 But today, what I want to talk to you about is living in the last days, living in the last days. And you've been studying in the book of Revelation. You've had some incredible speakers on Sunday morning kind of talking about what's happening in the world today, both internationally and just here in our own country. Of course, we heard about Houston. You know, there's problems in Houston now in terms of the mayor requiring the pastors to turn in their notes and all this sort of thing. And it just would seem like we're in the last days, isn't it? And kind of thinking, now that we're in the last days, how are we supposed to live? I mean, are we supposed to freak out? Are we supposed to sell all our possessions and sit on our roofs and wait for the rapture to come? I know back in the 70s some people did that. Are we supposed to go fill up our basements with water and all kinds of bad food that you can add water to, which never made sense to me? I remember when I was growing up, the government came on and said that powdered milk was better for you than real milk. And so what did my mom do? She went out and bought all this powdered milk. It was such a drag. And then they found out, oh, wait a minute, because I guess the cow guys got mad. And so they said, you can mix the powdered milk with the real milk, and it's actually even better for you. So then we started having half and half, half powdered milk and half real milk. And I got to tell you, I'm still going through counseling over these things. They really mess you up as a kid. But as we're kind of looking at all of these things, you can really freak out, can't you? You can get really scared. You can almost feel like there's no hope, like what are we going to do? What happens? Ebola hit the United States. Oh, no. What's going to happen now? And the Bible tells us what to do. The Bible tells us how to respond in times just like we're living in right now. So we're going to look at that in 1 Peter chapter 4. If you can turn your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 4, I've been talking off my notes, so I have no idea where I am in my notes right now. I'm going to go discover if I've said everything I was supposed to say. But we're going to look at 1 Peter chapter 4, and we're going to begin reading at verse 7. 1 Peter chapter 4, and we're going to begin reading with verse 7 says this, But the end of all things is at hand, therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers, and above all things have fervent love for one another. Love will cover a multitude of sins, and be hospitable to one another without grumbling. And as each one has received a gift, minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And if anyone speaks, let them speak of the oracles of God, and if anyone ministers, let them do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word to us, Lord, your word that gives us strength, your word that gives us direction, your word that empowers us, your word that is true, and that gives us truth for our times, Lord, that tells us exactly how we are to live to face the challenges that are ahead of us. And we thank you for your word tonight. We ask that you would illuminate our hearts and our minds as we look to your word, that you would strengthen us, and that you would encourage us in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, America is buzzing about the end times. You know, it's kind of a topic. We were talking about that before service tonight. You know, it seems like everywhere you go, people are talking about the end times. A Fox News reported that the new Nicholas Cage movie left behind promises to spark discussion once again about the end of the world. In fact, it's kind of funny. I've seen some of the interviews with Nicholas Cage. It's kind of funny to watch Nicholas Cage try to talk somewhat about Jesus, whom he doesn't really know, but it's just kind of an interesting thing to watch that happen. Franklin Graham wrote an article where he states, I can't help but wonder if we are in the last hours before our Lord Jesus Christ returns to rescue his church. And Greg Laurie recently said in a discussion about the end times, we are seeing four shocks of a powerful earthquake that is ready to happen. The prophetic events are like dominoes closely stacked together. When the first domino falls, the others will fall in short order. Even the Muslims believe the end is near, according to an article written by a fellow at the Brookings Institute entitled ISIS is making strategic decisions in Syria based on ancient Islamic prophecy of the end times. So whether you're a Christian or a Muslim or just a regular guy of the street, the end times is definitely something that is on our minds in our national conscience right now and the signs are everywhere. You can look in the news and see the signs everywhere you turn. You know, I was thinking about a comic I recently saw and it was a guy and he was holding a sign. He was wearing a monk suit and it says the end is near. You know, he's walking around town. The end is near. And then about 10 feet behind him was like a mini monk, you know, like his kid dressed in a monk suit and he was carrying a sign. It says, are we there yet? You know, kind of like what little kids do. You know, are we there yet? Is it time yet? And that's kind of the question everyone's asking. You know, are we there yet? Where are we in the whole scheme of things? You know, I think of another farmer