Inquiring minds want to know

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to 1 Peter.

We've started our new series in the book of 1 Peter.

And the whole book's about really teaching us of all the fantastic truths that we foreigners have.

Did you get that?

We foreigners.

Because in Peter, he says, we're pilgrims just what?

Come on, you knew better than that.

We're pilgrims, what?

Passing through.

So today, if you do not have a worship guide, raise your hand.

I think everybody should and does.

So today we're going to be looking at inquires want to know.

Verses 10, we finished last week with verse 9.

Sometimes we'll take a whole paragraph.

Sometimes we may take just three or four verses as we go through this book.

Five short chapters.

But I don't want us to miss any nugget.

Can I get an amen?

And let me encourage you to join our Bible study at 9 o'clock or 8.45.

And they're going through the book of 1 Peter 2.

I believe in people coming to church to learn the Word of God.

We will teach you the book.

We are committed to teaching the Word of God.

One of our key core values is unadulterated truth.

And in Sunday school, you're going to get chapter by chapter of the Bible.

We're going to teach the Bible, not stories.

Amen.

Well, I see.

All right.

Y'all didn't get kicked out of children's church, did you?

Okay.

Wondering, just wondering.

Just a just uh just a thought.

No, I'm glad they're here to hear Poppy preach.

All right, all right.

So, with that said, let's look at verses 10 through 12 and what Peter is saying to the church.

And he says, of which salvation the prophets have inquired, inquirers want to know.

And search diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.

Verse 11, search in what or what manner of this the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, did confirm, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.

Let me remind you, this ought to be an encouragement.

Even as a Christian, as we're going through suffering, at the end of that suffering, there's going to bring glory to God, and there's going to be comfort to you and me.

And then verse 12, unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, in other words, it was revealed to the prophets, to the preachers, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desired to look into.

Even the angels inquired and want to know.

And so that's these few verses are packed.

As God's men we see here were preaching and prophesying that was to come, and they inquired and searched.

Look right here, verse 10 said, diligently into knowing more about it, especially the grace of God that would come.

Now you've got to understand, they inquired, investigated this matter.

These men of God were they were very puzzled to the understanding of the gospel of grace.

Now you've got to understand, they had been brought up and taught that religion was good works and religion was sacrifices.

And now this new, unbelievable message of the grace of God through Jesus Christ, oh, it was new, it was fascinating, it was unmatchable, really.

In other words, they couldn't wait to diligently seek it out and see what it was all about.

In fact, the word here, they searched diligently.

Exer is the word for search diligently, that phrase.

And it means to search out anxiously and diligently.

It is the same word that was used to describe a dog sniffing out something.

I've got dogs.

Anybody else got dogs?

Cats don't sniff, well, they do sniff too, but but dogs, they sniff everything.

And why do they do that?

Because they want to know what's there.

And their keen sense of smell.

They they just I take my dogs out, and when I unlease a man, they just especially my my bear, he he's across between a retriever and um a lab, and suddenly he just and then he'll take off.

He'll catch a smell, he'll catch a smell, and he'll just take off.

Why?

He smelt something and he's on the trail and he's diligently wanting to find out what's at the end of that smell.

That's right.

That's right.

Amen.

Good bird dogs do that too.

You know what's at the end of their smell.

You're ready.

So we see this is exactly what.

It's like miners searching after precious ore.

They search diligently after the meaning here.

These prophets were searching diligently after the meaning of these prophecies.

And here's what they were thinking.

Oh man, these prophecies and the preaching of the grace of God is unbelievable.

But when is it going to happen?

How's it going to happen?

The when and the why.

It's what inquirers want to know.

So these prophets of God searched diligently for the truth because they were curious to know the truth.

God has given to man the characteristic of curiosity so that it might, hey, so that we might want to learn truth, wisdom, and knowledge.

He put something down deep in the heart of man.

Romans 1 says that that innate deepness in our hearts knows that there's something more than man.

And it's curiosity.

He put something deep down into the heart of man that would motivate him to seek out who God is.

Jeremiah 29, verse 13 says, Oh, you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

I got to thinking about curiosity.

Drives the scientists to find the answers to problems.

Amen?

Hey, curiosity drives the doctors to find cures for diseases.

Curiosity spuns the inventor into the midnight hours in order to find new inventions to help us.

