 Learn from his word so if you will turn your Bibles with me to 1st Peter chapter 1 1st Peter chapter 1 and I thought tonight that we would spend some time in a text that dovetails with what we're looking at on Sunday mornings we're going through John chapter 10 and The subject that we covered this morning in John chapter 10 specifically verse 17 and the obedience of Christ and then we're doing this series on Sunday evenings on a practical religion Inspired if you will by JC Riles book and so we've been looking at practical Aspects of the Christian life on Sunday nights, and they've been really a blessing to me I've been grateful for the preaching and so tonight I want to cover one aspect of that and basically it's just living for Christ a title of the sermon live for Christ And we want to look at what that entails in 1st Peter chapter 1 and let's begin at verse 13 Live for Christ 1st Peter chapter 1 specifically verses 13 through 16 Here Peter says in verse 13 therefore Gird up the loins of your mind be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children not Conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance But as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written be holy For I am holy. Let's pray together a Father in heaven. We thank you for this time in your word. Thank you Lord for The power that you've given us in your spirit to to live this Christian life Thank you for the instruction that we have from your word. Thank you Lord That like you've said this morning the text that we were looking at that you've not left as orphans But that you come to us Lord, and you give us precious gifts Including the precious gift of your holy spirit to indwell us and to empower us to enable us to Illuminate our understanding. We're grateful to you for Lord for these gifts Inherent in Christ in the gospel and we pray Lord that we would live Faithfully for you help us to do that Lord strengthen us to that end for your glory in Jesus name. Amen First Peter chapter 1 verses 13 through 16, you know, I was reading a book not long ago and is a book by Donald Whitney and In the book Donald Whitney it gives a little background that uses the illustration of the Pony Express So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Pony Express I'm interested in like documentaries and history and that kind of thing So of course a little background of the Pony Express would be interesting to me But the Pony Express was actually very short-lived April 3rd 1860 until November 18th 1861 So the Pony Express was really only in existence for about 19 months It was a private company that was designed to deliver mail and it was delivering mail by sort of a structured relay of horseback riders across the country before there were Cars and roadways and safe ways of getting through this nation and there were in this process across country of delivering mail 184 different stations that the Pony Express would come to or deliver mail to The eastern end it said was St. Joseph, Missouri The western terminal was in Sacramento, California and the cost of sending a half ounce letter Varyed anywhere in today's dollars from 25 bucks to 125 bucks depending on where it had to be delivered and when it had to be delivered the Telegraph wasn't fully in place yet and so this was still the main method for this 19 months of delivering messages or mail across country and Horseback was the way to do it. And so being a Pony Express rider was pretty tough job You're expected as a Pony Express rider to cover about 75 to 100 miles a day You had to ride hard day and night without many breaks Other than the mail you basically just carried a revolver and a knife For obvious reasons. It was a tough job For speed for mobility for getting around Pony Express riders even in the dead of winter Wouldn't wear baggy clothing, you know, they purposefully wore short sleeves Stuff that could be tucked in because they had to be able to get around be able to get to move And so even in winter they were concerned about what they wore tuck their clothes into their belt So to speak so they could get around Thought comes to mind is how do you get guys to do that job? How would you get somebody to agree to be a Pony Express rider? Well a guy by the name of Bolivar Roberts He was the superintendent for the western end of the Express Placed an ad in the San Francisco newspaper in March of 1860 and this is what the ad said This was a way to recruit Pony Express riders. He said wanted Young skinny wiry fellows not over 18 Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily Orphans preferred That was that was how they recruited guys to be Pony Express riders. It's a pretty tough job Now that's a that's the honest facts what it looks like to be a Pony Express rider You know, he wasn't trying to mislead anyone in the paper He gave him a pretty fair rundown of what it was gonna mean what it looked like and the Pony Express in light of that was Never short of riders always had enough men enough horses to get the job done being a Christian It's pretty costly service. It's a pretty tough Deal when you stop to think about it the cost of discipleship is high There's going to be difficulty adversity. There's a battle against the flesh a spiritual warfare that you're engaged in There's persecution. It's an it's a pretty tough deal some of the time a lot of the time It can be really difficult God asks for you in laying down your life