who was fishing on the side of the road and he made a sign that said the end is near. Turn around before it's too late. And he showed it to every passing car that went by. One driver in particular didn't really appreciate the sign so as he passed by the farmer he shouted out the window, go away you religious freak. And all of a sudden the farmer heard a huge splash. And then the farmer said to himself, I wonder if I should have made the sign say bridge out instead. Maybe that would have been better. Well, I believe we are in the end times. And Peter tells us the end of things is at hand. And so what I want to look at is how we are to live in the end times and there are four points that Peter makes for those of you that like this space out your papers. There are four points that Peter makes for us tonight. And the first has to do with prayer. We heard tonight that it's the most important thing. But the first has to do with prayer. And in first Peter 4 verse 7 he writes this, but the end of all things is at hand. Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. You know, in our culture when we think of something serious what do you think about? You think about something that's solemn. Like you're not going to smile, right? It's serious. It's something that's weighty. It's thoughtful. It's somber. It's without humor. But what Peter is writing here is about something different. And the word serious would be better translated for us today as sober minded. He's saying be sober minded. It means to be of a sound mind. To be in one's right mind. To exercise self control. To think of one's self soberly. To curb one's passion. Now when you're in the middle of a crisis who is it that you turn to? You know when, I know Jesus is the right answer, right? But I was looking for another answer. Who is the person that you're going to turn to? You're going to turn to the person that's calm, that's level headed, that's not freaking out, that's just kind of approaching the situation systematically. And that's what Peter means when he says sober minded. He's saying the end of all things is at hand. So don't lose your mind. Don't freak out. You know, but pray with a level head. You know, even though we're hearing all of these incredible things that are happening around the world. They shouldn't take us by surprise because we know about them in scripture, right? So as believers, they don't take us by surprise. We're not surprised that there are incurable viruses that are kind of breaking out around the world because the Bible tells us in the last days, that's going to happen. So that shouldn't surprise us when we hear that. We should be level headed, sober minded. Of course that's going to happen. We knew that was going to happen because the Bible told us that it was going to happen. So how do you pray with a level head when you're thinking about all of these things that are going around in the world? Well, one thing to keep in mind is this. We know how the story ends, don't we? We know how it's going to turn out. We know that Jesus wins in the end. You know, ISIS doesn't win. Ebola doesn't win. Jesus wins. Hopefully Obama doesn't win or Hillary. No, I'm just kidding. So we can pray with confidence and joy because we know what's coming down the road. We know that Jesus ultimately is the one who wins the whole thing. He's going to come back and set up his literal rule and reign on earth and nothing is going to stop him. He will defeat every foe, every enemy. So in the face of everything that we see on the news or on the radio or the talk shows and all the people that are freaking out and they're losing their mind and they're wondering what the future is going to hold, you and I of all people, we know what the future is going to hold. And for us, the future looks pretty good, doesn't it? So we can pray with a level head, a sound mind, not caught up with fear or anxiety over the days that we live in because the future is secure for us. But Peter says not only are we to be anxious, but we're to be watchful. We're to be watchful in our prayers. Now the word watchful means to be free from every form of mental and spiritual drunkenness, to be free from excess, rashness or confusion. It means to exercise self-restraint or self-control for your own good. That's literally in the Bible dictionary, those words. So it means literally that as we're experiencing all of these things in the world, that we're to keep a not only a level head, but a sober mind that we're not to let anything cloud our judgment. There were not to let anything put us in a state where we couldn't react quickly, properly, prayerfully and obediently after the leading of the Lord. You know, we live in troubled times. We're in the middle of a spiritual battle. And when you're in the middle of battle, you need to keep your wits about you at all times because a clouded mind on the battlefield can mean the difference between life and death. Those of you who have been to war, you know that. When you're going out, you want to have an alert mind. You want everybody on your team to have an alert mind to be all present, all in, everybody together. Because if one person slips, it could mean the loss of life of the whole team. And unfortunately, it seems that many in the church today have allowed their judgment to become clouded by the culture that we live in. There's a study that was published by christinmingle.com. How many of you know what that is? And why? I'm just kidding. Gonna pray for you. But they did a study on christinmingle.com and it's a Christian dating site. And what they found out is that Christians are perhaps more influenced by the culture than they are by the teachings of scripture or of the church. According to this study, 61% of Christians said that they would have sex before marriage. 