And then I thought about curiosity causes the five-year-olds, the nine-year-olds.

And it does.

I was thinking about bradening them.

The curiosity causes the five-year-olds to the ten-year-olds to sound like a broken record.

Why, daddy, why daddy?

Why mama?

Why?

Why poppy?

Why poppy?

Why poppy?

Why?

Why, why, why?

Then I thought about my beautiful, I won't call her age, wife, red-headed.

Why, honey, why, honey, why, honey?

Curiosity.

Wants to know.

Amen.

Is that not right?

Lord, that bothers me sometimes.

I I don't I why why?

How?

I don't know.

Just do it.

I thought about Albert Einstein, who was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century.

In his own words, here's what he said.

I have no special gifts.

None whatsoever.

This is the smartest scientist ever.

I have no special gifts.

Here's what he said.

I am only passionately curious.

Is that not good, church?

Is that not good?

And right here in verse 12, Peter brings out in this epistle that even the angels of heaven are curious.

The angels are curious about the gospel and salvation.

By the way, that's the one song the angels can't sing.

So they're curious about it.

They're curious how it works, how it operates.

Oh, the angels are so curious about the gospel and salvation.

God has made us a curious people.

I thought about this, just as our sight, our hearing, our smell, uh, our touch can be used for that which is good, these abilities also can be used for that which is not so good.

And so we got to learn to be curious about the right things.

Can I get an amen?

In fact, curiosity often gets mice into trouble.

Hello.

Put some peanut butter on a piece of cheese and put it in the trap and see what happens.

That mice gets caught because he's curious of that smell.

Just like it does with men and women.

It is important then that we're careful to be curious about the right kind of things.

Amen.

In fact, the idea is found in the word curiosity.

Here, listen to this.

The Latin word is curious, meaning careful and inquisitive.

That's good, folks.

Careful and inquisitive.

The root word is cura, and here's what it means be of care or concern.

In other words, be careful and be, hey, be careful and cautious of your curiosity.

And where your curiosity will lead you.

And make sure it's leading us in the right direction.

Can I get an amen?

That's exactly what he says.

Curiosity kills the cat.

That's right.

It can also kill us.

Amen.

I thought about that.

Bright eyes indicate curiosity.

Black eye indicates bad curiosity.

Amen.

Oh.

Moses.

Curiosity led him to free his people.

Remember in Exodus 3:3, the burning bush?

Exodus 3:3

He would walk by and then all of a sudden he stopped.

He was curious that that bush was not burning up.

So he turned and he and he listened, and next thing you know, God is telling him what he needs.

Hey, he wants him to do.

Curiosity in the right direction will lead us to what God wants us to do.

Can I get an amen?

Then I also thought about Samson.

His curiosity with the lime with the honey in his belly led him to a major, hey, destructive area of his life in disobeying God when he was not supposed to eat of any dead animal.

And then I thought about, hey, that was Judges 14.

And then I thought about Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Oh, you remember that?

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired, she was curious to make one wise.

She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave unto her husband with her.

That just tells me, honey, you can leave me anywhere you want me.

And he did eat.

The challenge of the scriptures is to have a curiosity about God.

Amen.

That's what we want to be curious about.

We want to know my God.

If we do seek the Lord, we'll definitely be blessed and satisfied in our search.

He says in what is it, Matthew 5, 6, bless are they that hunger and thirst after God, for they shall be filled.

Wow.

Wow.

We need to have a desirable, devoted, devout.

And I mean that.

Curiosity.

And here's what we need to have it about.

Are you ready?

The wonder of God.

The word of God.

The will of God.

And the warmth and love of God.

Is that not good?

I'm going to give you a little insight to each of those.

Are you ready?

Number one.

We ought to be, hey, our curiosity ought to be about the wonder of God.

Listen to what he says in Psalms 46, 10.

Be still and know that I am God.

I'll be exalted among the heathen.

I will be exalted in the earth.

And here's another verse, Psalms 119, verse 18.

Psalms 119:18

Open my eyes that I may behold the wondrous things of thy law.

The wonder of God.

Oh, ladies and gentlemen, Paul put it this way: that I might know Philippians 3.10, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his image.

Hallelujah.

The wonder of God.

We get caught up in the wonder of a lot of stuff that doesn't matter when we ought to be getting caught up in what matters.

