It says, "Therefore, in Christ have suffered in the flesh. Arm yourself also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has peed from sin. So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the love of men, but for the will of God.

For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatry. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation, and they malign you.

But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For the gospel has, for this purpose, been preached even to those who are dead, as though they are judged in the flesh, as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

The end of all things is near. Therefore, be sound of judgment and sober of spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, be fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint, as each one has received a special gift, employed in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterance of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. Let's take a moment to pray. Father, we ask again that you would grant us insight into your word. Lord, I pray that as we study, as we die, as we are sick, more and more it would inspire a hunger in our hearts to live a life that is consumed with you, to live a life that's healing to you, to ultimately live a life that's glorified.

And so I ask God that we would give special attention whenever your word is opened to us. And Lord, I ask that you would also, by your Spirit, soften our hearts so that if there's any resistance, if there's any ulterior motive, that I could put those things aside. Lord, we thank you, thank you, I thank you, thank you.

Amen. Amen. Well, the last time that we studied the previous section, we've been talking so much about suffering throughout the Book of First Peter, and the admonition continues to mount in terms of how we're supposed to deal with that suffering. And some sections of the passage, or the book, are gonna sound similar as we try to take it tongue by tongue.

As I was talking about that, I mentioned how for us in our day, perhaps there are some unique applications, or at least an exhortation that we should hear. And I began by exhorting us that we should be thankful. I mean, it is truly a grace of God that we can have peace, that there's a sense in which we don't have to be living in fear because we live in fear, that we don't have to be in threat because we carry our Bible.

There is a thankfulness that we should have because of the blessings, even just physically, even daily, that we have. We also mentioned that we should be prepared. These are just a blink for you in the introduction. Let's be thankful, let's be prepared. I said that Christ has given us the expectation.

If you desire to live Godly, you will come. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. That suffering will come, heartache will come because you call on the name of the Lord. And what's more, it was Peter who said, Jesus left an example to follow, so if you are a disciple of his, guess what?

Just as they treated the master, we too are going to be persecuted. But the last one, I said, let's also take on the burden of others, take on the burden of others. And I think for a moment about the people who in our lives, the people in our lives who experience hardship so that you and I don't have to go through it, namely our parents.

We think about parents who really just toiled, labored, and suffered so that their children could have a what? A better life. People who, if you're from an immigrant family, people who would risk it all, let go of everything they're comfortable with or let go of everything that they know in terms of their world, risk it all to move in hope of a better life for their next generation.

Because assuredly, it wasn't their own generation that would see the benefit of that move, it's for the next generation. And so we think about these individuals who would go through suffering so that we could have it easy. This is pretty much the great example that Christ offers us of all.

That Christ suffered in place of. He suffered with a purpose and intention in his heart so that we would not have to experience that kind of shame, that kind of ridicule, that kind of separation. The hardship that he knew would come because of our sin, he was in his good pleasure and it was his volition to say, I will bear that and you will be happy.

And so the exhortation for us is, let's take the burden of someone else's spiritual well-being, let's take the burden and responsibility of someone else's hardship or whatever it may be so that they would do well. That's something quite inspiring. And so today's challenge is going to be in line with that thought by saying that we hope to make our lives as intentional as a suffering distress.

As Christ, his time on earth was incredibly focused. His time on earth had a goal so crystal clear. There was a decree of God, there was a command of God, there was a purpose of God that Jesus Christ was fulfilling as he went on earth. And then on a narrow scale, Christ's suffering and guilt took off.

So it was not haphazard, it wasn't on the spur of the moment, we learned that it was well-planned, executed and it was so intentional and we want to make our lives that way. So let's break down the passage and start walking through it. That was all introduction. Verse one, he says, if you notice kind of the way I put it, I reorganize it a little bit for the sake of context, right?

I just put, therefore, arm yourself also with the same purpose since Christ has suffered in the flesh because he who has suffered in the flesh has been crucified. So in my outlining, I'm trying to show you like how I outline the passage. Sometimes if I see that it begins with this causation, a sense of this, therefore do that, you can just follow that flow.

But if there's a list of other causes or purposes or whatever it may be, sometimes I kind of move it just for the sake of me understanding the suppression of thought, okay? So that's what I did there, it begins again with therefore, arm yourself also with the same purpose.

