Intro 1: Good morning! Welcome again to our English service, I say that so often, but just speaking makes that phrase redundant. Bottom line, I’m happy you are here, I’m happy you are signed in, I’m glad we can worship together today, whatever that looks like. It has been a very interesting 9/10 months. Thanksgiving this year is going to look different, much like the rest of the year-gathering in person is likely not the best idea, so we again find ourselves at a crossroads. How are you making your decisions? Are you thinking short term or do you take one on the chin one more time for 2020 and try and make the best of it? This year has been all about challenging choices. In a way, it has created a space for thankfulness, it has made each one of us open and available to be thankful for things we might not typically give a second thought. Before we go any futher let’s take a moment and pray, shall we.
Opening Prayer: Dear Lord…
Intro 2: I’ve been thinking about short term pain for long term gain, those little sacrifices you make along the way in order to reach a long-term goal. The everyday efforts you make, that don’t necessarily feel like they are adding up to something big, or something important, but those things that are future impactful. Or, contrary to that thought-those things you do that you feel to the very depth of your soul. This time of year, tends to bring to the surface the full range of emotions in the best of times. We anticipate and our excited about extra time in person with our loved ones, though this year seems we will come up short. Again, short term pain for the long-term gain. However, you ever notice that we you are in those larger family settings are things can sometimes go off the rails pretty quicky. There is always that one family member who is looking to stir up trouble, looking to pick a fight, looking to bring up an old wound from the past. So, what you may have hoped to be a peaceful time tends to be this passive aggressive, walk on egg shells, I can’t wait until they all leave, why, LORD, why did I even bother doing this in the first place, Thanksgiving dinner?!? You ever have one of those types of holiday meals before…if the answer is no, no meal has EVER been awkward like that for you…I want you to reflect for the rest of this service…You my friend may have things you need to work through. The text in 1 Peter covers a wide range of emotions, so you might be thinking, what in the world does that have to do with thanksgiving, what does it have to do with being available and why in the world is the title for a service about thanksgiving…” Make me a Monday Christian”? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5s2n7WNpUQ) Before I answer that question, I want to show you a short video (+31), it is actually a state farm commercial from about 2 year ago. Thanks, how many of you remember, show of hands. If you are watching online, do me a favor in the comments but “I remember”. For a commercial like that, in this season, we tend to put in short term effort, for some short-term results in lives that don’t ever really touch our own. Like it shows, how easy is it to forget about those in need? We lose our eyes for these people. Today I want to talk to you about the ultimate short-term pain for long term gain, and how it was way more than just coming here or logging in on a Sunday, I want to talk about how important being a Monday Christian is, and what that looks like. Peter tells us three clear instructions in the verses we read, so I’d like to talk a little more about each. 1st.
Point 1: Love Deeply
Verse 8: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.” When you think about loving someone deeply, what comes to mind? There is an anonymous quote that goes like this: “My six-word story: I can’t imagine life without you.” Of all the quotes I read, all the famous authors, poets and scholars, this one stood out-unclaimed, six words on the back end of the quote. To love deeply is, in many ways, the realization that life will suddenly never be the same because of a singular event. An encounter, an event. I’m not talking about the star-crossed lovers in a crowded room because deep love is much more than a glance or a smile. Peter urgers us, above all, love each other deeply. While love can be grand, and romantic-not all love is romantic-not all love was meant to be that way, even romantic love was not meant to be that way 100% of the time. Love in time of covid, if you will, has taught us about the practicality of love itself. Right out of the gate today I want to share some ideas on how to put this into practice. That deep love can help us to look past things that might irk us. That time together is just that, time together and we ought to cherish those moments. Not that you need to make each second some touchy/feely thing, but to take away simple pleasure for every ounce of the relationships you currently have. I’ve said it before, savor the ordinary. Things like a family meal around the table, movie night, indoor smores, board games, building a 3D puzzle (even if you happen to be the worst builder in the group). Psychology Today says you should bestow love: by giving it your all you make your partner, your friends, your children feel loved and important. When you lift someone up, it gives that person the strength and courage to do the same for others. Believe that it is real, with so much going on it our world, it is hard to define fact from fiction. So why can’t we let love be our fact? Will we go into another lockdown? What pre-cautions should we continue to take as individuals, as families, as a church? When will the madness of the election final end so we can move on with reality and how will that change look over the next few months...all things that are on the top of so many of our minds? “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed”, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10 This verse reminds us, just like the song we sung moments ago, when the world is shaking, the ground beneath my feet, you’re