And that's the wonder of God.

Yes.

Yes.

The wonder of God.

Look at the second thing.

We ought to be curious about the warmth and love of God.

Listen to what he says in Ephesians 3.19.

And to know the love of Christ.

Now watch, which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fullness of God.

You can't be filled with the fullness of God if you don't know God.

You can't be filled with the fullness of God if you don't have the love of God all in you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

He says in John, by this ye shall know that you're my disciples by your love.

Oh, the love and warmth of God.

The love of Christ will not only give us security and peace, but will give us love for others.

Our propositional statement and our purpose statement and our verses, Luke 10, 27, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might, and thy neighbor as thyself.

Wow.

The warmth and the love of God.

Are you curious about knowing the Lord in your life?

Really?

This is one of the reasons he made us this way, so that we could seek him.

He made us to yearn after him in his image.

To be like him.

Brings me to the third curious point.

Curious about the will of God.

Oh boy.

This is what he says in Psalms 143, verse 8.

Psalms 143:8

He says, Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning.

I love getting up and getting in the word in the morning.

Now watch what he says.

For in thee do I trust.

Now here's the key phrase.

Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk.

For I lift up my soul unto thee.

Wow.

Is that not awesome?

Is that not powerful?

In the morning I get up and I get in the word to ask God to show me where he wants me to walk that day.

That's why you've got to get in the word, that first thing.

Get up 15 minutes earlier.

Get up 30 minutes earlier.

Get in the word so God can show you what he wants for you that day.

I always have a verse every morning.

It may not be memorize a whole verse, but I memorize a phrase.

I got a little book, little right book, and I take that one verse that God speaks to me in my quiet time before I start studying.

This is just me and the Lord for about the first 30 minutes.

It's just me and him and meditating, and I have a few little devotions.

My utmost for his highest is one of them.

And I just get that nugget and I write it down and I start, I keep that nugget with me all day.

All day.

All day I keep that nugget with me.

A proverb a day keeps the devil away.

If you didn't do anything but read one proverb a day, and those proverbs go through it once a month and ask God to give you a nugget in that proverb, it could change your life.

Change your life completely.

Now watch, Paul says, Do not decease to pray for you and to desire.

Here's Paul's desire for them, that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will, God's will, and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Do you really want to know God's will for your life?

He says, Be not wise, but be understanding what the will of the Lord is for you in Ephesians 5 17.

Listen to me.

I'm going to make this statement.

I made it all my ministry, been in ministry 40 plus years.

Here's what he says You can never know the will of God apart from the word of God.

I'm going to say that again.

You ought to write it down.

You can never know the will of God apart from the Word of God.

Amen?

Can't.

The Lord said, Ye shall know my will if you know my doctrine, my teachings.

So, man, that's powerful.

Which brings me to the fourth curiosity point.

Curiosity about the word of God.

We ought to be curious about knowing God's word.

This was the attitude of the Berean Christians, and ought to be our attitude.

This is one of my favorite verses.

I've memorized this early when I was in seminary.

Acts 17, 11 is a powerful verse.

And here's what it says.

And what a powerful verse it is.

It says this.

In fact, they said the Thessalonicans were more noble.

They were more noble.

Well, the Bereans, I'm sorry.

The Berean Christians were more noble than those that were in Thessalonica.

Why?

Because they received the word of God readily.

The word readily there in King James means excitably, anxiously, inquiringly.

And then they searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.

When somebody tells me something in a spiritual sense, immediately I take what they say and it goes through my computer, and I've got a small computer.

My wife's got a large computer.

But this little computer of mine, I assimilate it and sift it through the words of the Lord, through the Word of God, and how it applies as truth or non-truth.

Because I know if you you'll never be thrown off if you know what the Word of God says.

The reason people fall into cults is because they don't know the truth.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

John 17, 17.

So, their search indicates here their curiosity to know the truth.

That was the Berean Christians.

Curiosity about the word of God was exhibited even at the cross.

I'd never thought about it or seen it in this context until now.

And I thought about curiosity.

Even the men at the cross, you remember in Mark 15, 36 it says, and straightway one of the men ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave it to him, Jesus, to drink.

And the rest said, Let it be, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.

They were curious to see if what Jesus had been predicting would really be.

