Living for Eternity

So turn with me this morning to 1 Peter chapter 4 and I will be finished by the end of this month of 1 Peter.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

I promise.

I already got it figured out.

Some of you ask me, in fact, I had two or three people say, Are you preaching today?

I said, Well, yeah, I'm preaching.

That's no notes.

Well, let me explain that.

Wednesday morning I sent them at 7 o'clock, but Tabitha with the hospital and everything.

Long story short, it didn't come through.

I was up in the mountains, so uh I guess that didn't come through.

Long story short, we got the outline, so she just put notes there.

So I I spoil you.

I know I do.

I know.

Most preachers, that's all they give you every week.

It's just something notes.

But I like to help you.

I want you to fill it in.

I want you to, I want you to be able to take what I give you every Sunday and go back, go through it during the week and regurgitate all the principles that God speaks to you.

And you know, when I'm listening to whether it's Rick or would it be David or another preacher that's giving me outline, I always put a star by something that really grips my heart that I know that I need to really work on or God is speaking to me about.

I put a star by it so that next week I'm gonna go back and study it personally.

Maybe it's only one or two points, but I'm gonna dig those.

That's why I don't cover all the scriptures a lot of times that I give you on the outline.

And so when you look at that outline, don't get scared.

We're gonna be here for two and three hours.

But uh, so that you can go home and research those other verses that relate to that principle.

So, anyway, that's the teacher in me, all those years of teaching in seminary.

So, but today we're gonna be looking at how to live for an eternity.

How to live for an eternity, an eternity.

Now, here's the thing.

We're living in an extremely perverted age today.

Would you not agree, church?

Would you not agree?

I would have never thought I would live to see what's going on in America.

Where now that we, thank God for Alabama and Georgia so far, though, amen, on the abortion issue.

Yes.

That we can kill a nine-month-old baby.

I don't, we're living in a perverted time in our country.

We really are.

Moral purity is fighting for its life.

Things that are happening today, if they had happened twenty years ago, you would have been shocked.

I mean, you would have been, you'd have been in jail.

Unbelievable.

This world is steeped in all this wicked democracy as it seeks to serve and satisfy the deprived depravity.

And it really is.

Or should I say, satisfy the desires of this unbelievable depravity that we're living in.

It really, it it's overcoming to me.

And by the way, this could be expected of the world, okay, right?

But even in the church and in the Christian circle now, we are falling for it and getting engoved in it and compromising in every corner of everything that we were brought up to believe God's word said not to do.

And we justify.

But in this section, chapter 4, verses 1 through 11, Peter reminds us that if we're going to have an impact on the people around us, folks, the only you don't, listen, let me tell you something right now.

You don't influence people by being, and I'm talking about lost people or backslidden Christians.

You don't influence them by being like them, you influence them by being different from them.

You really do.

And this is what he's talking about.

If we're gonna have an impact, we must be different from them.

And it's not easy to be different, it's not popular to be different.

Boy, is that not true?

It's not, hey, hey, not only is it not popular, it's not easy to be different.

However, it does require that we be different.

We must have a, in fact, not only must we be different, we are commanded to be different.

Jesus said, Be ye holy in all manner of your behavior, because it's written, be ye holy, for I'm holy.

So we're commanded to be different.

And so Peter says, okay, and remember how we're talking about in the most crucial, some of the most persecuting times.

Peter's getting his people ready, and he's saying, you've got to be different.

You can't reach these people that are horrible and living in an immorality and just living for themselves, okay?

Self-seeking, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

He says the only way you're gonna reach them is show them something that's different and that is real and that is satisfying and secure that will not pass away.

Jesus will not pass away.

So he says, I'm gonna give you seven principles on how you can live for eternity now.

And that is that not what we're supposed to be doing if you go to the Lord's Prayer.

I think about that.

We're to bring, hey, the Christian walk and the Christian life, our Father, which are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.

How do we bring the kingdom?

Now we know ultimately there's the kingdoms we're gonna be set up and we'll be there and reign for a thousand years.

We know that.

But how do we bring the kingdom of God right now to this earth?

By living the principles of the kingdom of God.

And Peter is telling us here.

Here's how you do it.

Ready?

Number one preparation.

Look at verse one.

For as much then as Christ had suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.

Now the first step is preparation.

We must be prepared for what is coming.

And remember how Peter knew that under the king, that it was going to be unbelievable persecution coming.

So he says we got to get prepared for what is coming when we sell out to Christ and live wholeheartedly for Christ.

That's what he was talking about in this whole first paragraph.

In other words, what he's saying is, when we sell out to Christ and live wholeheartedly for him in a wicked world, and he uses Christ as an example, he says, now remember, and don't say you can't do it because Christ is our greatest example, and he was the greatest, hey, he lived the greatest life, he did no wrong, but yet they hated him and persecuted him and ultimately crucified him.

