This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. If you would, I invite you to stay and as you read God's Word. This is from 1 Peter, chapter 4, verses 7 through 11. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. In order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to hand be long glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Please be seated. And third through fifth graders, you are dismissed for children's church. Well, good morning. If you are a guest here, I am a pastoral intern here at Christ Kingdom. My name is John Tomberlain. Our pastor Scott Puckett is on vacation, so Matt has filled in for worship and I am filling in for preaching duties. So this is not the typical which you might see at Sundays, but it is close. So welcome, if you are a guest, usually we do have several. Jeremy, welcome to Christ Kingdom. Jeremy is a friend of mine from work at Cavalieri, Gourmet. You're in there, say hi to him. New year's day, big deal, right? Who made a resolution last night? Anyone? Don? Who's already broken it? Interesting time of year. I don't make news of resolutions anymore. I don't think I can't recall one that I've actually made, nor can I, much less recall one that I've kept. It's almost depressing when I think, you know, I'm going to really gear up this year, and I'm going to commit to doing something out. Imagine in the next week that is soon shot. But many of us stayed up last night probably watching Dick Clark in the countdown, and we celebrate the turn of the year. This is an interesting time for Christians and non-Christians, but I feel like the holiday season, we have Christians that celebrate Christmas. We celebrate the second person of the Trinity taking on human flesh. The world, they get jazzed about Christmas, but I'm not exactly sure why. I mean, gifts are cool, lights are cool, but there's not really an reason for such a celebration. Well, the turn of the new year is similar. That, okay, I guess it's cool that we made it another year. That's, I guess, to get excited about if you're a non-believer that, okay, I'm still alive. Or I guess it's cool that the year just changed one more digit. It's like, that's cool, but Christians, what do we acknowledge? We acknowledge that this is 2,000 plus years of the Lord Jesus' reign, that since his death and resurrection and ascension that Jesus has set at the right hand of God the Father now, he continues his reign now, and he will continue to do so until his return. So this is good news for Christians when the new year changes, that we celebrate another year of Christ' reign over all the earth. But we still make resolutions. As good as news as that is, we say, okay, I want to do this. I want to prove something about myself. And it usually is self-centered. From, if I were to ask, what's the number one new year's resolution? What might you say? Any guess? Lose weight. Lose weight. I didn't look this up, y'all can't. You can look it up for Wikipedia or Google. But I think you're right. I believe lose weight, quit smoking, spend time with family, and take up a new hobby or something like that. So it's usually, usually pretty self-serving. Now, Grant, they might have a contingent benefit like, I'm going to stop smoking so I can live longer to be with my family. I get that. They might have a peripheral kind of other element, but usually it's an improvement of self. So I thought, what we might do this morning through 1 Peter, is that if we're going to commit to do something, this isn't necessarily an individualistic effort, like as a church. Christ's kingdom, what are some things we might commit to doing? What are some things that maybe the Bible prioritizes for us? And we're going to get kind of geared up and say, we want to do these things. What might the Word of God instruct his church? Let's make sure we put these from the top of the list. And what might come across as a simple, okay, John, you're giving us another checklist. I'm going to walk out of here, burdened. I'm going to whiteen up lit. I'm going to try harder. I'm going to try to get these things done too. I think what Peter's actually getting out of something more significant and deeper than just simple things to do. And hopefully you'll know what that means at the end of this sermon. So if we're going to look at first Peter chapter four, we see in verse seven, the end of all things is at hand. This is always kind of an ironic thing to read at the New Year, right? So for 2,000 years, Christians have read this and the end has still not come. Jesus has tarried thus far. So we read this like they did. We kind of anticipate the end and say, okay, the end of all things is near. The New Year has just turned. So we're obviously getting closer. So what are we going to do? So Peter is writing to Christians. They are being persecuted. They are being suffering. This is a large area predominantly Gentiles. So he's just writing to encourage them things to be believed, things to be done and light of said belief. And he leaves them this exhortation. The end of all things is at hand, anticipating the end. So what does he kind of prioritize for us? First, he encourages us to pray. You'll notice in verse seven, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. I've always found this interesting. And Peter calls for sobriety for prayers. Now some of you know, and I am glad Jeremy came from Cavalry because he'll know what I'm talking