Happen?

Listen to me.

People today are curious about the second coming of Christ.

They are curious about prophet, hey, prophetic promises and principles of God.

And do you realize 316 or 18, I think, predictions in the Old Testament have been fulfilled verbatim in the New Testament.

Eager to know.

People today want to see if God's word will be fulfilled.

They're curious.

Let me tell what else they're curious about.

People are curious about the power of God.

You know why?

They want to see if the power of God's real.

When I thought about that, immediately I thought about King Darius.

Remember King Darius?

What did he do?

He had Daniel thrown in the lion's den.

He didn't want to have Daniel thrown in the lion's den, but they tricked him, if you remember.

And so he ended up having to sign a decree that could not be changed, and so they ended up throwing Daniel in the lion's den.

And do you remember what he said to Daniel?

He said, But Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, please tell me that you're going to be okay because this God that you preach about and that you teach about will save you.

He was curious about the power of God.

And the next morning he couldn't sleep all night.

That's a good example there.

Hey, you can't sleep when you make the wrong decisions.

Hello?

He had made a major wrong decision and he couldn't sleep all night.

Knowing that it, not knowing whether Daniel was going to be eaten by the lions or not.

But the next morning he ran to the den of lions, and here's what he said.

And I love what he said in verse 20 in Daniel 6.

And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice.

In other words, oh Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, please tell me you're okay.

Voice unto Daniel, and the king spake and said, To Daniel, oh Daniel, servant of the living God.

He didn't know he was living, but he called him a living God.

He knew that his God was different than their gods.

And notice what he said.

He said, And I know your living God is thy God.

In other words, he knew that his gods weren't living, but he knew Daniel's God was alive, God, though.

He's getting close to getting saved, folks.

Hey, whom thou servest continually, there's a key.

He served him continually.

Then he said, able to deliver thee from the lions.

Is that not good?

Is that not good, church?

I'm here, King.

I'm okay.

In fact, I had a good night's rest.

He went to sleep.

The king is up all night, worried, and Daniel's in the line's den, sleeping.

Hello.

I think I'm going with Daniel's God.

Amen.

I'm going with Daniel's God.

Amen.

When you got the right God, the God, living God, Jesus, the God, you can go to sleep.

But when you got the wrong God, you're going to be worried to death.

High blood pressure.

Stress.

I could just keep going.

Amen.

Woo! That's good, preacher.

Believers.

As believers, we're to be curious about God's word and the truth within it.

As newborn babes, watch this.

Now watch how this fits.

You're going to see this verse in a different enlightenment.

As newborn babes desire, inquire, that they may grow thereby.

Isn't that good?

Isn't that good?

Oh, this is what Jesus said in John 5.39.

I think I've got that up there for you.

In John 5.39 under that point.

Search the scriptures, for these are the scriptures that show you eternal life and teach of me, Jesus said.

Search them, inquire about them, because they teach of me.

Do you have enough curiosity to search and study the scriptures?

Now, my wife used to think I could make an acrostic to everything.

I used to preach acrostics all the time at the university for kids.

The kids love acrostics.

They can memorize.

So I'm gonna, if I believe, and I do believe, that our curiosity ought to be to seek out and search the scriptures.

Get ready.

I got it for you right there.

Here's an acrostic on how to search the scriptures.

Letter S.

Are you ready?

You search the scriptures studiously and put this in that one, this is the only one that's got two words.

Studiously and systematically.

S.

Blessed are thou, O Lord, teach me thy statues.

Psalms 119, verse 12.

Psalms 119:12

And we know 2 Timothy 2.15.

Everybody knows that if you got kids, study to show.

It's our Iwanabra verse, right?

Come on, how many got kids in Iwana?

Come on, raise your hand.

I know you're with me a whole bunch.

What does I wanna stand for?

Approve workmen are not ashamed.

And 2 Timothy 2.15 says, What?

Study to show thyself to proved unto God of workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Amen.

Studiously and systematically.

I love what Luke 24, 27, Jesus says.

I used to teach the preacher boys in homiletics, and that's kind of what I do when we do twice a year when we interview and we're on the council to help couples that want to start a church.

Susan, I own that evaluation team.

I deal with the preaching.

That's my area.

And what I tell used to tell the young preacher boys, I would tell them, we just need to preach like Jesus preached.

