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[0:00] If you would, take your Bible and open with me to 1 Peter chapter 4. We'll come back together now.

[0:32] Good discussion. What did y'all say? An hour left to live. Eat. What would you eat? Pizza. Pizza. From where? Domino's. Domino's pizza.

[0:42] Nice. Eli. You'd read the Bible. Nice. Eat 20 pounds of food. Why not? Yep. Skydiving.

[0:53] You've got to book it pretty quickly, but yeah. Yeah. Okay. I said pray and read my Bible. I said all the items are. A human can physically eat. Eat all the ice cream a human can physically eat. Nice. Colby?

[1:04] Hometown buffet. Hometown buffet? Where's that? Any hometown buffet. Oh, any hometown buffet. Okay. I was like, I haven't heard of that one. Yes. Try peanut butter for the first time. Try peanut butter for the first time.

[1:15] Why not? Roll the dice. I go to a concert. Go to a concert. Whose concert would you go to? That's here. Okay. Nice. Nice. All right.

[1:25] We'll go last one right here. Go to Paris. Go to Paris. You might not make it. You might not make it. It's a noble ambition, though. All right. So when you think about the shortness of time, if you only got an hour left, you might do things you wouldn't normally think of trying, like peanut butter or going to Paris.

[1:47] Why not? I think if we can answer another question, it would inform why we answered the way we did with an hour left. What is the purpose of your life?

[2:01] What's the purpose of your life? What are you here to do? Your answer to that question will kind of inform your answer to the question of like, okay, I've got an hour left to live. So if my purpose is to eat pizza, then you're killing it, Malachi.

[2:15] Keep it up. But the shortness of time will sharpen our focus on what truly matters to us.

[2:28] So I know it's kind of a silly hypothetical question. There were some silly answers. But if you genuinely think about the shortness of time, that will sharpen your focus on what truly matters to you.

[2:41] So our purpose as believers, our purpose as human beings is to bring glory to God in all things. And that's our purpose. That's our function. That should be our goal. And we'll see tonight that there's a time that's past and there's a time that's short.

[2:56] The time for pursuing sin is past. The time until Jesus' return is very short. The time is past and the time is short.

[3:09] So we'll look at number one. The time is past in verses one through six. And I'll read 1 Peter 4, one through six if you'd like to follow along. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

[3:25] For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do.

[3:40] Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you.

[3:56] But they will give account to him who's ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel is preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

[4:11] Okay, so we'll walk through this a verse at a time. First he says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh. And so he's referring back to Jesus as an example once again.

[4:22] That's what he constantly does throughout this letter. He's constantly pointing us to the suffering of Jesus as an example for how we're to suffer, but also as an example of what glory awaits us on the other side of our suffering.

[4:36] So you remember last week, Christ suffered in the flesh. He died for our sins, descended to the grave, proclaimed his victory over demonic spirits, and rose again and was exalted to the Father's right hand.

[4:49] And now Peter says, because Jesus has suffered in this way, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

[5:02] This language is very militaristic. It's very aggressive and militant. Arm yourselves. Prepare for war. Grab your weapons.

[5:13] Not physical weapons, but what Peter points to is a mentality. A way of thinking about life. We as Christians should prepare ourselves to suffer like a soldier prepares for war.

[5:31] We should think about preparing for suffering in the way a soldier thinks about going into battle. Because Jesus suffered and was glorified, we also need to prepare to suffer.

[5:45] But we also can expect glory on the other side of that suffering, because that's exactly what happened to Jesus. And so one of the things we learn from this, this is the only command Peter gives in verses 1 through 6, is to arm yourselves.

[6:02] It's a very aggressive military term. What we know is that we need discipline in the Christian life. No one will accidentally be pleasing to Jesus.

[6:15] We need to work hard to be pleasing to him. We need to make sure every area of our life is obedient to his word. Because you're not going to be successful in the Christian life by just being like, yeah, I love Jesus.

[6:28] I'm not really going to read the Bible. I'm just going to kind of like follow my feelings. No one does that and lives the Christian life well. We need discipline and grit to live well for Jesus.

[6:41] If you're a football fan, you might know the name Jim Harbaugh. He was a coach for the Michigan Wolverines. Depending on what you think about him, you might think he's a cheater. You might think he's a great football coach. You might think he's both. Maybe he's both. But he was asking, a reporter asked him a question about, hey, I've heard this guy's a dog.