for Christ to die for him to deny yourself to take up your cross to Deny yourself to daily follow him. God asks for your life, but we have far Greater reward don't we then a Pony Express rider There's far greater motivation There's a far greater inheritance a far greater reward the Lord Jesus Christ saves us from our sin Forgives us justifies us makes us right with God calls us to himself fills us with his spirit and Puts us into this life so to speak Where we're to live for him daily denying ourselves daily dying for Christ Dying to our own self-indulgence dying to our own self-interest and living for him We have the greatest of all motivations the greatest of all Realities in which we live. This is a life that we live for Christ and we're gonna talk about that a little bit tonight from first Peter chapter 1 Peter writes in first Peter chapter 1. He writes the persecuted Christians scattered Christians Christians in difficulty Christians in adversity and in first Peter chapter 3 chapter 1 beginning in verse 3 Peter reminds us of this glorious salvation to which be we've been delivered if you look at verses 3 through 5 He reminds us here of future glory look at verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that does not fade away Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation Ready to be revealed in the last time. Amen, right future glory praise God for this glorious salvation But that's not just in the future That's not just simply in the life to come look at verses 6 through 9 in verses 6 through 9 We have present blessings in this life associated with this salvation verse 6 in this you greatly rejoice Though now for a little while it need be you've been grieved by various trials. That's the reality. It's going to be difficult There's going to be difficulty in this life verse 7 Those trials are for the purpose though that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold It perishes though it is tested by fire May be found to praise honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ What a glorious purpose for our difficulty for our adversity for our suffering in this life, right? It's to that end verse 8 Whom this lord the lord jesus christ whom having not seen you love Though now you do not see him yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls I was just a tremendous salvation to which we've been delivered then look at verses 10 through 12 Not only does he speak of our future glory not only does he speak of present blessings But he reminds them of their place in the redemptive plan and work of god We have a place in this rich Heritage that god began before the foundation of the world with his own decree And now even now carries out until the culmination of all things and our own glorification Look at verse 10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully Who prophesied of the grace that would come to you Searching what or what manner of time the spirit of christ who was in them was indicating When he testified beforehand the sufferings of christ and the glories that would follow To them it was revealed that not to themselves But to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you Through those who have preached the gospel to you by the holy spirit sent from heaven Things which angels desire to look into So peter sets out to remind them After listing that glorious fact right statements of fact statements of glory the the truth of the gospel The truth of our salvation in christ Peter then sets out to remind them that with that truth with that blessing comes responsibility Being a disciple of christ comes with High responsibility comes with a high cost god says in his word be holy For i am holy So in the context of your christian life Holiness is the priority that demands now in this life our complete focus This salvation comes with responsibility That responsibility is to be holy to live for christ who died and gave himself for us That holiness demands our complete focus our fervent effort Our total commitment if you will beginning in first peter chapter one It's a commitment of your mind in verse 13 A commitment of your mind in verse 14. It's a commitment of your will And in verse 15 and verse 16. It's a commitment of your life Here in just these four verses peter carefully lays out what it looks like to be a disciple of the lord jesus christ What it looks like to give your life for christ what it looks like to live for him And in verse 13 a commitment of your mind verse 14 a commitment of your will verse 15 a commitment of your life Let's look at verse 13 and the commitment of our mind. Being a godly man or a godly woman requires a prepared, exercised, disciplined, and sober mind. Verse 13 says this, Therefore, Peter says, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace it is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The therefore, beginning in verse 13, moves Peter's readers, those reading this epistle, moves them from a statement of fact now to its application. And this is the way that Scripture often works. You often have statements of fact. You have the invicatives, so to speak, before you get the imperatives. You have the glorious reasons, the glorious motivations that underlie our faith before you get the commands, and here we see the same thing. Peter's readers now are moved by the therefore from statements of fact that we just read in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 