City Life Church San Diego

Preparing For Prayer, Practicing Love, Serving With Strength God Gives.

• Dale Huntington

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We open 1 Peter 4:7–11 and see a blueprint for a meaningful life: prepare for prayer, practice constant love, and serve from the strength God provides. 

Along the way, we sit with Peter’s paradoxical story—rash and brave, fearful and faithful, broken and restored—and let his hard-won wisdom reframe how we spend our days.

We start with the line that wakes the soul: the end of all things is near. Not doom-saying, but completion language that calls us to clear space and become sober-minded for prayer. You’ll hear practical, honest counsel on how to cut through noise, create margin, and pray like someone who actually expects to meet God—plus why praying together helps us when our flesh is weak. From there, we move to love that doesn’t quit. Agape love covers a multitude of sins, refuses gossip, forgives quickly, and fuels hospitality that welcomes strangers, not just friends. We talk about real-world hospitality—the kind that risks mess, awkwardness, and inconvenience—and why entertaining impresses while hospitality blesses.

Finally, we explore gifts and service. Every person has received something from the varied grace of God, and the church thrives when those gifts come alive: teaching, tech, safety, kids, cleaning, inviting, listening. There’s no hierarchy here—just a body made whole by hidden faithfulness. We challenge burnout by rooting service in God’s strength, not personal grit, and we anchor it all in the gospel: Jesus’ finished work replaces our cover-ups and sets us free to act with joy.

If you’re ready to trade distraction for clarity, isolation for hospitality, and exhaustion for Spirit-powered service, this conversation will point the way. Subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review with one step you’ll take this week—how will you pray, love, or serve differently?

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SPEAKER_00:

The apostle Peter was born with his foot in his mouth. Rash and outspoken, he was ready to fight at a moment's notice. One time, he actually cut a dude's ear off. He was brave and he was a coward. Peter was a contradiction. He walked on water with Jesus, he healed the sick, and gave sermons to thousands. And after his worst moment, when he had abandoned Jesus, he was restored by his loving Savior. Jesus actually gave him the name Peter, which means rock. And Peter was stubborn like a rock. As he grew old, this stubborn Jesus follower gained wisdom. Wisdom which he shared with God's church in his letters. He was still imperfect, but God used him. Doesn't that give you hope too? To know this very flawed man with a foul mouth was used by God in powerful ways. Peter's words come from a man who soaked up the presence of Jesus. A man covered in the dust kicked up by his teacher's sandals. His letters are challenging and must be wrestled with until we fully understand. Peter was a contradiction. Peter suffered, betrayed his best friend, embarrassed himself, and eventually grew into a wise teacher. If you are sometimes abrasive, sinful, or broken, you'll find hope and solace in Peter's words. They echo the heart of Jesus and they challenge us to suffer well, stand up for goodness, and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior Jesus. So open your Bibles, open your mind, and let's learn together as we continue in our series, Peter the Rock.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, amen. Good to be with you guys today. I'm Pastor Dale Huntington. I'm one of the pastors here with City Life Church. Today we're going to be in 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11. That's 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11. If you don't know how to find it in your Bibles, look in the front and look where it says 1 Peter. It has a whole list of where the texts are all at. There's nothing wrong with checking the front of your Bible. Also, if you need a good study Bible, we have them on both sides available for you. If you'd like to have a really good Bible to read, we would like to give you one. And so please feel free to take one. If you already got five Bibles at home, they're$100. We have them in English, Spanish, Tagalog, and Haitian Crayol. And so let me say that. Alright, so we're in First Peter four. Are you there with me? Anyone have a physical bound Bible here today? I love to see it. I just think they're beautiful and I think they smell nice. I don't know why. I grew up in a book family, so we're weird. First Peter four, seven through eleven. Let's dive in. The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and sober-minded for prayer. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God's words. If anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ and everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we want to thank you for this morning, for the way that you've continued to heal our friends, Fern and Neve. We know there's more healing to be done, but we didn't want to say anything before we stopped to say thank you. And so, Lord, um we come before you today only by the power of your love. You've seen the darkest corners of the world, you've seen the darkest corners of our hearts, and you still said they were worth saving by love. By love, you saw your enemies and you sent your son to die for us by love. By love, you had compassion on us when we had no compassion for anyone but ourselves by love. And so we appeal to that love this morning because we see injustice spread like a virus. We see hatred, we see manipulation, and we know it's wrong. Would you root it out of our hearts first? But also would you have mercy on those who suffer and grieve today? Would your love overflow to us and make us more and more like your son Jesus? May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to your ear. We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. So we're almost halfway through the letters of Peter, and it's good and it's challenging. I don't know about you, but there are parts of Pete the books of Peter that challenge me and cause me to like shudder at times where I'm like, man, I just want to like be down with this right away rather than wrestling with it. But I think we're meant to wrestle with the Word of God. Um, it's good to wrestle with the Word of God. And I want you to remember some of the things that we've learned already that Peter challenged us to be different from the world. Um, not just in what we don't do, though, friends, but the things we actually do. Um we are called strangers in this world, refugees of this world, and it's because we've died with Jesus and we've been raised with him to walk in a newness of life, and now his Holy Spirit lives in us. We can't remain the same. But honestly, how often do we look more like the rest of the world than anything? I mean, let's just be honest. Like the music we listen to, the TV we watch, the social media we use, we're more like the world around us at times. How do we engage in the ways of gossip? How do we how are we unwelcoming? How are we complaining? How do we use our gifts for each other? Do we speak words that lift each other up? Do we tear down? This is Peter's challenge for us this morning. Um it's always funny when I'm preaching on Peter and then I see Peter. It was the same way with the book of Isaiah. Like I'd always say Isaiah, and it's like, it's weird. I wonder, do you guys like ever hear your name? Like, okay, sorry. So uh today I'm gonna give you three things that strangers do, um uh strangers to this world will do. And my first point is this we prepare for prayer. We prepare for prayer. It said that the end of all things is near. That's in verse 7. Now there's something really cool here. Like we see the end of all things is near, the end of all things. It can also be translated as the goal of all things. Like the language is triumphant, triumphant. It is not defeated language. The end of all things is near, yes, but the world is moving towards its goal. The world is coming toward completion, the culmination of all things. Justice fulfilled, a moment of reckoning and vengeance, it's happening. Now, that is good news to some of us who sit under the grace of God, but it's bad news for those of us who try to stand on our own goodness without Jesus. Because no matter how good you are, you're not good enough without Jesus. Um, so we see in verse 7, the end of all things is near, therefore be alert and sober-minded for prayer. Now, I have read a lot of the Bible, and here's why I've read the Bible so many times. Because I didn't know anything about the Bible. I think the advantage I had over some of you guys was some of you guys grew up in families where they like kind of talked about the Bible, so you had an idea. For me, I knew nothing. So when I first was able to read the Bible, I consumed it. Like I like I devoured it because it was like I'd never heard any of this stuff, and it was so new to my brain. I grew up in a family that was a universal universalistic Islamic type religion, and so this stuff was all new to me. And to be honest, even though we were like universalists and we were cool with every religion, my family was very not cool with Christianity. So I knew very little about Jesus, and I just had to read the Bible more and more, and I read it over and over and over again, multiple translations. But I guess I gotta tell you something. I while I joyfully read it every day, um, I'm not trying to tell you I'm great, um, but I joyfully read it every day. But once again, when I studied for this message, I realized how sometimes quickly my mind passes over things when I read the Bible. I don't know if you ever do that. Sometimes I pass over things I don't like. I'm like, man, I'll do another day. But then other times I pass over things unintentionally. And this is one of those things. When I studied for this message, I realized there were things I missed. Um, if you look at this text quickly, if I were to look at this text quickly, I would see prepare. Prepare with prayer. But it doesn't say prepare with prayer. And I know you're like, ah, you can't read. I know I can't sometimes because I read too fast, and so I have to stop and collaborate and listen. You have to prepare for prayer, okay? And I know how to prepare with prayer, but sometimes I don't necessarily think about how I need to prepare for prayer. Okay, you ever notice how when you finally settle down and you get everything put away, you make all your phone calls, you check all your texts, you get the news, you do whatever you gotta do, you do your sudoku, whatever, and you lay down in bed. If you are like me, is there anyone in here that your mind starts to like race suddenly? You start thinking about everything, everything. Okay, I appreciate the honesty in the room. How about this? Have you ever gotten into the shower and all of a sudden you get all your good ideas? Is there anyone else who has that? Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, like all of a sudden you're in the shower and you're like, oh my gosh, I gotta do that thing, and then you start yelling at your phone to take a note, it doesn't work because there's a shower going. You got no markers in there, so you you're like, dang. But it's it's there's a reason for that, right? It's because you're taking a second to stop and slow down and listen, right? It's finally that moment where you're not filling your brain or your ears with something. It's the moment where you're stopping and listening to God. How often do we just sit though? Now, let me say this to you parents. Um, you that's just sometimes impossible. But I will say we still tend to fill ourselves with other things, don't we? Music, movies, podcasts, books, social media. But when do you ever just sit? When do we wait on God? Like, do you ever just look at a leaf? When is the last time you just sat and you looked at a leaf and looked at how beautiful it was, this creation of God, the way he made it, why, why it will draw you to his heart? Have you ever done that? Have you done it recently? I know that a lot of times I need to do that. When's the last time you just watched a bee on a flower or some birds? Guys, we live in San Diego. When's the last time you just sat in front of some water without something in front of you and you just watched? You didn't have to tell anybody about it, you didn't have to do a live, check me out. You just waited on God and you just listened. When was the last time you did that? Now, one of the reasons why I can preach this to you is because I'm preaching it to me. And I have to constantly challenge myself. Am I filling every single moment with something and not preparing to pray? Am I filling every single moment with something to where I get in bed and suddenly my mind's like, okay, now are we gonna talk to the Lord? Now are we gonna handle this trauma? Now are we gonna deal with this? See, he tells us to be alert, to be sober-minded, and it's translated as clear-minded. Be clear-minded. Now, uh, this is not necessarily about substances, but let's be honest, when you take substances, it's more difficult to be clear-minded. Don't give me any of that peyote stuff. It does not make you more clear-minded, okay? When you are clear-minded and sober-minded, though, it's so much more than not drinking, okay? It's when the world around you is losing their ever-loving mind over something new. You can be sober-minded and you can pray. And I tell you, uh, so many times I will call like 10 people to process rather than go to him and process with God. But we have to prepare to pray. But what are you putting in your life and your schedule? Do you have time for anything? It's why, like, I have to schedule prayer nights because I need to pray. So, like, we have a prayer night coming up December 1st. It'll be right here, 7 p.m. It'll be the most not like engaging thing beyond prayer. Like, we're just gonna get here, there ain't gonna be no coffee, no food, um, no band, but we're just gonna pray. And why do we do that? Why do we add something else to your schedule? Because you're gonna add something else to your schedule anyway. It's you might as well be praying. I'm not saying you can't pray at home, but if you don't come, maybe pray at home. You know, maybe set time aside in your calendar to pray. Now, let me tell you why we schedule a prayer night. It's it's because um some of us have ADD and we need to pray with people. It's very difficult to pray by ourselves. Guys, time is short. Cast aside distractions, prepare your heart for prayer. Now, we all, it says, have that clock ticking down to zero. But are we living that way? As time as the time is coming to a culmination, are we preparing ourselves with prayer? Now, um, back in the day, I cheered for a team that was from San Diego, and I I now just call them the Judases because they left us. Um and uh how dare you, don't say that name. I'm just kidding. Um But in football, you have something called a two-minute drill. And it's something you practice because you want to prepare for that moment when you only have a little bit of time, and you have to know what you're doing. And if you don't prepare to have a two-minute drill, when you only have two minutes left in the game, you have no plan. I think in many ways we have to prepare as if we have two minutes left. Are you prepared for this to be your last week or month on earth? There's always tomorrow, but what if there's not tomorrow? Now Jesus told a story about this, and it's interesting because this story was maybe about something else a little bit, but I'm gonna use it and uh we can talk about what it's also about in other ways later. But Jesus said, A rich man's land was very