[0:00] Amen. You may be seated. Good morning, church. Good morning, church. There we are. There we are.
[0:11] ! I want to welcome you, and if you're watching online, we want to welcome you as well. And it's good to begin our week together, to hear from the Lord, to worship Him, to recenter our affections as we enter into a new week.
[0:26] Here the first week in February, 2026. We are still in our 1 Peter series. We're nearing the finish, but we're in 1 Peter chapter 4 this morning, looking at verses 7 through 11.
[0:45] And before I pray, though, I wanted to just make mention of, as a church, we want to be a church that both receives well and sends well. And so, this morning, we have one of our members. We'll be heading out this week. This is their last morning with us, and I'm so sorry, Desi, that I'm going to call you out. I know.
[1:06] But Desrielle McCormick, could you stand, Desi, for us? So, Desi is actually heading up to Anchorage, Alaska with the Air Force, and she's been restationed. And she will be leaving this week. And so, it's been so good to have you part of our body, Desi. And we love you, and we'll be praying for you.
[1:24] And we want to make sure you find a good church very quickly. So, okay. So, at any rate, yeah. Thank you. I did not ask permission, so you're welcome, Desi.
[1:41] And she will be working. She'll be doing some cool stuff up there. So, me and Scott are a little envious that you get to work on some cool aircrafts that is all confidential and I can't talk about.
[1:52] So, with that, let me pray, and we'll dive into our study together this morning. Father, it is good to be here. And it's good to gather in the morning.
[2:04] Lord, we think of the psalmist who writes, Oh, Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you, and I watch. So, we bring our prayers to you this morning, and we wait expectantly that you will respond, Lord, in your perfect timing.
[2:20] And we want to be a church, a people that begin our morning seeking you in prayer. And we freely confess there are mornings when we begin in a spirit of complaint or a spirit of distraction.
[2:34] But, Lord, this morning we're seeking to draw near to you, and we're thankful that you have promised to respond in like manner. Lord, would you use the morning to speak to us, to encourage us.
[2:48] And, Lord, we'll give you thanks for how you work in each of our lives. Thank you that you are at work in our lives. Lord, we pray for our friend Desi. She heads off this week up to Alaska and Free Station.
[3:02] Pray that she would know your good hand upon her. She'd experience your mercies in the transition. And, Lord, that she would find a church very quickly, and you would surround her with your people. And she would continue to be encouraged and grow.
[3:14] And I just look forward to hearing a good report there. Lord, I want to hear from you. So we come to your word now, in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen.
[3:26] So last week, Peter calling us to this new lifestyle, this new trajectory as followers of Christ. And this new aim, this new life that we have been called to is a life where we have left.
[3:42] We are not those that live a life to indulge the flesh, but rather we now live in such a manner where we actually care for the first time about God's glory. We want him to be glorified by our lives.
[3:56] And we want others to hear the good news. We want them to experience his joy by coming to know Jesus as their Savior. Savior. And yes, even on this new trajectory, we're also willing to, if necessary, to suffer for our allegiance to Jesus.
[4:14] And Peter reminded us in verse 3 of 1 Peter 4, he says, For the time has passed. Suffices for doing what the Gentiles or the unbelievers want to do.
[4:25] We don't live this way, church. Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatrous. And so, idolatry.
[4:36] So essentially, Peter's saying, friends, followers of Jesus, it's time for us to grow up. And it would be very unbecoming for a Christ follower to live that sort of lifestyle that I just wrote about.
[4:52] It's time to grow up. How unbecoming. Just as it would be unbecoming for an adult. Now that we have a grandchild and we're thinking about babies again.
[5:02] It's like, how unbecoming if a grown man still slept with, you know, a teddy bear. Or a baby blanket. Right? It would be unbecoming.
[5:16] Thank you. Baby blankets are for babies, is what she said. Yeah, and ladies, I'm just, if you're interested in a guy and you want to find out, like, is this a guy for me?