through 12. And now we see application beginning here in verse 13. Now in this application, Peter begins by dealing with the mind, dealing with our mind as believers. And there are three responsibilities given here in verse 13 dealing with your mind. One, we're to be sharp-minded. We'll talk about what that means. Sharp-minded. We're to be sober-minded. And three, we're to be single-minded. Sharp-minded, sober-minded, single-minded. Let's look at sharp-minded first from verse 13. Peter says, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. You've got to be sharp. You need to be sharp as a Christian. You set your mind to the task. You prepare yourself for the work. You get your thinking straight. The word there for gird up is on a zonumi. On a zonumi. It means to bind up. Here specifically, to bind up with clothes. Just like the Pony Express Rider wore shirt sleeves, short sleeve shirts to keep long sleeve shirts from getting in his way while he's trying to ride his horse. In the same way, the Christian is to gird up, says here specifically, the loins of your mind. And the picture there is to bind up as if with clothes. What was common in that day were for men to wear an outer garment, an outer linen garment that sometimes went as low as the ankles or mid-calf. So it was a long robe and that was part of their common clothing of the day. So for athletes or for wrestlers, someone who's going to engage themselves in physical activity, they would literally have to bend down, pick up the robe, gird it around their waist, so to speak, and tuck it in their belt to keep it from getting in their way. So that when they were running, or when they were wrestling, or when they were fighting, the clothes didn't trip them up. If you remember the story of the father running out to meet the prodigal son, the idea is there is that the father, and in this case the father is represented by God, the father represents God, you get the picture of God the father picking up his robe, tucking it in his belt and running out to meet the prodigal, the son that was coming home. Here you've got the Christian, again to gird up the loins of your mind, means to take that long robe in a physical, real sense, tuck it in your belt so that nothing gets in your way. To now apply that to dealing with the mind, it means here to prepare yourself, prepare yourself for battle. Tuck up, so to speak, the loose thinking that you have with respect to doctrine. To take the loose ends, so to speak, of your thinking, your Christian life, to tuck them up, to gird up, to prepare yourself so that nothing gets in your way, there's nothing hanging down that's going to trip you up. It's a picture of the Christian living the Christian life and sharpening or preparing their mind for battle, sharpening or preparing their mind for the Christian life. We're to be sharp-minded, we're to be prepared for whatever comes, prepared to do battle, prepared to run the race, prepared to leap over a wall, prepared to work. The Christian lives should live in a state of readiness, redeeming the time because the days are evil. You're to be disciplined, you're to be prepared, no loose ends, nothing hanging down to trip you up. Now, talked about this before a little bit, but you think about the difficulties of the Christian life, the things that you're gonna face in your Christian life. Often we're gonna face adversity, we're gonna face difficulty, we're gonna face trial, we're gonna face persecution. The Word of God is a glorious blessing to the Christian because it is a sure guide to govern us as we live this Christian life. So in any time, in any adversity, any difficulty in which you find yourself, you can always go to the Word of God for answers. The Word of God is to be a guide for the Christian in that way to give us answers in times of difficulty. But what this is talking about here in girding up the loins of your mind is preparatory action, is action ahead of time, discipline, preparedness before you face the adversity. It's taking action so that you're prepared when the difficulty comes, when the adversity arises. We're to do this ahead of time and we're to be constantly doing this. Now, how do we do this? How do we make our mind short, sharp? How do we prepare our mind? We do that through the Bible, through the Word of God, through doctrine. Peter begins with the mind here for a reason. The reason that he begins with the mind is because orthodoxy, as we said this morning, leads to orthopraxy. Doctrine precedes duty, right? Doctrine precedes holy living. We need to know Christ, to love Christ, to obey Christ. And we know Christ through his Word. And to love Christ is to obey him. Doctrine comes before duty. So the first step, then, of faithfulness in the Christian life, the first step, if you will, in our daily living for Christ, begins with the mind, begins with the mind. We have to gird up the loins of our mind and be sober. The mind must be informed. It must be transformed and it must be renewed. And the way that that happens is by God's spirit in the life of a believer renewing their mind according to his Word. Romans chapter 12 verse one says this. Paul says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. It's not by your own strength. It's by the mercies of God that you present your body's living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world. In other words, don't be poured back into the mold that is this