the solid rock on which I stand! Believe that God and His love for you is the most real thing in all of creation! That nothing can separate you from that love, angels, demons, life, death, COVID…nothing in all creation like we read in Romans. To love deeply is to believe that God first love you, and to place your trust in Him alone. When you do that, you may also allow yourself to trust others, to let go of some of those fears, to let go of those hurts from the past. The silver lining of 2020 is that we have been given time to build strong relationships with the people we love because, we are able to talk through problems and good, bad or otherwise we don’t really have anywhere to run. While Peter suggests that loving deeply covers a multitude of sins-I believe the point he is driving home is that fairly simple when we look at the heart of it. I truly believe the Gospel is simple and not complicated. Because of God’s deep love for us, we are able to ENJOY, ADORE, and TREASURE our relationships here on earth because of that pain Jesus experienced on the cross, that short term pain He suffered was for your long-term gain. It makes you want to consider things in a whole new perspective and perhaps, puts you on a new path of gratitude and thankfulness. Loving each other this way begs us to be open and available, to be ready for use, to open our hearts to see the gifts God has in store for us, that take me to my second point.
Point 2: Use Your Gifts
We are going to jump head to verse 10 for a moment: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10 I’ve heard that word, whatever so often. Context in life is everything. I’ve heard it form the mouths of teens at youth events when asking for a little extra help, ugh, whatever…or stubbornly for people I’m close to at the end of an, let’s just say heated discussion…whatever you want…whatever. It was an insult when I was in high school, It is used as filler, “what are you doing later” I’ll do whatever” But as I read it, a word that often takes on harsh meaning, and carries negative connotations changes the entire tone of verse in such a meaningful way. Image the verse without that one word, listen again “Each of you should use gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10 It sounds so different, doesn’t it. It isn’t that I read with less feeling, but that one word makes all the difference, sometimes, one word, one phrase, a six-word story, can make all the difference in a person’s life. You can never be sure of when, or how, but being open to sharing that story is the key. Bill Wilson is a pastor of an inner-city church in New York City. It is very violent where he preaches. He has been stabbed twice as he ministered to the people of the community. He tells a story of a woman who was led to Christ. After her conversion she came to Pastor Wilson and said, "I want to do something to help with the church’s ministry." He asked her what her talents were and she could think of anything -- she couldn’t even speak English -- but she loved children deeply. So, he put her on one of the church’s buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you." The only six words she knew, her personal six-word story.
After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy never spoke. He came to Sunday School every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday School and all the way home, "I love you; Jesus loves you."
One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, “I---I---I love you too.” Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug and whispered in her ear “and I love Jesus too!". That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. Four hours later he was found dead. His own mother- in a drug induced rage had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash. "I love you; Jesus loves you." Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life -- from the lips of a woman who could barely speak English, doing WHATEVER she could. This woman gave her one talent to God and because of that a little boy who perhaps had never really heard the word "love" in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ. It’s all interconnected. Using whatever gifts, we have been given, in whatever way possible, shows the deep love that we have because of Jesus. Verse 11; “If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.” 1 Peter 4: 11a. I don’t know about you, but I believe these may be the most impactful words ever spoken. Peter implores us, speak the very words of God. Is there any better message in all of the gospel, I love you; Jesus loves you. It was everything that little boy needed to hear. Do you know what your gifts are? The second half of verse 10 ask each of us to be a faithful steward of God’s grace in its various forms-in other simple terms; be who God created you to be and use the special gift he has placed inside you. At times in life, there is some expectation that a spiritual gift needs to be some complicated thing that is bestowed upon you in some miraculous way, but we worship a God who asks us to show our thankfulness in real and practical ways. So why not look out for gifts in areas we may not think a gift would typically be? When you think about using your gifts, your mind might drift to preaching, teaching, prophecy, leaders-those who are out in front of the crowd. But what about those who use their talents behind the scenes, those people who do not want to be out in front, like the woman from out story. Some Christians take whatever they can do, a lesson from Sunday-that you take into Monday- to be Monday Christians. It’s not enough from some to worship God in church or online for an hour each week, when God touches your soul so deep, you do WHATEVER it takes to help others in your life feel the same way. You know what? Let’s, I’m lovin’ this word more and more, if you are watching online drop WHATEVER in the comments. (I remember whatever), the question becomes-what is our whatever, what does Peter urge us to try, and that takes me to my final point.