Now I ask you a question. He's commanding us to have this purpose. What is that purpose? Take a moment to think about it. What is this purpose that he's talking about? As you think about it, that word purpose in the Greek kind of has a broad definition. In this context, it is, I think, best translated, yes, purpose.

But the whole idea behind it is contention, right? There is this goal and ambition. The reason why I say that is because this same word is used in Hebrews chapter four, verse 12. Remember, that's the passage about the word of God is proper than a double-edged sword. It's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

But here, the same word is translated as intention in Hebrews. So the idea here is arm yourself with the same intention, and that's why I made this general introductory kind of purpose statement for the whole lesson is we want to have this intentionality, same attitude of question. And going back to the question, what is that purpose?

Well, since this is connected to the previous passage, let's roll our eyes over and see. If you look over in chapter three, verse 17 through 18, it began by him saying, "For it is better if God "could will it so that you suffer for doing what is right "rather than for doing what is wrong." That much, we've repeated now many times.

If you're gonna suffer, don't suffer for injustice, suffer for the cause of Christ, suffer for righteousness, right? But then he adds, "For Christ also died for sin "once for all to just for the unjust, "so that he might bring us to God, "having them put to death in the flesh, "but made alive in this world." So the case example of Christ is that this, you know, the Savior who died for the unjust, he would put to death in the flesh.

So notice that when he's telling us to have this same purpose, he's drawing back to the idea that Christ would put the death in the flesh. And so when he's calling the church here, or the people who are scattered, the original audience that they need to also suffer and have this same purpose, it is inclusive more than just saying, "Hey, just like Jesus did, let's go get 'em." It's actually what I'm saying is inclusive of the idea.

There is a purpose where he is willing to die. On a cursory reading, I don't know if we've passed that, but there is a willingness to lay down his life for the unjust. There is a willingness to go all the way through the process of what God has ordained to the point of what?

Death on the cross. And so if you remember, when it talks about Jesus Christ in Hebrews, it says in chapter 12, verse two, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, "despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand "of the throne of God." But you can see, what was the purpose of God that we are to take upon for ourselves?

The purpose of God was to lay down his entire life. So before I just simply read like, "Hey, arm yourself with this crisis," I wanted to get that across. At the extent and intentionality of Christ, when he came, he said, "I came for this." Do you remember when Christ was at the Garden of Gethsemane wrestling?

Do you remember when he would predict to his disciples, "The Son of Man needs to suffer." And when his disciples were like, "No, you're not suffering, you're a Messiah, "and we're gonna make you king." What would he say? "Did I not come for this? "Did I pass by what God has written?" He set his face like stone to the cross of who was intentioned to that end.

So when this passage teaches us to arm yourself, the command here is to say, "Be prepared to die in battle." Be prepared to go all the way. The purpose and intentionality for us when it comes to following Christ, for us to do his will, for us to love as Christ loved, for us to proclaim the excellency, going all the way to the point where we would lay down our lives.

Why do I say that? Because even the command, the command word, is "arm yourself." That's the key verb of the whole paragraph. But this word is a military word where the noun form of that verb literally means "weapon." So the idea is to be preparing by putting on the battle gear and taking up the weapon, to be saying, "Be that which is intent and purpose "to go all the way." Now, in this passage, when you think about that, this would be hard, right?

This would be kind of hard to accept, you know, in any other context for us to think from a natural way, like if, let's say, an unbeliever was coming here and listening to me speak right now, and if you imagine, they're kind of like, "What? "He's talking about let's get ready to die?

"Let's go all the way? "What is this?" You know? Now, there's a sense in which this would be very hard to accept. But remember, the immediate context that he's speaking to, this is a very near and close reality. This is a very close and near reality. Now, we ask this question, why?

The command is clear now, arm yourself with the sword, right? But when you look at the passage, there are several reasons why. Let's run down a few. First, the first is very clear. It says, "Since Christ died for you," right? Since Christ has died in the flesh, or suffered in the flesh, and using those two terms synonymously here, and if you have your NASD Bible and you see that little subscript or the superscript of one, it'll say on the side, suffered to death or suffered to death there.

