Scripture referenced 9 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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1 Peter 1:3-9 the opening doxology, born again to a living hope, inheritance reserved in heaven, trials testing faith like gold
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,
5 who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials,
7 that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ—
8 whom not having known you love; in whom, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory—
9 receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
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Keep this verse
Psalm 8:3-4,9
sung and quoted before prayer, heavens the work of God's fingers, what is mankind that you are mindful of them
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
4 what is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him?
9 Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
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Ephesians 1:19-20
read before worship, the incredible greatness of God's power for believers, same power that raised Christ from the dead
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
20 which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
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James 5:14
referenced in the story of Santiago, if any among you is sick let him call the elders to anoint with oil and pray
14 Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,
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1 Peter 4:7
the end of all things is near, therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer
7 But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.
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1 Peter 4:8
above all keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins
8 And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
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1 Peter 4:9
be hospitable to one another without complaint, loving strangers
9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
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1 Peter 4:10
as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God
10 As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms.
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1 Peter 4:11
whoever speaks do so as one speaking the utterances of God, whoever serves by the strength God supplies, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ
11 If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Raymond opened in 1 Peter 4:7 and onward, a passage he had personal history with from his first weeks in Jackson. The sermon centered on the gifts God gives every believer and what it looks like to either use them or let them rot. A long story about green bananas carried the whole thing.
What was said
The text opens with urgency. Peter writes that the end of all things is near, and because of that, believers are called to stay clear-headed, to pray, to love one another fervently, to be hospitable without complaint, and to use their gifts. Pastor Raymond noted that Peter has already said "keep fervent in your love" once before in the letter, and here he says it again. Love, he pointed out, is what covers a multitude of sins, not theology or a particular style of worship.
Peter then makes a flat statement: each one of you has received a special gift. Not some of you, not the qualified ones. Each one. And the instruction that follows is simple compared to anything Paul writes on the subject. Peter puts all gifts into two buckets: speaking and serving. Whoever speaks should do so as if speaking the very words of God. Whoever serves should do so by the strength God supplies. The stated purpose of both is that God gets the glory through Jesus Christ.
The personal story behind the sermon came from Pastor Raymond's time in Costa Rica during language school. Through a Korean classmate named Bora, he ended up helping her father Santiago finish a church building on a Bribri Indian reservation near Puerto Viejo. Santiago was a Korean Presbyterian missionary who had received death threats, was the de facto primary health care for the tribal chief, and yet when the villagers pointed to James and asked him to anoint the sick chief with oil and pray, he went. The chief recovered, the church grew, and men began joining what had mostly been women and children.
When Santiago later had to return to Korea around Easter, he asked Pastor Raymond to preach in his place across three village congregations on Easter Sunday. Pastor Raymond was not a preacher at that point and described the experience as mortifying. After the services, the congregation paid him with about 70 pounds of green bananas, which he loaded onto the hood of his Land Rover for the photo his wife Tanya took.
Back home in San Jose, a neighbor told him to hang the bananas on a hook and let them ripen. He did, and then forgot about them entirely. He does not have much of a sense of smell, so he only noticed what had happened when he heard the bananas dropping off the bunch onto the terracotta floor. Seventy pounds of green bananas had rotted into a pile of black, fermented waste. He had received a gift, hung it up, paid no attention to it, and it became useless.
That image is what he carried into the application. God gives gifts to be used, not stored. You are likely to discover what your gifts are only by actually using them, even when they feel immature or you feel unready. Other people will confirm the gifts once you start. And God will create opportunities to use them even before you feel prepared. Pastor Raymond reflected on years of building and doing humanitarian work in Mexico, punching above his weight class in skills and language, and seeing God supply the strength each time he was willing to try.
The sermon closed back in the text. Peter's whole point, and the point Matt had made earlier in the morning during the men's announcement, is that it is not about us. Whoever speaks and whoever serves are both doing it so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Even those who feel past their prime, Pastor Raymond said, can still be used. Banana pudding is better made with old, ripe bananas.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Raymond talked about being 'scared to death' to preach, and described stepping into that role anyway because the situation called for it. Has there been a time when you stepped into something you felt completely unprepared for? What happened?