[6:58] You talk like that. You say dog and it's a good thing. And he kind of redefined what a dog is and said it's a disciplined athlete with grit. And so he was talking about the dogs he has on his roster, that these guys are disciplined.

[7:12] No one accidentally wakes up and becomes a pro football player. It takes a lot of work and discipline and tenacity to be good at that sport.

[7:24] And what Peter is calling us to here is to arm ourselves. We need discipline and tenacity when it comes to obedience. I'm going to call Cambry out real quick. Cambry, wave your hand. She had surgery.

[7:35] She's right here on Wynn last Tuesday. And this is the first time you've left the house to come to church. That's tenacity right there. Give it up to Cambry. So we won't be obedient to Jesus just by trying to feel our way through life.

[7:52] It takes great intentionality and discipline to live for him. Now Peter says, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

[8:04] What is Peter saying here? Does he mean that we've stopped sinning? Does he mean that these Christians in these churches have stopped sinning? No, that's not what he means. He'll go on later and say love covers a multitude of sins.

[8:18] So these people are still sinning. What does he mean by ceased from sin? He doesn't mean they'll never sin again. What he means though is that as Christians, sin no longer dominates us.

[8:32] Sin should no longer rule over us because Christ has set us free from sin. And there are three ways that Christ sets us free from sin. He sets us free from sin's penalty.

[8:45] He sets us free from sin's power. And ultimately he'll set us free from sin's presence. Penalty, power, presence.

[8:57] So what do these three things mean? What is sin's penalty? Well the penalty of sin is death. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[9:11] And so the penalty of sin is death in hell under the wrath of God. And Christ took the penalty of sin on himself. He suffered for us on the cross. He won victory over sin's penalty for us.

[9:27] And there's sin's power as well. This is not just the end of life consequence of sin. But this is the current life influence of sin through people's lives.

[9:39] And if you're not a Christian, you don't have power over sin. If you're not a Christian, you cannot overcome your sin in your own strength.

[9:50] You can try lots of different things. You can say, I'm never going to do that again. You can say, I'm going to be a better person. You don't have the power to overcome sin.

[10:05] But as believers, Christ has not only conquered the penalty of sin. He's also set us free from its power. That doesn't mean we'll never sin again.

[10:16] That doesn't mean we don't have to fight desperately against our sin. What that does mean, though, is we are free now to actually obey Jesus. We have the ability now, as Christians, to say no to sin.

[10:32] And so you, if you're a believer through the power of the Spirit, can walk in obedience. Because Jesus has set us free from the power of sin. And then one day, he'll set us free from the presence of sin altogether.

[10:47] This will be in heaven. We'll have no sin in us. There'll be no sin outside of us. There'll never be a sinful thought that crosses our mind again. Heaven will be a completely different existence than what we experience right now.

[11:00] So Christ has set us free from sin's penalty and sin's power. And one day we'll be free even from its presence. And so when Peter says, whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, what he's saying is you have walked away from your sin.

[11:20] You have chosen to suffer with Christ instead of continuing in your life of sin. You've cut off that life of sin that you used to indulge in.

[11:31] Whoever has suffered, whoever's embraced suffering for Christ, is now no longer living this life of sin that marked them before they believed in Jesus.

[11:43] Whoever commits himself to suffering has overcome sin. He's overcome this flood of debauchery that he talks about later in this passage.

[11:55] They've set themselves against their sin. They've declared war on their sin. And these Christians' lives were not perfect. And our lives as Christians are not perfect.

[12:09] But the people Peter is writing to, their lives were drastically different from the world around them. They weren't perfect. But they were no longer caught up in the power of sin.

[12:20] They're walking in obedience to Christ. Verse 2. What does it look like to have overcome sin's power?

[12:32] Verse 2. So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. And so as these believers looked drastically different from the world around them, they were embracing suffering for Jesus because they had started to declare war on their sin.

[12:54] Does that describe you? If you're a Christian, does that describe you? Are you putting your sin to death every day? Are you taking up your cross and following Jesus and seeking to be obedient to him?

[13:08] And he describes this rest of the time in the flesh, the rest of our lives here on earth. He says, No longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

[13:21] And we think about our sin. Every single sin we commit is a violation of God's will. We are going against God's will for us.

[13:35] And he contrasts two things here. He says, Human passions and the will of God. These human passions are what we want, what we desire, what we lust after, what we crave as natural fallen human beings.