Because of the example set by Christ, because we were called for this purpose that Christ has laid, that we would, in this life, suffer in resemblance to him. We need to arm ourselves then with that purpose and call. But secondly, here's an interesting rationale that Apostle Peter gives. He says, on top of sin, Christ has suffered in the flesh, he says, "Because you who have suffered in the flesh "have seeped from sin." You who have suffered in the flesh have seeped from sin.

So, what does that mean in that section? How does suffering and seeping from sin connect? Take a moment to think about that. And I wanna remind us, the rationale for a Christian, when can you be truly free from sin? When you die. The worst that can happen to a Christian in persecution is people can begin by ridiculing you, people can begin by mocking you, "Why don't you run with us?" And then they'll hurt you, slander you, but the ultimate thing they could do to you, especially in this context, is they could put you to death because of your faith.

But for the Christian, that death is what? The Jesus. You know, when I was in seminary, it took me a little long actually to graduate, like four years into it was more than that. And all four years, I would always visit the student life hall in the study hall area, and there was this man, he was in the sauna, he kept rebutting me, because he always hung out with me.

He always hung out with me. And this guy, everybody knew him because he has the most greatest personality ever. Unfortunately, from birth, he was paralyzed from the inside out. And his teeth were all slurred, and he really couldn't make out words very well. You could tell the man had just a lot of disabilities, even above and beyond what you just imagined.

The first time I met him, I met him because he had stacks of MacArthur tapes, like the old cassette tapes. And he was like, "You want that?" And he was just passing them around. And I was like, "Yes." And so what happened was he upgraded and bought the CD set of MacArthur CDs and he was giving away all his old cassettes.

But from that moment I first met him, every time I walked into the student hall, I was asking, "Hey, what's going on, John? How you doing?" And without fail, every single time, he would say two things. The first thing was, "Better than I deserve!" You know? He'd always say that.

And I'm always like, "Never complain to me." And then, with almost tears in his eyes, he'd say, "And one day we'll be free to sin no more and worship the king!" And he would put up his other thumbs too. And every seminary student who ever complained about, "Oh, the work goes too hard here," or like, "I'm tired," like they would just come in to like, "You're right." And then, yeah.

"Better than we deserve, and one day we'll be free to sin no more." See, this is a perspective, a faith perspective that we all need to have. Right? Where, for one perspective, all that persecution, everybody who's slandering you, everybody's attacking you, is causing you grief, anxiety, and a sense of defensiveness.

But then, when you exercise your faith, not only are you just saying, "Well, I'm actually okay," but the death that everybody's threatening you with, you almost have a perspective all the time. See what a great difference that is in faith. "Threaten me with death all you will!" But for me to live with Christ as the guy is, isn't something else.

And so by application, there is this question. He's commanding us, "Are you armed and prepared with a sense of purpose, a sense of readiness? I'm going into battle, and in this battle I could very easily well-being, or most likely for them, die." But this death is not something to fear, but rather this death is going to be our freedom.

It seems to me. And so although this may be hard to understand for us, we, as Christians, need to exercise this faith and go through a seeking and faith process to go from fear and anxiety to attitudes of hope, longing. Because for us, what we're looking forward to is actually death, is faith.

Is faith from this decaying, painful death. Here's this interesting thing. You think about courage and people who are willing to face death. One of the more famous children's stories is "Dadrak, Meshach, and Abednego," right? And their story, essentially, you guys know the story, King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, has this monumental statue built for himself, and he demands everybody needs to bow and worship.

These three men, they don't want to do that. He says, "Nope." And King Nebuchadnezzar and his officials, upset and enraged, they threaten and say, "Look at this furnace. We're going to blow a red heart. And if you don't bow on the blow of a horn, you're getting thrown in." Crazy thing is, these young men essentially say, "I don't even need to answer to you." That's what they say, like, "I don't even need to speak to you all the time." But the God who serves, he can deliver us from that burning furnace.

I had a belief in it. (laughing) God can deliver us from that furnace. But if he doesn't, they say, God still delivers us from your hell and your sin. What's the point? Right? What's the point? Live or die, it doesn't really matter because we're free from you. Live or die, it doesn't really matter because whose hands am I ultimately in?