- Santiago anointed the chief with oil and prayed for him even though it went against his own Presbyterian tradition, simply because the Bible said to. How do you respond when Scripture calls you to do something outside your comfort zone or your church background?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 7,339 words
0:00
Good morning, everyone. How are we? Good to see you. As you're coming in, let's sing a song together. This is about our identity in Christ.
0:09
That's what this song is about. So why don't you stand with me? We'll sing. Bring your tithe and bring your shame. Bring your gift and bring your pain.
0:28
Don't you know that's not your need? You will always be much more to me. Every day,
4:11
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements this morning. Monday nights at first b. Carl, what's happening?
4:21
Yeah. We are on tomorrow, enchilada night tomorrow, and we're starting a new study in the book of James. It's about perseverance through trials. So please know that the door is open for you, and we'd love to have you.
4:32
James one tomorrow night, enchilada night. Alright. Meal, music, and message, 06:00 in the fellowship hall at the same time that Awana is happening in this room. So, Awana, the kids will gather around in this room first and then they split up into different age groups and go here age appropriate messages from the gospel and mainly, they study and learn and memorize verses and they get that scripture into their head so that God can reach their hearts and they've got a deep well to draw from. Come on, Dan.
5:01
The sparks is kind of the middle aged group of Awana. So, not the youngest and not the oldest but Sparky's parent night, tomorrow night. So, thank you. Thank you for that, Dan. Youth group is Tuesday.
5:16
This, hey, here we go.
5:18
Alright, guys. My name is Michael Demetrius, youth director here at First Bee, and so glad to do so. We're going through the book of first Samuel right now. So we're looking through the life of Samuel, Saul, and we're gonna be working into David. So if you have a middle schooler or high schooler or know a middle schooler or high schooler, please bring them, encourage them to come.
5:36
It's a it's a great study. We're having a lot of fun and just sharing good news. And I've actually got a little bit more good news this morning too, as me and my wife are expecting. So thank you. Just be praying for us.
5:53
Thanks.
5:54
Alright. Building the youth group. Very good, Mike. Thank you. Alright.
6:00
Men's Dan, you wanna get up or actually, I think we might have another guy do this announcement. Courageous evening You wanna hand off your mic there, Mike?
6:13
Good morning. This announcement is for men. So men, listen up. We have an opportunity.
6:22
Sorry. I didn't get the memo.
6:28
Okay. So men's fraternity is starting up next Wednesday, the twenty fourth. That is our weekly Wednesday morning men's group. And to set the tone for this year's men's fraternity, we felt it was right to get together for a night of fellowship. And we're gonna show this movie Courageous next win.
6:47
This Thursday evening, 06:30 at Bob Lucas's barn, the You Lazy You Ranch. This is a one time special invite from Bob to go use his facility on South Park Loop Road. The address is 4555 South Park. And we're gonna be upstairs in Bob's barn. It's gonna be a really cool night of fellowship.
7:08
You'll be encouraged. You'll be challenged. And then next Wednesday, the twenty fourth, 6AM right here, we're gonna start ministry. I'm not gonna tell you what we're gonna do yet because we want to release it Thursday night at Bob's Barn. So you'll need to come to that to find out.
7:24
And Matt's gonna give you the
7:25
the why. I just wanna the man of the body to join us in in our pursuit for the Lord. It's it's about him. It's not it's not about us, not about who we are, what we do, it's it's about the Lord. And in our pursuit for Christ, we realize who we are.
7:45
We're we're men of honor and integrity, of courage, and nobility. Men who are pursuing God and laying down their lives for their families, for their children, for their community, and for for folks that we don't know to serve them and honor them. So I just want to encourage you to be a part of that, be a part of the culture that that God's that God's creating in men of here, in us and in this community. So, please join us as we pursue the Lord.
8:15
Amen. Amen. That's a community wide thing by the
8:18
way. Yeah.
8:19
Community wide is not just a first b thing but bring a camp chair if you will too because we may not have enough chairs for everybody.
8:25
Okay. Alright. Thank you, fellas. Appreciate that. There are lots of other Bible studies that are going on too and the information is in your bulletin about where they are, when they are, who to contact if you'd like to be a part of it.
8:37
There's tons of information in there including prayer quest. There's a long list of prayer quest that we try to keep up with them fairly meticulously. It's really nice to get that prayer list and be paying attention to it and seeing what God is doing through prayer. So, anybody else have anything that I've skipped or forgotten? Alright.
