[0:00] This morning, go with me to 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. Toward the end of your Bible, 1 Peter chapter 4.
[0:13] As I mentioned the last couple of weeks, love one another. That's where it all starts. We have to have love one for another. And then if we're going to love one another, we should be kind one to another. Kind. And if we're going to love and be kind, then we should know how to minister to one another.
[0:32] To help one another. To encourage one another. To lift one another up. So to minister to one another. So look with me at 1 Peter chapter 4. Beginning at verse 7. Verse 7. It says, But the end of all things is at hand. Stop right there.
[0:49] Do you notice what that said? But the end of all things is at hand. You watch the news. You watch our state. You watch our community. You watch our churches.
[1:00] You watch everything that's going on. The end of all things is at hand. Jesus is coming soon. He is going to come back and he's going to take us home. But he says, The end of all things is near. So what are you supposed to do?
[1:13] Be ye therefore sober. And watch unto prayer. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves. For charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
[1:25] Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
[1:41] If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.
[1:57] Amen. God has given us a specific calling to every Christian. Every Christian has been given a gift to use in service to him.
[2:10] And he calls us to minister to one another with those gifts that we have. We're to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and we're to serve one another, minister to one another as we use those gifts.
[2:24] The Bible tells us that every member of the church is a minister. You know, people call me the minister. We're all ministers. We all have a job to use the gift that God has given to us to serve one another.
[2:40] God has called us all to be involved in ministry. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 1 says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.
[2:52] We all have a ministry. We have received the mercy of God. Therefore, we all have a ministry that God wants us to do. Verse 7, again, starts off with, the end of all things is at hand.
[3:09] Peter is thinking about the return of Christ. He's thinking about the fact that Christ is going to come again and he's reminding his readers that that is going to happen.
[3:20] Jesus is going to come again someday. Be ready for it at any time. Jesus is coming back and we need to remember that in this day and age that we live in. Let's have a word of prayer.
[3:33] Father, help us. Lord, as we go through this this morning and we look at the idea of ministering one to another, Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand the importance of encouraging one another, lifting one another up, of just being there for one another and helping one another.
[3:54] Lord, pray that you would help us to take to heart the fact that as we look at this world and we look at the way it's going and we look at the direction it's heading and we look at all the different things taking place, how much can we do to encourage one another, to minister to one another's needs.
[4:15] Lord, help us to leave here today understanding better how we can do that. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. In 1 Peter, here he's talking about encouraging one another and we're learning about the early church and if you read through history, you find out that between, this was probably written between A.D. 63, 64.
[4:42] During that time, Nero, excuse me, Nero is the emperor. Do you know anything about Nero? He was a bad guy.
[4:54] And Nero had something happen there in Rome. The city actually burned while Nero was emperor. Three quarters of the city burned.
[5:05] And during that time, Nero used Christians as a scapegoat for what was happening. They were to blame for the city burning.
[5:18] They were to blame for everything that you see going on. Kind of sounds a little like today at times. Listen to a Roman historian, Tessicus, who said, this is what he wrote.
[5:32] Therefore, first those were seized who admitted their faith. And then, using the information they provided, a vast multitude were convicted.
[5:43] Not so much for the crime of burning the city, but for hatred of the human race. That sound like today? All you Christians. You hate us.
[5:56] No, we don't. We love you. But, that's the way we're viewed. He goes on, he says this, and perishing, they were additionally made into sports.
[6:10] They were killed by dogs by having hides of beasts attached to them. They were nailed to crosses or set aflame. And when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps.
[6:25] Remember, I've told you before, Nero used to throw parties at the palace and the walkway on the way in had places for torches. And he would use Christians to be the torches.
[6:37] This was a bad guy. And this was the type of thing that's being faced in this time that Peter is writing to these Christians about ministering to one another. As a matter of fact, in this short book, he uses 15 times, he talks about the persecution that they're facing.
[6:55] As a matter of fact, look, I only read verse 7 to 11. Look at verse 12. Verse 12 says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, I try you as though some strange thing happened unto you.
[7:12] They're facing fiery trials. He says, don't be amazed by that. He says, it's happening everywhere. And you know, we're facing things today.