productive. He thought to himself, What should I do? Since I don't have anywhere to store my crops, I will do this. I'll tear down my barns, build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods. Then I'll say to myself, You have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life is demanded of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? A lot of times we prepare and we save and we get things ready, not knowing that our moment is sooner than later. See, this guy spent so much time thinking about himself and his future, not about others. He forgot that his time was limited. He forgot that he couldn't consume those things in all that time that he had. He forgot that God blessed him to bless others. Now let me say this. I have accounts with stocks in it. Um in 2020, I bought some of that crypto stuff. I have a retirement account, I have savings, um, I'm trying to pay down my house. I want to protect my family, and I have two types of life insurance accounts. But let me just say this if I die suddenly, um, and I'm not generous to those who are around me, it's not worth it. It doesn't matter. And I'll say everything I save for my family is just to give them an opportunity. They may just buy the newest version of some like 3D TV and it's all gone. But I I have failed if I'm not generous to others beyond my family. Um, we have to stay alert, we have to stay sober, we have to be prepared, and we have to prepare for prayer. Now there was a time when Jesus took his students to a garden called Gethsemane. Um, and this was a time, it was a pivotal time in the life of Jesus. Um He had them sit while he prayed this excruciating uh prayer. Then Jesus prayed because he understood what was coming. He knew that he was going to be not only tortured, not only murdered, but he was gonna take on the sins of the world. Now, if you want to receive like just a little bit of wrath, like that's painful. But if you take on the wrath of like billions of people, that's gonna be a lot more painful than just ordinary death, than just ordinary um abuse that Jesus received. And so he was in this moment of struggle and pain, and and Jesus prayed with this understanding that his betrayal, his torture, his gruesome death, his justice for the sins of the world was coming, and he fell face down and he prayed this. He said, My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. That cup would have been res would have spoken to the the the wrath of God. Let it pass from me. Yet not my will but yours. Then he came to the disciples and he found them sleeping. And he asked Peter, Peter, you can stay awake from me for one hour? Stay awake and pray so you don't enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, a second time, Jesus went away and he prayed, My Father, if you could just like let this pass. But if if you can't, then I'll drink it. Your will be done. And he came again and he found them sleeping again. His students, his best friends in the world were sleeping. They could not keep their eyes open. After leaving them, he went away again and he prayed a third time, and then they were sleeping again. Then he came to the disciples and he said, Are you still sleeping? Are you still resting? See, the time is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Now, guys, why do I tell you this story? Peter, who wrote this letter, Peter, the apostle, the student. Many would say that they're that he was one of the best friends of Jesus. This guy, Peter, wrote this. The Peter who tells us to stay alert for prayer, stay awake for prayer. He understands that it's not easy. Moms and dads with young children, he feels you in that tiredness. Peter understands how exhausted you are, friends. God understands too. Do you struggle to pray? It's okay. This is why we pray together. This is why being a Christian alone is a bad idea. Peter struggled to pray and he was in the physical presence of Jesus. Like I'd be like, I'm gonna stay awake, but you know, I probably wouldn't, because I would have been in his shoes. Don't fill up your life, though, with uh and your schedule so much that there's no room for the things of God, that there's no room for prayer. And let me just say this too: you can fill up your life with doing things for God and still never talk to him. I know that we offer a lot of things for you to do in this church, and it's because um we want you to not be alone. Um, we want you to be in community. We're not trying to fill up your schedule where you have no time for prayer. That's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to make sure other people have options. So Peter struggled to pray in the physical presence of Jesus. Guys, get friends to pray with you on Sundays. Don't fill up your life and your schedule so there's no room. Don't fill up your brain so that there's no room for prayer. Don't fill your ears with podcasts and music that you cannot hear the voice of God when He's speaking to you. Once again, I could be sitting down there listening and going, Yeah, that's me. Don't numb yourself so much that you don't talk to God about the things that hurt you. Because there will be a moment when you will have that silence in your life and you will have to talk to God. And it might not be a moment that you choose. You might