8:57
Would you all stand up and greet one another and we will bring you back together with a peppy little song.
12:44
That comes right from Psalm eight. When I can sitter your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you've set in place, what is mankind that you're mindful of them? Human beings that you care for them? Lord, our lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? Let's pray on that.
13:00
God, thank you. Indeed, you are good, you are kind, you are merciful. You are a creator, you sustain us. Just just looking around the beauty of the fall here in Jackson is just incredible, and it's because of you. That's the work of your hands.
13:16
And so when we sing to you, God, may we do so with fervor. With with the breath that we've been given, we we sing out to you. Amen. From Ephesians one, it says, I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe in him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms.
16:21
Just think about that. The power of God that raised Christ from the dead, that's the same power as living and working in our lives today. Feet. I can feel the breath on closer surrounding me. I can hear the sound of nations rising up.
16:59
We will not be You can be seated. We'll invite the frontline team to come forward and
21:08
pray with you.
21:09
I'm praying to you.
21:11
God almighty, we're we're awed and thankful this morning. I'm standing here just hearing all of the truth that's being sung out by so many sets of lungs and vocal cords just calling out to you lord and overwhelmed by you and your praise. The alpen glow this morning off the mountains and just seeing creation and it testifying lord. Day after day, night after night, no language where your voice can't be understood but lord, would you send us? Would you take us to places?
21:42
Would you would you speak through us? Would you use us? Lord, right now, we come to a time of offering and we want to give back a portion of what you've given to us. Lord, that acknowledges that you're the one who gave it and that your gospel should go forward. It's found a home, a resident heart but lord, we want to keep on building your kingdom and we want to keep on advancing your gospel.
22:07
So, lord, would you take all of what goes into these plates and do your will with it on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, would you would you have us steward this for maximum impact for the kingdom of God. May we, lord, love one another well and may the world see it and come to know you too. In Jesus name, lord, we humbly ask that you would multiply this to do your kingdom's work. In Jesus name, amen.
22:36
Amen. Amen. Now, it's time for children's church downstairs, Peak Children's Church is getting going. They just trump out of here and I'm going to follow em. Carl, preach for me, alright?
27:18
I'll be right back.
27:26
I really don't know how long he'll be back. Let's say we sing instead. Let's sing let's sing the, chorus of that song one more time. Let's not. We'll wait.
27:43
It's nice to
27:43
know you're getting too. I was just joking. Sorry. I don't use For notes. I don't know if you all know that.
27:49
What comes up on the screen every week is my are are my notes. Like and the reason I don't is because I always forget where I put my paper notes. So I had to go get my paper notes this week, but I do have like slides. This is an interesting one for me. So it's we're up to first Peter four seven in our chronological study.
28:13
We're going forward just like we do. But when I first got here, before I came up with the schema of just going in chronological order, I preached a few messages from first Peter and the quite honest truth about why I chose first Peter to start off with is because I was scared to death. I was absolutely scared to death to be up here doing this every Sunday. I feel a great amount of the preacher's burden that people should hear the word of God but I also feel that not many of you should be teachers and so it's a scary thing to know that I'm the one that's supposed to be up here and teaching and expounding God's word. So, I started off in first Peter because of the whole fiery trial issue and the suffering for Jesus because I really felt like I was doing that.
28:58
Just a little bit of backstory but this is a personal illustration from a biblical imperative. So, I actually, the third Sunday that we were in Jackson, I preached this passage and I used some of the same examples here but I don't I, you know, when you prepare and you prepare and you prepare and you prayer and you preach one time and then it's gone. It's kind of nice that it's out there in the internet and we can go back but this one isn't. So, here we go. So, a few weeks ago, we talked about Peter's opening doxology and that is really Lagos and Doxa is a study of God's glory and here it is.
29:36
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again, to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us. To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away. It's reserved in heaven for you. You who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation that's ready to be revealed in the last time.
30:06
In this, you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials. Have you been distressed lately by various trials? I think we have various variegated manifold. It's all kinds of trials we face but so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation, the revealing, the uncovering of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him right now, but you believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy and expressible and full of glory obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul.
