Sermon Tone Analysis

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!

All of us are tempted to make rather ridiculous excuses to others, and sometimes even to God.

If we would consciously examine our excuses, we would discover how ridiculous most of them sound.

Someone has collected a few choice excuses that were offered to police officers in relation to automobile accidents:

“An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished.”

“I had been driving my car for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had the accident.

“I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law,and headed over the embankment.”

“The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.”

“The guy was all over the road; I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.”

“Suddenly a tree was there, where no tree had been before!”

Often the sad reality in the life of the 21st century church is that when it comes to ministry, believer after believer will make excuse after excuse as to why they can’t or won’t consider how they can and ought to make an impact on someone else…

Pastors hear excuses all the tim...Here are some of the many excuses offered up…some I have heard….I also have included my response to those excuses...

I’m too busy with work (Yet, you find time to go to the lake)

My schedule is too full with all the family commitments (So it’s okay to push God to back of the line of what really matters)

I’m too busy with other things (e.g.

spending time on your hobbies/entertainment)

I don’t know what gifts God has given me.

(What have you done to find out?)

I don’t have the skills required to serve in the available areas (Are you incapable of learning new ones?)

No one asked me.

(What are your reasons for thinking you need to be asked?)

I don’t want to commit to anything in advance (I’d like to keep my options open).

(Yet, your going on a fishing trip with so and so next month)

I give enough money to the church to pay the staff team to do it.

(So your view of church is its a country club where you receive a service because you pay your dues)

Serving is what the young people do – they’ve got the time and energy.

(So you believe God said “Your good, just coast the rest of the way”.)

I don’t get anything out of it.

(So serving God and others is really about you)

I just don’t want to.

(The real reason finally comes out!)

Think about it this way, what if some of the people of the Bible used those same excuses

Too old — Abraham

Too Young — Jeremiah, Timothy

Family life is too hard — Joseph

I can’t speak very well — Moses

My past is too dark for God to use me — Paul, Rahab,

I’m too afraid — Gideon

I have a bad temper and I fly off the handle too much — Peter

We’ve never done that before — Apostles

See when it comes to ministry, there really is no excuse we can make that will justify our lack of service...

I know there are going to be some who won’t like me after this message, but please know I will still love you...

With those thoughts in mind, please turn to 1 Peter 4:7-11.

Main Point: Ministry To One Another Is Every Believer’s Responsibility!

If we have truly grasped what it means to be the church, then we are not going to make excuses for our lack of ministry to one another, nor are we going to accept excuses from anyone who claims to be a believer and who doesn’t minister to someone else.

Take Note of the Urgency

Notice the first part of verse 7…what does Peter say?...“the end is near”… we are in the last days my friends...

The Scripture tells us that the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ inaugurated the last days.

1 John 2:18 “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

1 Cor 10:11 “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

In the New Testament the theme that the end of history is imminent is often sounded...

James uses this same terminology to describe the 2nd coming of Christ…

Notice what Paul says in Romans 13:11-12...

The apostle John also believed in an imminent return...

Jesus himself in Rev 22:10...

Here’s the thing about eschatology…nowhere in Scripture are we encouraged to set dates and develop charts…nor are we to withdraw from our culture and fix our gaze on the sky hoping the Lord will return right now...

The whole point of eschatology is not to argue the timing of when things will happen…each NT writer wanted God’s people to have a sense of urgency, to be alert, to live for Him today motivated by the truth that the end is near!

Knowing that this world is not our home and that our time is short should galvanize us to make sure our lives count right now!

We must think and live in the truth that every person, whether believer or unbeliever will see the Lord one day and stand before Him.

Live knowing that today could be your last day…every day could be OUR last day...

Peter just mentioned that back in verses 5 & 6 when he mentioned judgment...the day is coming when all people will stand before Jesus…Believers = BEMA; Unbelievers = GWT…point is only God knows the hour, so be ready!

By using the word THEREFORE...he links the rest of the text with the truth that the end is near....Peter shifts his discussion from how we relate to outsiders towards how we should relate to one another and he wants his readers to take ownership of the urgency of it!

Peter implies that believers ought to be motivated to minister to one another…three times Peter calls us to a greater level of relationship....love one another, be hospitable to one another, serve one another…we are to do this because we understand that Jesus could return at any moment, that our time on this earth is short…making every moment count…with no excuses!

What do you want to be doing when Jesus returns?

Do you want to be found sitting on your hands, suffering from mental anguish because you’re worried about the political and cultural landscape, having no time for God or His people because you are too busy pursuing things that have no eternal value, you’re expending more energy for earthly treasures and comforts more than you do the things of God?

Or do you want to be found expending all your energy, using all your resources, employing all the gifts God’s entrusted you with to communicate and display the marvelous and multifaceted grace of God by ministering to others

We need to grasp the urgency of this text…God established our relationships with one another to be a priority… and the world needs to see that!

The world needs to see the multifaceted grace of God in High Definition Color by the way we relate to one another.

Four admonitions we would do well to heed…three of these admonitions deal with how we relate to one another…so it is important for us to make our relationships with one another a priority the way God intended them to be!

The question we want to answer here this morning is “What can I do to take ownership of my responsibility to minister to others?

Admonition #1...

Pray with Purpose— 7

Regardless of age or spiritual level, everyone of us ought to be actively praying for one another…there really is no excuse we can offer up for our lack of praying for one another…it is an active choice of the will...

Peter gives us some insight into how we can pray with purpose....

Be clear minded and self controlled

These verbs are virtually synonymous…pray is attached to both verbs...

Sound judgment = Clear minded...The idea here is that we pray intelligently about things…we must have a mindset that thinks about life and evaluates situations through the lens of spiritual maturity...

Sober spirit = Being self controlled...suggests that we are to pray with a mind that is focused and alert…

Some people loose their heads when it comes to looking at world events…they look at our culture, our government, the world’s stage and just go bonkers with worry and fret!

Yes, our world is a chaotic mess, but as mature believers we have no reason to panic and lose our heads and act irrationally.

The believer who is clear minded and self-controlled thinks rationally, thinks biblically, is free from delusions…they will live life with purpose and not drift with every wave of new doctrine or chaotic event…they will exercise restraint and not be impulsive.

Just this week I heard a news story about some kids now identify as animals so some schools have installed liter boxes in the bathrooms for those kids who identify as cats!

Mature believers who think biblically, are not surprised by the thinking and actions of our culture.

As irrational and chaotic our world is, we know that God never looses control of this world.

He is bringing about His plan and we need to have a greater dependency upon Him.

We pray with purpose recognizing we live in a sin-cursed world...we entreat God with the understanding that He always retains His sovereignty over the affairs of man!

The mature believer can look at the worst circumstances and pray with purpose knowing that God is always in control and we can trust Him…any good that comes in this world we know is a result of God’s grace!

We know His plan is unfolding day by day and we are and always will be on the victory side!

We pray for one another as we navigate life in this chaotic world!

We can pray that all of us grow in biblical thinking and behaviors!

Prayer Calendar

Admonition #2...

Love One Another Deeply — 8

Read 1 Pet 4:8

Keep fervent in your love = meaning constantly with great effort...Fervent = means to be stretched…our love is to be real, sincere, genuine

Peter tells them three different times in this letter to love…

1 Peter 1:22 “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,”

1 Peter 2:17 “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.”

1 Peter 3:8 “To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit;”

This is of extreme importance…Peter says “Above all”…this love is agape love and is commanded because it is an act of the will…it is not a feeling…the goal of this kind of love is always to seek the good of the other person.