So he gives Christ as an example.

And he says, Peter reminds us that if we're going to live right, there will be suffering.

Prepare yourself.

Prepare yourself.

No one ever lived better than Christ, no one ever suffered more than Christ.

In fact, look at Isaiah 53, verse 3.

Isaiah 53:3

He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as if it were our faces from him.

He was despised and we esteemed him not.

The Bible describes a vivid, detailed description of the awful suffering of Jesus.

Amen.

It was horrible.

Listen to what he says in Isaiah 52, 14.

As many, and now this is a powerful verse, I don't think I I saw this later, but write down Isaiah 52 verse 14.

Isaiah 52:14

And if you can bring it up, Benji, that'd be good.

As many were astonished at thee.

His vessage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.

Oh, folks, the word astonished there literally means to be stunned.

It means to grow numb.

It literally means devastated, astonished at such a devastation.

It means confounded with fear.

All kind of, in other words, people were so devastated when they saw Jesus after he had been ripped to pieces by the Cattle 9 tails, how he'd been beaten and flesh and just hanging and they couldn't even look at him.

In fact, here's what it literally means after doing all my research.

People when this verse literally means they could not even look at him because he was so marred and so beaten and so battered and so just uh horrific, just unbelievable that they couldn't even believe he was human.

That's what it means.

Wow, think about that.

You don't want to think about that.

I didn't either.

In fact, Isaiah 53, verse 2 says, He had no form nor comeliness, and when he, hey, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:2

While his vestige was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.

The word vestige there means his appearance.

The word marr means disfigured, and his form more than the sons of men.

He no longer appeared, that's what that means as human.

All that means, he no longer appeared as human.

Wow.

You read those verses, those words, and sometimes you don't get the picture, and I'm not doing a good job of describing it.

If we have one of the pictures that sometimes we play at Easter of the way that he was beaten, and Benji shows that every so often when we do Easter stuff.

It's horrible.

But that's exactly what he's talking about.

The text continues and talks about Albert Barnes, one of the greatest theologians back in the 1800s, said this: Jesus was so disfigured as to retain scarcely the appearance of a man.

This brutal disfiguring of Christ was prophesied earlier by the psalmists.

Look at Psalms 22, 6.

Now, this is, I had never done a research on this.

This is powerful and interesting.

Watch this.

But I am a worm.

Whew.

I've read that a hundred times because I've read Psalms 22.6 because it's a description of the crucifixion.

But I really had never done a word study on worm.

And I don't know why I hadn't, because I love whether studies.

But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

So I took that.

The word worm is to lay.

It's the Hebrew word tulai.

The word worm specifically, now watch this, speaks of the crimson crocus, C-R-O-C-U-S grub.

So what is that?

That's what I said.

Here's what it is.

That when crushed, this crimson crocus grub, when crushed came out and was used to furnish and to put in to the dye so that the scarlet red color for royal robes of kings could be dyed.

Now let me tell you what that meant.

This kind of worm, when it would have get ready for having young ones, would attach itself to a tree.

Big oak tree.

And they'd be all over it.

And then in order to get that special color to go into the dye to make it a royal robe for a king, they had to crush that word.

Is that not unbelievable?

Because two thousand years ago, there was a man named Jesus that was crushed on a piece of wood.

Called Calvary.

And he shed his blood so that we could be free.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

What a picture, folks! What a portrait.

So this is what we see.

Of course, after the crushing had taken place, watch this.

The worm was no longer recognizable.

After Jesus was crushed, he was no longer recognizable.

Thank God for his mercy.

So it was that Christ on the cross, where he was crushed under the weight of our sin, it was there under the wrath of God that he shed his blood for the sins of mankind.

It is the crimson flow that makes it possible for us to be what?

Clothed in kingly robes of righteousness.

Wow.

What a picture.

What a savior.

Who his own self bears sins in his own body that we on the tree, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness.

1 Peter 2, 24.

Oh, all Jesus ever did was good and he suffered and died for it.

This is an example of God's people to follow.

This is what he's telling us to do.

Be prepared to suffer for in this world that's going worse and worse, growing worse and worse every day.

2 Timothy 3.13 says that though it'll wax worse and worse.

I don't see how it can get any worse.

But it will.

But it will.

So with that said, look at number two.

Verses 1 through 4.

Not only are we to be prepared, preparation, but then we see the purity.

This is a, whoo, this is good.

Peter says, 1 Peter 4, 1, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.

That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God, verses 1 and 2.

Now, what exactly did Peter mean when he said, He that hath suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin?

Some have actually said that suffering cleanses people from sin.

We know that is not the case, for it is the blood of Christ that cleanses us from sin.