58% said that it's appropriate to move in with someone after dating sometime between six months and two years. So after you've been together for six months or between six months, two years, like, hey, let's just kind of move in together. A 34% said that it would be nice to marry someone of the same faith, but it's not required. And as I was reading these statistics, I just thought, in the church, what we need to stop doing is we need to stop listening to the culture and we need to start listening to God. Because God in His Word, of course, all of these things that you're in a church that honors the Word of God, that teaches the Word of God. And so you know from the scriptures that in each of these three areas, the Bible has some very definite things to say, not because God is a killjoy and He wants to ruin your love life, but because God loves you and He wants to preserve your eternity. You know, He wants you to be blessed forever. And He doesn't want your relationships to be tainted by the things of this world. We need to be sober, alert, ready to respond because the end of all things is at hand. You know, we're in a state now where medical marijuana is legal and it's interesting to see this debate grow. And many Christians that are beginning to say, hey, you know what's wrong with this? Better for you than alcohol, right? And so like, what's the big deal about it? Well, here's what the big deal about it is. Besides the fact that God says to be sober-minded. But secondly, what I find is that I'm disturbed, I'm concerned about a culture that needs to self-medicate itself to get through the day. I'm concerned about people that need to numb the pain in their lives in order to make it through to the next day. That they're not dealing with what's going on in their lives in reality, that they're living in a clouded view of life so that they don't have to face that life. But here's what God does through grace is He brings everything into the light so that He can not only deal with it, but He can set you free from it. So you don't have to cover it up with medical marijuana or with alcohol or anything else. You can walk in freedom and liberty and joy and abundance from all of that. Because Jesus wants to set you free from that. And if you're here tonight and you're struggling with that, let me just tell you right now, Jesus wants to set you free. He wants to become everything to you. He wants to take that air of your life that you're numbing and He wants to bring it into the light so that He can heal you and He can restore you. He can take that pain away and give you the abundant life that He made you to create, that He died on the cross for you to have and He wants you to have. We need to be sober, alert in these times that we're in. And so we have these two words, serious and watchful. Both having to do with exercising self-control and being free from anything that would keep me from thinking clearly. And why are we to do this for the purpose of prayer? For the purpose of prayer? So that as we pray, we can pray with a clear mind, with a sharp mind. Paul writing to the church in Thessalonica in, for those taking notes, verse Thessalonians five, six, through eight, he says, therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober for those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. So now is not the time for us to be passed out drunk on the couch. Now is the time for us to be ready to respond in prayer. I can't tell you how many times that I've had people just drop into my life, come to my house and here's my husband, you got to help him out, here's my wife, you got to help her out and they're sitting in the car and they're just completely gone. And you've got to come in and they come in a moment of crisis or someone calls me up and says, hey, can you come down and pick me up? I'm at this bar and I've just been arrested and I need someone to take my wife home for me. And imagine what would have happened if I would say, bro, I'd be there in a second, but I've had like three beers here and I can't get in the car and get you. That would be a bummer, wouldn't it? Or if my kid, my kid had asthma nearly died when he was one years old and if we had cracked open a bottle of wine and he went into an asthma attack and we couldn't take him to the hospital. You see, in these days we need to be sober and alert and ready to respond at the drop of a hat. We're in perilous times. The second thing Peter says is have fervent love for one another. And verse 80 says, above all things, have fervent love for one another for love will cover a multitude of sins. Now the word fervent means to be eager and Peter uses it in reference to showing God's agape love. That's the word love there, it's the word agape love which is to describe God's love. And so above all things, to be eager to show God's love for one another. Now what happens when we show God's love, his agape love for one another or to each other? Peter says that God's agape love will cover a multitude of sins. That's what God's love does, it covers, it covers, it protects, it covers a multitude of sins. Now I'm just gonna say this and I