The End is Near
(I Peter 4:7-11)
1. AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked intellectual leadership. He received a $26 million severance package. Perhaps it’s not Walter who’s lacking intelligence.
Police in Oakland, California spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them in the police line, shouting, "Please come out and give yourself up."
A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Stop, and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.
(source, Tim Gardner, Sermoncentral.com)
2. This world is a crazy place, and getting crazier all the time.
3. But nothing is quite as crazy as the fact that all of us owe our very existence to God, yet most human beings do not want to know or serve the true God. That’s crazy.
4. Even those of us who know Christ are tempted to get detoured, to get wrapped up in good but distracting things that consume all our time and energy so that we have no time left for God.
5. Most of us here feel the pinch, but many of us have chosen to put God first because we realize that serving God is the first and foremost calling we have. We realize the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground.
Main Idea: Like paratroopers who have been dropped behind enemy lines, Christians have a job to do in sometimes-unfriendly territory.
I. The VERTICAL Challenge: Advance Scouts for God’s Kingdom (7)
A. We Live in the INTERSECTION Between Eras (7a)
1. “Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Rom. 13:11)
2. “All the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25)
3. “You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.… The Judge is standing at the door” (James 5:8–9)
4. "this is the last hour” (I John 2:18)
5. Marvin Pate comments: "The age to come has moved into the present, so that the believer currently exists at the turning point of the ages (p.61)….Early Christians believed that the age to come had already dawned in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus….end time event had occurred within, but without replacing human history (p.30)…so, in effect…Christian [ity is an] of the two ages in Christ" [p.30 alt.]
C. Marvin Pate, The End of the Age Has Come, Zondervan 1995.
B. This Challenges Us Because We Are DISPLACED
• We have parachuted from the Kingdom of God to sojourn in the Kingdom of Darkness
• If you do not understand this, you do not understand who you are, nor do you understand God’s will for your life…
• Too many Christians are begging God to show them His will, but they have not begun at the beginning…Who is God and Who am I?
C. We Must SHARPEN Ourselves to Meet the Challenge (7b)
1. Clear-mindedness (nh)fw) means not OBLIVIOUS
• A blind man feels ahead with his cane before proceeding; we should follow that example in life
2. Self-control (swfrosu)nh) means REASONABLENESS
3. Since sound thinking is commanded, it must be a CHOICE
D. This positions us for EFFECTIVE PRAYER
How does prayer connect to clear mindedness and reasonableness?
1. It is hard to pray effectively if your head is in the sand
2. It is hard to pray effectively if you are an air head
3. Prayer is our life-line back to the Kingdom of God; it is not optional or unimportant
4. imagery deep sea diving and air hose…
-- An Atmospheric Diving Suit … can be used for very deep dives of up to 2000 feet (600m) for many hours, and eliminates the majority of physiological dangers associated with deep diving; the occupant need not decompress, there is no need for special gas mixtures, and there is no danger of decompression sickness or nitrogen narcosis (the ’bends’). [source: Wikipedia]
--But what happens if you cut off the air hose?
Like paratroopers who have been dropped behind enemy lines, Christians have a job to do in sometimes-unfriendly territory.
II. The Horizontal Challenge: LOVING Fellow Christians
• Too often Christians injure one another through “FRIENDLY FIRE.”
• We must meet with and support the other troops
A. Deep love covers sins (8)
1. Probably a paraphrase of Proverbs 10:12, "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs."
2. Covering sin is the opposite of gossip
3. Confrontation may sometimes be necessary
• James 3:2a, "We all stumble in many ways."
B. Love grows in the context of hospitality (9)
1. Frank Gabelein, "Hospitality is to be ’without grumbling’--a phase that connotes the difficulty of carrying out this command."
2. Hospitality in the early church…both what we do and more…
3. Why is hospitality so difficult? Upsets our routines
4. Takes time, gets old, we are busier than our forefathers…
5. Americans make it worse: clean house syndrome, impressing
6. Remember: Good company can turn a sandwich into a banquet
"Some folks make you feel at home. Others make you wish you were." Arnold H. Glasow.
7. But the pay-off is big: closer relationships, more ministry, seeing people saved, church growth
8. Church meetings can be hospitable or anonymous…greeting time
• This is where your schmoozing skills can be sharpened…
C. We should use our spiritual GIFTS to serve others (10-11)
1. USE them (10)
o Every believer has a gift, and most of us more than one…
o The gifts mentioned here are the 2 major categories of gifts: speaking gifts (preaching, teaching, prophecy) and serving gifts (helps, mercy, administration, shepherding, etc.)
2. Be FAITHFUL with them
• God wants us to put our hearts into whatever we do
• We might not look forward to everything God wants us to do, but once we are doing it, we should serve eagerly….e.g., teaching AWANA (snow, end of season)
3. GLORIFY God with them (11)
• When we serve one another in love, we glorify God
• This concept is entirely missing in modern theories of worship; whatever we do that is good for the Kingdom glorifies God because He gives us the strength and is the motivation…
• We serve others because of God’s gracious work in us, so ultimately God gets the credit….we cooperate and develop, so we will get the reward, but God gets the glory
Like paratroopers who have been dropped behind enemy lines, Christians have a job to do in sometimes-unfriendly territory.
CONCLUSION
1. Chuck Swindoll shared an illustration about how we conform to the world:
"A few years ago psychologist Ruth W. Berenda and her associates carried out an interesting experiment with teenagers designed to show how a person handled group pressure. The plan was simple. They brought groups of ten adolescents into a room for a test. Subsequently, each group of ten was instructed to raise their hands when the teacher pointed to the longest line on three separate charts.
What one person in the group did not know was that nine of the others in the room had been instructed ahead of time to vote for the second-longest line…The experiment began with nine teen-agers voting for the wrong line. The stooge would typically glance around, frown in confusion, and slip his hand up with the group…Time after time, the self-conscious stooge would sit there saying a short line is longer than a long line, simply because he lacked the courage to challenge the group. This remarkable conformity occurred in about 75% of the cases, and was true of small children and high-school students as well." C. Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 225.
2. We are tested in similar manner all the time. Are we willing to leave our hand down and be the only one to stand for the truth?