My God. Whose presence will I enter into? So, threaten me all you want. And yes, this world is so afraid of pain, suffering, and especially death. And once you get their fear, they can control you. But me, I have this curse, a never-ending curse, that even if I die, if I suffer, nothing will separate me from the love of God.

As a matter of fact, my death would actually mean my freedom. And so, on that level, it just kind of goes to show again, and there's our question. God is calling us to be prospective. To abide in faithfulness to the cause of God could mean all the world. But in our heart, are we prepared for that, with that kind of intent?

Right? To purposefully. And I wanna add to that, not only are you willing to suffer, but the question is, are you willing to suffer even for the sake of the kingdom of God and the people of God? For the sake of those who would hear the message and be saved?

Because remember, Apostle Paul wasn't just one, Apostle Peter included, is not one who would say, oh yeah, I guess I'm willing to suffer because God said it was necessary. No, he was willingly, voluntarily pouring out his life. Here's a passage to 2 Corinthians 4, verse 8-12. He says, "We are afflicted every day, but not thus.

"Perplexed, but not despairing. "Persecuted, but not forsaken. "Struck down, but not destroyed. "Always caring about in the body, the dying of Jesus, "so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested "in our bodies. "For we who live are constantly being delivered up "over to death for Jesus' sake, "so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested "in our mortal flesh." So, death working in us, but life to you.

You see that? It's one thing just to say, yeah, okay, I know life's gonna be tough, let's go through it. It's another thing to say, not just for my sake, not just for my reason, but for life to you. We are experiencing death, shame, that's what it is. So wow, what a big challenge for us.

That our expectations and being depressed with the past is challenging us to go far above and beyond, far above and beyond. So, as Scripture says, "Arm yourself with this attitude, "arm yourself with this purpose, "being willing to go to great extent, "even as many things in the past have as those of the modern "publication of the faith, "and even we will go that far." So, moving to the next section.

I took the whole passage again in your lesson package, 'cause again, I can't go through every single phrase and every, I wish that I actually broke this down into three terms, but we're gonna look at the flow of thought, okay? So let's, please read with me. "So therefore, arm yourself also with the same purpose, "since Christ has suffered in the flesh.

"He who has suffered in the flesh has spewed some sin. "So, as to live for the rest of time in the flesh, "no longer for the lust of men, but for the will of God." And notice I've been kinda tagging purposes, okay, I'm gonna ask you to focus your eyes right now on purposes.

It gives an explanation for the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of a Gentile, namely, having pursued this course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking, parties, and abominable idolatry. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same deceptive anticipation, as they malign you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, and here's a great purpose, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. The end of all things is near. Therefore, be sound of judgment, sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

Above all, be fervent in your love for one another, because love covers the multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another, but without complaint, as each one has received a special gift. Employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And then verse 11 acts almost as a commentary, that this flowing can be commended.

Whoever seeks it should do so as one who is seeking the utterances of God. Whoever serves it should do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies. So that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.

As you read through that passage, it should have been, 'cause I asked you guys to focus on the purpose of this, it should have been a reference to timing and a reference to how that timing is moving. What do I mean by that? There's a goal and trajectory to what Jesus talks about.

And that goal means, in verse two, he talks about the will of God, right? That women were to no longer live for the lust, but the will of God. Verse six, that the gospel is preached, that as people are judged, they may live in the spirit according to the what?

To the will of God. And whoever is doing anything in terms of service, that is, whoever is speaking or whoever is serving with the strength that God supplies, sold out in what? In all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.

Now let's take a moment to think about it. In this section, the command was to arm yourself with equipment. But this section is perfect in terms of the goal, ultimately, is the will and glory of God. This section is the will and glory of God. Now I wanna take a moment just to speak, you know, application for us, truthfully, to speak to you.

There are times in your Christian life where you don't want to suffer. We just like not willing to suffer. As a matter of fact, there are times in your Christian life when you're not even willing to be inconvenienced. There are times in our Christian life where we're not willing to lose anything, we're not willing to sacrifice, we're not willing to sacrifice time or money, we're not willing to do whatever is uncomfortable.

