Ed Stetzer preached a wonderful, and humbling, sermon on Saturday evening from 1 Peter 4:
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11 ESV)
He was very clear that the ‘each’ who has received a gift really means each. That includes everybody called by God. No exceptions.
Just to make sure, I asked him after the service if this included those God created with the most severe of disabilities, like my son.
His response: “absolutely!”
That was encouraging to hear from a leader of his standing.
So, let’s work hard today to find the gifts that each of God’s creation has received from God, and work hard to equip every saint for the purpose of serving others in the strength that God provides, “in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
No exceptions.
Thank you, Dr. Stetzer, for this good word!
[…] It seems to me that there’s a danger in relegating children with disabilities to being the result of a “statistic” in that we then go on to classify their lives according to statistics—there’s a high probability that he will have significant learning disabilities, that life will be difficult for her, that he will live in pain for his whole life. And we no longer see each baby born as an individual created by God with the potential to be full of His giftings. […]