- 00:00
- The saints that have built the life to be with you in the
- 00:58
- New Testament salvage 218 chapters in the New Testament and 318 prophecies about written in the
- 01:18
- Bible half left about half of so I want
- 01:29
- I want to share with you uh a biblical prophecy timeline we have the church age we have the tribulation period uh first and second half of the tribulation then the second coming of Christ but before the second coming of Christ we believe
- 01:47
- I do believe in the rapture of the church he can come at any moment and that's on this chart as well and I've got another chart that distinguishes between the rapture and the return the rapture is is uh coming for the saints and that's going to be coming for us to take us to heaven and then the return second coming of Christ is coming with the saints coming back down to the earth to live and reign for a thousand years so I just have a couple here first Peter chapter four is our text today
- 02:33
- I encourage you to open up and look at that we are going to look at that and read it together verse seven the end of all things is near therefore be clear -minded sanity be clear -minded and self -controlled so that you can pray above all love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins offer hospitality to one another without grumbling each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others faithfully administering
- 03:20
- God's grace in its various forms if anyone speaks he should do it as one speaking the very words of God if anyone serves he should do it with strength that God provides so that in all things
- 03:37
- God may be praised through Jesus Christ to him be the glory and the power forever and ever
- 03:51
- Lord I pray that you bless our time together in your word we thank you for this admonition the end will come the end of the age the end of the church age the coming of Christ and the rapture of the church to take us home the tribulation period is yet to come but Lord there will be the end of this church age soon and we pray father if you give us grace to stand and stay strong and Lord we would use our gifts to build up the body of Christ and serve whichever gift you've given to us and its diversity in this body
- 04:29
- Lord until you take us to help us to honor you today and if there's anyone here today that has any doubt of of any kind about their eternal destiny today they would hear from you that you would give them spiritual birth that you would quicken their spirit and bring them into your family to take advantage to guide us we pray today living right to the end you know
- 05:01
- Peter was written Peter wrote the book of Peter because of the persecution that Nero inflicted upon the church he burnt
- 05:09
- Rome blamed the Christians and so there was this incredible fear that they were going to be victims of of Herod's uh or Nero's excuse me
- 05:19
- Nero's craziness and so they thought that the end was coming they thought that their demise was on the horizon so this is in a sense a warning that it may be uh our time to to pass or to be persecuted and that's the context of what
- 05:35
- Peter is writing here to the early church that is dispersed everywhere because of the radicalness of of the emperor in Rome Nero have you ever heard of a little nursery rhyme chicken little older people have maybe not the youngest crowd
- 05:54
- I'm not sure but it's a nursery rhyme that echoes in my memory it's a very it's it's it's real it's very real it's a warning and uh chicken little said the sky is falling the sky is falling
- 06:05
- I must go tell the king no you know if you know this the nursery rhyme there's
- 06:10
- Henny Penny and then there's Turkey Lurkey and then there's uh Ducky Dattles and then there's
- 06:16
- Foxy Loxy if you know the story uh you don't want to be around Foxy Loxy at all but but here this this this uh how did how did he know that the sky was falling he had this empirical evidence he thought um uh he didn't he didn't how did he know he said well
- 06:35
- I I felt it I felt it it fell on my head and I must go and tell well uh what was falling from the sky
- 06:46
- I think it was an acorn I think as the story goes and does that mean the sky is falling was there really empirical evidence that the sky was falling of course not but he experienced something and he felt it and we're living in a day and age in our world where if you feel something then you know experience it or do it or we're basing truth on how
- 07:12
- I feel if you feel different my heart aches for those that are here's uh experience see there's much more to it than our experiences he uh added up two plus two and it it turned into six or something along that line and it must be true because I felt it ladies and gentlemen let's not live our lives by our base our our morality or our our future on feelings we base it on the truth of God's holy word and yet here is
- 08:12
- Peter who said the end of all things is near it's nearer because it's closer today than it was yesterday
- 08:19
- Peter is not like chicken little and saying there's evidence well there was persecution and there's persecution in our day as well churches are being burned all over the world
- 08:30
- Christians are facing persecution everywhere and that is a sign of the end but near compared to what the word end here means consummation or a goal achieved it's an admonition that hopefully this will be the end of times where we feel like there's an end of the age and so when
- 09:02
- I think of admonition that we need to live right
- 09:07
- I don't know when he's coming he's going to take me home it's called the you believe it's eminent it could happen at any time but let's be clear the bible doctrine of eschatology describes signs and prophecies like I said second coming of Christ is mentioned 318 times in the new testament 27 of the entire bible is prophetic and so we need to understand what you see
- 09:50
- Paul and all the prophets predicted second coming of the lord drawn john said in revelation surely
- 10:05
