Text:I Peter 4:7-11

This is Palm Sunday and there are a lot of emotions and thoughts that go along with this day.  Of course the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem riding on the donkey.  This also begins the passion week that culminates with the death and burial of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  In this week you have the money changers being run out of the temple area.  You also have the last supper that Jesus had with His disciples before He was Crucified.  You then have the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot.  Praise the Name of the Lord this is not how things end.  We will talk about this next week.  For now, I would like to focus on the gift of salvation given by God Himself and then our responsibility once we have received this gift of great price.

The word receive in I Peter 4 means to have offered to someone to to get a hold of.  Christ freely offered the gift of salvation to all that will believe and receive this gift.  We have to take hold of it and make it our own.  No one else can get saved for you or say enough prayers to get you into the presence of God.  It takes faith on our behalf personally.  This gift that is mentioned means a favor with which one received without any merit of his own. Christ paid the full debt and offers salvation free to all who will receive.  

Then we see the heart of the Lord in His command to the church.  Minister in this same way.  You and I received the gift free and full, therefore, we need to minister free and full as well.  This word means to serve or to attend to.  God wants us to serve each other in the church and this is mentioned several times in scripture, Eph. 4.

God’s heart is for His people, the church to live in unity mentioned several times in this passage, Eph. 4:1-6.  This theme is mentioned several times in this passage.  God also wants His church to serve each other with the gifts that He has bestowed upon us, vs 7-12.  Then the church is to mature and grow in Truth and unity, vs 13-16.  The questions is, what are you doing with the gift?  Will you and I use it for ourselves and keep it hidden to others?  Or will we serve in unity and glorify the Lord as one?