[13:52] God's will is what he wants and what he desires for us as his creatures. And he talks about passions in chapter 2, verse 11.

[14:04] He says, They wage war against your soul. And in Galatians 5, Paul talks about these passions of the flesh versus the desire of the spirit. And these two things are at war.

[14:15] They're at odds against each other. And so as Christians, we have a civil war going on inside of us. We have our sinful flesh seeking to follow our human earthly passions.

[14:28] We have the spirit within us seeking to persuade us to follow God's will. And we, as believers, no longer want to live for human passions, but for the will of God.

[14:46] And he says, For the rest of the time in the flesh. That's however long we have left here on earth. We want to live faithfully. However long our life is, we want to be faithful to Jesus.

[15:01] And I think if we asked everyone in this room, How long do you think you'll live? I think we'd all say, You know, probably 80, maybe 90. Our lives will be much shorter than we probably expect.

[15:17] Our lives will go more quickly than we expect. We may not live that long.

[15:28] And even if we do live that long, we'll look back and think, Man, that went by so quickly. Where did the time go? And so Peter is saying, For the rest of our time in this body, in the flesh, we're going to live for the will of God and not for human passions.

[15:44] And he says in verse 3, For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. Gentiles is a reference to the unbelievers around them.

[15:55] They're no longer categorized with the Gentiles because they're now believers. They're now Christians. And many Christians, many people who call themselves Christians, look just like the world.

[16:08] They don't really look much different than the world around them. And Peter's saying, Enough is enough. Your past time, your past life, that was enough time pursuing sin.

[16:23] Now you must live for God and for his will. The summer after my senior year, I worked for a company called Kraut Companies.

[16:36] And the guy I was working for ended up becoming my brother-in-law. We're married to sisters. It's hard to say. It sounds weird. But our wives are sisters. And that summer, I worked outside every day, all day long.

[16:52] I love being outside. I love working. I love mowing, all that stuff. But every single day, all day long, and at the end of that summer, I was like, I need to get good grades in school.

[17:04] Like, I can't go back. I can't do that anymore. Like, that was enough. That was sufficient for me. I need a soft job inside in the air conditioning because I'm not cut out for this life.

[17:20] That was enough for me. And that's what Peter is saying about our pursuit of sin. He's saying, You had that time before you were in Christ to pursue your sin, and that's enough.

[17:31] Don't go back there. It's over. That time is done in your life. You've had more than enough time to pursue sin. And there are a lot of Christians who get to the end of their life with regret.

[17:48] They look back and say, I wish I had been more faithful. I wish I hadn't wasted so much time. I wish I had lived for Christ more boldly in the time that I did have.

[18:00] But no Christian at the end of their life will say, I wish I had given in to sin some more. No Christian on their deathbed will say, you know, I wish God had just given me a few more years to pursue my sin before he saved me.

[18:20] No one talks like that. And so the time that has passed, that's sufficient for living in this way. We need to put to death our sin and start pursuing the will of God with everything we have inside of us.

[18:36] There's a guy from church history. His name is Jonathan Edwards. He played a vital role in the first great awakening in America, which kind of led to the American Revolution, which Jonathan Edwards had a key part in, not because he was a patriot, but because he was a pastor.

[18:50] He was a pastor, and he preached the word of God. But when he was 17 and 18, across two years, so about the age of our seniors and some of our juniors, he wrote 70 resolutions.

[19:03] I actually have them hanging in my office if you ever want to read all of them. But when you think of New Year's resolutions, you're like, I want to lose some weight. I want to stop eating 20 pounds of pizza, Malachi.

[19:14] I want to get better in this way. It's like a resolution we make and then probably forget about it by February, and then we just move on with our life.

[19:25] Jonathan Edwards made these resolutions for the entirety of his life. He said, I want to live my life by these resolutions until I die. And he said this in one of them.

[19:36] So he was 17 or 18 years old. This is resolution number 17. He said, Resolved that I will live so as I will wish I had done when I come to die.

[19:53] And so he's living his life kind of with a backwards perspective. He's saying, when I get to my deathbed and I look back, what kind of life will I want to have lived? And I'm going to try to live that life now.

[20:08] And so for us, when it's our time to die, what kind of life will you wish you had lived? Live that way now for the glory of God.

[20:19] Pursue that now and seek to glorify Christ in everything you do. Now Peter gives us some examples of what the Gentiles want to do, what the unbelievers around them want to do.