But could it be the case because, you know, that kind of heart condition that we're not willing to have is because we lost clarity of the purpose of life. Because there are times when you are more than willing to persevere, to sacrifice your sleep, to sacrifice your own well-being, to sacrifice your looks.

There are times when you're more than willing to experience pain, suffer, and give everything you've got. What are those moments? When you're crystal clear about what to do. When you're crystal clear about your purpose and you can answer, "Why are you doing that?" That's when you can do it.

So here's my challenge to us is, the goal for every Christian should be the glory of God. Whether it be you're experiencing hardship, whether it's you're serving, whether it's you're worshiping, whether it's you're loving, whatever you are doing, the goal of every Christian is to glorify and honor God.

Our sinful state before Christ, you fall short of the glory of God. Your state after Christ, you are giving, representing, and being a light to the glory of God. You're proclaiming that glory, and that glory of God is now impressed upon you. That's quite amazing. It is our calling, brothers and sisters, to have a deep devotion and passion.

You, even if you're not a pastor, missionary, worker in the church, whatever it may be, if you call on the name of God, you should have as your number one ambition, you should have as your deepest rooted passion, I want to glorify God. I will do everything the Lord asks.

I will do everything that seems right to glorify my God. I will be your number one desire. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31 says, "Whether then you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Colossians 3, verse 17, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." And then, Christ's own words, when He is predicting, He's already entered Jerusalem, on His way to the cross, He's predicting His suffering.

In John 12, 27, He says, "Now my soul has become troubled. At what shall I say, 'Father, save me from this hour? Before this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.'" If you want to learn about the glory of God, I mean, just read some of John Piper's stuff.

He has this book where, from beginning to end, he just goes on. Creation is for God's glory. The creation of man is for God's glory. The purpose of exemption is God's glory. The reason why Jesus came, the reason why Jesus sacrificed, is the reason why Jesus is redeeming you, the reason why He's creating a new heaven.

Every single thing from beginning to end and all that He wrote is for His glory. And scriptures tell us that God Himself is passionate about His glory. Look at this verse that's in Psalm 79. I think I quoted it on your packet. Verse nine, it says, "Help us, O God, of our salvation with the glory of Thy name, and deliver us and forgive us of our sins, for Thy name's sake." In Isaiah, He says, "I am the Lord, that is My name, and My glory and His known power." We live in quite a twisted generation where people have made everything about the Christian church and everything about the essentials of the gospel to serve and feed their well-being.

And it doesn't compute for them if some reason, as they live their Christian lives, that the will of God now all of a sudden includes God might want you to stop. That roadblock doesn't come because of the truth. That roadblock comes because we've twisted. We've made the gospel serve our ends.

We've made the church serve our ends. We've made other people serve our ends. And when we do that, nothing we do will ever make sense. There's a part of me that wishes there's elements when I first got saved and we were all singing Vineyard songs. Yeah, those songs were not theologically rich, but I'll tell you one thing.

Every time we sang and every time that we had prayer meetings, there was a central theme there. One, surrender. That I surrender my life to the glory of God. And it is my honest prayer and it is my honest exhortation to every single one of us. I don't know when was the last time, you know, collectively or individually, you prayed, "God, whatever you want for your glory, "here it is, before you require it, "before you rip it out of my hands, "here and now, before you have to take it from me, "I give you everything, including my very life, "including my company, "including everything I've worked for, "including all of my ambitions, accolades, "including everything I count as success, "before you have to cry it out, "before you have to demand it and say, give it to me, "here it is, Lord, "because I want to give it all to you, "and I'm before you, God, to make you a glory." Okay?

So, truthfully speaking, God, as an honest confession to you, a lot of times, the moments of great sacrifice come, like what? The need to demand it, right? When there's a demand on my life, because of certain circumstances, or because maybe other people need it, maybe some family needs it, and because of uncontrollable things beyond my power, it feels like God is asking me and flying things out of my hand, and so, therefore, I have to be like, okay, I surrender, I live in this.

Can you see the difference between God and Jordan today and now? Before God asked me to cry his fingers open, for us to be prepared and armed with this ambition, God, I want to be loyal to him. And I'm willing, I'm willing, I'm willing to go where other saints have gone, saints have gone.