just, I hope I don't offend anyone, but too often we are too quick to judge, quick to condemn and slow to love. We're quick to judge, quick to condemn and slow to love. And I understand that. I really do, I do understand that mechanism. You know, in the last presidential election, we saw many candidates drop out of the race because of the sins of their past that all of a sudden got thrown into the, in their faces. You know, people who claim to be Christians and all of these sins that came out of the closet that disqualified them. We've seen religious leaders commit adultery, child abuse, charges of homosexuality, drug allegations. And when you see that, you get to a point where you go, you know what, I want justice. I want people to stop being phony and stop being fake. And I don't want them to stand up there and be something that they're not. I want someone that I can trust. And when we see someone up there, we want to judge them. We want to say, you can't be there. That's not right. We want to expose. You know, YouTube and Facebook are the new venues to kind of get the truth out, isn't it? You know, and we saw a couple of years ago, the wife who was spurned by her husband and she went on YouTube and just told the whole world about it, you know, exposing because she felt that she had been slighted. Peter says, listen guys, we're in the last days and we need to be eager to show love and love covers a multitude of sins. Love covers. Love doesn't expose. What does that mean? Well, the word cover means to cloak or to veil and it's the idea of covering one's nakedness so that they're not embarrassed or to provide shelter for them, a place where they can deal with matters privately. Now, it doesn't mean that sin doesn't get dealt with. That's not what Peter is saying here. He's not saying, hey, love covers up sin and doesn't deal with it. Love just kind of sweeps it under the carpet. That's not what Peter is saying at all. But what he's saying that is that sin gets dealt with in a way that is private so that it doesn't bring shame on the person who has sin or another way to interpret cover is to forgive. That love forgives a multitude of sin. You see, that's what love does. Love protects so that sin can be dealt with. Cause how many of you, if you knew every time you came up to the altar that it was being recorded and it would be on Facebook the next day of the church, hey, brother so-and-so came up and he confessed of his adultery, praise the Lord. You know? How many of you would be like filling up the altar the next week? It'd be like a ghost town in here. Why? Cause we want to be free but we feel guilty and ashamed of the things that we're dealing with. And we want to know that we can go some place where someone is going to not expose us but really help us and really bring us to that place of freedom. And part of that covering is forgiveness. You know, Peter is actually quoting Proverbs 10-12 in this passage and in Proverbs 10-12 it says, "'Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.'" And the Hebrew word for cover carries with it the idea of forgiveness. That forgiveness is willing to cover an offense. Hatred wants to challenge, to stir up, to make known. But love forgives. I read this quote today on Facebook by Carina Rosales and it says, the inability to forgive is such a poison to the soul. It keeps us trapped and bondage and it doesn't allow us the freedom to love. It gives us false power in controlling our relationships by keeping track of all the wrongs the other person did. And instead of thinking of the other person, it brings out selfishness in our own souls. You see, when we're unwilling to forgive it damages us, it hurts us. And so Peter is saying, listen guys, we're in the last days, we need all of you. We need each other. This is not the time to divide. This is the time to unite. And if someone has offended you, forgive them, go to them. If you need to go with a brother, like Matthew 18 says, go with a brother and restore that relationship. Restore that relationship because we're in that time when as the heat gets turned up around the world and as Christians start coming under persecution in these last days, we can't afford to be bitter to each other. We can't afford not to love each other. And he says here that we are to be fervent in our love, eager to love. The third thing that Peter says in verse nine is to be hospitable without grumbling. Be hospitable without grumbling. And he says in verse nine, be hospitable to one another without grumbling. Now, in most churches, we kind of attribute hospitality to what? Food. I mean, we had a whole, I mean, half the announcements was on the menu tonight. It was amazing. I was like, I need one of those. Like right now that pumpkin spice latte, whatever that is, it was calling to me. I just thought, Lord, is this you? But we oftentimes attribute hospitality to food. They're the ones responsible for amazing coffee and incredible food. But that's not what Peter is talking about when he says hospitality. To be hospitable means to be loving to foreigners or strangers. To be loving to foreigners and strangers. So you need to keep in mind what Peter is dealing with in his culture in that day as he's writing this. You know, Peter was writing to Jewish believers. And those Jewish believers were dispersed from Jerusalem into Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethany. And according to the law of Moses, Jews were not to have anything to do