CORE VERSE: 1 Peter 5:12, NIV: “With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. … My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you.
Who are we? 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are God’s chosen treasure – priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” … broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world.
Question: Was 1 Peter written to you? No! But it is written for you. There are principles or advice that you can apply to this time in history. It was written to a bunch of persecuted believers encouraging them to hang on!
Peter told us who and when he was writing this. They were living in occupied territory and facing stuff that you and I would never currently experience. They were subject to the totalitarian kingdom of the Roman empire.
We have rights, freedoms and the ability to vote. We have no idea what it is to have rights violated. We worry about masks while they worried about being mutilated. That is the context in which this book is written and you need to read it that way.
CAUTION: if you take the text out of context all you have is a CON. If you preach the Bible out of context, you can come up with a bunch of nonsense that you try and apply in today’s world.
The sun’ll come out tomorrow. So you gotta hang on ’til tomorrow
Come what may. Tomorrow, tomorrow
I love ya tomorrow. You’re always a day away
Tomorrow, tomorrow. I love ya tomorrow. You’re always a day away
Today was yesterday’s Tomorrow. How did I spend the 24 hours loaned to me from God? Distractions can send you disastrous detour. What is interesting about tomorrow is the younger you are, the longer they are and the older you are, the shorter they are. When you were young, the days went by slow; now they are at warp speed.
What does the Bible say about tomorrow?
James 4:13-17 Passion
13 Listen, those of you who are boasting, “Today or tomorrow we’ll go to another city and spend some time and go into business and make heaps of profit!” 14 But you don’t have a clue what tomorrow may bring. For your fleeting life is but a warm breath of air that is visible in the cold only for a moment and then vanishes! 15 Instead you should say, “Our tomorrows are in the Lord’s hands and if he is willing we will live life to its fullest and do this or that.” 16 But here you are, boasting in your ignorance, for to be presumptuous about what you’ll do tomorrow is evil! 17 So if you know of an opportunity to do the right thing today, yet you refrain from doing it, you’re guilty of sin.
Proverbs 27:1
Never brag about the plans you have for tomorrow, for you don’t have a clue what tomorrow may bring to you.
Matthew 6:33-34 33 “So above all, constantly seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness, then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly. 34 Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.”
Doctor went to the patient and said, I have good news and bad news.
Good news is, “you only have 24 hours to live”
How can that be good news? What’s the bad news?
The bad news is I should have told you yesterday.
QUESTION? How would you live today if you knew you had no tomorrow?
TITLE: LIVE TODAY LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW
TEXT: 1 Peter 4:7-11 The Passion Translation
7 Since we are approaching the end of all things, be intentional, purposeful, and self-controlled so that you can be given to prayer.8 Above all, constantly echo God’s intense love for one another, for love will be a canopy over a multitude of sins. 9 Be compassionate to foreigners without complaining.10 Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-colored tapestry (NKJV-Manifold) of God’s grace.11 For example, if you have a speaking gift, speak as though God were speaking his words through you. If you have the gift of serving, do it passionately with the strength God gives you, so that in everything God alone will be glorified through Jesus Christ. For to him belong the power and the glory forever throughout all ages! Amen.
NIV 7 The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, (NKJ-fervent love) because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
We must have a clear understanding of what Peter meant by:
7 “Since we are approaching the end of all things.” The last days, end of all things and phrases like that were used to describe what would happen between “the cross, the crown and the coming”. Peter, Paul and John all used this phrase; between the first and second coming of the Messiah.
Whether we have 1 tomorrow or if you are 20 and you live to 90, you would have on paper 25,550. How would you or how should you live the last day or any of the possible 25,550 days?
In light that we are all approaching the end of all things, what does that mean?
Are we risk takers or do we play it safe! John Piper stated: “Risk is woven into the fabric of our finite lives. We cannot avoid risk even if we want to. Every direction you turn there are unknowns and things beyond your control. The tragic hypocrisy is that the enchantment of security lets us take risks every day for ourselves but paralyzes us from taking risks for others on the Calvary road of Love. We are deluded and think that it may jeopardize a security that in fact does not even exist”.
It is easy to escape and exit from your current existence and use it as an excuse. Lake life will do that to you.
He said the end is near, not here. The time period referred to here as the “end” (telos) does not necessarily indicate termination, or chronological conclusion. Rather here it means “consummation,” “fulfillment,” “a purpose attained,” or “a goal achieved.” The end of all things “is at hand/near” (eggiken) which means “approaching.” The perfect tense indicates a consummated process with a resulting nearness —the event (Christ’s return) is imminent; it could occur at any moment
1.Be given to Prayer: We are not to pray harder. What would that look or sound like anyway? Prayer is not a big priority and that’s why most prayers are not powerful but powerless.
James 5:16 We have heard it this way “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” Passion says, “16 Confess and acknowledge how you have offended one another and then pray for one another to be instantly healed, for tremendous power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of a godly believer!”
The average Christian prays 45 seconds a day and that is usually over a meal.
One source said, the total time a Christian prays in a year is 6 hours!
Hobbies and shopping mall expeditions: 90 hours
Sporting activities-100, Vacationing 120 hours
Why has prayer in the general population of the church lost its passion? Why have we got so passive about prayer? Powerless prayer is poison to a personal relationship with Jesus!