world, but be transformed by the renewing of what? Of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Our minds need to be renewed. Our minds must be informed. Our minds must be transformed. That happens by God's spirit through his Word. And that keeps us, so to speak, sharp-minded. It prepares you for difficulty. It prepares you for living this life. When persecution comes, you're prepared from the Word of God to know how to deal with it. When difficulty in your home, in your marriage, in your family, in your work, in your schooling, all that difficulty comes, you're prepared. Godly living, Godly living begins with girding up the loins of your mind. He gives us in this understanding and gives us motivation. And we learn that and then he gives us the application. You know, we made one reference this morning to a text, John chapter 15. Turn there with me real quick, John chapter 15. I wanted to make one more point from this text that I think is helpful also in this very instance, dovetailing here with what we're talking about. The Lord gives us glorious motivation. He gives us understanding from his Word and we're to learn that so that when the time comes, we apply the Word of God to our life, to our circumstances, to live for Christ. In John chapter 15, this morning, we talked about how believers obey Christ and that sense demonstrate or evidence their love for Christ. So if you look at John chapter 15, a drop down to verse nine. Here, the Lord says, as the father loved me, I also have loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. He says in verse 11, these things I've spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. Listen to verse 14, you're my friends. If you do whatever I command you. But listen, verse 15, no longer do I call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I've called you friends for all things that I've heard from my father I've made known to you. You know, it's interesting in the Christian life that Christians are called to slavery. We're called to be slaves of righteousness. And the word do loss or slave is used frequently in scripture to describe a Christian in his relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ or in his relationship to God. We're called as slaves here in John 15. The Lord wants to make a distinction though in the difference in which we are enslaved to Christ and slave to God. You know, when a slave master gives an order, he doesn't need to give any explanation for it all. He just tells the slave what to do and the slave does it. The slave just simply obeys. That's why the Lord says in verse 15 though, he no longer calls us here slaves for a slave does not know what his master is doing. But I've called you friends for all things that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. You know, it's interesting in thinking about girding up our mind in the Christian life that the Lord is so gracious to us throughout scripture, not only just simply to give us the command, but to give us all the necessary motivation behind it, all the necessary doctrine, all the necessary truth, all the necessary reality under girding that imperative that we can live by it, enjoy and serve him in love and obey him fully. Lord is gracious to us with his word. We have all of this glorious truth, all of this glorious reality, all of these glorious facts, all of these glorious indicatives so that as we live for Christ, we can obey the truth not with no understanding, not devoid of understanding, but with glorious understanding. There's absolutely no excuse whatsoever why we wouldn't submerse ourselves in the scripture for the motivation, for the impetus, for the strength, for the power in his spirit to live wholeheartedly for Christ. There's simply no greater motivation given to us than what we see in his word about him, about himself, about what he's done for us. And so living for Christ, girding up the loins of our minds then, begins by being submersed and bathed in the scriptures. Do you see? Everything there to motivate us to live for Christ. I think about this practically for a moment. If you're gonna be sharp-minded, you're gonna be sharp, you're gonna gird up the loins of your mind, then what does that involve? Well if we take being submersed and bathed in the scriptures, and we apply that to our daily lives, it means daily reading, daily Bible reading, daily Bible intake, daily Bible study. You need to read both for exposure, for intake, and you need to read for study. But not only reading for exposure and intake and reading to study God's word, to learn God's word, you need to read for retention. You need to read for retention. In other words, Bible reading, as my brother was saying not long ago, Bible reading is not this mechanical ritual that you go through, this incantation that you do in order to earn favor, merit favor with God. Bible reading, Bible intake is for the purpose of transformation. God works through his word by his spirit to transform the believer. So when we read, we need to read with a worshipful heart attitude. We need to read to be enriched. We need to read to be transformed. Martin Lloyd-Jones would say, we need to read as the food that God has provided for your soul. It is the bread of life, the manna provided for your soul's nourishment and well-being. That's the way we need to read the Bible. You need to read it and learn it before adversity comes. Certainly during adversity, right? Certainly