with foreigners or strangers. They were to be separate. They were a holy people. So they were to be completely separate from foreigners or strangers. So when Peter says, be loving to foreigners and strangers that you need to do it without grumbling, this went against everything that they had been taught from the time that they were little kids. You mean I have to love these Gentiles? I mean, I have to not only be nice to them, but I have to love them? Are you serious? Is that allowed? Can we do that? I mean, you remember Peter's vision in Acts chapter 10, right? Where the sheet comes down from heaven and there's all these animals in there and a lot of those animals were unclean. They were things that the law of Moses said you cannot eat these animals, you know? And so there was all this stuff, my wife likes like lobsters and shrimp, you know? You weren't able, you weren't allowed to eat those things. And so the Lord says to Peter, Peter, arise, kill and eat. And Peter says, no way, Lord. You know, I'm a, you know, I'm holy here. I mean, I've never had anything unclean go into my mouth, you know? I mean, imagine that conversation. God tells you, go do this. And you say, no way, Lord. And then you quote his word back to him. And then God says to Peter, Peter, what I say is clean, don't you call unclean? What I say is clean, don't you call unclean? And so Peter, coming from that, he's saying, listen, we need to love foreigners and strangers. Those ones that we said that we weren't allowed to love that we're off limits, we are to love them and we're to love them without grumbling, without grumbling. Now grumbling refers to murmuring or muttering. It's a secret displeasure that is not spoken openly. It's spoken under the breath. Some of you are really good at that, you know? Of course I'll do that bunch of lazy kids, you know? Let me bring it up to date for us today. How often do you think you're mine? God, do I have to love that person? You mean you want me to forgive that person? I mean, I'll, anyone else, but that one? Really God, are you serious? Is that the one you want me to forgive? And sometimes we'll even do it. Okay, God, I forgive it. We'll say it, okay, I forgive so and so. Stupid idiot. You know, in the South they have a thing. You can say anything you want, as long as you say, bless your heart afterwards. You know, you can say, that's an ugliest baby I've ever seen, bless its heart. Now, I know some of you are gonna start doing that. You're gonna walk around. You are some crazy guy, bless your heart. You see, when Jesus died on the cross for you and me, the reality of it is, is that it should not have been Jesus. It should have been you and me. The Bible says that he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He did nothing to deserve him. We did everything to deserve him. And so when he died on the cross, in our place, and then he turned around and says, you're forgiven. He was making a way for us to be able to turn around to the person that offended us and say, you know what, I've been forgiven, I forgive you. I should have died. God spared my life. The least I can do is forgive you. It's the least I can do. And so we're in the last days and we can't afford to hold grudges. We can't afford not to forgive. We can't afford to grumble, but we need to love, be hospitable, even to those that seem unlovely to us. My son struggles with mental illness. And some of you may have heard us talk about that. And it's always a challenge to me because he is one of these guys that, if there was someone that was most like Jesus in our house, it would probably be him. Because he reaches out to the ones that no one else would ever reach out to. And he reaches out to the lost, the least, the forgotten, the forsaken, the ones that people are even afraid of. He just befriends them and then he brings them home. And so we've had heroin addicts sleeping in our driveway. We've had strangers sleeping in our backyard. I mean, it's sometimes, it's just one of those things that really stretches you. It stretches you not only as a parent, but it stretches you as just a person of a follower of Jesus. And I remember one time there was someone and they were sleeping in our backyard. And I was like, oh man, we can't have someone we don't know sleeping in our backyard. So I'm like, you need to move that guy on or we're gonna call the police. And so we ended up calling the police and all this stuff. And there's this whole ruckus. And after it's all done, I'm coming walking back into the house and the person leaves and all this stuff. And my wife looks at me and goes, what if that was like Jesus? And what if that was a divine appointment? And I'm like, why are you telling me this? This is making me feel so bad right now. And it just cut me to the quick, be hospitable to strangers. Be loving to those that are foreigners, that are different. And to do it without grumbling because we're in the last days. And then finally Peter says minister to one another with the gifts God has given you. And first Peter four 10 it says, as each one of you has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Now the word gift that Peter uses here is the word charisma. And the root word of charisma is carous or grace. And we've come to define this term as gift but it's really better defined as a manifestation of grace. So a better way to think of spiritual gifts is a spiritual gift is a manifestation of God's grace in our lives through our lives