Point 3: Offer Hospitality with Compassion
Now we move back into verse 9: “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 1 Peter 4:9 There was a verse I learned a long time ago; it was my class verse from middle school. “Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crocked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life. Phil. 2: 14-16a. I’m proud to say I did not need to look that one up, my middle school teachers would be proud, I hope! What both Peter and Paul, the authors of these books are trying to convey is clear, don’t whine, don’t complain: offer hospitality and do everything, he may as well have said, do WHATEVER Jesus said in love and thanksgiving. What does whatever Jesus said really look like, Peter offers a clear example of hospitality. Opening our homes and creating beautiful tables is usually top of mind this time of year, and we tend to help others out of our deep gratitude. It has always been easy to help someone in need one time, and then walk away, it is why I showed that video at the very beginning-because this is the thanksgiving season, your eyes happen to be open to being thankful for all that you have so you want to help others, it is like being in the market for a new car and then you start to see that car all over the place. Yesterday, my neighbor didn’t have the car I wanted, yesterday I didn’t see so many of these models on the road. Where did they all come from? It is simple, your eyes were not open to the fact they were there. Being Thankful for whatever we have often opens are eyes to the needs of others around us, they are always there. We all need to get in the market of being thankful every day, not just this week. Even if what you have feels like a little, you are compelled by compassion for your fellow human to reach out and fill a need. We are even doing that with the boxes in the back of the church, and that is noble and good. God wants you to give, Peter mentions just to do without grumbling, but I think we should take it a few steps beyond that and offer it with a gracious helping of compassion. We need to do what JESUS SAID (drop that in the comments, would you?) Remember in Matthew 14:14, Jesus reached the shore, tired and looking to rest with the disciples, but what did he do instead? He saw the crowd, he knew there was a need and He had compassion on them, and He healed them before feeding them all. Jesus asks us to take our hospitality one step further, you might be tired, but so is your neighbor, you might feel like you don’t have enough food, share it anyway.
Conclusion: God wants you to be thankful in WHATEVER situation He brings you to. He wants to use you in a bigger way for His kingdom than you can even begin to imagine. I WILL REMEMBER WHATEVER JESUS SAID, I’ll be a Monday Christian, make me a Monday Christian. That is my prayer for each of you today, that is my prayer for myself. A six-word story. I can’t imagine life without you. I love you, Jesus loves you. Sometimes all it takes is six words to change life. AS THE PRAISE TEAM COMES UP I’d like to remind you that God is calling you to more. Life is much bigger than you think. He may never send you to a far away place, or into a violent part of town, but it doesn’t mean you will never reach someone who is far gone, or is stuck in a violent cycle. We are called to be messengers; we don’t need to complicate the beautiful message of the gospel. Thanksgiving is Thursday-this year might not be how you wanted it to be, you may not see everyone-but how can you, little old you impact change in your community. What can you do to make a difference in someone else’s life this week? Don’t over think it, just go out into the world in the ways you are able during these unique times. Six words can make all the difference, use your words, speak the very words of God. I WILL REMEMBER WHATEVER JESUS SAID. I CAN’T IMAGINE LIFE WITHOUT YOU. I LOVE YOU; JESUS LOVES YOU. God loves you; He really does.
Closing Prayer: Let’s Pray! “Lord, Help Us Love others. Amen.”
Benediction: Now, let us go out into the world in peace with courage, hold fast to that which is good. Repay no one evil for evil, help those who are suffering and honor all people. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Let the church say, Amen! God in peace.