In fact, you have people all over the world, especially in more of the Catholicism countries, that will literally beat themselves with a cat-on-ine tail, that will literally take the cross and walk up, and some even allow people to crucify them because they believe that's cleansing them from their sins.

That's really true.

Seen it.

But we know that's not the case where it's the blood of Christ that cleanses us from sin.

Others take this to mean that when a Christian suffers like Christ and he dies, he stops sinning.

News flash.

Hello?

That's real smart, isn't it?

All who die stop sinning, not just those who suffer.

But I believe we can better understand what Peter means by looking at the next verse.

Look at verse 2.

That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God.

Here it is.

There's a contrast here.

Peter is talking about the way we used to live compared to the way we live now that we've gotten saved.

Okay?

That's what he's saying.

Now listen to me, folks.

When you got saved, if you got saved, you changed.

If you really got saved, you changed.

My granddaddy used to say, no change, no salvation.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ Jesus, listen, he's a new creation.

Old things have passed away, behold, all things become new.

You can even see that in children if they really get saved.

That's why children's salvations can be complicated.

But it can happen.

But you'll feel change.

Now, in order to keep that change, you have to constantly have.

You know what I've learned?

Discipleship with a child is one of the hardest things you'll ever do.

So don't get discouraged, parents.

They make a decision at a young age.

You've got to just stay with them.

Stay with them in those family devotions.

Constantly tell them to tell you about them getting saved.

Let them reiterate their testimony over and over again.

Show them what it means.

Why they're different.

Why they ought to lie.

And by the way, and then that's what exactly what Peter does right here.

This is awesome.

Peter says, in talking about the way we used to live compared to the way we live now, hey, Peter tells us that ceasing from sin means that we no longer, hey, are going to spend the rest of our life in the flesh and doing the things of the flesh.

Now, not that we're not tempted to do it, and sometimes we do, but it's not a continual lifestyle of ours.

Can I get an amen?

You had that lifestyle before you got saved.

Amen.

Now that we're saved, then he says, Well, let me tell you, there's six, there's about six things here that ought to be a major difference.

These are well, I mean, well, these principles that we're saying, but even under purity, he he deals with it.

Look at verse 3, verbatim.

I mean, this is so powerful.

No preacher, I want to ask you, you ask yourself when's the last time you've heard this?

This, what I'm about to preach, preached.

Because I'm gonna tell you, it's not popular.

I'll be discussed and cussed, saying I'm out of time.

And what I mean out of time, I'm not, you know, I'm not politically correct.

Uh people don't believe that way anymore.

Well, let me tell you something.

If you believe the word of God, you believe it.

And the word of God's never out of time, it's never out of culture, it should dictate the culture.

But now watch what he says.

Verse 3.

For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in.

He said, now basically, don't you remember this is the way you were before you got saved?

These are the things you see in lost people that ought not to be seen in a Christian.

Can I get an amen?

Here's what he said: the word lasciviousness.

Big word.

You know what it means?

Indecent and shameless behavior.

Hello.

Are we not living there right now?

It carries the idea of living without any restraint.

Feels good?

What's the saying?

Finish it.

Feels good?

Do it.

Why?

There's no restraint.

There's no consequences, the world says.

It's your business.

You can do what you want to do.

Nobody can tell you what to do.

It is living according to the lustful desires.

We all have them.

Even Christians.

Hello.

Somebody said, when you get saved, you ought not to have those lustful desires.

I said, Well, you didn't get saved.

Isn't it amazing how after you get saved, those desires come up in times that you wouldn't even think about it?

And they're so strong, and you're saying to yourself, now wait a minute, Lord, I got saved.

Why is that there?

And Satan said, Because I'm still here.

And yes, amen.

And he doesn't want you to be an effective witness.

He doesn't want you to, hey, be a living testimony.

He wants you to fall and stumble and fall and stumble so they can say, if that's Christianity, it's not real.

But you have the power, and we're going to see that.

Hey, but think about it.

We're talking about, we're speaking of a day in which we live, a day when men and women have no shame about their sin.

I can't believe it.

And Hollywood's floating it in our faces.

There used to be a time when folks were trying to hide their sin.

Remember that?

When I grew up, if a lady got pregnant or a student got pregnant out of wedlock when I was in school, you know what?

Now I'm not saying I agree with them making them quit school, but they would.

You couldn't come to school anymore.

Because it was shameful.

They didn't want you to, they didn't want to say they thought back then, and there's there's some legitimacy here.

I'm just being blunt honest this morning.

That that, you know, we're not condoning it.

It's a bad influence and all that.

Today, we have people that don't even get married, don't want to get married, they live together and have babies, and they just don't think anything's morally wrong about it.

See, I know that's not popular.

But I'm sorry, I'm not going to stand before you in popularity contests.

I'm going to stand before an awesome God and give an account for what the Word of God says and what I preach.