[7:24] In the midst of these trials, he reminds them, minister to one another, help one another, encourage one another, lift one another up. He says, look, be whatever you need, help.
[7:36] May you be a solution to people's needs in the church. He's encouraging these first century believers. You know, the circumstances they had were bad.
[7:50] But you can help one another. Our circumstances are different today, but the reality of what's going on is the same. People don't like Christians.
[8:01] They don't want Christians around. God designed the local church to be a place of spiritual encouragement, a place where we can come and encourage one another and lift one another up.
[8:12] So how do we do that? How do we encourage one another and lift one another up? Well, first of all, we minister in love. It says, remember the first thing?
[8:23] We're supposed to love one another. So he says, love one another and minister to each other in love. See, as Christians, we're supposed to come together. We're supposed to show a love that's different than everything else in the world.
[8:37] First of all, it's a passionate love. It's fervent, he says there. Look at verse 8. And above all things, have fervent charity, fervent love among yourselves.
[8:48] For love, charity, shall cover the multitude of sins. He says, have a fervent love. When he talks about fervent, the word there means stretched out, earnest, intent, constant.
[9:02] We are to show love to one another constantly. We're showing love one another intensely, earnestly. He says, show love one to another. The church that's fulfilling its purpose is going to have an intense spirit of love for the people that are part of it.
[9:19] We're going to be caring about one another. We're going to be looking out for one another. Our natural tendency is to be self-centered. If you break it down, you know, the human nature, it's to be self-centered.
[9:34] But he says, no, he says, make it about love one for another. Natural tendency, we make the church attendance about us.
[9:47] Well, I would send you church, what do you have for children's programs? What do you have for singles programs? What do you have for senior citizen programs? What do you have for, those are all good things, but what is church mainly about?
[10:00] God, worshiping him and encouraging and loving one another, ministering to one another. God says, look, people, you need to reach out.
[10:13] You need to encourage one another and help one another. Warren Wiersbe, who is a commentator, pastor, he said this, the word pictures an athlete straining to reach the goal.
[10:30] It speaks of eagerness and intensity. Christian love is something we have to work at just the way an athlete works on his skills. It is not a matter of emotional feeling, though that is included, but of dedicated will.
[10:50] Many of you here are married. Do you love your spouse the same every moment of every day?
[11:02] No. Are there days you'd like to strangle your spouse? Hopefully not, but yeah, there are days and you're just kind of, okay? He says, it's not the emotion.
[11:16] It's a dedicated will. It's the choice to love that person and be with that person and stay with that person. It's a choice you make day in and day out, day after day after day after day after day.
[11:28] He says it's like a dedicated athlete. Just put everything into it every day. I've told you before, but Usain Bolt, he has two or three gold medals from the Olympics.
[11:42] Olympics started this week. He has two or three of them and he talked about his dedication to his sport. Usain Bolt is a runner. He does the hundred meter dash and he talked about preparing for the Olympics.
[11:57] He prepared for four years for a nine second race. Think about that. four years. Now he had to do heats and different things and stuff, but four years for a nine second race.
[12:15] The dedication that goes into that. And they're saying, morning we used to be saying, our love for one another, our love as Christians. We need to have that kind of dedication.
[12:26] We love one another no matter what. No one comes to church to hear criticisms hear all the world's problems. We can go anywhere out there and do that.
[12:39] They come because they want to find someone who cares, someone who loves. Jesus Christ loved them enough that he came and died on the cross. Jesus Christ loves us enough that he meets our needs, takes care of us, helps us with our problems.
[12:54] We should love each other enough that we do the same. They come to be loved. Second of all, it should be positive. It should be a positive thing.
[13:06] Look at verse 8 again. He says in verse 8 that charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
[13:18] That means the idea of cover is to hide, to hinder the knowledge of a thing. You ever have people you tell something to and then you're hearing it from everywhere?
[13:31] We call that gossiping, right? He says no. He says if you love people, if you're going to minister to people, you don't do that. You don't gossip. You don't tell them things that they don't need to know.