be in the hospital at 3 a.m. and then it's suddenly quiet for 30 minutes till that lady comes in and changes your trash. Those are the moments you're gonna have to process things. I encourage you now, process your hurts and your pains and your trauma and your joys with him now. But you have to make room for it. You have to prepare to pray. Prepare to process with God. And when you prepare for prayer, God will cause you to show more love and patience than you ever could without him. And that's our second thing that strange people do. They root everything in love. They root everything in love. Verse 8. Above all, maintain constant love for one another. Now it does not say occasional, by the way. Constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Peter's actually quoting Proverbs 10, 12, which says, hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers all offenses. See, love is the word here, and love is a difficult word for us in the United States because we got one word for love. And many of you know this by now, that in the Bible there are many words for love. The word for I love this sandwich is not the same word for I love my wife. The word for I love you as a brother is not the same word for I love surfing. Those are different words. And the fact is the word Jesus used is a different word. Like Jesus used the word agape love. This is sacrificial kind love. Then you have Eros, you have um uh sensual love, you have brotherly love, philosoph, and we have the all these different types of love, they're not the same. But this love here is that agape, sacrificial, deeply rooted love. So it's not easy to show your love though when you're struggling, is it? It's not easy to show love in in your driving, Dale, in your work, in your house, friends. Everything can become more difficult, but love comes from the overflow of your relationship with God. It comes from the overflow of our prayer that was in verse 7 in our preparation. Like, fact of the matter is, I don't want you loving people by pouring yourself out to empty. I want you filling yourself up to where you overflow to others. That's what God loves. He loves when you love out of his love. I said love a lot. Pastor Juan Sanchez, he says this. He says, We don't go around looking for faults in others. We do go around seeking to think the best of others. We don't spend our time lingering over the past flaws of others. We always stand ready to forgive one another. Always. After all, the end is near, and we are going to live with our brothers and sisters for eternity. Friends, there are people that are going to mistreat you, that are absolutely believers. There are people that will leave this church and they may hurt you on the way out. They are absolutely believers. And even if they do the wrong thing, we will see them in heaven and they will be our brothers and sisters. And we are to find ways to reconcile and show them kindness, even if we don't feel loved by them. As much as we encourage them to make it better, people will ghost you and they will hurt you, but you will see them again in heaven. So it's good to prepare now for how we treat them. It's almost never personal, even if it hurts. Trust me, as a pastor, it hurts me when people leave and they might say goodbye to me, and then my kids are like, What about us? They might say goodbye to me, but never to my my wife. Um, but they're trying their best. They're trying their best. And we have to seek to love these people because they're just like us. Sometimes they leave because they disagree. They might be right. Or we've not met their expectations. Sometimes they're in sin and embarrassed. Either way, um, sometimes we've hurt them and we've done the wrong thing to them. But they're not people to be gossiped about. They are also people to be loved. They continue to be people we should pray for in love, and not in that kind of like, hey, all let's pray for that guy. You know what he did? No, not that kind of prayer, okay? We must continue to pray in love. Now, Indian pastor Dr. Chris Ganakin, he says Christians must remember that they are on a battlefield, not a playground. He says they can avoid discord in the community by not focusing on all the minor things that annoy them and others. And tell me the things that get you riled up are not the minor things. They are to me most of the time. Guys, business runs on money, cars run on fuel, humans run on food, and the church always runs on love. Let us be known by our love first. So then in verse 9 it says, be hospitable to one another without complaining. Hospitable, we know that term. Hospitality is not caring for people you know and already love. Hospitality, as defined, is caring for strangers. Did you notice that the names of so many of the early hospitals in the United States are St. John's or Charity Hospital or Friends Hospital or Presbyterian Hospital? See, Christians cared for the sick because it was our Christian hospitality, and that's where we get our hospitals, the majority of them. In Peter's day, there was rarely a hotel. Like Mary and Joseph wanted to deliver baby Jesus at the time of his birth. They did not go to a best western. They did not go to a Motel 6. There was no Airbnb. It was mostly distant relatives or complete strangers that were supposed to