30:47
That's his opening volley, the opening doxology. So, I have this morning a study of bananas. This actually, Tanya drew this. Sitting at the breakfast table one day. Just drew these bananas.
30:59
It was a long time ago. When we first were married, we're studying in Italy and she had a sketchbook and she put at the top banana study, study of bananas, and then bananaology and I've always held on to that and thought it was cool. Today's message is banana ology. And this picture, some of y'all have seen this in my office. When you come in, it's sitting on the back corner.
31:19
That's like a '68 Land Rover Santana that was put together in Costa Rica, and then that's about 70 ish pounds of green bananas on the hood right there. The story of how that got to be is this way. Bora Lee, this is a young Korean gal when we went to language school in Costa Rica. We'd already been in Mexico for three years, and then we went to study Spanish. Yep.
31:45
Ready, fire, aim. That's the way we do. But I was speaking Spanish fairly well. Got there, and Bora actually spoke Korean and English, and she was learning Spanish in the same class with me. And when she found out that we had been building a school for the deaf in Mexico and I was a builder, she said, my dad's working on the church and he's working on this church in the Bibri Indian Reservation, the Talamanca Indian Reservation down near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.
32:12
We're living in the Central Valley. And so for the first weekend, she said Santiago is my dad. Santiago doesn't sound like a Korean name to me, but I can't pronounce his Korean name, okay? And her mother, Elena, were living on this Bree Bree Indian reservation and they had been there for some time. They had built a little hut up on stilts like people do on that reservation.
32:36
And they had received death threats, quite a few of em actually and they were Korean Presbyterian missionaries and when they got to the Brie Brie Indian Reservation, there was no church on the site. There was no presence of the gospel that they knew anything about. Though others had been in, it was not a standing presence and they were trying to build a church community and it was mostly children and women mostly. There weren't very many men at all. Where are the men?
33:05
Matt's shirt says. Typically, that's the way things get started though. Kids and ladies were starting this and and there were not a whole lot of guys and there was a chief in the tribe of these Bree Bree Indians and he got sick and the women of the church and the kids of the church probably too. They're going through the book of James. Carl's going through James.
33:27
He's starting tomorrow night. And in James, it says that if any of you among you is sick, let him call upon the elders of church and they will come and they'll anoint his head with oil and they'll pray for him. And so, Korean Presbyterians, Han Baptist for the most part, Don't think of whole lot about anointing people's head with oil and praying for him and expecting him to get well but Santiago was in the position and Santiago by the way in Spanish means James and so they they had the villagers came to him and said, Santiago, it says in the Bible right here, in Santiago, in James, that you'll come and you'll anoint head with oil and you'll pray for him and he'll get well. Now, he's had death threats already. Now, he's the primary health care for their chief that does not believe in Jesus and so, it it caused him a catch in his spirit, a catch in his get along, you know, and he went because the Bible says so.
34:27
Bible tells me so, right? And he anointed the chief's head with oil and he prayed for him and he got well. And God got the glory for that because he did exactly what the Bible said and the church began to grow. It began to grow with not just ladies and children but also with the men and people came in because it was no longer a foreign outside thing but it was something that actually had value and had a value for their lives. Fantastic.
34:56
Santiago was stretching himself to go anyway because a lot of people just would have said, that's not exactly what we do. But he went and he prayed and God blessed and the guy got well. So, anyway, she was telling me about that. That is where that little dot right there is where this is about right there. You have to go from San Jose where we live across to Limon down through Cowipa and to Puerto Viejo and then back up into the mountains.
35:24
So, the first weekend, she said, you're a you're a construction guy. We're trying to finish this church and we we're struggling. We're down to the last parts of it and we're struggling and would you come down here? Tanya had something else already had to do. So, I went I went to the bus ticket station, got on one of these buses in San Jose, and rode down there.
35:43
It was it's a five hour drive in a personal car. It's about a seven hour bus ride to get there. So all the way across, down, and it's very different. In Costa Rica, we're used to as Latin American, very much similar to Mexico in some ways, but when you get over to the Eastern Coast, there are a lot of reggae, Rastafarian looking people. That fella is one of those guys.
36:09
And it was different. It was very different. And to get there, I had passed through a whole lot of banana fields. There were banana fields for just hours on the road, and that's one of the primary thing. You're passing on the side of the road, you're passing Dole trucks and you're passing Chiquita banana trucks and all this as they're going out and there are all these things.