[5:29] And then you find out he's like into collecting plushies. That's a red flag. You don't have to go any further. Very unbecoming. As disciples of Jesus, we're called to live lives with the reality of the cross behind us and eternity before us.
[5:49] And just as an understatement, as I reflected last week, and I used the illustration of, you know, of the computer tape and just that this, eternity, we can't even imagine it.
[6:03] And this existence is just this little dot. And an understatement this morning is just this. The majority of our lives await us in the life to come. That's an understatement. This life, as Lewis reminds us, is just the cover page.
[6:19] It's just the cover page. It's like this. It's so short. And so the question, really, that Peter is getting at this morning is, well, then what do we do with this very short life that we have been entrusted with?
[6:36] And actually, Peter tells us. And so I've actually entitled this morning, Last Day Ethics. For the Christian, there are things that we ought to engage in, and all of it, all of our behaviors are always rooted, remember, in the character of our God.
[6:54] Okay? So let's listen to Peter as he gives us Last Day Ethics this morning here, beginning in verse 7. He writes, Verse 7 very grace whoever speaks as 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 him belong glory and dominion forever and ever amen so the first thing that peter does is he really recalibrates our expectations on how many tomorrows we actually have each been allotted there will be an end in fact he says the end of all things is at hand that's kind of sobering i know you guys were looking for a feel-good message but i'll try to make this information palatable by showing you that i have cool illustrations like scott it's not a box but it's a bag of marbles and that's pretty cool i'm just saying but imagine your life is like a bag of marble marbles and each marble represents a breath like a tomorrow each marble is your next tomorrow and so you have like an allotted number of these right and so every day we pull one out and we invest it somewhere and then we pull another one out and we invest it somewhere we're allotted each of us a finite number of tomorrows and so that's what peter is getting at here you have a finite number we each have this bag of tomorrows we each have been allotted a different size bag and hence we need to be circumspect we need to be like the psalmist in psalm 90 12 teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom life is short it's temporary and so peter's sobering point here is actually this we actually have less days than we imagine he says the end of all things is at hand the end of all things is drawing near life is exquisitely short and so just to understand clearly on this front related to christ's return he hasn't returned for 2 000 years but he could have the first advent his first advent has already occurred nothing needs to precede his second advent all the major things have occurred the first advent occurred his his perfect life his death his burial his resurrection he sent the holy spirit all of these things have occurred and so we live in this time these last days between the first advent and the second advent where it could be in any moment return and in fact jesus says at the end of the book in revelation 22 20 says hey surely i am coming soon well i don't feel like he's coming soon i mean what what exactly does that mean i don't know if you've ever wrestled with that probably if you're a thoughtful individual like soon what does he mean and i think we need to
[10:58] understand from from god's perspective he understands the dot on the ticker tape of eternity and so from god's vantage point soon it's a blink i like how c.s lewis maybe is helpful here to us he writes in the voyage of the dawn treader if you don't understand anything just in future friends if you're a teacher you just quote from a children's book okay it's a little trick but it says in in in that story aslan speaking says do not look sad speaking to lucy we shall meet soon again says aslan says aslan please aslan lucy says what do you call soon here's his response i call all times soon by the way the only reason that christ hasn't returned and we have indication of this uh in peter's second uh letter in second peter 3 9 we're given a reason why the delay why the delay well here's the reason the lord is not slow to fulfill his promise at at some count slowness but is patient towards you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance god is patient because he's continuing to grow his family it grows out of his heart but considering how short this life is how few marbles we have still in the bag there's a good chance that our going will precede his coming in fact james tells us in james 4 that we are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes and so having this right mindset right we cannot be children when you're a child you look at the bag of the marbles and you're like man there's so many i'm gonna live forever and then you get to be like 50 something and you're like man they're the marbles are depleting i don't even know how many are in there and some of you even beyond that age if you can believe we have people in this church over like 50 something shocking like i don't know and you're just hoping you're reaching the bag and there's another marble but what do we do with those that have yet been allotted to us well peter tells us and he gives us a list in this section he actually gives us a list of four activities i'm going to give