[13:44] You just take care of it. It's not saying you don't correct somebody who's wrong. If they're wrong, you correct them. If they're wrong, you go to them and you tell them that they're wrong.
[13:55] You don't ignore it, but you keep it amongst yourself. As a pastor, I hear all kinds of things. I counsel people about lots and lots of different things.
[14:10] Do you know about the things I've heard? No. Because I don't tell you. Because love covers a multitude of sins. Love covers over.
[14:21] Love helps the person past the sin and love doesn't go spreading around to other people. We need to be so careful. We don't broadcast things to people.
[14:33] We help them. We encourage them. We help put them on the right direction. And we help move them forward. You know, if you're covering a sin, it means you're helping them to be forgiven.
[14:45] You're helping them to repent. You're helping them to be restored. You're helping them in every way possible. See, resentment will keep a list. Never hear the one about the husband was talking to a friend of his.
[15:04] And they were talking about their wives and one husband said, my wife, she just gets historical. He says, don't you mean hysterical? No. Historical.
[15:14] She's got a list. She goes through whenever I do something wrong. Yeah, I remember this and this and this and this and that. He says, no, that's not the way it's supposed to be. He says, see, love doesn't keep lists.
[15:29] Love doesn't keep books. Love covers. Psalm 103, 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
[15:41] God said, you bring your sin to me. You come to me. Jesus Christ loved me enough that he went to the cross to pay for those sins. I come to him. I confess my sins and he says, boom, they're as far as the east is from the west.
[15:57] He's removed our transgressions from us. He tells us that when we love others in a Christlike love, we're going to do the same thing. To put it away.
[16:10] Let it go. When our sin has been dealt with before the Lord, what does he do? He covers it in his blood. It is covered by his blood.
[16:23] We go on doing the work for the Lord. Love covers. Love heals. Love brings back into being able to function into what God has for you to do.
[16:36] Proverbs 10, 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth sins. True love for one another.
[16:47] True love is going to minister to one another. True love is going to serve one another, as Bonnie is saying. So we're to minister in love. Second, we're to minister in hospitality.
[17:01] Minister in hospitality. That's another form of love. It's a way of showing natural love to people. A great church is going to be one that's given the hospitality. I like the fact that the Jaffreys are having the ladies out today for tea.
[17:14] A time of hospitality, a time of fellowship, a time of getting together around the things of God. The fact that we know each other. The fact that we have Christ in common.
[17:26] Having hospitality to one another. That's not just the pastor's job. That's all of us. Notice, first of all, the tool of hospitality. Verse 9 says, use hospitality one to another without grudging.
[17:41] Use hospitality. Showing love to guests. Showing love to strangers. Showing love to friends. Hospitality is a tool. Think about it.
[17:52] If I show hospitality and my heart is open to that and to showing hospitality to people, I can have fellowship with other Christians. If my heart's open to hospitality, I can share the gospel with unbelievers.
[18:08] See, there's a lot of things we can do by being hospitable. It gives us open doors to show Christ's love whether they be saved or not saved. We can show Christ's love to them.
[18:20] In the New Testament times, hospitality was important. There were a few inns in different places and Christians, many of them were poor, didn't have money, so if they were going from one place to another, they could go to a city and they would look for people who were Christians.
[18:37] often people who were Christians would leave a symbol outside by their front door. I meant to put it up there and I didn't. But they have a symbol that would show that they were Christians there and they could go.
[18:53] Persecuted saints, especially, if they needed a place to stay, a place where they could get some assistance, a place where they could be encouraged, they would often go to places in towns and look for that.
[19:08] The symbol was basically a circle with different lines going through it and the lines inside and the circle itself represented some Greek letters. I-X-O-Y-E.
[19:21] Those letters stood for Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. That's why they knew they were Christians. Hospitality was so significant that Paul mentions it when he's talking about the requirements to be a pastor.
[19:38] 1 Timothy 3, verse 2, A bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach.
[19:52] Titus 1, verse 8, Be a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, given to hospitality.
[20:04] Be willing to take people in. Be willing to show them Christ's love. Be willing to show them Christ's mercy. Be willing to show them all of those things. It's not limited to full-time Christian people, though.