[20:36] He says they're living in these things. These mark them. These are continual actions that they're characterized by. He says sensuality. And you hear the word sense in there.

[20:48] This is trying to please or fulfill all of the senses you have by any means necessary. Passions or lusts or desires. They're controlled by their bellies, by their lusts, by their desires.

[21:03] Drunkenness, either in private or in public, becoming intoxicated and losing complete control of your emotions and thought processes. Orgies.

[21:14] These are sexually immoral parties. He mentions drinking parties. These are parties for the purpose of becoming intoxicated. And lawless idolatry.

[21:27] It would be sacrificing to idols, worshiping idols. And all of these things, this whole list of sins, would be done in worship to their gods.

[21:40] And so they would pursue these things as an act of worship to their so-called gods that they thought they were serving. And Peter says, verse 4, with respect to this, they're surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you.

[22:00] And so join them, he's literally saying, what he says is, they're surprised when you don't run with them. They're surprised when you don't pursue these things with them. And surprise isn't just like, oh, surprise, you got me.

[22:13] It's an offense. How could you not celebrate these things with us? Everyone does. This is a part of our culture. We're worshiping our gods.

[22:25] How could you think you're better than us by not participating in these things? Why wouldn't you go along with us in these practices? Do you hate our culture?

[22:35] Do you hate our traditions? They're surprised and offended by Christians' unwillingness to participate in these things. And in our culture, something really we could compare this to would be weddings.

[22:48] I love weddings. If you invite me to your wedding, I will be there. Not yet, but soon. Maybe. But there are certain weddings that Lacey and I have intentionally not gone to.

[23:03] Could be a believer marrying an unbeliever, which goes against what scripture teaches. Could be a wedding in which we'll be asked or invited to participate in things that we don't think are right. And so we won't go to those weddings.

[23:15] And that can lead to some awkward conversations. If there's a friend you have and you don't go to their wedding someday, you can hear them saying, we're friends.

[23:28] Why would you not go to my wedding? Like what, why would you not be here to celebrate with me? It's that kind of surprise, offended response that these Gentiles are giving toward these Christians for not participating in this flood of debauchery and they malign you.

[23:46] They attack you with their words. And Peter began this letter by calling Christians exiles. In what sense were they exiled?

[24:02] They didn't follow the way of the world. We don't share the values of people around us. We are trying to obey God and this world does not know God.

[24:12] And so that leads to some awkward situations and some difficult conversations. But something that's interesting here is these Christians are being persecuted for these things.

[24:24] And when we think of persecution, I think we tend to downplay a little bit, like the social pressure, the verbal assault, the making fun of. We're like, that's not actually persecution.

[24:36] Persecution is like getting put in prison and being put to death for the gospel. Well, the Bible actually says both of those things are persecution for following Christ. Now certainly being put to death and put in prison, those things are worse than being made fun of and being mocked and being reviled for following Christ.

[24:54] But both of them are persecution. And so you haven't been put in jail, you haven't been beat up for being a Christian, but I know you feel this pressure to conform.

[25:07] I know you feel this kind of hatred from the world for what we stand for. Now being put in jail and killed for the gospel is much worse than this, but Peter considers this to be persecution.

[25:22] And one so quickly leads to the other. In places where Christianity is mocked and made fun of, it's quickly followed by physical persecution as well. And so one author said sharp words can easily turn into sharp swords.

[25:39] And so how can we keep a proper perspective during suffering? Verse 5. They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

[25:55] This is everyone that's going to have to give an account to him. Those who are alive right now, those who have already died, every single person fits into one of these two categories. Everyone will give an account to God for all of their actions.

[26:12] How do you react when you feel like someone gets away with something? Maybe it's a sibling that gets away with something and mom and dad don't catch it and you're like, oh man, little brat.

[26:24] Maybe it's someone in class who gets away with something and someone else gets in trouble for it and you're like, this isn't right. That person did it. He got away with it. My wife, Lacey, loves crime shows.

[26:38] It kind of is concerning to me how much she loves them sometimes, but she does love them. I love them less because I just don't, it's not a genre I enjoy. But one time when I was in high school, I was watching a crime show and I didn't realize I was watching an unsolved mystery and so, you know, I kind of enjoy watching the police work, seeing the court trials and it's like, okay, they got the bad guy, like, that's good.

[27:04] So I'm watching the show and I'm like, this is taking a while to develop, like, they don't have much evidence and it gets to the end and it's like, this investigation is still ongoing. If you have any information, call 911 and I'm like, what?