it to him right now to you need to be a people that pray that love that serve and then practice hospitality that's a good life pray hard love selfless serve and practice hospitality now just to be a little bit fancy or i don't know um to change it up i've organized these differently i'm actually organizing them around three relational categories this is what we need to fill our life with if you do nothing else church do these four things in these three different relational categories and you will live a life to god's glory and it will be lived for the joy of many others now this list is not some cafeteria approach of just random things there actually is a central theme that i want to capture our imaginations this morning and i think it has everything to do with being uniquely human created in the image of god and the big idea is this your new life is not to be lived in isolation your new life is not to be lived solo alone
[14:58] we are actually called to be a connected people and peter's going to highlight three key areas of connectivity of where we need to be in relationship so this morning perhaps you are disconnected in one of these areas and this will be opportunity to consider that and think about what things need to be addressed so let's begin here in verse 7 peter says the end of all things is at hand therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers why does peter exhort us here to be self-controlled and sober-minded he's just saying hey do these things just avoid these sins no he's not saying just avoid these things he's actually saying be clear-minded be self-controlled so that you can pray do this for the sake in order to be able to pray if you are not sober-minded it's hard to pray if you're still frequenting the bar overindulging you're not going to pray very well that evening amen probably not going to be doing a whole lot of other things very well either be sober-minded be self-controlled if you're constantly scrolling your mind to death with technology noise 24 7 you aren't going to be praying very well if your default setting when you're bored or it's quiet is to pull out your phone and start playing that phone game mobile game thing it's going to be very hard for prayers to leave your heart and your lips because you fill all that quiet space with distraction if your brain is filled with lewd images prayer is going to feel hollow and pretend and peter here is saying hey you want to live a life to the glory of god you got to be a prayerful people much is accomplished in prayer this is a huge reason we pray james 5 16 the prayer of a righteous person who has great power as it's working battling the flesh enlist some prayer coverage don't go it alone and i think as we battle against sin we're in a war against the flesh we have to attack it from different vantage points there's this ground war right hey i'm going to remove on-ramps to sin i'm going to be shrewd as a serpent i'm going to enlist some accountability i've got some guys that are encouraged me the ground world war is in place but there's an air war i've got to be praying and enlist others to pray with and for me man if you are losing the battle in some area we got some men in the church that actually pray and they're committed to doing that they do it through zoom they do it at early hours when men are awake and uh they would love to if you need some prayer you need to begin a pattern of prayer in your life you can see wit wit could you just put your hand up no just stand up you got a good you look good today so i know you dressed up so wit wit has started a number of these groups they they they gather like at 6 5 30 5 30 6 30 tuesday you can see wit if you want to do this it's on zoom and they spend an hour
[19:04] together and it's primarily that time let's let's link arms let's pray let's see god for things like on our planet in our nation in our neighborhood in our lives and he's not the only one i think matthew allmeyer has a group that he does you can see either one of these guys and they could get you linked into that that's very practical very practical way that if you're feeling the conviction of god's spirit in this area man if the air war is not happening these guys would love to to to link arms with you um related to prayer even more basic here's the deal folks if we're not praying we're actually isolating isolating ourselves from primarily who from god yeah we're isolating ourselves from god peter's saying you have a new trajectory and there's three relational areas where you need to be connected and the first one and primary is that you need to be connected to god this is a central way church that we abide prayer connects us it plugs us into god's presence to his power and so i would say the first area your new trajectory you want to live a good life to the glory of god you have to be connected to god your first relational area i love the example of just intimacy that dietrich bonhoeffer records in one of his prayers he wrote this in prison while in berlin he says oh god early in the morning i cry to you help me to pray and gather my thoughts to you i cannot do it alone in me it's dark but with you there's light i am lonely but you did not desert me my courage fails but with you there is help i am restless but with you there is peace in me there is bitterness man he's like this is i've got bitterness but with you there is patience i do not understand your ways but you know the way for me i love how he ends it i'm going to trust today in your sovereignty in your providence i don't see how the pieces fit together but