[20:19] Not limited to the pastor or somebody else in full-time ministry. In Romans chapter 12, he's talking to just everyday Christians. And in verse 13, he says this, distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality.
[20:34] All of us need to be hospitable. All of us need to be willing to share and to give and to help. Most of us, at some point in our life, have we had somebody who's come into our life and they have shown us hospitality.
[20:52] You think of anybody in your mind that you've gone to and they opened their house to you, they allowed you. We have friends that we go, if we went to Dothan, Alabama today, we have friends down there who would open their door and say, yeah, we've got a place for you to stay.
[21:10] You can come in, no problem. If we went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, we lived there before. We've got friends, come on in, we've got a place for you to stay, no problem. You have people in your life that would just open their doors willing to have you come in and be a part of things.
[21:27] We need to learn to be willing to open our hearts and our homes to our neighbors, to our friends, to those here in church. It's a powerful tool.
[21:41] Showing love and kindness and hospitality to people is a powerful tool to helping them see the love of Christ.
[21:53] And then, not only the tool of hospitality, but the test. The test of hospitality. Being hospitable is important, but so is the manner in which we do it.
[22:05] See, not just being hospitable. Yes, you can come on in, come on over, we'll have coffee. Okay. Verse 9 says, using hospitality one to another without grudging.
[22:18] Did you catch that part? Without grudging. Oh, I suppose. I'm not as big a hospitality person as my wife is. I'm learning.
[22:31] After 38 years of marriage, I'm learning. Takes me, I'm a little slow, but you know, she's teaching me how to be hospitable. Do it. And when it says grudging, the idea means without murmuring, without showing displeasure.
[22:47] He says, do it without grudging. God wants us to give kindly. He wants our actions to be one of the heart. We don't just go through the motions. He wants us to be a heartfelt thing.
[22:59] The story of a little girl and her mother. The mother had been preparing all day, getting dinner ready for a company that she was expecting. And when the guests arrived, she asked her little three-year-old daughter if she would bless the food.
[23:13] The little girl was kind of shy and she told her mom, I don't know what to say. Just say what you heard mommy say at lunch. You all know where this is going. So the girl bowed her head and she said, dear Jesus, why did I invite these people to have supper with us tonight?
[23:29] Amen. Yeah, that's not quite the hard attitude we're supposed to have. Do it lovingly. So we're minister in love.
[23:41] We're minister with hospitality. We're minister with wisdom. Minister with wisdom. Excuse me just a second. God has given each of us different spiritual gifts.
[23:58] We all have gifts. The moment we got saved, God gave us spiritual gifts. And we're to use those gifts for him, for his honor and glory by serving one another.
[24:12] Three different places in the New Testament. Romans chapter 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and here in 1 Peter 4, he talks about the gifts that we're to have. So first of all, you need to know your gift.
[24:22] You need to discern the gift that you have. Look at verse 10. Chapter 4, verse 10. It says, As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
[24:36] That word gift there is the idea of a gift of divine grace or an enablement of the Holy Spirit in your life. God has given you things. First of all, he gave you the Holy Spirit.
[24:49] When you got saved, the Holy Spirit came to live within you. And the Holy Spirit will give you gifts to use for his honor, for his glory, things to use that will be a help to the church and to those around you.
[25:02] God enabled us to edify people through the gifts that he gave to us. Every gift and talent we have because of his grace. gifts that we have are not to draw attention to ourselves.
[25:18] It is not to draw attention to us. It is to draw attention to God and what he has done. If you have a gift that God has given to you, it is to be used to point people to Jesus.
[25:30] It is not to lift yourself up. To minister, he says, to minister is to serve, to be a servant, servant, to wait upon, to supply one's needs.
[25:43] A few weeks ago, we were talking about the qualifications of deacons. Remember when we were talking about deacons? Servants. The word deacon means a servant. How can I serve people?
[25:54] How can I serve God? How can I do what God wants me to do? Does that apply to all of us? Not just deacons? Not just pastors? Yes. 1 Corinthians 12, 7.
[26:05] But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. We're to help people grow by the gift that I've been given.