36:27
The next weekend, the bus ride was a no. I didn't want to do that again. So I borrowed this '82 Honda Accord from a friend of mine and Tanya and I went back together and Tanya and I have done a lot of work together for a long time in Mexico by that point and in life before that, we've been married ten years at that point And we actually twelve years at that point and we got back down there and we did the electrical. Ran all electrical for the building and told Santiago, hey, make a list. And so the next weekend, we went back, we went back.
37:01
I I don't have a picture of the school bus. So, this is just stock image from the internet but we got an old beat up school bus, borrowed that from somebody, and took back 25 students from language school. All of them were planning on being missionaries somewhere in the world but a lot of them had no missions experience whatsoever. So, we went back down with them and we already had electricity that point to run like a cement mixer and we finished the rest of the church and it was awesome. It was really really cool.
37:30
Great weather. It's around December. It's just a beautiful place to be and this is the Lee family in that church in Talamanca. I don't remember the son's name but right now, they they served there for a long time but the inaugural Sunday was that Sunday when we got to go down there and finish the church. So, that was pretty cool.
37:49
Fast forward about four months, fast forward to Easter of that same year and Santiago needed a medical procedure so he went back to Korea and when he went back to Korea he said, I need somebody to preach. Now, on this inaugural Sunday, he called on me at no preparation ahead of time whatsoever and said, hey, brother Raymond, when you're here in Costa Rica and you're here at a church and you're a preacher, you get to preach. So, you've gotta preach. Come on up here. I'm a builder.
38:20
I'm the guy who did this the floor outside. Remembering the electricity but I, he said, no, you get to preach. You gotta preach. So, I got up and I did a little something on this Sunday but fast forwarding, when it came time for Easter service, Easter Sunday, Santiago had to be in Korea for something else and he called Drew Bora and said, hey, would you preach for me? Now, he's he's Korean speaking horribly broken Spanish.
38:46
I'm English speaking horribly broken Spanish at that point too. Talking back and forth to each other and I was like, but no, I I don't think so. And he said, no, no, no, no. You're the one. You're the one.
38:56
So, by that point, I had bought this car and we went Tortugues, means the turtle. It's the slowest thing in the world. It goes 35 miles an hour top end unless you're going down a mountain. And you don't want to go down a mountain faster than 35 because the brakes are worse than the acceleration. But that is sunrise, pretty rough.
39:17
That's sunrise with another guy that was with us in Costa Rica and we got to play and lead some songs right on the beach just outside of this Indian reservation and then I went and did a service at the big church we'd finished and then he was a circuit riding preacher. So, I went into a further out one and then to a further out one. So, I did three Sunday. I'm not a preacher at this point, right? Now, I know a lot of y'all have been here since I got here.
39:41
You weren't here the first time I did this message but this is not normal. This was not normal life for me to just be up in front of people speaking. In fact, there's nothing I was more mortified of probably and Tanya can attest to that and I was not. I was terrible. Quite honestly terrible but being there, singing that that's comfortable and feels good but after I got through preaching that day, I got paid and that's what they paid me with.
40:07
Ain't that cool? The first time I was ever paid to preach, it was with 70 pounds of green bananas. And they were super green. I mean, those might look a little yellow because of sunshine on em but they were green, really, really green bananas which are immature and not really useful, right? Not not too terribly useful at that point.
40:27
They weren't and so, I got home and I asked my Costa Rican neighbor. He lived right next to me and I said, so what do you do? You know, what do you do with 70 pounds of green bananas? And he gave me some advice. I'll tell you about it a little bit but I want to tell you something else.
40:44
Bananaology, we're studying bananas right now. I'll get to the scripture, I promise. Usually, I lead off with it. Usually, lead off with it. Typically, a banana tree produces just one racemo of bananas.
40:55
Racimo de banana or Racimo de platano. It means that that thing that we call a banana tree is only gonna produce one crop. It grows up and you can even, and I'm not joking, literally watch a banana tree grow. They grow very fast and you can watch them grow and then when they get to the point where they start to flower, they will produce that one crop. Now since then Pascal has done a study on bananas and she insisted I not call this a banana tree.