you do and i'm going to rest in that friends the marbles will run out so be a person of prayer today it connects you to god it's like breathing for the believer martin luther says this actually the christian's trade is prayer it's our vocation martin lloyd joins prayer prayer prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul it's the highest activity of the human soul man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with god jay how do i do that i'm so impatient it's hard for me we'll find somebody that's not like you that's a little more patient and begin to pray with them we actually have coming up uh later this month on february 18th we have a prayer and praise we're going to gather and we're actually going to do something this year and we're going to figure out we're going to do some sort of like fast as a church and it's going to be in the area of technology we're shutting off the electricity in everyone's home no we're not doing that we're just we're gonna we're gonna as the spirit like sort of like whatever your default is it's the the major distractor i don't know maybe for you it's like i'm going to delete all my mobile games off my phone until we get to easter and then i might like it so much i'll never return right
[23:04] but we want to do it we're going to remove not just to remove we're going to be clear sober my so that we can learn how to pray so we want to be helpful in that so look forward to that all right first area new trajectory be connected to god look at verse 8. Peter writes above all keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins now this is sort of an interesting statement right love covers sin what does that mean like does my love atone for sin no no peter's essentially he's restating a proverb proverbs 10 12 hatred stirs up strife but love covers all offenses right there's a principle here it's this idea when you know that you're loved you are not so easily offended you're able to extend grace when offense occurs and peter says here we are talking about like first area pray connected to god now he's saying love but he says it he says it this way keep loving one another earnestly he said the same thing in chapter one verse 22 i'm so pumped that i got this verse i'm so glad i get to talk about this again because i was like man love earnestly love at full stretch i didn't know i mean what's scott gonna do up here i can show you guys what this looks like right full stretch right oh man feel that burn yeah we're we do we stretch at any rate the point being here love at full stretch it's a great some of you married folks got like a marriage surprise you married the girl the guy and then you just found out you didn't know that they sleep at full stretch and you're just like you wake up and they're just like sending you out into the atmosphere with their knee or their leg and you're like i had no idea yeah but here's the positive thing love this idea of a muscle right taken to its full limit of flexibility and tension do something till actually you feel the burn till it hurts and it's this athletic term it's actually a term used of of horses at full gallop there's exertion here full stretch love is a purposeful love full stretch love is a selfless love it's a love that celebrates others that cherishes others even when the spotlight's not on you i didn't get permission but i thought my son did a pretty good job of love at full stretch with his he has six sisters i don't know that life he's never known celebrating a birthday for a sister where the presents were cool ever it's like dresses and skirts and sweaters and face scrubby things and hair things and sparkle things there's never a nerf gun there's never a football and i'm telling you what he does a pretty good job you know it's like you know staying engaged right but for a 14 year old that's that's love at full stretch i'm gonna celebrate you i love you so i'm gonna stay engaged even though it's just another girly bobble of some sort what does this look like for us i think it could look like helping someone move that's a that's a full stretch that's a full stretch love helping somebody move that's disorganized that's that's even bigger burn helping somebody move that they say come over at nine you come over at nine nothing's packed there's not a staging area if you've never helped somebody move i don't think scott and wendy are ever going to move again but if they ever did help them to start yourself off because everything is like organized it's alphabetized
[27:09] there's a whole chart of what i mean it's phenomenal most organized people i know but for the vast majority of us it's not such but i think man yeah you know like i'm gonna give a day to help my friend or somebody i don't even know that well i think that is kind of a costly type of love caring for somebody who's sick family member maybe it's a friend maybe you you care for them for an extended period i love jack and carolyn white i don't see them this morning but but they brought marie into their home marie who passed away a little bit ago and she they're like we're not gonna we're not gonna send her off she's gonna we're gonna usher into god's presence in our home it was beautiful it was so beautiful and they loved on her they doted on her they gave her this special bell where if they she they you know she could ring it and they would be jack or carolyn be right there like that was beautiful that's what that's what peter's talking about here love at full stretches offering forgiveness some of you guys are really good about keeping ledgers you can't that's