about here. I am a meat cutter by trade, but some of you know I work with knives and a bandsaw. And that's a job where certainly sobriety is very welcome. Because if you are not, if you are the influence of alcohol or some, maybe other drug or lack of sleep, that you know you stand to lose a finger, if you're really not paying attention, maybe even a hand. And I've got many stitches scars to prove that even under stone cold sobriety, you can still have an accident. But there are many jobs you'll say, this would be a good time not to be under the influence of something. But prayer, interesting that that gets the attention it does. And you know, if any of you have ever committed yourselves to praying for any length of time, if it's a daily routine, if it is one of those all night prayer lockings, let me bend, you know that prayer actually requires a lot of work. To think through the scriptures and to pray the scriptures back to God, to think through the body of believers of things that you know going on in their lives and to pray for them, to pray for those that maybe you love that do not know the Lord Jesus and to pray for them, you know that prayer takes a lot out of you. But Peter exhorts us to do this very thing. Look, be of sober mind and clear thought, so that you may pray, for that very reason that you would pray. And I think assumed in this text, when Peter says that, that the Lord works through our prayers, that in his mysterious sovereign way, the Lord is pleased to hear the prayers of his people and to accomplish his purposes through those prayers. So one thing, I would say, if you're gonna resolve to do something, this New Year's resolution, Christ kingdom as a church, I would certainly put prayer in the top of that list. Secondly, above all, look at verse eight, keep loving one another, earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Now again, Peter prioritizes the very text. Above all, if you're going to do anything, love one another earnestly. Do that. Now, John Calvin says some beautiful words on this particular passage. Peter is contrasting love. He's referencing Proverbs chapter 10, verse 12 that says hatred discovers reproaches. But love covers a multitude of sins. I think real quick. Hatred discovers reproaches. That Peter and the monastery is to love one another. He is alluding to what hatred actually does. It looks for faults. It stirs up distinction. It picks, it bites. Yet he admonishes us to love. And John Calvin says this, nothing is more necessary than to cherish mutual love. For who is there that has not many faults? Therefore, all stand in need of forgiveness, and there is no one who does not wish to be forgiven. This singular benefit love brings to us when it exists among us so that innumerable evils are covered in oblivion. On the other hand, where loose rains are given to hatred, men by mutual biting and tearing must necessarily consume one another. The apostle Paul warns in many of his letters the danger of bitterness in the body of the church. That if you are bitter towards your brother or sister in the Lord, how rancid that can become very quickly. So Christ came to us, I would encourage you. If you do harbor bitterness against one of our own, then you would do well to forgive them, to seek to love them. That of these things of prayer and now love, if we're going to commit to a church body, to do something moving into the new year, prayer, and to earnestly love one another would be at the top of the list. Lastly, as far as the list is concerned, look at verse nine, show hospitality to one another without grumbling, as each has received a gift to use it to one another, to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace. Now, hospitality, when Peter writes this, it's almost a necessity that Christians were dependent upon hospitality of others for various reasons, through travel, financial means, safety, et cetera. And our culture, we can get away without showing hospitality pretty comfortably. And it's not necessary to, like to always open up your home, to invite the church in, to share with what you have, to sit down and eat and to talk and to put up, to give it bad, that type of living is somewhat far removed from us as far as the necessity of it, or even just the natural ebb and flow of life. But hospitality is a big deal in the Bible. When Paul is considering widows' qualifications, like, have they been hospitable to something he asked? The New Testament letters are filled with the church being encouraged to be hospitable to one another. So Christ, kingdom, I would ask us in this new year, we are a very busy people. We do a lot of things, for different reasons, and in different capacities. But Peter would have us to hear, show hospitality without grumbling. That's a hard thing to do. But it is something worth committing to, to be built up as a church. Peter exhorts us to be hospitable to one another. And here's the one another language, and verse eight, loving one another. Verse nine, showing hospitality to one another. And under this rubric of hospitality, then he gets a little specific. Okay, you all had the gift of hospitality. We all had the capacity to open up our home and to share life with each other over food. We all had that capacity. And then he gets specific. Each one of you has been gifted with unique things. Some to speak, some to listen, some to encourage, some to pray. Some might be blessed with the gift