Sermon Tone Analysis

**Turn to 1 Peter 4:7

Recap

Last week:

ARMING OURSELVES with PREPARATION to SUFFER…FOLLOWING in CHRIST’S STEPS to always SEEK the WILL of the FATHER...

Spending the REST of our DAYS TURNING from SIN & seeking after God.

This week:

LIVING w/ END in MIND...

LAST WK. - PERSONAL DEATH,…NOW, END of TIME.

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Read text & pray

Intro:

Do any of you know anyone who is prepping for the end of time?

(The unhealthy kind)

Maybe you?

STOCKING up on FOOD, ammo, or things like this?

Following all the CONSPIRACY THEORIES?

NOT INHERENTLY WRONG…BUT should this characterize believers??

Should believers be:

looking for SIGNS in the HEAVENS, watching the MOON, etc.

looking for SECRET CODES on the dollar bill or be watching for the MARK of the BEAST

Need:

All joking aside....We all need to know, how do we live as believers in light of the end?

The end of time isn’t just a secular idea

Biblical doctrine - eschatology (Last things)

Both Paul & Jesus Christ compared his coming to a THIEF in the NIGHT…UNEXPECTED.

This is one of the reasons we need this text today.

How we are to live might come as a surprise to us...

🐢🐢🐢.....31 minutes left....🐢🐢🐢

Text:

1 Peter 4:7–11 (ESV)

Thought 1: Living in Light of the End

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

WE SHOULD ALL LIVE with CHRIST’S 2ND COMING in MIND…COMMONLY DONE in UNHEALTHY ways though...

"LAST DAYS” —2,000 YEARS!…SUPPOSED to be UNPREDICTABLE

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NO PERSONAL STANCE on ESCHATOLOGY...

CHRIST B4…AFTER MILLENNIUM…in MILLENNIUM right now??

1,000 YEARS LITERAL??

PERSONAL CONCLUSION: IF YOU’RE READY, LAMP W/ OIL…YOU’RE READY REGARDLESS...

Martin LUTHER, 100% sure Christ is coming… “I’d plant a tree and pay my taxes.”

= He’s ready & LIVING w/ that EXPECTATION anyways.

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Should we LOCK OURSELVES in our HOUSES & WAIT?....GO NUTS?

Peter says END is NEAR… THEREFORE, live SELF-CONTROLLED & SOBER-MINDED lives..... Anticlimactic??

CHRIST’S COMING is IMMINENT…EVEN IF NOT IMMEDIATE

Schreiner- “The imminence of the end should function as a stimulus to action in this world.

The knowledge that believers are sojourners and exiles, whose time is short, should galvanize them to make their lives count now.”

Last week:

LIVING with our OWN END in MIND…AVOIDING DRUNKENNESS & LACK of SELF-CONTROL

now:

LIVING W/ THE END in MIND… +SELF-CONTROLLED (FRUIT of SPIRIT)....& SOBER-MINDED...

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“For the sake of your prayers”....

Wayne Grudem points out concerning this that, “The idea is not simply ‘so that you can pray’ (NIV), but ‘in order to pray more effectively, more appropriately’, Christians should be alert to events and evaluate them correctly in order to be able to pray more intelligently.”

GOD KNOWS NEEDS B4 WE ASK…YET, still PRAY SPECIFICALLY

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Above all- love earnestly

LOVE is THE THING.

Covering multitude of sins -he’s REFERENCING a PROVERB.

He’s talking about LIFE in CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY (one another) & IMPLIED FORGIVING one another.

Overlooking faults or differences...

Not judging based on “bad days”

NONE of us are PERFECT, & none live perfectly above our emotions…love chooses to keep no record of wrongs!

& Grace doesn’t keep score.

If we CAN’T EXTEND GRACE to others…we are NO DIFFERENT than PAGANS!

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This text is NOT giving a DOCTRINE of ATONEMENT through WORKS.

Works never cover sin.

In OT, temporary, COVERING sins...

We need sins TAKEN AWAY… @ Calvary by the PRECIOUS BLOOD of Jesus Christ

GOSPEL:

Any SINNER, no matter how IMPURE, CAN be WASHED CLEAN!

Sins removed as far as east is from the west!

NO NEED to TRY to COVER SIN! IN CHRIST, THEY’RE GONE!

IF UNSAVED....JESUS CHRIST is THE ONLY WAY…YOU CAN BE CLEAN TODAY.

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This TEXT is TALKING about our NEED to COVER OVER/FORGIVE the TRESPASSES and SHORTCOMINGS of OTHERS as God in Christ forgave us.

We’re a SET-APART GROUP of BELIEVERS…but we STILL FALL SHORT & our community is imperfect.

D.A. Carson describes it this succinctly by saying, “…this is the love that breaks the downward spiral of wounded sensibilities, hard feeling, nurtured bitterness, dissension, and vendetta” (p.

1040).

NOT REPAYING…BEING GRACIOUS

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(V9) Then, Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

2nd “ONE ANOTHER” command...

Hospitable, w/ good attitude!

Hospitality is BOTH ACTION & DEMEANOR.

WORLD is FILLED w/ SIN, evil, hatred…CHURCH should be SAFE PLACE...

These are all ways we live with the end in mind!

We shouldn’t be holed up…but gathering as believers living self-controlled sober-minded lives, loving one another, & being hospitable!

Transition: Now, after beginning to illustrate what it looks like for believers generally to live in light of the end, Peter moves specifically to highlight the individual believer’s responsibility.

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Thought 2: Good Stewards of Grace-Gifts

10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

ALL HAVE GIFTS…Peter says “as each has received.”

Writing w/ completed, holistic perspective…it’s already happened.

“Grace-gifts....spiritual gifts”

Grace = Received WITHOUT MERIT…should be able to GIVE/BLESS others WITHOUT MERIT!

Grudem: “A spiritual gift…is any talent or ability which is empowered by the Holy Spirit and able to be used in the ministry of the church.”

CHURCH = BODY of CHRIST…all have their part…there’s something that sets you apart from others!

EQUAL but SEPARATE PARTS.

There are THINGS I am GIFTED TO DO, and there are THINGS I AM NOT GIFTED to do…there are times we all must depend on one another.

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WE can CULTIVATE gifts, but the fact we have the POTENTIAL is a FUNCTION of GOD’S GRACE

Some people can’t clap on beat or carry tune in bucket...

My point is that our gifts, talents, and abilities, even if we have cultivated them, originate with God’s grace in our lives.