not that's not loving earnestly that's what peter's talking about here and i would say to to love this way prior to being able to love love this way who do we have to be connected to one another pray we need to be connected to god but here we want this new trajectory we have to be connected to god's people the church it's so interesting to me that these first two areas of relationship are two spheres of life that were not present prior to coming to faith in jesus some of you have been in the faith so long you don't even realize that you are connected to two spheres of life that you were never connected to when you began life and then you came to faith in jesus and now you've got like oh i get to be connected to god and to his people and peter says that's a good life life this short life these few marbles be connected in these two areas the leaders of the church the elders the pastors we are burdened for folks to be connected to their church to love their church not to merely date many churches but to commit and i would just say man if you're here be here be here because if you're not and if you're doing this and then you're doing somewhere else you're dating the church you're just staying enough away where you're not really becoming known and knowing others so wherever that is no perfect church in spokane but wherever that is be there and if you're here be here and we have a very practical example of what what it looks like to love the church and i'm going to skip verse 9 we'll come back to that but but but peter gives us here in verses 10 and 11 this is what that looks like about being connected loving well functioning well he says as each has received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of god's very grace whoever speaks as 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 him be glory and dominion forever and ever amen friends a healthy church is one where the body participates in everything we love as we use our gifts to serve one another it's very practical and some of you're like oh man okay i want to use my gift but how many gifts are there
[31:09] is there this gift is there that gift and peter just cuts through all that he's like i'm not even going to play that game there's two kinds that's it two big buckets you got speaking gifts and you got serving gifts so there you go and i love that the gifts these grace gifts they're evidences of god's spirit within us that we have been entrusted with these things why do we do them why do we use them we don't do them to draw attention to ourselves to make ourselves feel important we don't use the gifts to exert control control over others we use the gifts as paul says in first corinthians 12 7 to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good for the blessing of others it's a way that we love one another and so if you are on the sideline you are an observer you're not really participating you are not loving the church as well as you could and the lord is worthy he's worthy the lord is worthy let's become that church where we don't have to chronically say can you help can you help can you help here can you help there can you help can you help can you help we would rather become a church where it's like man we have plenty but here's another way that you can serve and so i'm just very practically speaking this morning i even get like your note sheet i i tricked you a little bit because your application is the qr code you can scan that not right now you got to listen to this okay but but later scan this unless you're going to forget and then you scan it now that's that's that's permittable scan this and you're going to see all the different ways that you could actually begin to participate that would be a wonderful application peter says hey you want to live a good life be connected to god's people and love them earnestly it might be through you teaching a bunch of third graders or middle schoolers or young adults or old adults or whatever you know raking things on our property organizing pushing buttons there's some cool things happening up there you techie people like figure out a place it's how we love one another earnestly serving and the lord's worthy of it all so you're loving god and his people at the same time find a place to serve well i don't know jay if i'm gifted in that way well i don't know either so just start and if you're not scott will tell you or i'll tell you you want the good cop or the bad cop it's really up to you but you never know which one we're going to be so but just start serving and see where there's fruit right see where you experience god's joy let the spirit kind of help you figure out where you're gifted all right let's finish up verse 9 third area peter writes show hospitality to one another without grumbling i just love this the fact that he threw that in i know you have never had that conversation where you're like oh we invited those people over oh no i'm so tired like i mean that's never happened but i love that peter knows that that's happened somewhere do it without grumbling show hospitality to one another without grumbling be called to pray to love to serve and now be people that show hospitality this is god's will for