help uh house a stranger passing through. Hospitality was costly back then. Now we show hospitality when we welcome and we give food to our neighbors in the pantry. We show hospitality just by greeting. We show hospitality in our Easter egg hunt, in our trunk retreat. Those are acts of hospitality. Why? Because they're not for us. We want to provide spaces for everyone to feel loved, to feel safe and welcome in our community. It's not meant to be for our church. Now, our kids may enjoy them, and we like that. We want our kids to enjoy them too. And in many ways, we are missionaries to the children in our church. Um, but this is meant to be our for our neighbors. We welcome church folks into our home because God has called us to be hospitable, and we may not always know them, they may not always even like us. We welcome Christians that aren't blood relatives into our homes, don't we? We welcome strangers, that is hospitality, that is love. And I know some of you will say, Pastor, Pastor, welcoming in people that we don't know, that sounds a little bit risky. And I just want to help you guys understand like, don't worry, it's absolutely risky. Like, yes, it is risky. It is risky welcoming people into your home. Like we've had people early on that brought a gun to a city group and we're like, hey, you can't do that anymore, okay? Um, and and still we host because we love our community. Dr. Tony Evans says biblical love is not defined by our feeling, but by sacrificing for the good of others. Biblical hospitality is authentically welcoming and serving, especially toward those who can do nothing in return. And I know many of you are like, man, you don't know our season. I don't know your season. And I don't know what it looks like for you to be hospitable. It doesn't always mean you're gonna have people in your house. But let me say this too: hospitality isn't cleaning. Um and it let me rephrase that, hospitality isn't clean, excuse me. I've had kids, like I got a new couch, and it was like within a week, they like put up the um the recliners and then they like dived off them like a like a diving board. It's like that's my new couch, man. I've never had a new couch in my life. But I was glad those kids were at my house. Um like we've had kids write in our books in our house. It's like, hey, this is a book about your family, and it's like, well, now it's about their family too. We've had people scribble on our walls. Um I did artwork in my backyard that the kids intentionally destroyed, and I would do it again. Um people will pee on your bathroom floor. Um, actually, we had a bidet, we have a bidet, and there have been times when we're like looking at the ceiling and it's dripping. We're like, wait, how did that work? How did that happen? Somebody got interested in our bidet. But hospitality means there are risks. People will wreck your stuff. That's okay. But love is to welcome others. You know what hospitality isn't? It isn't entertaining. Entertaining is about you, it's about you looking good. Check out my stuff, check out my meal, look at this awesome food I had, look at all these things I did, look how clean it is, look how great I am. That's not that that is not hospitality. That is entertaining. You'll never hear me say though, I'm sorry there's dishes in the sink. You can't come today. Now, we may need to take a family day and take care of some things for our family, but it's not gonna be because of that. But it means that hospitality in my family is that you may come over to my house for dinner and you're gonna help me with the dishes so that I can welcome more people in without going crazy. Now, there may be days and we just need to take care of our family, but we'll ask you to come another day. You'll never hear me say this though. I'm sorry, you guys, you can't come over. Because, you know, somebody just blew up the bathroom. No, I'm gonna light a scented candle that smells like like my cupcakes or something, and we're gonna we're gonna turn it on, and you're gonna come in and we're gonna pray for you, and all of us are gonna pretend we cannot smell what is underneath that scented candle because that's what we're called to do hospitality. There might be underwear and bras on the dry rack. Like we're not gonna put that away, it's gonna mess up our dry rack. But it stuff doesn't matter, does it? Our house is a gift to serve others. We're not trying to entertain you and show you how great we are. Our gifts from God should serve others. Now, I bought my house for the purpose of hospitality. One of the things we loved about my house is you go to the bedrooms and it's like you could fit a bed, and then the rest of the space is for everybody else. We love that. God made us that way, but also we've had a lot of people over time challenge us in what it looks like to be hospitable and show us what it means to be hospitable. We didn't just arrive that way. But, friends, I also want to say to you. Please don't think you're too poor to be hospitable. You can be hospitable in a tiny apartment. Those of you who are homeless can be hospitable at the bus stop or in the park. I can't tell you how much love I've received. Can I say this from the Crips? Like when I go to the park, they make me feel welcome and loved. They show me