during difficulty. But you need to be reading it and learning it and girding up the loins of your mind, preparing yourself for battle as you live the Christian life. You're preparing your mind. You need to read it for meditation. Read it and learn it. Take it in. Memorize it so that you can meditate on it. Now, if you begin, again we're talking practically here, thinking through what that's going to look like on a daily basis and how that's going to impact your life, then 15 minutes is not going to do it, right? You're going to have to determine what that looks like for you. But you need to read it for retention. Read it for exposure. Read it for meditation. Read it for study. Read it as nourishment to your soul. It's going to take some time. It's going to take some investment. You need to gird up the loins of your mind, tuck in those loose ends. It's so easily entangle you, right? Give it some intentional thought. In giving this intentional study and praying through as you read the Bible, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit, it changes your perspective. It renews your mind. It gives you a Christian worldview. It unpacks that worldview that marked you for all of your life up until the Lord saved you, right? And it begins transforming that and renewing that and becoming now a Christian worldview, a Christian perspective. We as Christians are to maintain an eternal perspective. There's nothing like trudging through the day to day events and circumstances of this life to take your eyes off an eternal perspective, right? But being in the Word of God gives us an eternal perspective. It keeps Christ in front of your eyes. It keeps Christ at the forefront of your thoughts. This is how you cultivate and develop a right perspective. Gird up the loins of your mind. But then he says something else in verse 13. He says, be sober. Be sober-minded. NAFO is the word there. It means to be self-controlled. Literally it means sobering up from the influence of alcohol. Now these two words go completely together. You've got one girding up the loins of your mind and now sober-minded. In one sense, it's transforming your mind, renewing your thinking, renewing your mind, being bathed in the scriptures. And then now as you do that, this being sober-minded means coming out from under the unnecessary influence of the world, the flesh or the devil. This is sobering up from an unhealthy influence, a worldly influence, a fleshly influence. Not coming under the influence of anything that would derail you from living for Christ or to be sober-minded. In other words, as you live your Christian life, don't allow yourself to be swayed by other priorities. We have a singular priority that's living for Christ. The word here, NAFO, carries the sense of being well balanced. Well balanced. And that doesn't mean well balanced between worldly pursuits and Christian pursuits, spiritual pursuits. It means well being well balanced by being entirely of spiritual pursuit. Right? Not balanced between spiritual and worldly. Here it means not toppled over, not tossed to and fro, not unstable, not carried away by winds of doctrine. You know that you're no longer sober-minded when the enticements of this world pull you away or when the enticements of a war or money or hobbies or whatever they are. When other things entice you away from godly pursuits, you're losing your sober-mindedness, you're coming under the influence of those things which are detrimental, that will derail you from living for Christ. Unbalanced is when any priority takes precedence or preeminence over Christ. We're to remain sober-minded. Then he goes on in verse 13 to say, one, we're to gird up the loins of our mind, we're to be sharp-minded, prepared, we're to be sober-minded, and lastly we're to be single-minded. He says rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Verse 13, rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This hope is a settled hope. It's a focused hope. It's a single-mindedness, a single-minded focus here specifically on Christ's return, but all that Christ's return entails. Christ's return entails the full consummation of our glorification in Christ, the full completion of our salvation so to speak. We're to be focused single-minded on that hope. This is not a feeling, it's not mystical, it's not wishful thinking, right? It's not wishful thinking. This is a determined fact and it's something we put our, when we have our faith in Christ, it's something we look forward to. It is a resolved, determined act of our will to set our hope fully upon that grace and that's why here this is a command. Rest your hope is an imperative. It's an imperative. The first command here in this little section, this little paragraph of scripture, our minds must be laser focused on the prize and we have to keep it fixed there until he comes. This is not a fleeting hope. It's not a fleeting hope. It's not something that you can have or not have, that you take one minute and lose the next. It's not to be easily taken one second and then easily lost the next. It's a fixed hope, not a fleeting hope and it's to be fixed fully, completely, comprehensively. It's a hope for when we will be fully and finally free from sin, amen? It's a hope in that the reality that one day we'll no longer have to battle against this flesh. It's a hope that one day we'll be exactly like him because we will see him as he is. Everything will