How did Jesus preach?

Can you throw that up there, Jason?

Luke 24, 27.

Here's how Jesus, this was the preacher's boys' verse.

I'd give them the one Paul says, preach the word, be instant in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with long, long suffering and doctrine.

2 Timothy 4, 2.

But then I'd take them, I'd say, that's Paul's showing us how to preach.

Now let's look at how Jesus teaches us to preach.

And beginning in Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in the scriptures the things concerning himself.

He preached precept upon precept, line upon line, book upon book.

That's why we study and preach the way we do here.

We do it like Jesus did it.

I don't, I like stories as long as they're application to the principle, but give me the truth, nothing but the truth.

Ought to know and want to know the word of God.

So we see that right here.

Then, letter E, expectantly.

Psalms 119, verse 18 says, Open thou my eyes that I may behold, I already quoted it once, wondrous things out of the law.

Psalms 119:18

Hey, when you get in the book, you're expecting God to do something in your life.

You don't go there, well, I hope you don't do something, Lord.

No, God, I'm coming here to find the answer, and I found it and I move.

That's faith.

Claim it.

You can't claim it if you don't know it.

Hello.

That's what's wrong.

We got to know what we're talking about.

Hello, don't you love this?

Joshua 1 8, the book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate there in day and night that thou mayest deserve to do according to all that's written there.

Then shall I make one of thy ways prosperous?

Then shall I have good success.

I am gonna prosper and I'm gonna have good success because God's already promised it to me if I do it his way.

He'd be a liar if I failed.

But I gotta do it his way.

Hello, say it with me, his way.

His way.

You with me?

Not my way.

Not even the preacher's way.

His way.

That's kept me out a lot of ditches.

Hello.

Not my wife's way, but most time hers right.

But whose way?

His way.

His way.

That's a good preacher.

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.

It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and watch.

It shall prosper in the thing whereunto I send it.

Isaiah 55, 11.

Wow.

That's worth you being here this morning.

This is a message within itself.

Regularly.

Well, excuse me.

Anxiously.

My soul breaks for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.

In other words, anxiously, I can't wait to see what you're gonna tell me today so that I can apply it and so that you can work through me.

Anxiously, I can't wait.

When's the last time you you you you couldn't go to sleep at night knowing that you had planned to do something the next day and you were so excited about it?

All right.

The kids are listening.

I guess you adults are just dead.

They understand what I just said.

I don't think y'all, maybe, hey, are y'all not anxious?

Are you too old to be anxious anymore?

Nervously anxious.

But remember that?

Remember that time?

I mean, right now sometimes I get, I go, oh, I can't wait.

That's the way it ought to be every morning when you get up with the Lord.

I can't wait to go to my place where I know I'm gonna meet with the Lord today.

Anxiously.

Anxiously.

I'm not gonna get into what I know a lot of us are anxiously about because we get up before daybreak to go hunting.

We get up before daybreak to do fishing.

We get up daybreak sometimes, even if we want to go to a ball game.

And we pack everything, we get excited, we're ready.

I better not say that.

But we can't get to church on time.

I shouldn't have said that.

I shouldn't have said that.

Hello.

Just a thought or ouch.

Ouch.

Let's go on.

Don't get mad at me.

Don't throw the bottles at me, please.

But then R regularly.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he benefit day and night.

Psalms 1, 2.

Whoo! Regularly.

See, concernedly.

Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the uh, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, nor stands in the way of the wicked, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Oh, concerningly.

We're in the scriptures inquiring and curiously seeking to find what's right to do so we can do what's right and be what God wants us to be.

Concernedly.

Then H happily.

Woo-hoo! Oh, I love this one.

Jeremiah 15, 16.

I quoted this verse, my wife married me.

It works.

I'm serious.

Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I'm called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.

Amen.

Jeremiah 15, 16.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlighten the eyes.

Psalms 19.8.

Woo! Is that not a good acrostic?

Studiously, systematically, expectantly, anxiously, regularly, concernedly, and happily.

Number two.

The first thing we saw is the search of the prophets.

The second point, the last point, is the service of the saints.

Look at verse 12.

Unto whom he was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desired to look unto.

It was revealed right here to the prophets that they were not serving themselves in delivering God's message, but they were serving the people that were the recipients of God's message.