kindness. And uh yeah, I don't that was not in my first sermon, but uh there it there goes, it's already out. So um, those of you who are homeless can be hospitable at a bus stop or in the park. Everything you've been given is a gift that you can be hospitable with. So verse 10 says, just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others as good stewards of the varied grace of God. For some of you, your home is the gift you can use. But for those of you who don't even have a place to sleep tonight, God can use your gifts still in great ways. For one, we don't always think of gifting as something physical, right? Like, how many times will you say somebody's a gifted musician or a gifted athlete? You use your gifts for others. You can be gifted with the ability to listen. As a gifted speaker and talker in my family of four, we are all gifted talkers, we're not always gifted listeners. But you may have that gift for others, and God will use your gift of listening for others. You might be gifted in prayer. We always have need in our church to serve others rather than receive. We always need more people to help our kids ministry. We always have need in the safety team, the tech team, the food pantry. We need people who can welcome others to our church services with kindness. We currently have no sound people for our band. We have no bass players. Is there a gift you can use in love for others? Use it for the grace of God. Serve others with joy. What is a steward but someone entrusted with God to use something well for his glory? It's all rooted in love. Because business runs on money, cars run on fuel, humans run on food, and the church always runs on love. I heard Jesus. That's true, interchangeable. Let us always be known by our love first, though, friends. So this brings us to our third thing that strange people do. And it's this use gifts from the power of God for the glory of God. Guys, if you are doing things in your own power, it's just, I promise you, you'll burn out. Like, no matter how hardcore you think you are, if you're just gritting it, if you're just like grabbing on to something and just trying your hardest without like allowing God to like do the heavy lifting, you will burn out. Verse 11, if anyone speaks though, let it be as one who speaks God's words. Now, as a pastor, I have a very specific role biblically. I try my best to do everything I can, but I'm not always gonna be good at all of the things. Like, like I'm gonna try to teach you how to apply the word of God. That's what I'm gonna do. And I'm gonna pray. But you may be surprised I don't spend a lot of time up here from politics. Have you noticed that? We have become an all-knowing society. We must know every bit of information across the world. The problem is we cannot always know what is truth by studying it. We are not all-powerful, so we can't always fix every problem. And so I often won't be specific about every political thing up here. And and a lot of you will get mad about it. But I'm told to speak God's words. I want to speak on God's word and help you to apply it to your life. I'm gonna do my best to do that, to preach. If I speak, I want more of God's word, not mine or anyone else. You may be surprised, too, friends, that the person sitting next to you or in front of you has totally different politics than you. And they read totally different sources than you, and they have the exact opposite information as you. And so we have to focus on the things of God and the words of God. I am always going to speak on issues of justice, um, but my job is to equip you to know how to read your Bible and respond in context. So then Peter continues in verse 11 if anyone serves, so we had if anyone speaks, now we're on anyone serves, if anyone serves, let it be from strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. Bible scholar Karen Jobs, she says, each Christian believer has received a gift of God's grace. That experience of grace is to be directed towards the service of others. And I will say to you, there is no hierarchy of gifting in the church. I know it looks like it, because I'm on a stage. I realize that like I'm saying one thing and I'm showing you one thing. But let me just say, um, there are a lot of things that if they don't happen, there's no one preaching on stage. There is there's no hierarchy because God wants to use your prayers of healing, and that's going to change a life. God also wants to use someone else's gift of cleaning. If the preacher preaches but nobody can hear because there is no one to keep them safe from the safety team, my job is in vain. If the preacher preaches but nobody welcomes people at the front door or maintains our website or pays our bills, they might not find us. If the preacher preaches but our building is so messy that people can't come in and hear because it's so stanky. Or if nobody puts out our signs, or if nobody is gifted to invite people in, or if nobody helps with children, do you think they're gonna get to hear the sermon? Do you think they are going to hear the word of God proclaimed? No. Guys, your gifts that feel small complete the church. In your imperfection, you'll make the church beautiful. Maybe you still struggle with sin. God still wants to use your gifts as He slowly is changing