Why have I put a conversation with the creator of everything on hold? What has become more important than that? I beg to argue that he wants to hear from us as much as we want to hear from him.
Sadly, our passive prayers have become professional not personal. Listen to them.
Lately it seems we are full of everything but him! I think he is saying, as your days decrease, your prayer life should increase. A sustaining prayer life fuels a powerful prayer life.
We should have intentional purpose. A reason to wake up and a task to accomplish that only prayer can make possible.
Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John and an early church leader whose life ended when he refused to betray his Lord. Asked one last time to disavow his Christ, the old man replied, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I speak evil of my King who saved me?” Here is his martyr’s prayer, as recorded by the historian Eusebius: “Father of Your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the knowledge of You, I bless You that You have counted me worthy of this day and hour, that I might be in the number of the martyrs. Among these may I be received before You today in a rich and acceptable sacrifice, as You have beforehand prepared and revealed. Wherefore I also praise You also for everything; I bless You; I glorify You, through the eternal High Priest Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, through whom, with Him, in the Holy Spirit, be glory unto You both now and for the ages to come. Amen.” Eusebius adds: “When he had offered up his amen and had finished his prayer, the firemen lighted the fire.”
To the Church in Ephesus
REV.2:2-4 I know all that you’ve done for me—you have worked hard and persevered. I know that you don’t tolerate evil. You have tested those who claimed to be apostles and proved they are not, for they were imposters. 3 I also know how you have bravely endured trials and persecutions because of my name, yet you have not become discouraged. 4 But I have this against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning. 5 Think about how far you have fallen! Repent and do the works of love you did at first. I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place of influence if you do not repent.
Some people miss quote interpret this. You don’t lose your first love, you leave it. You walk away from it. We have a tendency to be self-sufficient, independent.
How many are guilty of going through the motions of devotions?
2.Be devoted to loving our fellow believers. 8 Above all, constantly echo God’s intense love for one another, for love will be a canopy over a multitude of sins.
The Greek verb echo can also mean “to maintain”, “to possess”, “to keep”, or “to be” so closely joined to something that you become its echo. In this case, we join ourselves so closely to God’s love that we “echo” his forgiving, fervent love to one another.”
Love is the birthmark of the believer. It is the identifier.
Not just any love. Fervent, = strenuously-intensely. In ancient times it described a horse in full gallup stretching its muscles.
Modern Translation: When you love each other and others, give it all you got!! Hold nothing back. Love people like you want to be loved.
Peter talks about 2 kinds of love.
- The love that covers-vs 8 love for another. When scripture says, love covers a multitude of sins, it does not mean love excuses sin.
Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.”
This kind of love does not expose, humiliate, retaliate. It covers. It heals privately, discreetly without shame. This is a protective hovering type of love.
I think God needs to take the whistle from the whistle blowing police. These are the people who want to uncover everyone else’s faults but their own. These are the sin sniffers. They think they are God’s private eyes.
3.Be compassionate to the stranger and foreigner. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling:
This is the second kind of love that recovers with an outstretched arm of compassion. NIV uses the word -Hospitality. It is a word that means loving the stranger with no strings attached.
Illustration: Matt and his girlfriend in our bus.
Go out of your way to help them recover as you blanket them even in their sin with the love of Christ.
Illustration: In Albania, hospitality is so engrained in their cultural that no matter how poor they are, they reserve a stash of provisions in case a stranger comes through. Their motto is, “An Albanian’s house belongs to God and his guests”
So, the first love covers and is protective, the second recovers and is proactive.
One of the biggest diseases around when the antidote is widely available but seldom accessible is loveless-ness. People are desperate for family, fellowship and bonding; especially in the Maritimes where people feed on relationships.
Romans 5:5 “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” IF this is true, there is an unlimited source continually being poured! Unless we close the lid!
4.) Use spiritual gifts to serve one another:
Vs. 10 “10 Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful ‘stewards’ of the many-colored tapestry of God’s grace.
- You have more than 1 gift that you are responsible for.
What is a steward? : a person whose job is to serve meals and take care of passengers on a train, airplane, or ship. : someone who protects or is responsible for money, property, etc. : a person whose job is to manage the land and property of another person.
Could we be hindering the display of Gods glory by not utilizing the gifts God has given us by not getting involved?
REPEAT: I am a reflector of Gods gracious gifts of grace! His grace is not monotone or monochromatic! It is a tapestry of vibrant colors displayed individually.
In WW2 there was a French village that was bombed. A marble Statue of Jesus was broken into pieces. The towns people collected all the pieces and stored them until after the war was over. They put the statue of Jesus Christ back together again except the statue had no hands. They could not find the hands! “A Christ without hands is no Christ at all,” someone lamented. “Hands with scars, yes. But what’s a Lord without hands? We need a new statue.”
The hands were important because they showed the marks of the nails. One day, someone put a sign at the bottom of the statue that read,” He has no hands but ours!
A few years later someone saw that inscription and wrote these famous words, which we all should take seriously:
“I have no hands but your hands to do my work today. I have no feet but your feet to lead men on the way. I have no tongue but your tongue to tell men how I died. I have no help but your help to bring men to God’s side.”