I'm willing to go to the extent that your son has gone to exemplify himself. This is the great temple. I want to kind of make sure that we get that application of Christ. This passage, it challenges you to be Christian. So far along the line, he says, "Dan, don't be tempted by the lust.

"Don't be tempted by the pagan idolatries, "and don't be tempted by all that stuff. "Keep your mind focused on the purpose. "You're not gonna suffer for anything. "Don't suffer for ease. "Don't suffer to just get out of it. "Don't suffer just to take revenge on the government. "Don't suffer just to get out of it.

"Don't suffer just to get out of it. "Don't suffer just to get out of it. "Don't suffer just to get out of it." And those militia guys are like, "We can't bear to handle this. "We're gonna fight, you know? "You don't need to suffer just for that kind of cause." If you're gonna suffer, suffer for the glory of God.

That's the next little section. A Paul's Peter explains. He says, "You know, there are two different types of people. "And then it kind of lumps together "on how we should live no longer," in verse two he said, "You should live no longer for lust, "but live for the will of God." This is what I'm saying to the divine.

There's two types of people. There are those who are living for their lust, and there are those who are living for the will of God. But then in verse three, he says, "For the time has already passed "is sufficient for you to have carried out "the desires of the Gentiles." And he goes, "List them off." And as I read that stuff, core sensuality, lust, drunkenness, and carousing, drinking parties, and barbaric idolatry, the picture that I get is what this world glorifies.

I got the college vibe. You look at any of those silly movies, you look at any of the way that the media portrays college life, and they glorify that. Like that's really the hater. The people are just hidden to sexual pleasure. Great, 'cause they think that's cool. They just let go, right?

Now the worldly perspective, to tell you honestly, that actually, to the worldly perspective, to them, makes sense. You notice how in the passage it says they're gonna look at people like, "Huh? "Why aren't you running with us? "Why aren't you doing that stuff?" Because if what you say is true, this world is coming to an end, you know?

Like, "Oh, you know, all we have is to look forward "to his death," or whatever it may be, then what they're gonna say is what they've been saying. You only live once. Do it, do whatever the heck you want. So, go take in all that you can, go live it up, go have fun, give into your pleasures, and then you can be thinking in the right way.

I really enjoy it, I really do. That's the world for me. But the logic of God, and this is where I've asked you the question, when you're looking at timing, and the emphasis of timing of your time, what do you think? The end is near. For the godly individual, the perspective is not like, "Oh man, everyone's just, you know, "just sitting and enjoying all this stuff." The godly individual has this perspective, the end is near.

Yes, we are all going to die. But he knows by faith, the end means nothing. The end means giving an account. The end means being held accountable for all that you've done, all that you've said, whether Christian or not, you are going to be judged, okay? That's the reality.

That's the reality that Christian understand. And so for us, the idea here is, is that the world is thinking in their perspective how they see the reality and what their end is. Christians can look forward to it, that we are going to give an account. Turn your Bible to Luke chapter 12, verse 35 to 48.

Let's go there together. Luke chapter 12, verse 35 to 48. (water rushing) He says here, "Be ready." How else would you be ready to be terrible? He says, "Be dressed in readiness "and keep your lamp lit. "Be like men who are waiting for their master "when he returns from the wedding feast, "so that they may immediately open the door to him "when he comes and knocks.

"Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find "on the alert when he comes. "Surely I say to you that he will gird himself to serve "and have them be kind at the table "and will come up and wait on him. "Whether he comes in in the second watch "or even in the third and finds himself, "blessed are those slaves.

"But be sure of this, that if the head of the house "has known at what hour the feast was coming, "he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. "You too, be ready, for the Son of Man "is coming at an hour that you do not expect." Peter is there and Peter says, "Lord, are you addressing this terrible to us "or to everybody else as well?" He's like, "Are you speaking to me?

"I'm talking to them, right?" Well, the Lord gives you more. He says, "Who then is the faithful "when some people see him? "Who in his master will put a charge on the children "to give them their rations at the proper time? "Blessed is that slave whom his master finds "for doing what he comes.

"Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge "of all his possessions. "But if that slave does in his heart, "my master will be a long time in coming. "And he begins to teach the slaves, both men and women, "and he eats and drinks and gets drunk.