for the benefit of others. And so God equips us by his grace to minister to other people, that's what he does. And so we're to be good stewards of this multifaceted, that's what manifold means, multifaceted way that God's grace ministers through us as we serve one another. That's what we are to do. That means we need to stop holding out on each other because there are some of you in here you've been holding out on the church. Maybe for whatever reason you've thought, that's not me. There's other people that God's called to serve and I'm not one of those, I'm not a minister type, I'm not that kind of person. And by the way I love, that's what I love about this church is the tagline, every member, a minister, everyone in here is drafted into the army of God. But God has uniquely gifted and placed every person in this room in a place of ministry and he's uniquely empowered you with his grace to be able to minister to those that he brings in to your life. And we often come to church, we go home, we live our lives and many of us never step into our place in the body of Christ. And I'm not talking about whether you should serve in children's ministry or something like that and which if you thought that when I said that, maybe you should because they can always use help. But I'm talking about you as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, as someone that represents Jesus to the people that are around you because you have received the grace of God. You are now a distributor of God's grace. You see because I've received this love because I've received of God's mercy and his forgiveness and his grace, I am now a distributor of that. I'm now one that can give that to other people. And the Holy Spirit that lives in you is actively working and desires to use you to minister to the grace of God to someone even in this room right here, right now. That as we're gathered together right here, God wants to use each and every one of you. Imagine if you came to church, supercharged, ready to minister to someone here. Imagine what would happen to this church. That would just blow your mind. Lives would be set free all over the place. Imagine if you walked in, you were studying your Bible, reading the word and a scripture popped out of you and instead of you thinking, oh, that was a good one for me, you thought, that was good for me, but Lord, I wonder if it's for someone else. And then you came to church and you just walked around the room going, Lord, who's it for? Now don't look creepy when you're doing that. But what if you came in and it was like, God, there's a scripture you put on my heart. I wonder who's it for tonight? I wonder who you want to minister to. I wonder who you want to bless. I wonder what you want to do. You see, when you don't step out and let God use you, not only do you lose a blessing, but we lose a blessing. We lose a blessing. And I'll just be downright selfish. There's sometimes when I come to church and I need a blessing and I'm wondering which of you are going to give it to me and why you're holding out on me? You see, it's the body of Christ. We need each other. That's what we're here for. Well, you might say, I don't know how to minister. Well, Peter tells us how to minister, right here in verse 11. He says, if anyone speaks, let them speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let them do it with the ability which God supplies that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. First, he says, if anyone speaks, let them speak as the oracles of God. Speak as the oracles of God. That's what he wants you to do. He wants you to speak as the oracles of God. Now I'm looking at some of those blank stairs on your faces, which is exactly what I thought. When I first read that verse, like what does he mean when he says speak as the oracles of God? Does that mean I need to sound like Charlton Heston and the, you know, Moses? So you come to church, hey, this is the Lord talking to you. I'm his oracle. You know, is that what he means? Or does he mean you got to walk in, you got to kind of dream up some word from God in your head that you're going to deliver? Like woo, you know? And get all spooky about it? Is that what he means? No. The word oracle is a very interesting word. It's a very precise word. It comes from the root word Lagos, which is the same word that we have used to describe the written word of God. So he's talking about when you speak, speak the written word of God. So it means to speak God's word. Just to say what God's word says. I love that. Cause I don't have to come up with anything special. Now lately I've been posting scriptures on my Facebook post and I just quote scriptures. And my sister, you know, put a comment on my Facebook post, oh, my brother speaks such encouraging things. And I didn't want to say, well, it's just the Bible. So I took credit for it. But no. But it's just the Bible. It's just sharing what God's word is. God puts a scripture on your heart. Share it with someone. You never know how it's gonna encourage someone. Something sticks out at you. Share it with somebody. You know, maybe God wants you to share that verse with the barista at Starbucks. Maybe God wants you to share that verse with the mechanic that's doing your oil change while you're, or the people sitting in the room there as you're waiting for oil to be changed. Or maybe it's the checker at Albertson's or Vaughn's or wherever you go, Ralph's. And you know, and you're just