. There is only One head and He is working.

So this church has all the gifts necessary as you come back to chapter 12, verse 18: “God has placed the members each one of them in the body just as He desired.” So there can be no problems here. God has placed the members, each one. You know how sovereign God is. We talked this morning about His authority and placing kings and rulers and replacing kings and rulers. You know what, down to each one of us, He places us in the body as He intends. He has gifted us to enable us to function just as He intends and there are no unimportant functions. They all have their place. I am not as important. I have a more public position than the other gifted people in this body but that doesn’t mean I am more important than the other people in this body because cut off from the body I am just one part. The effectiveness is lost. So the Spirit and God has placed each one in the body just as He desired and then a reminder if all the body were one part where would the body be and the eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you” or the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” And then he reminds them even those parts of the body that seem weaker, that don’t get the visibility and the publicity if you will. They are sometimes the more important part of the body. So our appreciation for one another and you know we ought to be looking for ways to be appreciative. Think of how blessed we are God, that You have brought so and so and placed them in this body and pray for one another in that way.

Alright, go to one other passage. It was not my intention to finish both verses in Peter tonight lest you are wondering. We will do it one verse at a time. We will get there. In Ephesians chapter 1 you will note verse 22 they are talking about the exaltation of Christ and all is to be in submission to Him and that includes the church. Verse 22: “He put all things into subjection under His feet, gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” And this is the place where He manifests His presence, His ministry, not just this local church but every other true Biblical church. So the same picture is used.

Then you come over to Ephesians chapter 4 and he talks about verse 7: “To each one of us,” there we are again. God won’t let us escape. There will be accountability for the use of our gifts and it won’t do to say, “Well, Lord, I didn’t think I was as important and I didn’t have anything.” That is not true humility. To tell God He is wrong is not humility. “Well, I’m not important. I don’t have anything to offer in this church. There is nothing I could do.” That’s not humility that is arrogance. It is telling God, “You are wrong. You said that You gifted everyone and put each one in the body so they could function according to Your will but that is not true.” Now when it is put that way you say, “Well that’s not humility, you say, well I don’t have anything.” That is arrogance.

Humility is “God, I know You have said that You gifted every believer to contribute to the body and that includes me and I am part of this body in this place and I am looking to be used of You not because I am so important but because Your grace is great. You have gifted me and I will start out doing whatever I can. I have to say, “I don’t know my gift. I can’t just say this is it and we function. So each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. You see it is God measuring this out, bestowing this. This is so encouraging, such a blessing. God didn’t say, “Now I saved you. Just sit over there and wait and then we will have eternity.” He is going to use you, use me and so after He ascended on high through His death, burial and resurrection and ascension the Spirit was sent in Acts chapter 2 in that special unique way to indwell believers and gift them so that’s it. “Grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” and then in verse 11: “He gave some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers to equip the saints for the work of serving.” We will talk more about this in our next study.

So come back to I Peter chapter 4. You see this is something important. God doesn’t repeat Himself just because He ran out of material and wanted to fill up the book He was preparing His people. This is of great importance. How can I bring glory to God? Well, when we get to the end of verse 11 which we read, this is how I do it. There is nothing more important than how will God use me.

Verse 10: “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another.” We have seen in the other passages therefore serving one another. They are not for my personal satisfaction, to bring me personal honor. It is other focused, “for serving one another.” That is what we are, servants. We get the word deacon from this, diakonos, deacon, it is a servant and we are all serving one another and we should be looking for that because Christ said He didn’t “come to be served but to serve” in Mark chapter 10, verse 35 and “to give His life a ransom for many.” His service was without limitations. He came to serve.

Am I better than the One who is my Master who devoted His life to serving others? What a blessing. I can serve. I serve Him in my serving others. I don’t mind serving the Lord but I don’t, you know, think I am above some of these things. Why so? The lowliest task done in serving the Lord is what? It’s a high honor. I am being used to bring glory to Him. I don’t want to develop the world’s view. The world might say, “Well, that is nothing. Anybody can do that.” Not just anybody can do it for the glory of God. It takes one of God’s children indwelt by the Spirit and empowered and enabled to do that with an attitude and a spirit that brings glory to God. “Employ your gift in serving one another as good stewards,” good stewards. This word is a compound word. It is really two words, a house and law. And a steward was someone who had responsibility in a household. It fits the other picture. We are God’s family, we are God’s house. The church is what, the family of God, I Timothy 3.

So we are stewards given responsibility, areas of obligation for which we will be held accountable. We are to be “good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” We will be expanding this when we get to verse 11 but you see what has been entrusted to us, portions of God’s grace. This multi-faceted, that word ‘manifold,’ multi-faceted, multi-colored grace. That is the beauty of it. He didn’t make us all alike. He didn’t gift us all to do the same thing. He gifted us all to the same purpose – to enable His body to be effective in bringing Him glory but His grace is multi-faceted, multi-colored. How beautiful it is – our diversity and backgrounds, experience in the way God worked to bring us to Himself and what He has done to prepare us and then he brings us together and we function in such a way that we are testimonies and manifestations of His multi-faceted, multi-colored grace and we are stewards of that and that is why each of our gifts is so important. They are all manifesting and demonstrating the same thing. The Spirit of God is at work in our lives and the grace that has been brought to us has now been manifested. That is why we can work together. We are not all fighting to do the same thing. We are all looking to be used by the same God in the way that we can be the most effective in helping one another, encouraging one another, building one another up. That is what God’s intends. Think of the awesome responsibility. What a blessing, what a privilege. We are stewards in God’s family of His grace and there will be an accountability, a time when we will be called to give an account of our stewardship.

One passage in closing. This is where we will be picking up in I Corinthians chapter 4, verse 1: “Let a man regard us in this manner – as servants of Christ (and note this) and stewards of the mysteries of God.” That was Paul’s gift of grace, remember. Ephesians 3 he expands it, this mystery that was revealed to him as an apostle. New truth had been revealed to him. I am a servant of Christ entrusted with a stewardship and note “it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy,” that we exercise our stewardship, that area of God’s grace entrusted to me. I have to be faithful. I have to demonstrate I am trustworthy. We could have no higher calling. That is true of every single one of us as believers because we have each one been the recipient of that gift in grace.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your grace that it is a multi-faceted, multi-colored, a manifold grace. Lord that grace comes from the one true and living God which enables us to function in harmony, in serving one another without the conflicts that would inhibit growth but with the harmony that enables the body to manifest the beauty of the God who has redeemed us by grace and gifted us by grace. May our testimony be strong and may we be faithful we pray in Christ’s name, amen.