And I know this is tough preaching.

We all are affected.

We've all had people in our families, and I'm not saying that we hate them or we turn them aside, but what I am saying we love them, we hate their sin, and we tell them what's wrong is wrong, and that they need to repent and get right with God.

God will forgive them, and they can still live that happily ever after.

But there's consequences.

And the consequences of trying to hide a pregnancy, having an abortion, killing a baby because it was shameful.

Now they just, now they, now they abort them because they don't want the inconvenience.

Well, if you don't want the inconvenience, you'll not be doing what you're doing.

Hello?

Immorality leads to that.

Can I get an old me maybe?

Men and women?

Thinking they that, you know, men with men, women with women, these people live just for sensual pleasure, floating their wickedness and in open defiance against God's word.

Really is.

It really is.

Are we to love them?

Absolutely.

Do I love them?

Absolutely.

And there's none that'll love them anymore and witness and help them anymore.

But I'm not going to condone what they're doing.

And I'll tell them in a loving way, that's not what the word of God says.

It's not right.

And you'll never have that ultimate peace and happiness defying God's word.

You can't do it.

You'll never have the peace of God that passes all understanding, that will keep your hearts and minds in and through Christ Jesus when you're living in that kind of open sin against God's word.

Can't do it.

Can't do it.

Notice the second word.

Lust.

The word speaks of unlossful desires.

We are clearly commanded to abstain from such lusts.

Listen to what he says in 1 Peter, if you remember, 2.11.

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul.

Did you hear that?

Paul wrote it this way: Romans 13, 14, it's up there.

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions, no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

In other words, stay away from it with all cost.

Stay away from that lasciviousness.

Stay away.

Whatever it takes.

And number three, notice what it says excess of wine.

Uh-oh.

Well, this is a biggie.

I'm sure you're gonna get run out of town on this one.

Now the excess means drunkenness.

And I know that's where everybody draws a line on drunkenness.

It's okay as long as you don't get drunk.

That's gonna be between you and the Lord.

But the word calls it alcoholism when it's drunkenness.

They always try to dress it up and make it more acceptable.

Hey, they contend that it's not a sin but a disease.

Now, before you jump on me and dunk down my throat, my w mother was alcoholic.

My mother died at 56 years of age because of alcoholism.

But the correct biblical word because of drunkenness.

Now, my mother got saved three months before she died.

And it triggered seizures, and she died of a seizure that was caused by the drunkenness.

At age 56 or 57.

Never knew my mother.

She kept me out of my house when I was about 10, 11 years old.

Sixth grade.

Because of her drunkenness.

When I was a police officer, I would stop a car.

I'm telling stuff I've never shared openly, but I want you to understand, I know what I'm preaching is true.

And my mother was in the backseat of a car drunken with some meat.

I know what one beer can do.

And I never forget what she told me.

She said, I started by drinking one beer.

You don't know how it's gonna get you.

You don't know.

Here's Peter saying strongly.

Excess, he's saying that we try to see drunkenness as a disease, not a sin.

But really it is a sin of volition.

It really is.

America's saturated.

I I I'm not gonna bore you with all the statistics, but they're there if you want to look them up.

America's saturated with drunkenness.

The poison of strong drink has starved more children, wrecked more lives, destroyed more homes, ruined more young people, filled more graves, and sent more people to hell than any other sin known to man.

Strong drink and drugs is clearly off the limits for Christians.

Totally.

And I believe that.

I believe that.

Look at what Proverbs 21 says.

This is one of my favorite verses.

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging.

And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

I don't want them not to be wise.

Amen.

Look at number four.

Revelance.

Greek word there is comas.

And it comes from the same word which we get the word carousing and partying.

We carouse and we party.

Another synonym is orgy.

It speaks of drunken parties filled with sexual activity.

It is the party scene of the day.

People love carousing.

They love to go to the nightclubs and parties.

The word reveling is used only twice.

Now, watch this.

Only twice in the New Testament.

In the other occurrence, listen to what Paul says about it in Galatians 5.21.

Here's what he says.

With revelings and such like, in other words, such activity, of the which I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Can I say it any plainer?

You cannot live a lifestyle like that and expect to go to heaven.

Not gonna happen.

And you know why it's not gonna happen?

Because you're really not saved.

Remember?

There's a difference when you get saved.

Powerful truth.

And then number five, look at the fifth thing.

The word banqueting carries the idea of drinking, a drinking match, a drunken bout.

It is similar to the previous word.

It speaks of a drinking party.

The word is patas.

And then number six, last in the list is abominable adulteries.

This speaks of the worship of idols.

We think of idols as statues or false gods, and that is true.

But let me remind you, it goes much further than that.

An idol is anything that takes the place of God in your life.

Anything that takes the place of God being first is another way of putting it in your life.