standing in line and it's like, man, I just, it's cool verse. You know, and you say, hey, here's something for you. You know, and you don't have to come up with an apologetic. You don't have to be fancy about it. It's just you sharing your life. And hey, this verse was something that kind of popped out at me today. Maybe it'll be a blessing to you. And you just begin to share the word of God. That's all you have to do in order to minister. Speak as the oracles of God. Just speak the word of God to someone. Second, Peter says, if anyone ministers, let them do it with the ability that God supplies. So how do I minister with the ability that God supplies? Well, the word that Peter uses for ability speaks of military power. It's the power to be healthy. It's the power to overcome. It's the power to strengthen. It's the power that Jesus spoke about when he said, you will receive power when the spirit comes upon you to be my witnesses. It's the power that brings sinners and sufferers to life. It's the power that restores the despairing. It's the power that binds the strong man of this world and sets the captives free. It's the power of Jesus that has vanquished the might of Satan for Jesus is stronger. And it is Jesus who lives inside of you. And it's Jesus that lives inside of me. And greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. That's the power, the ability that God gives to you. Somebody better say amen. That says good news right there. And so to minister in the ability that God gives is to simply to minister in that same power, the power of the Holy spirit that God has entrusted to each and every one of you that is ours because of Christ who lives in us. You don't have to come up with something. You already have it. It's just using what God has already given to you. Paul said to the Corinthians 1 Corinthians 2, four through five. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your face should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. You see my wisdom isn't gonna break through someone's addiction. My wisdom isn't gonna set someone free of something that has controlled their life for their whole life. God's power will. And all I have to do is just bring them to Jesus and let the power of God minister to them. Let God do it. I don't have to do anything. I just bring them to God. Okay, God, get him. Do it. Do it right now, Lord. Like you've done so many other times like you've done in my life. Like you've done in my friend's lives. Do it in their life. The third thing that Peter says that in all things God may be glorified that I need to minister in such a way that God is glorified. Now that doesn't mean that God simply gets the credit. I'm doing it so that God gets the glory. But what it means is that people see how I live and it moves them to want to worship God. It moves them to want to glorify God. So when people watch how I speak to my wife, do they want the kind of marriage that I have? Because Christ is living in me. Christ is working through me. And they say, you know what, I want Jesus because he changed your marriage. When people see you loving your kids, parenting your kids, does it make them want the God who lives inside of you because of the change in your life and the love that you're pouring out on your kids? When people watch how you work on the job, do they want the God that is with you because there's blessing and favor in what you do because of your faithfulness? And they go, you know what, I don't know. There's something different about you that's not like anybody else here. And I want to be like that. They want to glorify the Lord. Do my neighbors want to know me because they see Jesus in me. You know, the last days are upon us and Peter says, is your life pointing people to bring glory to God? Is that what your life is doing? And so Peter is clear to us tonight. He says, we're living in the last days. And because we're living in the last days, we need to be sober and alert for prayer. We need to be eager and loving and forgiving one another. We need to love one another without complaining. Love the unlovely without complaining. We're to minister to each other with the grace that God has given us and the power of the spirit. And as we minister, we're to speak God's word and with God's power for God's glory. And that's how we are to live because we are in the last days. Now we've covered a lot of different areas. And maybe as we were covering these areas, maybe God began to speak in your heart. And maybe you find yourself in a place where you go, you know what? I got some people I need to forgive. I'm just gonna say it. There's some people I need to forgive. And I've been holding on to this unforgiveness in my heart. And I need to let it go. Maybe God has brought someone into your life and you've just been complaining about them and grumbling and murmuring. And tonight you finally realize, you know what? I need to give all of that to the Lord. Maybe God is challenging you to take a step up. You've been holding back. You've been not taking a step out and ministering. And the Lord is saying to you, I've deposited my grace in you and I want to use you to minister to people that I bring into your path. And wherever you're at tonight, the Lord is here and you can bring all of those concerns to him. And this is what I love about Jesus. He'll take it all. He'll take it all. And he'll forgive you and he'll cleanse you and he'll empower you with his spirit for the days ahead.