"The master of that slave will come on a day "when he does not expect him, "and at an hour he does not know, "and will cut him to pieces "and assign him a place with the unbelievers. "And that slave who knew his master's will "and did not get ready or act accord with his will "will receive many rations.

"But the one who did not know it "and committed deeds worthy of applauding "will receive but a few. "From everyone who has been given much, "much will be required. "And to whom they instructed much, "of him they will ask all the money." For that challenge, and an apostle Peter said, "From Titus, now, "he will take the challenge.

"I am returning, and you need to be ready as a good slave, "doing the will of God, being on duty." And that's why apostle Peter actually speaks much of the end times. Apostle Peter speaks much of what's to come. It's gonna exhort the people to be ready for that end as well.

There's a passage in 2 Peter 3, verse 10 through 12, where it says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a peace "in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, "and the elements will be destroyed with a tent, "and the earth and its work will be burnt up.

"Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, "what sort of people are you being "in holy conflict and problem, "looking for and facing, coming of the day?" So, as his challenge is there, he says, "For you who know best, "for you who have hope of freedom, "the true freedom is death.

"Be ready, be on duty." But what's the duty that he's talking about? Well, going back to our passage, there's a section, verses seven through 11, where there was a list of commands, okay? Talked about, "Therefore, be in sound of judgment, "sober in spirit, and appropriate in prayer. "Above all, be fervent in your love for one another, "because love hath a multiplicity.

"Be hospitable to one another without complaint." And as he put it, he was especially here, "employ it in serving one another," okay? So there were various commands that were listed through and through. I'm not gonna go in long detail over these things, but I did wanna cover them. And from one of the commentaries I was reading, they kinda categorized them in three.

These aren't like an exhaustive list of all that he could teach, right? From here until Christ comes, there's so many things that we could teach. But these, he says, kinda encompass every realm of relationships that we have. What does he mean by that? Well, in the first one, where he's saying, "Be sound of judgment and sober in spirit." We talked about being sober.

We talked about being sound in judgment before in a previous passage. But rehearsing that, it's just simply regarding our personal thoughts. There should be a sobriety. There should be a sobriety where we have control over our thoughts, that we are in, as it literally would read in the Greek, in our right mind.

But when he talks about that, he attaches that to the prayer. That we need to be sober and clear in our thinking so that we can pray for what realm of relationships it is, it's the relationship with our God, right? That we need to make sure that we are in right standing and our conscience is clear so that we can pray.

And if you guys have ever experienced it, I'm sure you have, you know, you maybe wrestle with prayer, maybe you've wrestled with like going to God and peace and union, all that kind of stuff. And truthfully, there's a lot of contributing factors to that, but one of the main things is when my mind is not sure, when my mind is not clear, when I'm not thinking straight and I'm not sober, it is incredibly difficult to pray.

But oftentimes, when you're removed, when you go to retreat, when you isolate yourself, when you're removed from distractions, there's a distinct intention, I'm trying to get sober here so I'm gonna get away from it all, I'm focused. And then all of a sudden, it's hard to focus quite easily, it's hard to focus easily, yeah.

So in this first command of being sound and judgmental and sober and clear, there's a realm of all relationships with God and honestly speaking, our prayer really is our ongoing relationship with the Father. And we need to make sure that that is maintained. And the second part, above all, keeping fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of things.

And being hospitable to one another talks about loving in the community, people around you. So here, I just wanna give some encouragement and talent. We've talked about being loving in a previous passage too, but he emphasizes by saying, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another. And then he adds this little note, because love covers a multitude of things.

Love covers a multitude of things. Now if you're a strict individual, you're like, hmm, what does this mean? Does that mean we just turn a blind eye? You know, if the people are saying, are we supposed to rebuke, exhort, and all that kind of stuff? Do we just let some people go?

What do we do? Now we don't have to get all dicey and try to draw a straight line. But I think there's a very clear difference between one who has an intention of love and a desire to protect each other. So it's just one who wants to express. You know, I remember when just recently I took my kids to one of these kids and parents get-together thingies, and it was for class, and it was sort of like all learning, but then after the session, they're just all running around.