These men preach the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit who was sent from heaven.

And watch this.

The ministry of sharing the gospel in verse 12 here is so wonderful.

Watch this, that the angels of heaven crave to watch the ministry of the Word of God working in the people's lives.

Remember, they didn't understand the grace of God, so now they're excited and really excited about watching how the grace of God is changing lives in the people.

And they're watching us minister.

Do you understand?

Don't miss this.

Angels watch you and me minister.

Think about that.

And not only do they watch us minister, are you ready for this?

They even help us minister.

Do you realize that?

Watch this.

Throw this up there, Jason.

In fact, it's Hebrews 1.14.

Here's what it says.

Hebrews 1.14, ministering spirits, angels, sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation.

Is that not good?

Is that not good?

And then watch this.

Go now to Hebrews 13, 2 and watch.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.

See, the angels know that God's people are recipients of God's grace and blessings, and that one day they will be highly honored in the kingdom of God.

They know one day that these believers that have experienced the grace of God is one day going to be there with them in heaven, singing the praises of God for eternity.

They know that.

And they're curious to watch how, after receiving the grace of God, we minister that grace.

Is that not good?

It's not just what I think, what you think, it's what God's thinking.

God's angels are watching us minister the grace of God and just not watching us helping us.

Is that not good?

Come on, church.

I know that kind of went over your head a little bit.

Mine too, but it's there.

I wonder how many angels I.

I bet I got a bunch.

I get in trouble quite quick.

But now watch.

God wants us all, beloved, to have some sort of ministry with people.

Whether it's our family, our neighbors, our kids at school, or the people we work with day by day, we're all to serve the Lord in some way.

In fact, Susan and I were just talking.

She prayed to ask the Lord to give her opportunities to share the grace of God and the gospel with people.

Honey, you have been overwhelmed, have you not?

She teaches teachers how to teach online, but also she's she's uh has a doctorate in leadership administration.

She teaches uh two or three courses in the doctoral program at Liberty University, and she is getting because see, Liberty allows non-Christians to come so that hopefully the seed of the Word of God will get in their hearts and get saved, and a lot of them do.

I used to see 20 and 30 kids saved in my big evangelism class every semester.

So she's witnessing, she's witnessing to all these doctoral students with their worldview, their biblical worldview, they don't have a clue if they're lost.

And then we've been praying with us I know y'all get my pickleball.

Well, she's in the pickleball.

Now we have Johnny ministers more in pickleball and Connie.

It's unreal.

Have the whole 60 or 70 people, a lot of them now come in asking us to pray for this and pray for that.

I mean, hey, that's where you are.

Wherever you're planted, you minister.

You don't just go to get away, you go to get involved.

Woo! That's a good one.

Oh, I gotta get away.

Listen, you're not here but 70, 80 years anyway.

You're gonna have plenty of time once you get away.

That's good, preacher.

We're here for a short season.

Hey, can I remind you?

When you get away, you won't be ministering anymore.

So you only got a short period to minister.

So let's get with it.

Oh, I need a break.

No, you're gonna have an eternity for a break.

Hello?

Hello, you okay?

My wife used to like for me to we'd go somewhere.

She and my kids, bless their hearts, they would say, Daddy, daddy, why don't you stay in the car and let us go in Walmart?

Because they knew if I went in, I wasn't gonna be back for an hour.

Because I get opportunities to share, and people, hey, hey, preacher, and there I go.

You cannot stop me from sharing what's in me.

I got the keen heads.

I can't help but speak the things that I've seen and heard.

Just remember the milk I did.

I really literally left the milk in the car one day.

I milk.

I can always get more milk.

Somebody needs Jesus.

Hello?

Hello.

You said, well, you're narrow-minded.

Guilty! All right, let me wrap this up.

Oh, this is good.

Oh, this Peter's good.

The issue of ministry in 1 Peter, let me give you a quick.

Because we'll be hitting each of these as we go through the chapter.

But it fits the context.

The service of the saints.

Here's the question.

We all need to minister.

Can I get an amen?

We all need to minister.

Now, how do how does that ministry, how do we do that?

First of all, number one, the selflessness of ministry has to be selfless.

We saw that in verse 12.

He said, This preaching's not for you, just to you prophets, it's for everyone.

Can I get an amen?