41:22
It is a pseudo stem, okay? For y'all. Bananas also, so this flower right here and here are the bananas growing. They're actually very large berries technically. So it's a berry.
41:37
I've got a botanist that's agreeing right now. Can I get an amen, Amy? Yeah. So bananas are very large berries and the seeds are in the fruit itself. So the resources for making more bananas are within the banana.
41:51
Does that make sense? Those little black things that we barely have. Most of the bananas we hear were are close to seedless but the little black things in there are the seeds and if you get more and more wild bananas, they, the seeds are more aggressive and bigger and look like the butt. Bananas are large berries. Here's the scripture.
42:08
Alright. The end of all things is near. Build a song service around that, Carl. That's what, you know, This week, when I was looking at it, I thought, the end of all things is near. That's what it means.
42:23
It's what it meant two thousand years ago when he wrote it, the end of all things is near. So, there's an urgency to what we're talking about here. There's an urgency to his message and so far, we've had five sermon services, I think. One is the study of the glory of God and then after that, we've had four or five messages about suffering for Jesus and then he says, the end is all, the end is near. The end of all things is near.
42:50
So, therefore, because the end of all things is near, therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Don't be caught off guard. Don't just be caught in the doldrums and the monotony of this is the way that it has always been since the beginning of time. Actually, he tells his people that in this letter, he says, yeah, there are folks that are going to say, it's always been the way it is right now. It's not going to change but Peter says, no.
43:16
Don't go with that. End of all things is near. So, therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit. They added the word spirit right there. I think that it's good but it also, it does mean be sober.
43:30
So, if you have a problem with drunkenness, this is a message directly to you for sure. Therefore, be of sound judgment and be sober for the purpose of prayer. He's already mentioned one time again that husbands are to treat their wives well so that their prayers are not hindered. Communication with God is really really important and the end of all things is near. He's the guy in charge.
43:53
He's the one in charge, right? Capital G, capital O. He's the one in charge. Be of sound judgment, sober spirit for the purpose of prayer and above all, keep fervent in your love. This is the second time he said it exactly like this in this book.
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Keep on being fervent in your love for one another. They will know that we're Christians by our pure theology. They'll know we are Christians by our contemporary song service. They will know we are Christians by our love. So, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins.
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I get calls from time to time to help people make peace among families sometimes or missionaries sometimes or sometimes people just can't get along. Husbands and wives sometimes just can't get along. Love covers a multitude of sins. It really does. Exercise loving one another.
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Exercise bearing with one another. Exercise it. Think about it. Be willing to overlook. Be willing to forgive.
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Keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. When you get on the phone and somebody starts with the multitude of sins, you could see that the level of love is very low. Do you agree with me? Yeah. I mean, sin has to be dealt with but Christ did deal with sin on the cross and if you're a Christian, that sin has been dealt with, right?
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And so, working through it together, seeking the best for the other, love one another, Fervently love one another. Love covers a multitude of sins. Be ready. Stand ready to forgive. Be hospitable to one another without complaint.
45:42
Oh, the the in Costa Rica. Going in to their home. Like, I've never been in to I've never been to Korea before and I've never been in a Korean home before and so we got there. Elena spread this huge meal of kimchi and I don't know what the rest of it is. That's the only name of anything that I knew.
46:03
Little salty fish and she made this whole huge spread because I was in the house. I'm a complete stranger. I've never been there before. Her daughter met me in class and I was there the next weekend but they were completely hospitable to me and then, when dealing with the Brevi Indians, we they were receiving them in exactly the same way of being hospitable without complaint. So when I asked my neighbor next door, what is it that you do with 70 pounds of green bananas?
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He said, hang em on a hook. Hello. Okay. What do you mean? He said, well, if you hang em on a hook, they'll eventually get yellow.
46:39
Well, I know we buy green bananas at the grocery store. Bring em home two days, three days later. He said, yeah, but they've traveled all the way from Central America to take some time, okay? Alright. So, I took a hook and hung em up in the back of the house and I hung them up back there.
46:57
We actually had in our backyard rebar over the top of our backyard. So we had a wall about 15 feet high all the way around our backyard and rebar on top. It looked a lot like a prison if you didn't know any better, but the rebar was to keep the monkeys out. And if you're hanging bananas in your backyard, it's good to keep the monkeys out. So I had the bananas hanging back there and, know, waiting one, my next door neighbor said, yeah, you just wait on, get better.
