IN ORDER TO LIVE OUT THE GOSPEL IN ALL THAT WE DO...

1. ...We submit to the Bible.

2. ...We are a family.

3 ...We serve others.

• We have been both secured by Jesus’ service to us and equipped with spiritual gifts, that we might freely serve both the church and the world. Our members are called to pour themselves out in a variety of ways, as well as to consider their entire lives to be spiritual acts of service.

• Scripture: Mark 10:45, Acts 20:24, Acts 20:35, Phil. 2:17

4. ...We make disciples.

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."  1 Peter 4:7-11

In this passage, Peter exhorts the believers to live with a sense of high calling and responsibility in light of the strong reality of Jesus Christ and the coming judgment. Therefore, they are not to live aimlessly but they’re to live with a self-controlled, sober-minded and glad obedience to the Lord.

The Kingdom of God is the King’s power over the King’s people in a particular place.

1. We embrace a biblical worldview that is encapsulated with understanding this paradigm: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

Redemption: "He (Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for your sake. Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."  1 Peter 1:20

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,"  1 Peter 3:18

"but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers."  1 Peter 4:5, 7

Restoration: "And he began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture (Isaiah 61-62) has been fulfilled in your hearing.'”  Luke 4:21

NCC Q51: Of what advantage to us is Christ’s ascension?

A: Christ physically ascended on our behalf, just as He came down to earth physically on our account, and He is

now advocating for us in the presence of His Father, preparing a place for us, and also sends us His Spirit.

2. We live as good stewards of the manifold grace gifts of God (v. 10).

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."  1 Peter 2:9-10

3. Our calling: glad-hearted, responsible living.

"For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living."   Romans 14:8-9

4. …Knowing our Christ-focused, responsible living leads to a commitment to kingdom advancement as we seek to be channels of blessing to those around us.

HC Q123: "What does the second petition mean?"

A: 'Your kingdom come' means: Rule us by your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Preserve your church and make it grow. Destroy the devil’s work; destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy Word. Do this until your kingdom fully comes, when you will be all in all.

APPLICATION:

1. The kingdom involves:

• hospitality (v. 9) (welcoming, relational, embracive).

• gladness and weighty management of all communication (v. 11a).

• faithfulness/infused energy and strength (v. 11b).

2. Our calling is to be a blessing to others (v. 10).

3. Our focus: that God be glorified through Jesus Christ.

4. Where are you intentionally using your gifts to serve others? Who are you serving?

5. This week… I will _________________.