Let me add that ministry to others requires selflessness and sacrifice.

If you're selfish or arrogant, you will repel those people you are trying to reach.

I guarantee it.

Look at 1 Peter 5, 5 and 6.

Be clothed with humility, Peter said.

But God resists the proud.

Do you hear that?

But he gives grace and what?

To the hearers.

Then verse 6 humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.

Powerful.

Powerful.

Powerful.

Number two.

Not only are we to be selfless of ministry or in ministry, but we're to be stewards of the grace of God.

Remember the angels are watching about this grace and how we minister?

Here's the verse.

Look at 1 Peter 4.10.

As every man hath received the gift, the gift of the grace of God, even so minister the same one, that same gift, to another.

As good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Oh.

I can't pronounce, I'm not sure if I can pronounce it correctly, but there was a Spanish philosopher named Unamano.

And I'm not sure I even came close, but it's U-N-A-M-U-N-O.

Anyway, tells about the Roman, listen to this, this was intriguing to me.

I never thought about it.

Tells about the Roman aqueduct in Sagavia in his native Spain.

It was built in 109 A.D.

for 1800 years.

Now watch.

It carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city.

Nearly 60 generations of men and women drank from its flow.

Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children as a museum piece.

So sure enough.

They relieved it of its centuries-long labor.

They did.

And here's what they did.

They laid modern iron pipes.

They gave the ancient bricks and mortar and they put it in their memo.

Reverent rest.

And the aqueduct began to fall apart.

The sun beaten on the dry mortar caused it to crumble.

The bricks and stones sagged and threatened to fall.

Now here's the point.

What ages of service could not destroy idleness, idoliness, idlingness.

Thank you.

Idolness.

Got it.

Disintegrated it.

Hello?

Is that not good, folks?

Is that not good?

Woo! So, tomorrow.

Hey, what ages of service could not destroy.

Idolness disintegrated it.

So, God has entrusted me and you the message of salvation.

And we can't mess it up.

We can't not share it.

We've got to be the lights and the ambassadors of the grace of God.

And we cannot allow Satan to cause us through our carnality to disintegrate the truth of the gospel.

Go ye in all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.

Mark 16, 15.

Number three, we're to speak and serve with authority and the ability that God has given to us.

1 Peter 4, 11.

If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.

If any man minister, let him do it as the ability which God gives, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.

Now let me tell you what God taught me in this.

Don't worry about trying to be somebody you're not.

Don't try to imitate somebody else.

I praised the Lord when I came to the realization I could not preach like Jerry Farwell or Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers, most of y'all don't even know him.

He's been dead a while, years, but he was the most eloquent, most dynamic preacher in the Southern Baptist Convention history.

And I'll never forget we're riding alone and Adrian's preaching, and I turned to my wife and I said, Honey, I said, Oh, he's so eloquent.

And all I said, and I turned to Susan, I said, Honey, am I eloquent?

And I said, Oh, I should never have asked that.

She paused for a while.

And I said, I'm in trouble.

She said, honey, when I think of your preaching, eloquence is not the first thing I think about.

I knew that was coming.

But here's what she did say.

She says, Honey, I think of passion.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah.

So when I came to the realization that I can't preach like Andrew Rogers or Dr.

Jerry Falwell or Dr.

Tony Evans, I realized they can't preach like me.

So just be who you are.

And it'll show you how good God is.

I had the privilege to preach with Dr.

Adrian Rogers at Super Conference at Liberty University.

I spoke first and then he smoked.

7,000 people there that night.

The next morning we're walking into the underneath the thing.

He said, Danny, come here.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

He said, I want to talk to you about your message last night.

I said, Oh yes, Dr.

Rogers, please help me.

I need it.

He said, look at me.

I'm not talking about any of that foolishness.

I'm talking about how God used your message to speak to me.

I'm in the Prince of Preachers.

Sweet man.

But you know what God taught me?

Just be who you are.

Just be who you are.

Don't try to be anybody else.

Just be who you are.

Amen.

I can't see.

Number four.

We should shadow and follow the Savior's example.

1 Peter 2 21, for even unto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us.

Now watch, leaving this example that ye should follow his steps.

Folks, listen to me.

We are going to suffer, but that's okay.

His grace is sufficient.

Can I get an amen?

His grace is sufficient.