It could be your work, it could be your food, it could be your books, it could be your education, your sports, your possessions, your television, your technology, your fashion.

Now, watch this.

It can even be your family.

Now, people would argue with me.

There's no way if your family keeps you from being and doing what God wants you to do, then it's your God.

Powerful truth.

Hard truth, isn't it?

Is it not hard?

What I'm preaching right now is about as hard a truth as you're gonna get.

Because that's it's right, but can I say something?

That's right where we are today.

That's why you're looking, and you know what you're thinking right now?

You're thinking, my goodness, how did we get here?

What preachers preaching?

I can remember hearing this preached on 20 years ago when I was in seminary and all thinking, yeah, yeah.

But we weren't there like we are now.

What I just preached, people don't that, you know what they'll you know what the world will say when I walk out of here, if they hear this right now, that's just his opinion.

That's all they're gonna say.

That's his opinion.

And by the way, God didn't write that man wrote that book.

God didn't write that book.

They tell me that all the time.

And I always remind him 330 prophecies were predicted in the Old Testament that have been fully fulfilled, verbatim in the New Testament.

Now you tell me how that's just another book.

If this book had already been disproven, you and I wouldn't be here this morning.

Can I get an amen?

That's pretty good, preacher.

If this book's not what I thought what I know it to be, why would we do what we do?

Because we do believe that there's a God, we believe that he sent his son, we believe there's a hell, we believe there's a devil.

And my friends, if you die without Jesus, you're going to hell and you're gonna burn for an eternity.

Yes, I know nobody else will know.

I know that.

They don't preach it, but I love you and I'm telling you the truth.

America needs revival.

Even my watch asking me, Am I okay?

I'm okay.

Are you okay?

I mean, people, idolized ball players, Hollywood stars, musicians, and other worldly people, Christians, what is taking our place in our own lives?

What is more important to you and me than Jesus and his church?

If there is something there, then you got an idol.

You ought to be looking forward to going to church every morning.

Every Sunday morning, especially.

I go to church every morning.

I get my book, I get one God's word, I'm in church.

You ought to look not look for opportunities not to go, look for opportunities to go.

Hello.

The point Peter's making is simple.

This is the way the unsaved live.

Hello.

We expect such behavior from those who do not know Christ, but God's people that have been regenerated.

We are new creatures.

Watch this, Romans 8.

Watch this, Romans 8, 5 through 8.

You've got to see this.

This is awesome.

For they that are after the flesh, now watch this, do mind the things of the flesh.

But they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death.

But to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because the carnal mind is enmity, hostility against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, does not believe the law of God, doesn't want to hear the word of God, doesn't want to do the word of God, neither indeed can, because there's no power to keep them from living fleshly like they're living, then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Folks, does it get any plainer and simpler than that?

As God's people, we have made a clean break from that old life.

We cease from the old sinful lifestyle.

That doesn't mean we we're not tempted and sometimes we fall, but it means that we can't go back and continuously live like we were before we got saved.

You can't do that.

You can't do it if you're really saved.

And if you really are saved and still try to do it, you better be careful.

You're on some shaky ground because the Lord can take you out of here.

Quickly.

1 Corinthians 11, read it.

You can't make a mockery of God.

And that's what Peter's trying to tell him.

You can't, hey, you can't have one, I call it fence riding.

One foot in the world and one foot in the church.

You can't do that.

Jesus says, either you're for me or what?

Thank you.

Can't do it.

Can't do it.

There is no middle ground, there's no straddling the fence, there's no compromise on this issue.

Jesus made it clear, Matthew 12, 30, either for me or against me.

Listen to what Moses said.

Whew! I don't know if I have this.

Do I have Hebrews 11, 24 through 26?

If not, just listen.

I'll read it to you.

Watch this.

I love this.

This is one of my favorite passages.

By faith, Moses, when he had come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He had it all.

He was, hey, he was second in command of Egypt.

The worldliness.

He had the best education.

He had anything money could buy.

He had it all.

But notice what he said.

He says, I can't do that.

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, estimating the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

Hey, may we never be ashamed of the fact that Christ is our Savior and that the greatest reward is yet to come.

Is that not good?

Here's a man that chose to lose it all, to gain it all.

So you have to lose all the world has to gain all that Jesus has.

Can't have both.

You can live in the world, but you can't be of the world.

Jesus said.

Brings them into the third thing.

Perspective.

Look at verse 5.

Who should give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead?

This verse points us to the second coming of Christ, the rapture.

God's people aren't, hey, are not to live for the here and now, but we're to focus on the there and then.

Amen.

I love that.

Beloved, look at 1 John 3, 2.

1 John chapter 3, verse 2 and 3.

1 John 3:2

Beloved, now we're the sons of God, it does not yet appear what we shall be.

Well, I love this.