of making money so that you can help those in need. They're all sorts of gifts that the Lord gives to his church. And the natural ebb and flow of this, as the Lord gives, the church is called to then to love the other with those said gifts. This natural ebb and flow of two of the Lord, I mean, from the Lord to his people, then his people back to the Lord in service to the people. And this is the flow of theology throughout much of scripture. So hope you see that. So if you're gonna say, okay, John, I'm with you at this point. You've given us a list. And just a real quick review, I'd say prayer, to love one another earnestly. So hospitality. And you would do well to consider your own gifts. The Lord has uniquely blessed you. And what ways you might be able to serve one another. Now we could stop right here and be like, all right, got to check list, I'm ready to go. New Year's resolution, I'm fired up now what? That would be really over simplistic. And I feel like that would not do justice what Peter is actually saying. We looked at New Year's resolutions earlier when I just mentioned how they're usually self-serving. Probably that's usually the case. We see some of these things that Peter encourages us to do and they're outward serving. Loving one another, prayer to God, prayer for other people, hospitality to one another, gifts for the building up with the body. And you can sit the end of this section in verse 11 so that in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ and belong glory and dominion forever and ever. So okay, as a church, you want to glorify God. Peter has given us some things to do in order to glorify God. This seems very straightforward and simple. However, I feel like Peter is actually exhorting the church. And this is very important here. I'll say this once. If you're taking notes, this is a good sentence worth writing down. Peter is exhorting the church to live the Trinitarian life as royal priest in his kingdom. Peter is exhorting the church to live the Trinitarian life as royal priest in his kingdom. And that sounds like a mouthful and it is. But anyone that is a student of theology and any capacity, you will know that the idea of the royal priest is unpacked throughout all of scripture. Now what does it mean to be a royal priest that much of the Bible is spent unpacking that very idea? And where do we first see the idea of a royal priest? Anybody want to take a stab? Like he's in that good, good, good close. Genesis, I'm not sure as much as I said it. Anytime somebody asks you, when's the first time you see this in the Bible? A safe bet is you say within the first three chapters of Genesis, I've told you all this before, but that's always a good answer. When somebody asks you, when do you first see this? If you said the first three chapters of Genesis, there's a good chance you just hit it. As much as I think through this, just for a second. You don't have to turn there. But in the garden, when man is created, we have Adam and Eve set up as God's image bearers. And as his image bearers, they are called to reflect God in the world. And when you see that immediately, God, he orders the chaos, he fills, he multiplies, he creates, and then Adam and Eve are charged to do what? To subdue the earth, as God has just subdued his chaos and ordered it to fill into multiply, into bless, that you see the parallels immediately. Out of the gate, human beings are called to reflect God in the world. Now, because of the fall, sin is forever wrecked that. That on our own, human beings cannot do that. That because we are sinners, that every fiber of our being, our minds and our hearts are wicked and less God intervenes, it seems like in the first three chapters of Genesis, this gets thrown off course. But that's not the case. Through Jesus Christ, I believe that God is actually in the process of making his church to be humanity as they were truly created, to be his royal priest, to reflect him in the world. Now, let's think about this just for a minute. Most, if you were to take this list, what I've given you, say, all right, we got things to do. Well, most pieces of literature at the beginning, they give you a hint to where it's going. And we just saw that in Genesis 1. Genesis 1 sets a trajectory of the entire Bible. We've you look at first Peter, chapter 1, in the very beginning, PD, if you'll put that up real quick, the first two verses of this book, Peter and Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who elect exiles, the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bethenia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. I believe last time we looked at first Peter was a long time ago, Dave Brillhart actually commented on the wonderful brevity of the Trinitarian language of this. That even in the first, out the gate, Peter says, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ. If you had this Trinitarian work going on, I feel like Peter is laying out what he's going to write about the rest of his letter. So when you see these things to do, this is what part of that looks like. The Spirit's work in us through Jesus Christ, living this out is marked by prayer, love and hospitality. That Peter is unpacking this statement through the rest of his letter. And if you look at chapter two in verse nine and 10 of first Peter, Peter, if you put that up real quick, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are a God's people, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So this idea of being a royal priest, now you really could do a 12-part sermon series on this very idea, unpacking the term royal, unpacking the term priest, unpacking the term kingdom, looking at Genesis one through three and tracing that strand throughout the rest of scripture. If you'll just take my word for it, most of the New Testament as their exegeting Christ as Peter and Paul and the writers of the epistles to the church, they are unpacking this idea that you are being made through the spirit by the work of Christ into a humanity that reflects God's image rightly. And apart from God's intervening choosing, apart from God's electing work, there is no hope. But for those that he has, for those that he has chosen, that he has called to be his people, which is you, Christ kingdom, those he has called, he is making into his image to live out in the world the trainitarian image rightly. And if you unpack that, which Joshua, I know you can do right for the trainitarian Bible study, Joshua's ready to roll, that if you think about the persons of the Trinity and how they interact with one another, the father glorifies the son, the son glorifies the father, the spirit seeking to glorify them both, not my will, but your wills. And you have this, you consider Christ in his descent. This happens all the time. These wonderful doxologies, Paul, O the depths and the rich and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and then he'll go, be nice to your wife. Or like consider Paul, and I believe it's Philippians chapter two, the descent of Christ, leaving this father's throne to go the depths of hell, consider the humility. No one has made a greater descent in every capacity. Now, consider others better than yourselves. Do nothing out of self-assembition or vain conceit. This edmund flow, these wonderful, glorious, trainitarian doctrines, and hitting home very small, in ways that are lived out in prayer, and hospitality, and love for one another. And as hard as that is, the reality is that we do that on the strength of the spirit, as Peter has already acknowledged, the sanctifying work of the spirit, this is what it looks like. So Christ, kingdom, this is an interesting line that I've struggled with even since hearing in seminary from Dr. Steve Schilders, who's a great professor. He would always word it this way, you have to radically align your purposes with God's. Now, he usually met that in the mission sense, that he was, he's a very mischievous guy, missions are his thing, going across the globe, so that usually meant, you know, you might need to think about making some really big, I don't think Steve always meant it in that capacity, but he would always use that when you radically align God's purposes with your own. And I feel like Peter sometimes that call is very simple, that we do do things, we'll commit to doing things, we'll make New Year's resolutions, we'll prioritize and, you know, we'll make goals and we'll accomplish them. I feel like Peter through this text is telling his church, you want to radically align your purposes with the Lord's, consider these things, that sometimes we want the big splashy thing to do, to gear up, go get him for God, some of that will just really make us splash. But the truth is, Peter exhorts his church to pray, to love, and they're so hospitality. So as we can moving forth in the New Year, I hope that we would indeed seek that end, that we would seek those things for the glory of God the Father. So if you have heard me at all, this is not to say, white knuckle it, and get out of here and try that much harder. But it is going forward, that the Lord Jesus raining in us, as we just acknowledged, in the 2000 years of Lord raining, he's not passively just sitting at his Father's throne, kicking it, watching, he rains in us. And in so doing that we reflect God, rightly in the world, as his royal priest, as his image bears. That is our hope, that is our call, that is what God has called us to, and he has given us a spirit for that very purpose. So I leave you with that Christ kingdom, moving forward if you're going to make a resolution, consider these things. And if you are not a believer, then again, you have no real reason to celebrate the turn of the New Year. Matter of fact, you have reason to tremble, that it is one day closer to all you will meet your judge in his wrath. So I would employ you to repent, if you do not know the Lord Jesus, but for those that do, Christ kingdom, may we pray, may we love, may we show a hospitality, and use our guest for the sake of the other so that any God is glorified, that we would bear his image well through his Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for your word. We do ask that you would help us to not only understand it, but you would help us to live as royal priests, that you have called us to serve your kingdom, to serve your people. You have called us to love one another, that you would help us to do that this coming year, that Christ kingdom would be a church as the world would look at us and see a place that longs to commune with you through prayer, that enjoys and delights in loving one another, and that seeks to share life and go through hospitality and the gifts that you have given. Would that be our mark through your Holy Spirit to the glory of your Son? We ask you would help us in these things for Christ's sake, amen.