[35:14] our lives what is hospitality we've heard this it's from two words philos love and xenos stranger to love the stranger the brotherly love towards the stranger and in this context believers were scattered many were experiencing persecution some of them may have had to actually like abandon their homes relocate because of the persecution towards christians and so hospitality maybe you invite this family into your home for a season you help them relocate well i love the testimony from last week i think we had a meeting earlier and and scott shared we have a family from the dr congo that many of you you continue to serve you drive them places and and like all the different people that are involved in that that's this you're doing this i think you know there's a lot of good happening here and i think sometimes we can actually even learn from other cultures we're fighting against a culture that doesn't always do hospitality very well other cultures many of them do it better than us i was actually reading this week because i was intrigued by something that i had read about the albanian culture on hospitality albania is this southeastern european country it's on the adriatic sea and they actually have a tradition in this culture that was actually codified in the 15th century a.d into their laws they view guests not as an inconvenience but as a blessing and in their code it's actually written this is what the house of an albanian belongs to god and the guest what your house belongs to god and the guest i'm not saying that they all have a christian world view here it's a heavy muslim country but they have this in their in their life the house of an albanian belongs to god and the guest the guest the guests arise you offer them coffee bread you you give them a seat by the fire it's a wonderful example in america our homes are our bunkers and our castles not in albania our homes as believers however actually too belong to god and to our guest and that's not socialism that's biblical hospitality use one's resources to bless and serve others have folks over even if you're in the middle of a remodel even if there's laundry hidden in many back rooms just hebrews 13 2 says do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unaware i mean i don't know this is totally this is this is jay and this is totally probably wrong but maybe it's right we may all get to heaven and meet angels that we entertained in this life i don't know i just think it's fascinating like really like hmm you know i don't know interesting not going to go too much down that road but listen to what paul says in galatians 6 10 he says so then as we have opportunity let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith and so the essence of what paul's saying here is man love the church love believers new faces that come through the door
[39:19] but i want to camp on what he says prior he says but all this brotherly love should not occur at the expense of ceasing to love everyone everyone the unbeliever and i would say and sure maybe peter's context is simply thinking mostly about believers but i'm going to apply it this morning to the world because this is the third area that we need to actually live well in in this life we need to be connected to the world we actually need to be connected to god's mission field we need to be connected to god to his people and to the mission field his mission field and we need to be connected in the right way show hospitality to the right way show hospitality to the believers but but to everyone don't shrink from being connected to the world just because you met the lord and just because you've met a really great sweet kind charitable patient group of of other believers that love you unconditionally that's wonderful but don't you don't give up on the mission field that god has called us to and i think i've seen many a christian do this and i don't think it's a a malicious thing i think oftentimes it's just an unintentional thing that that we get so excited about being with believers that we're always with them and there's many good things and i think i have a a principle i think scott shares this but man if you're if you're gathering of believers twice a week that's probably enough so we don't want to over program as a church we gather on a sunday maybe there's then more specific discipleship somewhere during the week but man there there are people that don't know the lord that we need to have influence with that's why i drive uber so that i can be with people that don't know the lord jesus does not mean for us to unplug from the world jesus means for us to plug into the world in a different sort of way yeah sometimes we will now be maligned because we don't participate in the same flooded debauchery but sometimes we get to have influence sometimes we get to share good news sometimes we get to minister and i would say man let's be connected to the world so that we can invite them into our home and this is our home let's invite the stranger to our gatherings our worship gathering is our living room friends it's the church's living room and i i hope that we always have a certain number of unbelievers that are willing to journey with us that are not yet they've not yet trusted in christ but they're going okay i'm listening i'm trying to understand do i believe this do i believe that god was revealed in the person of jesus and that he really died for my sins that i could have new life do i do i believe that i hope that there are folks that are with us on that journey and i would say it's the beginning of the year 2026 yes it's february but we're still at the beginning i just wouldn't exhort us all of us scott would say the same thing melissa would say the same thing the elders would say the same thing no one would sell that sell you guys the same thing like invite your neighbors invite your co-workers invite your classmates your friends to our gatherings well as it says no one hates an invitation churches grow for different reasons sometimes it's like this big marketing campaign we're not doing that we're really not as flashy we're not flashy okay i we're just not but we're kind we got god's word