[26:15] You're to help people grow by the gift that you've been given. Our job is to minister to people to help them grow in Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, 25. That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
[26:32] Every one of us. Take our gift. Use it. Here amongst ourselves to grow people in Christ. Warren Mearsby again says this.
[26:44] Every Christian must know what his spiritual gifts are and what ministry or ministries he is to have in the local church. It is not wrong for a Christian to recognize gifts in his own life and in the lives of others.
[27:00] What is wrong is the tendency to have a false evaluation of ourselves? I'm the pastor of the church. I have the gift of teaching. I can do that doesn't make me any more special than you.
[27:15] I have the gift that God has given to me. I'm going to use that gift the way God wants me to to benefit others and to help them. Whatever gift he has given to you. He says, use that gift to be a help to others.
[27:31] And you don't have to turn there but in Romans chapter 12 they gave a list of gifts there in Romans chapter 12 and he says of the gifts prophecy or discernment service teaching encouragement giving ruling the idea of administration being able to administer things mercy.
[27:53] So think about it. Those who are blessed with the gift of service they're going to enjoy finding ways they can help out at church. They're going to find ways they can help out other people.
[28:04] Cleaning doing nursery helping teach a class doing whatever they're going to help others to use their gifts to the best of their ability. Those who have the gift of giving they're going to be willing to give beyond tithes and offerings.
[28:20] They'll give even more because they have the gift of giving. Those who have the gift of mercy they're going to be inclined to visit people. Visit someone maybe who's lonely someone who's in the hospital or something and give them God's love.
[28:37] Show them God's love and express it to them. Gift of teaching maybe you can articulate the word of God. Maybe you can teach it and preach it so it puts it down on people's levels where they can understand it.
[28:49] We have different gifts. God has wired us to use those gifts in a church to serve that church and to serve the people of that church.
[29:04] All the gifts that God has given to us are gifts of grace. It is things that he has done not that we have done ourselves. He tells us to be good stewards of what he has given to us.
[29:17] What's a steward? A steward is a manager of someone else's household or goods. So if I'm going to be a steward of the gifts that God has given to me what am I going to do?
[29:30] I'm going to be a good manager of those things and use them to help others because that's what God wants me to do. He says his manifold ones, various ones, diverse ones, the gifts are not ours to choose.
[29:44] God gives them to us. We need to be ready to use whatever he gives to us. So we need to discern what did God give me for a gift? Sometimes it takes a little thinking.
[29:55] What did God give to me? But once we figure it out, second thing, display your gift. Display your gift. Put it into action. Gifts such as mercy and teaching require speaking.
[30:13] Look at verse 11 of 1 Peter 4. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. Stop there. If you have a gift of speaking, he says, remember when you go to do the speaking, especially using the word of God, remember what you're doing is you are speaking the very word of God.
[30:35] You're speaking something directly from God. So be careful when you speak that you speak, ministering God's truth to the people who are there.
[30:46] Always come back to what does the word of God say about it? What does the word of God have for me to teach? Not my own ideas. What does the word of God have for me?
[31:00] Someone's recuperating in a hospital. You have the gift of mercy. Thank you. As a gift of mercy, I go to the hospital.
[31:14] How can I use the word of God to visit that person in the hospital? I can read that word of God to them. I can pray with them using the word of God. I can remind them that God's going to be near them and help them and try to help heal them.
[31:26] God is going to be there with them. Someone has a spouse that left. They're going through a time when they're separated, maybe heading for divorce. And I can go to them, I can encourage them, cast every fear upon God for he cares for you.
[31:42] I can use the word of God to be an encouragement to them. If I have a speaking gift, again, I have to be mindful that I am using the word of God and I'm doing it according to the word of God, not what I think.
[31:58] We represent God to the world. How are we doing? Are we taking the gifts that God has given to us and showing the world what God has done in us?
[32:09] how he has changed us? Continue on there in verse 11. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth.
[32:26] That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praised and dominion forever and ever. Amen. As of the ability which God giveth.
[32:39] He says, do it through God's power. Do it through God's grace. 2 Corinthians 4.5. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake.