you and making you whole. Your gifts that feel small, complete the church. But you know, when the best times to use your gifts, sorry, let me say it again. Do you know the best time to start using your gifts in the church? We would say years ago. That's the best time. The second best time is today. To start, to fill out a connect card, to touch the little beep boop boop beep in on front of you. I don't know what that's called, the the tap taparoo thing. Those things to get involved, to fill out a connect card, to let us know where can you serve other people, where can you make a priority of others. Guys, this is the best time. I don't care if this is your first week, your 300th week. Guys, 20% of the church should not have the honor and joy of serving, while the rest sadly don't get to be involved. The other 80% shouldn't have to watch while the others have the joy of using their gifts for God's glory. Everyone in the church serves and we serve in love. Now there's nothing more beautiful than people doing what they were made to do for God's glory. And as our church continues to grow and we figure ourselves out, I'm so excited that I can speak according to how God made me. I love preaching, I love writing, I love giving vision, I love walking the block and ministering to people. I love praying with you. I love those things. But I am not going to be the best servant in some areas. Let's be real. I'm pretty bad at organizing things. Fixing things in this building, like when I do it, somebody always has to come back and fix that thing. Okay? But God has gifted some of you for that. Some of you are great with systems. I am not great at systems. Do that with love, though, and do it for the glory of God. Some of you excel at organization, some of you excel at fixing things. Do those things for the glory of God. I love that I can trust you to do things I cannot. But guys, we have to make the decision to help. Our imperfect church will not improve in the ways that you're gifted unless you get involved and become consistent. If you come here and you sit every week, it's time for you to have the joy of being a part of the solution. To my guest today, if you're currently looking for a church, I tell you, find the right church for you and then get involved. And don't look for charisma. Don't look for the funniest sermon. Don't look for a church that's but look for a church instead that seeks to imperfectly love people. Don't look for greatness, look for faithfulness and integrity. Look for imperfect loving people and then be the church that you need. Lots of churches have better preachers. No lie, I know this. Way better systems, way better organization, better budgets, better budgets for the band, better budgets for everything. They don't have people interrupt the pastor or cuss them out. By the way, I didn't have anybody cuss me out in the sermon today, praise God. So far. They have sound men, they have mics that actually work all the time. But guys, when you find a church that you can agree with the big things, and you see that they love you and they have integrity, press in, serve, be a part of it, stay the course. That is one of Jesus' churches. And everything we do flows out of the love we receive from Jesus. That's the gospel. That we had this giant, ginormous chasm between us and God. And everything we try to do to fill that chasm would never get us to the other side of perfect relationship with God. Guys, all that is is it's that cupcake scented candle. When we try to do good things, it covers up a little bit, but it's never gonna fully cover it up, is it? Everybody just sniffs and like pretends they don't smell it. Guys, your good works are not going to earn you anything with God. It's something we do out of joy, it's something we do out of response to God. Seeking justice is a response to the goodness of God. In the same way, friends, Jesus willingly gave his life for us because he loved you, not because we deserved it. And when he rose again on the third day, he showed that he was bigger than sin and death, he was bigger than our sin. And no longer, no longer did we have to cover things up with our good works that would never fix anything with God. Now we look to the good works of Jesus and say, He's enough for us. And so if you don't belong to Jesus, I urge you to stop waiting, to give your life to him, to surrender to him, knowing that his good works are enough for you. And then serve, be baptized, be filled with his Holy Spirit, serve others, and out of love serve others. Guys, this gospel should give us hope. Not only does Jesus save us from something, he saves us for something. And I want to say I'm very proud of many of you who have stepped up before you've figured it all out. Many of you have stepped up, even when you're like, I'm still trying to figure out what it means to walk with Jesus. But you've stepped up and I'm proud of you. So I'll say this to you uh City Life Church and guests, time is short. Cast aside distractions and pettiness to prepare your heart for prayer. Love your sinful brothers and sisters in Jesus. Welcome the stranger and use everything you have been given by God to bring glory to God. Business runs on money, cars run on fuel, humans run on food, but the church always runs on love. Let's pray.