[27:14] I was frustrated. I'm like, he got away with it and then I wasn't just frustrated, I was also like, kind of scared. I'm like, this guy is for sure breaking into my house tonight. Like, I know this happened in California but he knows I watched that and he's in Oklahoma by now, I bet.

[27:31] So, anyway, frustrated and terrified at the same time but, what do we say, how do we feel when we think someone gets away with something?

[27:43] Even when we're sinned against, someone does something against us and gets away with it. How do we respond? We don't need to take vengeance into our own hands.

[27:57] God is ready to handle it. God's got it and he'll handle it far better than we ever could. No one will get away with it in the end. Peter's saying, I know you're being mocked.

[28:10] I know you're hated. God is ready to judge them. God is ready to bring vengeance on the living and the dead. And so, our present circumstances are not the final reality.

[28:26] The way things look right now is not how they will end up in the end. And one example of that is Jesus. When he was dying on the cross, that looked like defeat. That looked like Satan had won but in that moment, he was defeating our sin.

[28:41] He was setting us free from our sin and so looking back a few days later, we see that was the moment of his victory but in that moment, it looked like defeat. Present circumstances are not the final reality.

[28:58] This world has judged believers. This world will continue to judge believers but Jesus is going to judge them. And Peter says, verse 6, this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead.

[29:11] What does he mean by that? Does he mean these dead people heard the gospel? No, what he's meaning is those who have since passed away heard the gospel.

[29:24] So, this would be like saying this is why the gospel was preached to your great-great-grandparents. They're dead now, most likely, but they had the gospel preached to them when they were alive. And so, Peter is saying this is why we preach the gospel even to those people who have passed away now because though they're judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

[29:47] And so, Peter is saying they've been judged in the flesh, they've been persecuted, they've been hated by this world, but they're in God's presence because they were faithful. So, secondly, number one was the time has passed.

[30:03] Secondly, the time is short. Verses 7 through 11. Verse 7 says, the end of all things is at hand.

[30:15] The end of all things. He's saying the end of the world is near is what he's saying. And when you think about the end of the world, what comes to your mind? If you knew the world was going to end, what would you do?

[30:29] That's different than only having one hour left to live as an individual, but what if the world was going to end? How would that impact the way you lived your life? What Peter says here is since the end is near, follow God's will.

[30:44] Since the end is near, follow God's will. The end is near, so make your life count. It says, the end of all things is at hand, therefore, and so the end of all things rules over the rest of this passage.

[30:57] Because the end is near, you need to live in these ways. You need to follow these commands. Be self-controlled and sober-minded. These are two synonyms. They mean the same thing.

[31:08] And it's the opposite of how the Gentiles live. The Gentiles live in drunkenness and passions. Christians are to be marked by self-control and sobriety in their thinking.

[31:18] They need to think clearly and keep their bodies and their lives under control. And Peter gives a really interesting motivation for this here. For the sake of your prayers.

[31:32] For the sake of your prayers. It's similar to what he told husbands in 3.7 so that your prayers may not be hindered. But what is prayer? Why do we need to be self-controlled and sober-minded for our prayers?

[31:47] Prayer is communication with God. And we cannot communicate clearly if we're not thinking clearly. This is true physically.

[31:58] This is true spiritually. Last summer, as you know, I tore my Achilles, had surgery, and was cooked on pain meds for a while. Like, they gave me some strong stuff because I was in a lot of pain.

[32:11] And so, like, two days after surgery, I FaceTimed Michael Plinsky. I've never FaceTimed Michael Plinsky in my life, but I was just like, I'm going to give Michael Plinsky a call. He's a doctor.

[32:21] He'll like this. And Lacey was like, I don't think you should do that. And I'm like, no, I think he would want an update. So I FaceTimed Michael. He doesn't answer. And I left like a video recording thing on FaceTime.

[32:34] You know how you can do that? I was like, hey, Michael. The doctor said it was bad. I wasn't thinking clearly. Didn't communicate super clearly. And because I wasn't thinking clearly, I did not communicate very clearly at all.

[32:52] And Michael never responded. I don't know why, but I'm a little hurt by it. But the thing that is true spiritually as well, if we're not thinking clearly spiritually, we won't be able to pray effectively.

[33:06] If we're toying with sin or if we're not spending our time well, that will affect our prayer life immediately. So Peter says, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

[33:20] And he says, above all, in verse 8, above all the rest of these commands, keep loving one another earnestly. Love is central to our life as Christians. Love should mark our relationships as believers.