Beloved, now we're the sons of God, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him, watch, here's the ending of the verse.

Purify himself even as he is pure.

In other words, you're living for the moment of that rapture.

You're living every day as if he's coming today.

Let me tell you how help us with what you're doing.

When you go to a movie, when you go to a sporting event, whatever you do, whatever you go and do, whatever you go and do, ask yourself, would you want to be doing what you're doing if you knew Jesus was fixing the rapture of the church?

Hello.

Remember those braces of bat 20 years ago?

What would Jesus do?

That was a powerful bracelet.

So, what would Jesus do?

That's a way of asking.

Whatever you do, would Jesus do it with you?

And I used to preach that all the time.

Whatever you do today, whatever movie you go see, hey, would turn to your right and say, Jesus, would you like some popcorn?

Jesus, do you want to drink with sugar or would you like a diet?

Hello.

I'm not I know y'all think I'm funny or making fun.

I'm not making fun.

I that's the way our life ought to be lived.

Get up in the morning.

Jesus, I need to brush my teeth.

Don't you think I do?

And what do you think he's gonna tell you?

Yes.

He doesn't want you to have cavities.

Do you know 65% of germs come through your gums?

Present your body of what?

And say I'm giving you the factual proof present your body of what?

A what?

So brush your teeth.

Floss your teeth.

You Listerine goggle.

I was raised on that yellow.

That was worse stuff I've ever.

Oh.

Thank God for the new Listerine.

I used to goggle and throw up at the same time.

Hello.

Break your teeth, goggle with Listerine.

And if I really got a sore throat, then they'd take the Listerine, put some peroxide with it.

Try goggling that.

When the Son of Man cometh, look at Luke 18, 8.

Here it is.

Now all that I was saying, here's the biblical proof.

When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Shall he find you living what you claim to be?

Is that not good?

Somebody say that's good.

I know.

I had to get us laughing.

We were so beat up, but I mean too.

Lord, help me, preacher.

That's killing me.

I know, me too.

Number six.

I meant number four.

Verse six.

Proclamation.

Look at verse six.

For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but living according to God in the spirit.

These are sober words indeed, because notice what Peter says here.

This is also for this cause, that is because these people will have to stand before God someday and give an account.

In other words, Hebrews 9 27, and what?

It is appointed unmen wants to die, and after this the judgment.

We know that people are gonna die and without Jesus they're going to hell.

So we're gonna be living these principles in our life so that we can bring them with us to go to heaven and bring them to Christ.

Every one of us have people in our family that aren't that are lost and some that supposedly claim they're saved but aren't living for Christ.

They got to see a difference in our lives.

They got to see a difference.

Now let me tell you they won't like it and some of them will turn away from you and even talk bad about you.

I'll be talk pretty bad about today.

That's okay.

I'm going to talk about me too.

Preacher that's tough.

That's really what about this God?

What about this God?

Yeah, what about this?

What about this?

Yeah, I don't want to hear it.

But we see this is what he's talking about.

What a serious responsibility we have to go out and proclaim the good news of the gospel to the lost.

It's tragic that Christians have no witness among the lost.

And it seems like it's getting worse and worse.

But I know that's not true.

But it seems that way.

But thank God for CCW and for Liberty and these other churches that aren't ashamed of the gospel.

Can I get an amen?

Aren't ashamed to wear the Jesus is awesome bracelets or the pickleball bracelet I wear.

I play in Jesus' name.

Not ashamed of it.

Not ashamed of the gospel.

Which brings me to number five prayer verse seven but the end of all things is at hand.

Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer.

Peter said, be ye therefore sober.

The word sober sophro neo the Greek word.

You know what it means?

Sober minded it means clear headed in other words we must think clearly Satan wants us to think what?

Not clearly.

He wants us to think unclearly that's why he messes with you what?

Casting down what?

And every high thing that what exalts itself against the knowledge of God what are we to do?

Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

That's why because notice what he's saying we must be able to think clearly to think according to the word of God.

We must be a people of discernment 1 Corinthians 2 15 look at what it says but he that is spiritual judges all things.

In other words you have spiritual discernment yet he himself is judged of no man.

In other words if you have spiritual discernment you're going to do what's right whether you're judged by man or not it doesn't matter.

You're doing what's right you're doing what's pleasing to the Lord.

The next Peter says watch unto prayer we're helpless without prayer can I get an amen you know what I was doing all my research and study this week an old Puritan I can't even remember which book I was reading or looking at this talking about the phrase watch unto prayer here's what a one of the old Puritans said prayerlessness is one of the biggest hindrance to God's work I know you got to think on that a minute prayerlessness is one of the greatest hindrances to God's working and asking for God's power and guidance what we're most of the time doing, we're doing the work in the flesh Wow think about that folks then that same in fact this is why James said you have not because what?