[32:56] He says, our job is to come and to preach Jesus Christ to the world, and to show ourselves servants, ministers to you.
[33:07] He says, minister one to another, minister ourselves to you as God would have us do. When you minister, when you work, and you do those things, you're going to get weary.
[33:19] You're going to get tired. Remember that you're not doing it on your own. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are there with you to help you. Remember when Jesus was here on earth.
[33:32] He was God, he was man. But even in that scenario, remember when they were on the Sea of Galilee one time and the storm came up? Hey, Jesus, wake up.
[33:45] We're in trouble. He was sleeping. He was getting rest that he needed. When we feel weary in the ministry, remember our strength comes from the Lord.
[33:58] Remember that our power comes from the Lord. When we minister to him, he's the one who supplies the ability. He's the one who supplies the power.
[34:10] The key to ministering is to abide in Christ daily. We have to go to him daily and have his strength. John chapter 15, verse 4 and 5. Abide in me and I in you.
[34:22] As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except he abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches, he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, but without me he can do nothing.
[34:37] You cannot do anything of yourself. He says, if you're going to be ministering for me the way you should, you have to be walking with me. You have to be abiding with me because you cannot do anything of yourself.
[34:50] Curtis Hudson, who's an evangelist and the editor, if you've ever heard of the Sword of the Lord newspaper, he's the editor of that, said this, the measure of a man's greatness is not how many people serve him, but how many he serves.
[35:07] You want to know if you're great or not? How many people are you serving? How many people are you helping? He says, that's how you know. See, again, today, the age we live in, I've mentioned this many times recently, but we have this idea of Christian liberty.
[35:24] I can do whatever I want because I have Christian liberty. Again, Galatians 5, 13, for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
[35:45] He says, yes, you have Christian liberty, but not to do whatever you want. Yes, you have Christian liberty, not to go out and sin and do things. He says, you have Christian liberty to serve one another by love.
[35:59] God, is there someone you can think of today who could use that touch from you today to help encourage him, help to lift him up, someone you could minister to?
[36:14] When we get to the point where we understand what it is to serve others, then we begin to understand what true joy is. Booker T.
[36:25] Washington, I think I began learning long ago that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. Whoa, think of that.
[36:35] Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others. Think about it in your life at times. When you're focused on yourself, this hurts, that hurts, this is going wrong, this is falling apart.
[36:50] When you think of others, how can I help them? How can I encourage them? How can I lift them up? How can I? When do you feel best? When I'm doing that.
[37:03] Not when I'm, oh, man. I'm one of those, you know, I'm getting older, and as I get older, more things hurt, more things don't work right, but I can't concentrate on that.
[37:16] I can't concentrate on what God wants me to do. God called us, Jesus called us to minister to one another, and he gave us the perfect example himself.
[37:28] Mark chapter 10, verse 45, says this, for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
[37:42] Jesus Christ came not to be ministered unto. He left the throne of heaven where he was ministered to all the time by the angels, and he came to earth not to be ministered unto, but to minister to others, and to give his life a ransom for many.
[38:00] He came to give his life so that you and I could have salvation. He came to give his life so you and I could be sitting here this morning praising him for who he is and what he has done.
[38:11] He came to the early Christians were facing all that persecution, all those different things, but they were exhorted to encourage one another, even in the midst of all of those things.
[38:25] They could have been complaining. They could have been like, man, you see all the things that are happening? You know what I went through the other day? Do you know? He says, minister to one another. We all need encouragement.
[38:36] We all need uplifting. We all need to see our brothers and sisters praising God and lifting him up. Perhaps you realize, you know, I've been serving myself.
[38:53] I've been caring more about me than those around me. Maybe God's working on your heart today saying, don't do that. Start thinking about those around you and what they need.
[39:04] Start thinking about those around you. It's not too late to put away your selfish interests and things. It's not too late to reach out and to help people.
[39:17] Live your life for others. Because that's when you'll have lasting joy. That's when you'll experience God's best. It's when you minister to one another.
[39:31] Love one another. Be kind to one another. The natural outflow of that is to minister. Take your hymn books this morning with you. with