[33:34] We should love one another and be patient with one another. And he says, since love covers a multitude of sins. Now, Peter doesn't mean that, hey, because we love each other, we just sweep all our sins under the rug.

[33:47] Like, I'm going to cover for you guys so that we don't get in trouble. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that love forgives sins. Love overlooks wrongdoing against ourselves.

[34:00] Love forgives. And so, love covers sin, but hatred broadcasts sin.

[34:14] Love says, brother, I know you wronged me, but I will not speak of this to anyone. I forgive you. Hatred says, yeah, you did wrong me, and this is not the last time you're going to hear about it.

[34:28] And think about how God deals with sin versus how Satan deals with sin. You know how Satan deals with sin. He tells us, God's not going to forgive you this time.

[34:46] You sinned again? He had mercy on you last time. You don't even ask God for mercy this time. God. The way Jesus exposes and deals with sin is in the same moment that he's conquering it on the cross.

[35:01] There it's revealed how deep our sin is in the moment that he's destroying it. He covers our sin out of love.

[35:12] Verse 9, show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Hospitality is serving each other, opening up your homes to each other, and it comes with a high cost sometimes.

[35:25] He says, do it without grumbling. And one more thought on verse 8, love covering a multitude of sins. Who is it that you sin against the most? Who do you sin against the most? The people you spend the most time with.

[35:39] And so the people you spend the most time with, you guys are going to have to love each other by forgiving each other the most. because we're so sinful that the more time we spend together the more we sin against each other and so be forgiving and be loving towards each other.

[35:54] And in verses 10 and 11 he talks about spiritual gifts. He says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's grace. And so the purpose of spiritual gifts is to serve the church, to serve other believers.

[36:10] And in verse 11 he gives two categories of spiritual gifts. So every single spiritual gift fits into one of these two categories. Verse 11, whoever speaks, later on in verse 11, whoever serves.

[36:25] So there are speaking gifts and there are serving gifts. He says, whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies.

[36:41] So a speaking gift can be a reference to preaching and teaching God's word. It also applies to encouraging each other, building each other up, correcting each other if the need is there, speaking God's words to each other.

[37:01] It's not our wisdom that we share with other people. We want to speak as we're speaking oracles of God, speaking God's word to each other to build up, to encourage, and to correct.

[37:14] And then whoever serves, this would be anything behind the scenes from taking someone a meal, to cleaning up, to organizing something. This is anything we do to serve the church, but we need to do it in the strength that God supplies.

[37:26] He always gives the strength needed for things that He wants us to do. And here's the summary, in order that in everything, so in all of these things, in all of these commands, in all of our lives, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

[37:43] To be a Christian means that you want people to think much of God. You want people to glorify God. You want people to see you and learn something true about who God is.

[37:59] We want God to be known and loved. And so we want to do everything as a church to glorify and honor Him. To Him, this is Jesus, belong glory and dominion forever and ever.

[38:18] Amen. So as the Bible points us to the end of time, it calls us to be prepared to suffer. It calls us to love each other.

[38:31] It calls us to show hospitality. It calls us to serve each other. And this is how we prepare for the end of time. We prepare to suffer. This is how we walk in the rest of the time in the flesh.

[38:47] So we seek to love one another, build each other up, and prepare ourselves by the same way of thinking that Christ had. The time of our sin has passed.

[39:02] the time until Jesus returns is short. So live well for his glory.

[39:14] Live well for his glory. And if you do, if you live a faithful life, and pursue obedience to the end, your joy and your rest will last as long as his glory and dominion will last.

[39:33] Your joy will be connected to Jesus, and he is the same yesterday and today and forever. And so if you just want a joy that's temporary, if you want a joy that lasts for just a little while and then is gone, ends in disappointment, pursue a life of sin.

[39:52] If you want a joy that's abundant and lasting, glorify God, and your joy will last as long as his reign and his rule and his glory last.

[40:03] Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for this passage tonight. Thank you for just how practical a lot of these commands are. I pray that we would be a youth ministry and a church that loves each other, that we would endure in love for each other, that we would love one another earnestly because love covers a multitude of sins.

[40:25] And thank you for demonstrating your love for us and sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. I pray we would look to that example of love and imitate not only his suffering but also your son's love for us and that he laid down his life for us.

[40:40]  It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.