You ask not James 42.

Then Paul wrote watch what Paul wrote in Ephesians 6.18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

Again look at the word always continual prayer.

Listen to what John R.

Rice great preacher of the early 40s and 50s John R.

Rice used to say every here's another statement write it down every failure for a Christian is a prayer failure.

Every I know that doesn't say wait a minute you got to you're going to have to work through that every failure for a Christian is a prayer failure.

For example if I don't pray through what I feel like God wants me to do or what I think God wants me to do and I have biblical confirmation and counsel with godly people I could easily mess something up real quick and have messed stuff up.

Anybody else out there like that?

Because I didn't pray it through interesting it powerful Robert Hall another great theologian preacher of the last century had had said it this way the prayer of faith is the only power in the universe to which the great Jehovah yields woo let me repeat that again that's good.

The prayer of faith is the only power in the universe to which the great Jehovah yields prayer is the sovereign remedy to our problems prayer.

And that's the I know personally that's one of the least things I do.

I can study the word eight hours without getting up or just go to the restroom but praying's hard.

Isn't it when you call for a prayer meeting it's the least attended amazing isn't it call for fellowship with going here going to do this.

Hey everybody shows up call for a prayer meeting of 1520 hello you okay out there well I'm afraid to pray out loud who says you got to pray out loud don't you think God can hear your silence prayers oh I'll be embarrassed.

I don't know how to pray.

You know how to talk when you tell me you don't know how to pray when people say I don't really know how to pray for each I always ask them do you know how to talk y'all not talking to me do you know how to talk you know how to pray I talk to God just like I talk to you Lord I got a problem that's what's wrong.

Lord I don't have a problem you got a problem casting all you care upon him because he cares for you.

1 Peter 57 not my problem now if I've been disobedient in sin yes it's my problem but if I'm doing what God calls me to do and all of a sudden I'm in a tight guess what?

Hey God you got a problem think about that not my problem God what are we going to do about it now or you say God you got a problem you may have to do some confessing hello just a thought we confess our sins what is faithful and just what?

To forgive our sins and what?

Cleanse us from all unrighteousness if I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear me Psalm 6618 hello you okay out there the effectual fervent prayer availeth much James 516 you with me so if you're right you got it all right you don't have a better spiral I don't have a problem God's got a problem now he may tell you you're the problem whoo that's good he's done me that way two or three times I don't like that maybe that's why you're not asking God you already know you're the problem you don't you sure don't want God to confirm it do you?

Just a thought men ought to always pray and not to faint.

Jesus said in John 15, without me you can do nothing.

Alright number six let's finish this thing we're going to have to go I'm ready to eat I've been beat up enough six priority verses eight nine and ten.

And above all things have fervent love among yourselves for love shall cover the multitude of sins.

Use hospitality thank God for that one to another without grudging notice that Peter says above all things everything Peter has said is important.

We must practice all these other principles if we're to live for eternity but what he is saying here is that there is something we must be extra right here look at it careful about he admonishes us above all things above all these other things we've just preached about and learned have fervent love among yourself.

It's not simply now watch it is not simply charity but fervent charity.

Ectanas ectanas in other words you've got to work on it fervent comes from the the word ectanas and speaks of stretching and straining it's like a horse in a race and he's getting to the finish line in that derby race and he's and he stretches and strains his neck get across that finish line that's the word that's what it means.

You know what I took from that it takes some stretching and straining sometimes to love people I know it takes some stretching and straining for Susan to love me sometimes not most of the time but sometimes sometimes you'd like for me just leave wouldn't you now well you have told me before go get on your motorcycle and take a ride now have you not told me that a few times it is what it is no I hate that saying everybody say it somebody's picked that up it is what it is I had a graduate assistant says it is what it is.

I said if you say that one more time I'm firing you I'm in it you no longer be my graduate sister it is not it is not is what it is it is what you make it it is what it is and it's an excuse well it is what it is no it's just you're lazy hello go to work I can't do anything it is what it is God's word says I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

Everybody in my life told me I would never amount to anything I had to go to Saturday I was going to college had to take dumb dumb English twice had to take dumb dumb math dumb dumb reading because see I in high school I I majored in two things sports and cheerleaders never did my homework in fact my girlfriends did my homework bad bad bad bad bad so I had to go my first year I had to pay a lot of money and get no credit but you know what?

I ended up being the best in English 101 remedial English 101 I went through that big 3200 I'm not joking a book like this front and back pages of grammar.

So when I got into English 102 my English professor said Mr Lovett where did you learn your grammar?

I said dumb dumb English and guess what?

God knew exactly what I needed because when I got to Liberty University and studying for the ministry and they put me in Greek 101 guess what it meant it's called didactic diagramming.

You say what does that mean?