no longer be faith but it'll be sight. It's a glorious hope. We can often become singularly focused on this life and it's easy to take our eyes off that hope. God commands us to fix fully our hope on the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, on that grace that is to be brought to you. But it's easy sometimes when you can only seem to focus on the potential of a pink slip at work, right? Or a mountain of medical bills or the rapidly approaching death of a loved one. Sometimes those things can eclipse and when you look forward and it's all we can see. That's the only thing in our eyesight. But the Lord says, rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. These various troubles, we talked about it a little bit today, troubles can breed discouragement in our hearts. When you have difficulties, when you come to difficult circumstances in your life, those difficulties can breed a discouragement in our hearts. But God commands in His Word, God commands. Despite those circumstances, despite that discouragement, God commands us to fix our hearts and to fix our minds on a singular hope, to be a people who are single-minded. And our hope has never been brighter, amen? We have the best of hopes. And not wishful thinking, but fixed and secure and blood-bought in Christ, reserved for us. Our hope has never been brighter. The Christian is to set their hope fully upon that grace and we're to do that and live that way like it could be at any minute. The Lord Jesus Christ could return at any moment we're to fix our hope and live like it could be at any minute. You tuck up those loose ends, you pull up your robe, you tuck it in your belt, you prepare for the fight, and you become sharp-minded, sober-minded, singularly focused on that hope, a singularly focused mind, single-mindedness. And it's with that right mind, right thinking, right focus, right doctrine that we then battle and live the Christian life. The Christian life is to be a vigorous exercise. It's to be a lively fight, an aggressive striving after the Lord, a striving after holiness. I was watching a documentary, strangely enough, not long ago on Theodore Roosevelt. I love history. And Theodore Roosevelt was an advocate for the strenuous life. And Theodore Roosevelt said this statement, I thought it was interesting, I wrote it down. Black care, he says, black care rarely sits behind a writer whose pace is fast enough. Think about that statement for a moment. We're to work. We're to labor. We're to gird up the loins of our mind. We are to be sober-minded. We're to fix our hope on the grace that is to be revealed to us in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be steadfast. We're to labor. We're to bathe ourselves into scriptures. We're to understand the indicatives so that we can fully and joyfully from the heart obey the imperatives. We're to live for the Lord. We're not to allow the circumstances of this life, the troubles, the adversity of this life, breed discouragement in our hearts. We're to be a people who are fully single-mindedly focused upon the grace of God in Christ to us. And all of that to outpace, so to speak, the black care that rides on our heels that we run slow. We have a glorious blessing, a glorious hope, a glorious salvation. This is a great salvation. We're to live for Christ. We have every reason for that. As we were talking about it in John chapter 10 this morning, that the Lord Jesus Christ abides in the love of the Father because of his perfect obedience, but also it's the love of the Father that provides the glorious motivation by which the Son obeys. That makes sense? And we have the same motivation. It's just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, Jesus says, that the Good Shepherd knows his sheep and is known by his own. We have the same glorious motivation. You look at 1 Peter chapter 1 in just that beautiful salvation, those beautiful indicatives laid out there from verses 1 through verse 12. And we come to verse 13. It gives us all the motivation, doesn't it? To gird up the loins of our mind, to be sober minded, to set our hope and live for the Lord. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, thank you for this glorious salvation that you've given us in your Son. Thank you, Lord, for the truth that you don't merely command us what to do, Lord, but you've called us friends in the sense that you give us these glorious motivations, you give us this understanding from your word, all of this truth, this doctrine to which we've been delivered, so that in the strength of your spirit that we might live for you faithfully, live for you fervently. Lord, give us the strength to gird up our minds. Lord, convict us where we've neglected your word, or then help us to prioritize your word in our lives such that we would be submerged and bathed in the scripture. God help us to be as a result of your spirit working through your word to transform our minds, to renew our minds. God help us to be sober minded, not to come under the influence of this world, the flesh or the devil, but to be singularly focused, single-minded, singularly focused on the hope that is in the grace of God to us in Jesus Christ, singularly focused on that eternal glory that we will inherit with him for all eternity at the end of this race we call the Christian life. I pray, God, that we would run as to attain the prize for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.