So you can imagine like 40 kids running around, playing with each other, and it's really, really weird. So sure enough, one of the boys is laughing and pointing, and one of them goes, "What's that?" And getting all mad at me, like I was just pointing and stuff, and all the parents were like, "Ee!" You know, so they run over and, "What's going on?" And the kid's like, "That guy's flying down!" You know, and he's just like, "Wah!" All of a sudden the parents go over and immediately it's like, "Covered, good." You know, "No one's taking a look here, nothing to see!" You know, it's just a little example.

But there's a very clear difference between one who is 11% designed to cover the sins of mindfulness and self-help from the other. "Look at that guy's sin! "Look what he's doing! "Ah, he's flying down!" You know? There's a clear difference when your intention is to cover the sins of people, to cover their mistakes, cover over what they're doing, rather than to simply expose them.

There's just an intention difference. And what's more, the idea of hospitality, this term simply means to love saints. To love saints, people who are outside of your comfort zone, people who are outside of who you're already familiar with, people who you think are risky because you don't know how to deal with them.

What's more, in verse 10, it talks about how each one has received a special gift. "To employ and serving one another "as good stewards of the manifold goodness of God." Here, I mean, it just does tell you that the Spirit and the Spirit of Christ has given us various things for the common good, and we have to use it.

There's one Spirit that He has distributed to us. Each of the visitors seeks to use the edification of the Church. And so in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 12, Apostle Paul says, "So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, "seek to abound for the edification of the Church." Okay.

Now, a way of kind of wrapping that all up... I think so far, we've heard a lot of exhortations in our study of 1 Peter. Remember the whole series on, like, a whole section on the high calling of God, that even though they're a section, He's calling us to have purity, holiness, love, hunger for the Word, et cetera, et cetera.

And here and now, even, there's this list of commands, and all of it now, where there's an exhortation to us that we need to be still maintaining every aspect of the relationships that we have vertically and horizontally, and to do all this by the power of God in His name, for His good.

And I want to kind of wrap up by saying this now. Understanding the context that they're in, these are individuals who are suffering, and they're in suffering. And truthfully speaking, when you've experienced not just, like, a general hardship through life, but a moment of season and phase in which you're really hard pressed, and these individuals were attacked from every side, and we talked about, you know, the kind of persecution they're going through, the confiscation of their property, the splitting of their families, the chasing out of their homes, all of it.

Well, the fact of the matter is, when we go through a process like that, what that's going to feel like is a punch to the face. You're going to get this warning. What that feels like is you've kind of lost your bearings, and you're in a crisis situation, and when you're in survival mode, you're just trying to strap on to whatever you think is going to be firm enough to help you get out.

For a lot of us, yeah, when you experience hardship, you might have that same kind of reason and reaction. We experience hardship and we're stumbling, and what's more, whenever we're stumbling, the thing that we're trying to do is just grab on so we can survive, and unfortunately, that desire to survive many times is going to look like us turning all the attention to ourselves, and it becomes a set-up for us to be stuck.

The challenge today was that even in the midst of this suffering, that there is this intentionality that I'm not just going to recoil or grab on to anything, and especially I'm not going to allow my suffering to be an excuse to turn all of my attention to myself or the cancer.

Rather, I'm going to be so intentional that even the way I suffer, even the way I take those punches, they're going to be going on the ground. So that's the kind of example R.J. has set for us, that in the midst of the greatest injustice, in the midst of the greatest apathicity, in the midst of the greatest pain, he was intentional as ever, so serious that he wanted to save the genes in many for the father, and ultimately as many are brought to the father, God will be given.

I want to encourage you guys with that, and let's conclude with a couple of thoughts. Father God, we want to again thank you for the education from this pastor. I ask Lord that we continue to do a work from you. So that more and more we'll be free from self-deception, we'll be free from the kind of mutual love that the pastor talks about.

We'll be free from the kind of worldly tricks that tries to grab on to momentary pleasure, which is a power-loss addiction. And Father God, I pray that you'll continue to do that. I pray, Father God, that rather we concentrate on looking forward to heaven, which is ultimately meaningful, and we are looking forward to our salvation.

So that now we're anticipating being with you, anticipating true freedom of expression, and God that ultimately through our hope, through our sincere education of the faith, the Lord will be given.