47:24
Get, they'll eventually be useful. So, what did I do? I just let them hang there. And they hung there and they hung there and they hung there, and you know what one banana looks like when you let it go? When it gets stuck over behind the bread or behind the toaster or something and you let it go for a while?
47:46
Can you imagine what 70 pounds of green bananas? I I forgot about. I left them back there. It was a huge blessing. Let's get back to this.
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Be hospitable. Hospitable means be loving strangers. Felas, we hear xenophobic all the time. Xenophobic is those who are fearful of strangers or don't trust, train, fearful of strangers. Philazina or Philazino in this case is loving strangers, plural.
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Just being ready to love em. It's mentioned in first Timothy, Titus, and first Peter and we have just studied first Timothy then Titus and then first Peter. We've hit this three times. It's a qualification for an elder in the church. It's a qualification for a deacon in the church to be someone who is loving strangers, hospitable.
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Now, the next line is the one. As each one has received a special gift. Each one has received a special gift. This is a statement of fact. There is no doubt about whether I I I or you have received a special gift.
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Just as each one of you who is a believer has received a special gift of grace, Caris Grace. Just as each one of you has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another. That's the, it's it's as simple as it possibly the teaching on spiritual gifts ever gets and actually Paul simplifies it further. I mean, sorry, Peter simplifies it further than Paul. Peter actually says, Paul's hard to understand in a lot of ways but just as each one of you has received a special gift employed in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
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Amen. So, there, the bananas. I got those bananas and it was a blessing at the time and and had the presence of mind actually take a picture of Tanya when we got home. Got out, got in front of the Land Rover, and took that picture. Me and my flip flops and blue jeans and missionary shirt.
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It was actually one of those missionary shirts that has little things right here. Looks like every missionary that ever spoke at our church when I was a little kid. It's a typical missionary picture. And it was a huge blessing to me when they got it and it was an unexpected gift and Santiago didn't tell him to do it. He wasn't even in the country.
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It was a a generous gift by the people for having brought them God's word, you know? But I hung it up and I didn't use it it just rotted. 70 pounds. It wasn't 70 pounds after it turned black, you know? I wasn't alerted to it.
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I don't have much of a sense of smell, so I wasn't alerted to it because I don't have much of a sense of smell. I was alerted to it because I heard it dropping off of this Racimo De Bonano. And so there was a huge pile up under on this terracotta floor. So gross. And I had received a gift and I hung it up and I didn't pay any attention to it.
51:07
I acted like I didn't have it and then it rotted and it was putrid, fermented, yucky, useless, nonsense that required cleanup. Regret Now, when Tanya and I got married, we eloped and we have never regretted that. We promised each other on our wedding day that we would try our best to live our life without regret. Now, we've had some regret here and there and y'all might think, well, if 70 pounds of raw bananas is only regret you have, then you're doing alright. But this is to me just a really good illustration that when I get a chance to use a gift that God has given, go ahead and use it.
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So, green bananas for me is to be a good steward of the manifold grace of God. You know, be a good steward of that. I did just listen to my neighbor next door and he told me what to do and it might have been good advice if I had been paying attention to it but you know, I could've taken those green bananas and chopped them off a hand at a time and handed them out to all my neighbors around me or I could've made banana pudding if I had caught them before they turned, right? But I didn't do anything with it. This is where Peter simplifies things more than Paul.
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Peter breaks down spiritual gifts into two categories. One of em is whoever speaks, it is to do so as one who is speaking the very utterances of God. Whoever speaks, he says, each one of you has been given a gift. So, be using it, employing it, to serve one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God and whoever speaks is to do so as one who's speaking the better utterances of God. The paper notes and more slides now of scripture and less stories is because I I feel like less and less less and less do I feel like my opinion is what matters.
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I feel more and more like scripture is what matters. So, I want to be speaking the very utterances of God. Have that on my heart, on my mind, and coming out of my mouth all the time but what I had been doing up until that point building and and doing humanitarian aid mission stuff is serving. I think that's the next line. Blake, is this thing clicking?
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Here we go. Whoever serves, so whoever speaks us, do so as one who's speaking the very utterances of God, the oracles of God, some translations say. But whoever serves is to do so, as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies. God will supply the strength. If you will use your gift, God will supply the strength and I wrote this down and thought about this scripturally and then thought about it experientially.