In Greek you take a verse like a sentence in English 101 and you diagram it subject verb degree but direct object indirect object and you draw it out and guess what?

Woo I became one of the best Greek students in the class old dumb boy from Sylvester Georgia and the guy says how do you know how to do that I said dumb dumb English became a pretty fast reader because of dumb dumb reading.

Never did the math too much I did I did enough to pass but leave the math to Susan what am you saying God knew God knew when I needed but I could have said it is what it is and quit all I wanted to three or four times.

More than that.

But it is not what it is what God through the power of the Holy Spirit you can do.

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me all right thank you Lord then he says the oracle spoken uttered that's the word and by the way if somebody tells you the word of God's not real God says you're a fool if you do that old fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken Luke 24 25 don't don't listen that stuff for the prophets came not in old time by the will of men but holy men of God spake that's moved by the Holy Spirit God wrote this book can I get an amen and then he says if any man minister let him do it as the ability to which he is called when you speak as the oracles God people got saved.

Didruth text me early this morning about 7 30 they're in a deaf church and a friend had been inviting his friend to come to church but it's a deaf church.

But he knew that the Americans were coming and they were going to have a service today where it'd be in English people speaking English and that's what he knew he came he got saved this morning can we give God the glory that's what a utterance when you utter it you utter it's the word you share the word the word the word and then the last thing the principle the word the oracle spoken or uttered Peter is saying if you speak then speak the word of God the need of the hour is for God's people to stay by the word of God stay with the stuff.

The Bible is a God breathed book the Bible contains the mind of God the condition of man and the clear simple plan of salvation.

And then he says next if any man minister let him do it as the ability which God giveth.

The work of God is not accomplished in our strength.

Notice that there is too much self and too little spirit in most of what we see in the church today.

I love what Jesus said not by might not by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts Zechariah 46.

John 663 it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profits nothing Peter says look at it that God in all things verse 11 may be glorified through Jesus Christ of whom the praise and dominion forever and ever amen this is what it's all about bringing glory to God ought to be the only desire of us as believers.

That's it that's it that's it he that speaketh of himself seeks his own glory Jesus said John 718 a true man of God will always give Christ and a woman of God will always give Christ the glory as God's people we need a revival of humility.

We must decrease he must increase I was thinking about this as I close Wow wow look at all this look at all that God's teaching us in verse 10 he said as every man receives a gift even so minister the same one to another do you know what the latest statistic is unfortunately and I hate to say this a man said it this way a pet pastor said I heard about the pastor who said his church was 100% willing when it came to work man that's good 100% ready to go to work.

The only problem 20 20% were willing to do all the work and the 80% of them were willing to let them do it.

That's about the truth.

I don't believe that's true here because see here you go through a covenants class to be a member.

And you know what we ask you to do in that covenants class after we explain what we believe, why we believe it, show you everything some of you have been through but out of out of half the membership less than half really covenant members.

And that's okay.

We don't force you to join a church.

In fact you shouldn't be forced to do anything you ought to be willingly want to join a church or become a part of a body you don't join anything.

What hey once you get saved you're in the body amen but you find a body local body that's reaching their community and wants to help people love people to Jesus and you want to be a part of that.

But let me tell you what that means that means you're willing to do your part come on now amen.

If you're not willing to do your part then worship with us but don't be a covenant member.

And I knew some priest said not to join church that's not what it said.

I'd love for you to be a covenant member.

But that means you help us do your part that's all it means amen and let me tell you why because here's what he tells us that we do we are to do it so that we can build the body of Christ listen to what Paul said we are told that those gifts were given to us watch for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the building of the body of Christ now hey not only did he give gifts well look he gave gifts to every believer in fact in 1 Corinthians 127 but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit their will.

If we operated on just that 20% principle we would be inefficient.

Hello how would you like your car to work on 20% efficiency?

Think about that you'd be walking a lot wouldn't you that's why that's why covenant membership is so important.

People ask me that all the time and today it's right here in the scripture in verse 10 that's why because you've got a gift and God wants you to exercise that gift in a body amen that's it you gotta you got to do your part you got to do your part we need you we need help in vacation Bible school where's Anita where she's filling in because we had all right we need vacation Bible school we need your help just volunteer for one night I think it's six weeks just one night help us on one Wednesday or maybe two Wednesdays whenever you can help us we need help with the camps we need help covenant members we need help members that aren't covenant members that come all the time and aren't covenant members we need help it's sad when we always have to you know if do your part if we all do our part guess what it's less work many hands make light work.

That's it thank you I was trying to think of that many hands make light work we need you we need you you know what the invitation is today pretty simple to be like Jesus to be like Jesus what would say this with me what would Jesus do what would Jesus do I think it's about time to bring that bracelet back I really do what would Jesus do how to I do what?

Whatever he would do I want to do that's what I want to do that's what I want our church to do