And you can't be like him if we don't suffer.

Remember that.

That'll help you.

Number five, the submission of a wife can be used to reach her husband for Christ.

1 Peter 3, 1.

Likewise, you wise be in subjection to your own husband, that if any of obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the behavior of the wife.

Wow.

Don't need to say anything else.

You don't need to preach to them.

You don't need to put in their lunchbox every day, turn or burn.

You like that, didn't you, Tracy?

I know, I know.

I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew she liked that one.

Just live Jesus.

All you gotta do.

Number six, the significance of your testimony and credibility is crucial.

Now that's the one right there.

I want you to put a star by.

The news has hit recently about the Southern Baptists and all the garbage and this and that, and before that it was the Catholics and the priests.

You know what?

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to live who we really are.

If we claim to be Christians, we're not perfect by any means.

But most of the time we ought to live like a Christian.

Can I get an amen?

And here for us preachers, listen to what he says for us preachers, it's pretty powerful.

And he says, having your, 1 Peter 2.12, this is for all of us, having your conversation, your behavior honest among the Gentiles.

In other words, you're real.

That's what that means with the people that are lost.

You're real, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they talk evil about you, that they, hey, now watch, how do you refute that?

You don't have to try to refute it.

Here's what we do.

They may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of his day.

You just live righteously, and what they're saying, it's evident that you're not like that.

Amen.

I have been lamblasted all my ministry.

I've been called a cult leader.

I've been called a work salvation preacher.

Then I've just been called a bum.

Dishonest.

Everything.

Early in my ministry it used to bother me.

Until I read what I read a while ago about Jesus said, if you follow me, you're going to suffer.

And then I went to Matthew 5, and Jesus said, if they really cue me, who do you think you are?

And then he said this, Jesus, and it fits here.

Watch how they fit.

He said, They're going to accuse you, but let them accuse you falsely.

So anytime there's an accusation, you ought to be able to know in your heart and your life that that's not true about you.

And if it's not true, don't lose any sleep.

Now wait a minute.

If it is true, it's time to do something.

You gotta start fessing up.

Amen.

Making it right.

If you've hurt people, listen to me, church.

You gotta get it right.

Matthew 5, 23 and 24, don't even bring your gift to the altar until you go to your brother or sister in Christ to make it right.

Then bring your worship.

Your gift to the altar.

You with me?

Matthew 18.

You and you alone go to that person and make it right.

That's the hardest thing in the Christian church for anybody to do.

I think there's more grieved and quick spirits in the church because we won't go to people that have hurt us and say, you've hurt me, and here's what, and I just want you to know I still love you.

And I I forgive you whether or not you give me.

People that have passionate, or not passionate, but choleric personality, I may do something to hurt you, and I don't even most of the time I know it if it's if but sometimes I may, I may, you may think, I've had people say, I'm upset with you because you didn't even say anything to me or hug my neck.

Well, I might have been had somebody just told me their dad died or they're dying.

I I don't know.

Just if I don't hug your neck, knock me inside the head and hug my neck.

But I'm serious, what I'm trying to say is don't let Satan take something that's offended you and cause you to be bitter about it when all you gotta do is make it right.

Go to that person, make it right.

Amen.

You're the one that's when I hold a grudge against anybody, I'm the one that hurts, not them.

Okay, okay.

Stumbling blocks must be removed with God and men.

Got to be.

Paul even said, and boy did he say it powerfully.

He said, and herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscious vote of offense for God and for me.

The last thing in the point the sentiment about serving the Savior is not to be sullen, sour, sulky.

Oh, don't let people see your sour, sulky attitude when you're serving God.

I'm the only one.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

I'm doing this all by myself.

Nobody wants to help me.

No, you're not, no, you're not.

That's okay.

Well, maybe God wants you to do it by yourself.

Hello, hello.

Because you know what?

He's working on your attitude, and when you rejoice and say, hey, I don't care if anybody doesn't help me, I'm gonna do it by myself with the right attitude, I'm gonna step for Jesus, then they're gonna sign up to help you.

But God wants you to get your attitude right first.

Amen.

That's it.

Right?

Is that not a good word today, folks?

That's not a good word.

Sometimes I have to admit, I think I'm out here by myself.

And you know what?

And by the way, the Lord the Lord says, Amen, you love I can do all things.