[43:20] it's true that's what the church is so let's be the people that actually go and make you know jesus said i'm gonna make you fishers of men let's be people that go after those that we have influence with let's be a church that invites folks to our gatherings and not just the special services right let's invite folks to a normal sunday let's get crazy they can see it's not our best day words and all i think there is actually great kindness in our church body that even if they detest the word that is preached on a sunday morning they're gonna there's still a pebble being put in their shoe and they come across people that are kind interested in them serve them a pebbles in their shoe when they see a bunch of others like lifting their voices to a god they believe hears them that's a pebble in their shoe they're like why do these people sing they they believe god is hearing them i gotta i gotta process that and by the way if they're bothered by the message that's actually not a bad thing if they leave here apathetic like that's a bad thing but if they're bothered that's just part of what god does in the process he did it to you he might be doing it to them as well what's the best that we can give them the very best that we can give the unbeliever as we're connected to the world we tell the story right what's the story it's the gospel it's that there's a god who has a plan for mankind to offer him life and peace we can't experience that however because we have a problem it's called sin which separates us from god but in his mercy he's provided a remedy himself jesus lived a perfect life to die for sinners resurrected three days later to create a pathway back to holy god and now everybody every man has opportunity to respond to this offer of new life we respond by crying out in faith and asking jesus to forgive and become our savior in conclusion fourth where of these three areas where of these three spheres are you not as connected as you need to be if you're not connected to god you have no power if you're not connected to the church you have no army around you and if you're not connected to the world you have no mission be connected to all three do it in the proper way and i think man you will be prepared to meet your maker because friends we all have a finite number right at each day each day but i think this call to be connected it's sort of like i was just thinking about this this analogy breaks down because i think some of you are like man i have a bag of i know how many how many tomorrows i have i can feel it actually you don't hold the bag god holds the bag you're like reaching in hoping there's another one in there okay so my analogy was a little flawed there but i'm holding the bag now just for sake of me explaining as we pull out like our tomorrows what are you going to do with them three areas to be connected oh i'm going to pray for this family oh i've been burdened by this person i'm going to pray so i'm putting it over here and then you're thinking oh man this person i could really serve them in this way ah but i want to watch the ball game okay maybe i can watch part of it record some of it stream some of it later i'll go serve them so i'm gonna go you know and then you're thinking oh man i got this person at work they're going through some stuff i don't i don't really want to okay hey do you want to grab coffee we could just have a conversation and then and what you're doing is you're connecting this is so good you're becoming like a non-isolated believer you're god's using you and you have all these things where you're pouring yourself in what we don't want church is this at
[47:22] the end of life we had opportunity each day to do something with these but you know what we did we did this you don't want to meet your maker with a pocket full of marbles okay and there are days when i have been very self-oriented and some of them have gone in the pocket and i would just encourage us man let's use them each well each day well and let's be connected in the right way father thank you for just the fact that you tell us the truth thank you uh that you allowed peter to give us very practical words we want to be a people that that pray that love that serve and practice hospitality and we want to do it in a way where we're we're better connecting with you god there's things that we need to alter to begin a pattern that we see prayer as part of our vocation give us a courage to maybe go talk to wit or matthew or maybe a friend someone else say hey i need to start praying i want to put that that date on the calendar get here on the 18th for that prayer and praise and lord we want to people engaged loving your people lord i think there's great joy that we experience when we're used of you and we miss out on that when we just attend and observe and so maybe just that qr code will will look and maybe there's a place we can serve lord i do pray that we would see others come to know you as their savior this year because we are fishers of men we are we're going to connect to the world in the right way we all started life connected in the wrong way we want to do it different and sure we might get made fun of at times malign but man opportunity to share good news to come alongside and to point people to you that's the best lord we love you thank you for these truths let us apply them in our lives this week in jesus name