Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you that we have it in our language here and we can read it and hear you speak to us. And we pray this morning, Lord, that we would have hearts and minds and wills to obey your word and to trust you and you would help us to grow increasingly into the church family that you want us to be. We ask this for Jesus sake. Amen. Well, we thought about this before, but as christians we are increasingly on the margins of things, of the culture. Two years ago, an american commentator, a man called Aaron Wren, wrote what turned out to be quite an influential article in a journal online. And his article was called the three worlds of evangelicalism, the three worlds of gospel believing christians. And he said in his article, up to the early nineties, the culture was generally positive towards Christians and christian faith. We shared the basic moral norms and breaking those norms was recognised by everybody to be a bad thing and to have negative consequences. Then he said around about the nineties, the early nineties, culture changed and it was more neutral towards the christian faith. Now, he says, in the last ten years or so, the culture has become increasingly negative towards the christian faith. And perhaps you’re aware of that as you see the news. You read the paper just in conversations with family members or friends and so on, rather than sharing christian values and so on, that it did for many years, perhaps for our whole lives. Now there’s a hostility, maybe we’re nervous now about entering into certain conversations. There’s some topics we a bit nervous about talking about. We don’t quite know what to say. Because christian faith and the church has been pushed to the margins of society in many places, of course, around the world and throughout history, church has always been on the margins of society. In fact, that is where the church does best. So we mustn’t be frightened and we mustn’t be discouraged. This is where we do best. And when Peter wrote his first letter to the Christians in what’s now Turkey, one Peter, we call it the Christians. There were very much on the margins of things. At the beginning of his letter, one Peter, chapter one, he describes the Christians as elect exiles, scattered strangers in the world, strangers to the culture. But he says, you are chosen by God, you are sanctified by the Holy Spirit so that you may obey Christ and be purified by him. So rejected by the world, but precious to God. And when Peter wrote this letter to those christians in Turkey all those years ago, well, they were facing persecution and opposition. Not the great persecutions from the Roman Empire, not the statewide persecutions of Nero or Diocletian or some of those roman emperors. But local persecutions, maybe persecutions we can relate to a little bit more discrimination at work or the horrible comment over the garden fence. We can read about it in the book of acts, outbursts of violence, houses burned, people ostracised or worse. And what is Peter’s advice to these christians who find themselves on the margins? What’s his advice to us today as a church in Britain, in the west? What do we do when it looks as if, humanly speaking, nothing’s going to change anytime soon? This is what Peter says. This is his advice. One Peter, chapter four, verses eight to ten. We’ve been looking at these verses the last couple of weeks. He says, this is how you respond. Love one another deeply. Verse eight, offer hospitality without grumbling. Verse nine, use your gifts faithfully. Verse ten. In other words, he says, be a church family. Be a church family together. That’s what we’ve called this short series. And a couple of weeks ago, Ben Lucas spoke on the first loving each other deeply. Last week, Hugh Bourne spoke about offering hospitality without grumbling. And if you missed either of those sermons, do have a listen. They’re on the website. You don’t want to miss those. And this morning we’re thinking about using our gifts faithfully. And this is what verse ten says. One Peter 410. Here’s our text. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewardship of God’s varied grace. Peter has said at the beginning of his letter, you have been grieved by various trials. At the moment you rejoice in your salvation, though for a while you’ve been grieved by various trials. Now, he says, we have received God’s varied grace. We face various trials, but God has given us various grace. In other words, he’s saying, whatever challenges the church is facing, whatever challenges you or I are facing in our lives at the moment, they are matched by God’s gifts to his church so that we can meet those trials and challenges. So is it for a church? Is it opposition from the culture that we’re on the edges of society? Is it a personal challenge, maybe in your life or mine? Precious at home, worries about health or money or sickness or bereavement? Well, God has given everything we need to meet those challenges to his church family in this room, and we need to be a family so we can help each other, we can stand together. Peter says, if we use our gifts, the various gifts to meet the various trials, the various challenges. So this morning we are thinking about gifts. Now, there are lots of places in the New Testament which talk about the different gifts we have. So I’d like us for the rest of our sermon for the few minutes that we have to turn to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians, chapter four, and that talks about the gifts that Jesus has given to his church. Some of us met on Thursday here for a service of communion on Ascension day. And this passage talks about what the ascended Jesus did with all the authority and all the power that he now has and how he meets all the problems of this world. Have a look down at verses eight and nine. What does Jesus give to his world with all the problems, all the challenges, all the difficulties? How does Jesus solve all those things? Answer verses eight and nine. He equips local churches like all Saints Linfield, with gifts. That’s not what we were expecting, was it? Is that God’s plan to solve all the problems of the world? Local churches, yes. Not the United nations. That’s not his strategy. No. Not intergovernmental initiatives, not charities, not billions of pounds raised, not education? No. Those are good things. God’s strategy to save this world in all its problems is to give gifts to local churches like all Saints LiNFIELd well, there’s lots of lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament, and this is one list in Ephesians chapter four. There are four gifts mentioned in verse eleven. Have a look down on verse eleven. If you’ve got it there. See if you can spot what those four gifts have in common. Verse eleven. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. He gave the prophets, the apostles, the evangelists, the pastors, teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Those four gifts have all to do with God’s word. With God’s word. In the first century, before they had the New Testament written down, the prophets and the apostles were uniquely inspired by God’s Holy spirit to teach the words of Christ. They were then written down, and we have those writings today, the New Testament. So do we have apostles and prophets today? No, not in the same sense as they did then. We have God’s word written, and Jesus himself is our chief cornerstone, as the scriptures are the foundation of the church. The apostles and prophets, the evangelists, the Billy Grahams, the Louis Palaus, the Amy orr Ewings, the KP Johannans, all the others, yes, those are the evangelists. But also you and me, as we share as best we can something of the good news of Jesus. The pastors and teachers, probably that’s one role, not two. Pastor, teachers, shepherd teachers. Those who lead and care by teaching God’s word. Well, those are the four gifts that Jesus, or four of the gifts that Jesus has given to his church. Now, you might think, well, that’s all very well, thank you very much. I’m not a prophet or an apostle or an evangelist or a pastor teacher. So does that mean I can switch off at this point and there’s nothing for me to do? Sadly not. Verse twelve is our answer. Have a look down at verse twelve with me. God has given these gifts to his church. Verse twelve. To equip the saints for the work of ministry. To equip the saints for the work of ministry. So who are the ministers in All Saints Church? Linfield? We all are. Who does ministry here? We all do. I should take my dog collar off at this point, shouldn’t I? We might have different roles, but we’re all ministers in different ways. We might not be able to minister in the ways we once used to. That’s fine. We’re all prayers, we’re all encouragers, we’re all givers, we are all ministers and supporters and workers in different ways. We all have gifts, various gifts for various trials. We’ve all got gifts and abilities and things that we’re good at and we love and we’re interested in. Christ has given us those things so that we can use them to serve one another. So as we end, I want you to imagine that we’re at a football match this morning. There’s a match going on, and if the church is like a football match, who’s the congregation and who is the vicar? In this metaphor of a football match, who’s the pastor, teacher, who’s the congregation? You see, in some churches it feels like the vicar is the referee, sorting out the grievances, trying to stop everybody else fouling each other. That’s not my experience here at all Saints, I must say. But in some churches I think it is. In some churches, it feels like the vicar is the only player on the pitch. He’s doing all the ministry or she’s doing all the ministry and everybody else is in the stands. They may have paid to watch out of morbid curiosity, but only the vicar is playing. Again, that’s not the case here. And I thank God for that. Because in a healthy church, as we aspire to be, everyone is on the pitch, everyone is playing. We may have different roles and play in different positions and have different gifts, but we’re on the team together and we’re all serving. And of course it’s when we serve in different ways that we feel we belong to a team. So maybe there is somebody here who’s a little bit new and you’re thinking, but how do I get into All Saints? I still feel a little bit on the edge of things. I don’t know people very well, but I would encourage you to pray about where you might serve in some way and pick up one of these leaflets. Join a team and there’s some information inside of opportunities to serve. If you’re not able to serve, for whatever reason, please don’t feel guilty. Take this away. Detailed list of opportunities to serve and pray for it. Will you pray that others will take up those, meet those needs and take up those positions? There are specific needs at the moment. At our 930 service, not all of our children’s groups can meet every week because we haven’t got enough Sunday school teachers. So many children coming pathfinders sometimes can’t go out to their groups because their teachers are being redeployed. So will you pray that some will join that All Saints kids team, the Sunday school team and groups can happen. We don’t have enough. We don’t have any female leaders on our Friday night young people’s group. That’s quite important to have them. Will you pray that somebody who’s able to fill that position would do that? It might not be you, but you can pray that somebody would do that. I was saying to our 930 congregation, some of whom are working at home now after COVID, could they spare half an hour during the day when they have a lunch break or a coffee break, to meet up with somebody else in church or to visit somebody? We can do that, can’t we? Keep in touch with one another builder, be a family together, hospitality, visiting, hosting a connect group. There’s lots of ways. But look, take this away if you would, and pray. Pray that these needs would be met. Prayer is the greatest way of serving of all. And even if you can’t come to the prayer meeting, we can pray at home. Varied gifts to match varied trials. What happens to a church when everybody uses their gifts? What does that church look like? Well, look down at verse 14 to 16. As we end verse 14 to 16, Paul writes, then we will no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, even Christ. We will grow up. Before we lived in Linfield, before we lived in London, we lived in Plymouth, down in Devon by the sea. And our parish was on Plymouth Ho, if you know it, overlooking the water. Well, one day we had a few people join the staff team of the church and we decided we needed a team building morning. So we went on one of the three hour mackerel fishing trips that were advertised in the harbour. Well, we got our fishing rods and so on and clambered down into the boat and it was lovely and calm this side of the breakwater. And then he drove us out beyond the breakwater and he switched off the engine and the swell. Oh my goodness. And we all stared intently at the horizon for the next 2 hours trying to keep our breakfasts inside. Well, Paul says that if we don’t know what we believe, if a church is immature because we’re not using our gifts, we’re like a little boat that’s tossed to and fro by the waves, by the latest teaching, by the latest ideas in our culture, by the latest interpretations of the Bible, we’re unstable. And Paul says that’s the mark of immaturity. But we want to leave that behind and grow to maturity as we use our gifts, become strong and solid and healthy and growing together in Christ. So as our friends just assist Peter here, let’s bow our heads and we’ll pray. Dear heavenly Father, we want to pray right now for Peter and for Jennifer. Ask for your help and strengthening for them. We thank you for your word to us today. We thank you for our church family and we pray we would grow more and more into the family you want us to be for Jesus sake. Amen.