- Jesus comes quickly that's the rapture and I hope you're hungry to know more about that study in the book of Daniel or revelation final chapter of world history is 2 ,000 years from creation to to Christ was 4 ,000 years of history from Adam to Christ 4 ,000 years of history now since Christ is approximately then 2 ,000 year overview of history and in light of all this home we should live right yes we have to preserve life life is precious life is valuable we do all we can to save and rescue lives all the time second thing we are going to talk so we walk submissively we worship triumphantly we witness urgently to people that do not know the lord we work fervently and we watch expectantly so kind of getting a bigger picture of the book of first peter but chapter one is all about our glorious salvation chapter two in the book of peters about our holy life in view of that salvation how we ought to live chapter three and four is instructions while we are i've experienced it matter of fact people don't want to talk about god anymore and a very touchy subject to talk about god in schools for instance you can't hardly bring up his name and then the big question is how do we know we are in this the apostasy today is higher than it's moral collapse rights using the biblical passage love one another as i have loved you that's jesus who said that to his disciples love one another he didn't pay for you to come this is this of god coming upon the world and i believe soon god is being revealed god's wrath of god is being revealed against heaven against godlessness and against wickedness there's three places verse 24 verse 26 and verse 28 where it says and god gave them over to their sinful desires the sexual revolution and then 26 and god gave them over to their shameful lusts and it points out very clearly the the abomination of and then there's std and and then the verse 28 says god gave them over to a depraved a depraved mind literally insane insanity so we have an insanity debate it's just in light of the end inside the light in light of the craziness in our world and by the way is is the elect the electronic currency that you're not even needed discussion is going on right now people give as we have been and we're talking about all that we preserve our lives verse seven in um in our text we preserve life the end of all things is near therefore be clear -minded and self -controlled that you can pray don't waste your life don't waste your time in john 9 4 jesus said now is the time to work for the night of the god be steady first thing is be sound in your thinking be wise in your line upon line be steady and sound in judgment insanity you're saying what's going on in the upside down and instantly be one that's filled with sobriety so that you can pray not to be swept away by emotions and passion not led by feelings or the lust of the hope that's within you sanity not being easily swayed or rightful purpose in life so seek the first opinion of god in his life these activities things pile up in you the peace of god that the word of god dwell in you what richly so that you can face all the attacks of the evil one put on the what the whole armor of god be steady be sober -minded be self -controlled sobriety not under the influence of drugs or deception or lies let it go god can give you the grace and strength to overcome any and all addictions whether it's a food addiction sugar addiction or it's something that is destroying your body the next one it says be sober for the purpose of prayer verse seven be sober for the purpose of prayer therefore be clear -minded and self -controlled so that purpose so that you can pray be serious about prayer be serious about life and get involved in a prayer circle or a prayer meeting our missionaries know that you believe in the sovereignty of god he sets up kings and puts them down he knows i do the same thing i'm looking for so that what our life would be so forth it's ectonates it is that unfailing outstretched uh runner that gives it everything he's got to the very end of doing the very best with what god has given to you that's what the word means you're doing you're you're a runner giving it everything you've got not just some sentimental surface love based on its appearance but a love that is sacrificial a love that is that is not easily um forsaken it's not a convenient love when it looks good it's a love that is there in the trenches of all the issues that we face in life i was at a wedding last time got one more vow i want you to promise that you'll make for me he said okay dad and i'm sure it was did you repeat it he said yes i will he said i want you to repeat after me nick i will not let my wife out give me i'll serve i will not let my wife out sir that's really what it is i will serve my wife more than she's that's true that's what we're gonna do we're gonna be servant leaders we're the ones that be the example of sacrificial loving always loving in a in a way that he asked the coach
- 27:40
- Vince Lombardi what it takes to make a winning team i say to every
- 27:59
- Packer fan you know how we feel for the first time in a long time here's what
- 28:16
- Vince Lombardi said there are a lot of coaches with good ballplayers who know the fundamentals and have a have plenty of discipline but still don't win games then you come to the third ingredient if you're going to play together as a team if you're going to play together as a team you've got to care for one another you've got to love each other each player has to be thinking about the next guy you've got to be concerned the difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling that he's
- 29:32
- Thessalonians chapter four verses he says now about brotherly love you do not need to write for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other and in fact you do love all the brothers throughout
- 29:54
- Macedonia yet we urge you brothers to do so more love over covers it just like God's love for you isn't it makes sense that that our love for one another would cover or forgive your sins how many times are we to forgive is not going to church because offer hospitality to one another each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others faithfully administering
- 32:56
- God's grace in its various forms um practicing the practice of a servant lifestyle be hospitable be genuinely friendly philadelphia is love of a stranger zainab the love of christianity may not have survived had it not been for this gift alone because there were no hotels back then there were no motels there was no retreat center and if people didn't invite people into their homes and stay it wouldn't have spread as it did so quickly in the christianity of information junk food not in the church diet and climate nice and just i just uh manage what