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What? All throughout our time in Mexico, I was punching above my weight class on the buildings we were building. I was doing things that I had never done before in ways that I'd never done them before and speaking a language that that was not my native tongue and I saw that God always helped bring me up to the occasion as long as I was willing to be doing it and go ahead and use an immature gifting, right? Now, he's really shown me that that's true and after six years, I got really reflective in the past couple weeks looking at this verse thinking that God is growing those. He's maturing those bananas, right?
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So that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. So that in all things, whoever speaks, do so and speak in the very utterance of God. Whoever serves is to serve with that God supplies so that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. What Matt said a little while ago is it's not about us. It is about God being glorified.
55:07
It's about who we are but who we are in Christ. To whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. So, I've got a few experiential takeaways that usually all my takeaways are straight chapter and verse. I think that these come from this passage but I know that they come from studying this passage in the light of life and so experiential takeaways. First of all, never hoard the blessing of almighty God.
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If God has blessed you with something, you should be employing it to serve one another as a good steward of the manifold grace of God. So, don't hoard it. Don't hoard it even for a time. Even if you think you might have a good reason. Bananas are not to let rot.
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Bananas are to eat And those folks that gave me those bananas, I mean, had lots of other bananas around, but they were in need, and that was a great paycheck for them, you know, and I did. Just let them rot and I praise God. He redeems things. I hope he's redeeming it right now. You'll most likely only discover your spiritual gifts by using them.
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Do you agree with? Good. You may not be good at everything but you can rest assured that the things that God has gifted you to do, you will be good at doing. Just as each one of us has received a gift. There is no doubt as to whether that's happened.
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Your gift might be that you are a good speaker, your gift might be that you're a good teacher, your gift might be that you are very wealthy, your gift might be anything. Paul lists and enumerates the spiritual gifts further than Peter. He just says, speaking or serving and those two classification. I mean, you can serve by speaking but those are two pretty good ones especially for a guy who was used to being one who served scared to death to speak, getting to a place of seeing that God has brought me into into a job where this is what I do. So, you'll most likely only discover your spiritual gifts by using them.
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Also, other people will affirm the gifts. This is not in the slides but other people will affirm the gifts. If you start using your green bananas and doing what it is that you can do, though your gifts may be immature, you will receive affirmation from people and they will let you know that, wow, you're actually pretty good at this. Your spiritual gifts are most likely only be discovered by using them and then three, God will provide opportunities for you to exercise your spiritual gifts. He will.
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If he's the one who gifted you and he's put you in a place, he's put you in a place to serve the body. He will give you the opportunity to use them even before you feel that they're ready to be used. Can I get an amen on that? Yep. Everyone of us as Christians has been uniquely gifted so that we would serve others in God's love so that he gets the glory that he deserves.
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We go back to the scripture. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who's speaking the very oracles or utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies so that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Carl, you and the band can come on back up. I think we're going sing glory to God forever, aren't we?
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It's appropriate. So, that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ because it is to him belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever and then it closes with amen right in the middle of a paragraph. Amen. So be it. That's the way it is.
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Peter says, so be it. So, would you all stand with me? And I want you to pray right now before we start this. Glory to God forever is what we're singing. Gifts, whatever your gifts are that you've got, would you be praying right now that you would be able to recognize the green bananas that you wouldn't leave them out on your back porch?
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That that they would not rot? You know, you can use a banana till the blood till the skin comes black. Do you know that? Some of y'all are past the point of being green bananas. Trust me.
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Alright? Some of y'all have received news from the doctor that said, don't buy any green bananas. You're on your way out. You can still be used. You can still be used by God.
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Banana pudding is better, much better when it's made with old rye bananas. In Jesus name, would you use what God has given you for his glory and for the good of the body? Amen. Amen. We're We're We're
1:02:58
come to
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do know Jesus, that. He gives that love to us. Keep it. Keep it. Keep your fervent and your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins and be be hospitable to one another without complaint.
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In Jesus name, lord, would you allow us that privilege of just being able to be hospitable and loving to one another and lord, without complaint. In Jesus name, we ask you to make it so as we walk it out, trust in you. Amen.
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