Open—Paul House
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Just a few simple thoughts, brethren.
First Peter, chapter 5.
We've so enjoyed John Chapter 10.
In the readings and.
I'd like just to read first Peter chapter 5.
With comment particularly on verse 10, but I'd like to read the chapter just to.
Encourage each one of us here. There's many different types of people that are here. There's people that are teachers, there's people that are.
Wives. Mothers.
And we need to.
One of us needs this incur the encouragement of this chapter. First Peter chapter 5. The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you.
Taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly. Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.
Neither is being Lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves onto the elder. Yeah, all of you. Be subject 1 to another and be clothed with humility.
For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace.
To the humble.
Humble therefore yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, our brother spoke of this walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
Whom resist steadfast in the faith.
Knowing that the same afflictions that are accomplished in your brethren are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.
To Him be glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen.
Why, Sylvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose I have written, briefly exhorting and testifying, that this is the true grace of God, wherein ye stand, the church that is at Babylon elected together with you. Salute saluteth you, and so doth Marcus my son.
Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Well, brethren.
We've enjoyed our time together.
And you know, I love going to conferences, but then I have to go home.
And that's always hard to leave.
And it's hard to go back into our jobs and into the responsibilities that we have from day-to-day. But, you know, there's things that we get when we open God's word for encouragement. And my desire is this afternoon that this would be a little bit of comfort, a little bit of help for us as we go back into the world that we're from, that we're in normally.
Our brother has spoken about these sacrifices and.
I so enjoyed.
The privilege this morning that many of us had to.
With our mouths, honor the Lord Jesus Christ when we think of how He died for us.
00:05:01
And he gave his life. He gave everything.
It's our privilege to respond to His love this morning. You know, I have to admit my mind wandered a little bit.
I got distracted by things around me, but the Lord was there.
And He was, He appreciated every thought I had upon Him, every bit of praise that I had in my heart for Him. And free each one of us that did that for the Lord's honor and glory. What a wonderful thing to have the sacrifice of praise and then materially to give of ourselves. He's given everything for us.
So we can give a little to him, can't we?
What a privilege. And then our bodies. This is such a sad thing for me.
To see around where I live, so many people.
That are just ruining their bodies.
It's so sad.
So unnecessary.
And we've been spared as Christians.
From so much, and we can be thankful to the Lord for that.
But then I was thinking of the people that are here in this room, me being one of them.
What do I need? What do I need for the rest of today, The rest of my life?
Until the Lord Jesus comes from heaven, I need encouragement for me. And so verse 10, the God of all grace.
It starts with that, with him, with God, It starts with him.
And it says the God of all grace. What's grace?
Well, it's getting what we don't deserve.
What?
Has God-given me? What is God-given you?
You know, I can look around and actually Jeremy's not here, but he said to me at lunchtime, he said, Uncle Paul, what do you, what do you think when you see guys like me that have little kids now? I said, Jeremy, that's wonderful.
I don't have any remorse that I'm getting older.
I'm thankful. I can see blessing. I can see you, Jeremy.
Your praise in the Lord this morning you have 3 little girls. That's wonderful. I look back and I see well in the back. I remember when Will was a little kid this big.
He's got a family now to raise for the Lord. What a privilege we have so much that we don't deserve.
Do we deserve to go to heaven someday? No, because we've sent all of us. But the Lord in His grace reached down and saved our souls.
Do you know how much that's worth?
God has given us so much.
The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory. That's where we're going. We're going to his eternal glory. That's what's ahead. We don't have to worry about things, do we? So I was just.
You know, we go to the retirement home, there's all these old people there and they can't have gardens anymore and they can't do this and they can't do that. They can't knit. They can't sew. They can't. But you know, I used to tell them, well, when people come to your room, be happy.
Be an encouragement to them. When your family comes to see you, talk to them about the Lord. Share the things that you've enjoyed in your heart.
I missed it.
What about the daily, hourly, minute by minute relationship that we can have with the Lord Jesus every day?
That's it.
You can be in a wheelchair.
Not able to do a garden, not able to knit, not able to sew, not able to do anything that used to be able to do. But you can be in the very presence of the Son of God.
That's what you can do, and to me, that is so important. It's something that we're so privileged to do today, to do now and to do the rest of our time in this world. Well, I was just enjoying that before us. We have the glory. It's ahead and it's going to be soon when we get to leave this poor world.
00:10:04
You know, I work as a contractor and I get to know people.
When we worked in their house for a week or a month or six months, you get to know people pretty well.
You know, I have this hope before me of the glory, and there's a lot of people who don't have that hope and they're miserable. They know that it's not getting better here. They know that it's getting worse.
Crime's getting worse.
Society's getting worse. They know it, they're afraid. But.
As a believer, I'm not afraid. I know the glory is ahead of Maine and it's eternal. It's not going to be for a week.
It's for the rest of eternity. Do I deserve it? The God of all grace, it's free. It was His love to me. And that's what is results in praise. The sacrifice of praise is when we dwell upon His goodness to us and that is so important for us.
Now it says after that ye have suffered a while.
You know, some of us have it pretty good.
Maybe we have bodies that don't have aches and pains.
Maybe we do. Maybe there's somebody here today and you are sore.
Your suffering physically.
But there's a lot of other ways to suffer too.
And I have some of those things. I have some family troubles.
I do. I have some troubles in my work too.
And I have other troubles.
And so do you.
And why do you have troubles? Why do I have troubles? Is it so that I can just be tough and conquer them myself? Or is it because the Lord wants me to be with Him a little bit, to tell Him about my troubles? That's what He wants. He wants us, and He wants our affection, and He wants our heart and our time.
And that's why we have troubles. But it's in view of the glory that's ahead.
We have a little bit of suffering now, but the glory ahead.
And the desire of the Lord, the desire of God.
Is that we would be perfect. You say perfect. How could I ever be perfect?
Full grown, that's what it means.
He wants us to go from grade one to grade 2 to grade 3 to grade 4 to grade 5 and so on in Christianity to learn about him.
To progress and to mature as believers. What a privilege that we have. And that's a desire that each one of us should have to be more full grown to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Establish.
Strengthen and saddle you. You know I can't go through each one of these and make a little difference between them, but I like those words.
I like to be established.
I like to be strengthened.
And I like to be settled too. And those are all things that are very important for us as believers to be happy in our souls. So it says here to make you perfect, establish, strengthen.
Saddle you.
What does it say next?
To him be glory and dominion forever.
And ever. Amen and so.
We have these sufferings in this life.
And it's in view of the Lord working these things in our lives to make us more mature.
Spiritually to strengthen us, to settle us, to establish us. But it's in view of His glory. That's why it's in view of His glory. And His Majesty may be an encouragement to us.