This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. Open your Bibles to 1 Peter, please. We're in 1 Peter 4. We'll be picking up at verse 7. This is the reading of God's Word. 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 good stewards of God's varied 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. Let's begin with prayer. Our Father, would you speak to us? Make us faithful. Make us faithful because our God speaks. Would your Holy Spirit be mighty among us to open our eyes and convict our hearts. Please bless this second part of our Lord's day. May you be greatly glorified in us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You know, when I'm preparing these sermons, when I'm here in town, my office is right about there, and sometimes I look out my window, and you take those breaks and you're thinking, and I look out, and my view, if I don't move, is dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, solar panels. And if that's all there was, it would be fairly unimpressive. It just wouldn't be, right? We have dirt in a lot of places. But after the solar panels, there are fields. Fields in various states of God's glory raising up food. They stretch out until they reach the mountains and then the mountains just soar for the heavens. And what was once this unimpressive moment becomes then God's grandeur on display. Unimpressive if I only looked at the small detail, just full of God's glory when I look at it all together. Any letter in the Bible, any given moment that it speaks of might be unimpressive on its own. But no story in the Bible, no event stands just on its own. The story of the Bible is a unified story of God's plan of redemption. You know, we're just kind of rounding the corner on the fall. After Adam and Eve fall into sin, everything from there on out is a glimpse into this one plan about how God would rescue his people. There's a prophet here, a promise there, every little bit God showing just a bit more of how he will rescue his people. And then at the perfect and long expected moment, the son of God himself appears. Jesus Christ takes on flesh. He lived, he taught, he ministered, he performed miracles, then he died, he rose again, he conquered death, he ascended into heaven, he sends his Holy Spirit, and then everything is different. And that, brothers and sisters, that is actually where we are in this story. That is our context in the wake of this great series of events that happened in Jesus Christ. And with Jesus's work, his completed work, we arrive at a new stage in God's plan. Peter says here in this very first verse of our passage, that the end of all things is at hand. Now, what does that mean? The end of all things is at hand. you should probably be clear again what it does not mean. What it doesn't mean is the end is tomorrow, look out. We're not reading some desperate cry there. When you hear the end of all things is near, so many of our minds jump to some guy with a long shaggy beard and like dirty sandals standing on a street corner holding a sign. Yelling crazy things at the people as they go by. That is what we've come to associate with talk like this. But that's not what Peter means, not at all. The end of all things. The end of all things acknowledges where we are in God's plans. Like I said, everything changed because of Christ's work, everything. And because of what he did, we find ourselves here in the last stage of God's plan of redemption. God's plan, it is nearing completion. Whether that means five minutes from here, five years from now, five centuries from now, whatever it means, God's plan is nearing completion. And that is the stage at which we find ourselves. And just like Peter's original readers, that's us. We look at this and there's so many cultural things that are different. But in terms of God's single plan working out across all time, we are in the same stage that Peter's readers were in. So what are we supposed to make of that? What are we supposed to make of a reality in which the decisive victory has been won? How do we live when the enemy has been routed and scattered? That's what Peter's letting onto here. First off, it's going to give us confidence, I think. It's going to give us confidence in the work of God, but it is also going to motivate us. It is going to motivate us to continue the labors we are called to. Our location in God's plan means that we march on the victorious coattails of our conquering champion, Jesus Christ. That is where we are. We have the momentum, we have the backing, we have the power, therefore we press forward. That actually though places us at a spot that's difficult to do justice to. The victory already won, the completion of the plan not yet upon us. I was, you know, just going through my mind, going through whatever I could think of to say, what is an adequate illustration to this stage in which we find ourselves? The tension that we have between this already and not yet. And my mind was drawn to something that honestly I know like nothing about. World War, ha, thank you, peanut gallery. World War II was what I was going to say. I know a little bit about baseball. The wickets and the, you know, whatever else you do, right? Can you delete that part out of the sermon when we put this online? So, I found my mind drawn to World War II, and I'll tell you why. I was asking myself, what was the turning point of this incredible, devastating war. And so I started reading about it, just with that question in mind. What I found out was my impression of it was entirely wrong. Because, I mean, let's see if you have the same reaction that I do. If I had to say, okay, if I asked you what is the turning point in World War II, what are you guys tempted to say? D-Day, right? D-Day, storming of the beaches of Normandy, right? It's just natural. It was this incredible battle, but it turns out it's like not really on the list. It turns out, as you read about this, that there's no consensus for what is the turning point of that war. There's just too much going on. There's too many big battles. So I was reading about this list of contenders, and I landed on one that I thought, well, that's new, to me at least. It was the Battle of Stalingrad. Winter of 1942, 1943. Five months long, this miserable battle goes on, and in the end, between civilians and those actually fighting, two million casualties. Stunning. What you have is Germany just attempting to do what Germany did. We can just take over the world all at one time, right? And so they're going into the Soviet Union and they're trying to take control of Stalingrad. Stalin's not big on giving up the city named after him. And then there's this entrenched fight. What you end up having, the German army, the Sixth Army, gets like lured into there. And next thing you know, 250,000 to 300,000 German troops are encircled and trapped by one million Soviet Union troops. The city they came to attack, they are now trapped inside of it. And over this miserable winter, just getting worn down, it's just a terrible affair. But in the end, the Germans lose an entire army group. However many people were alive at the end, they all surrender. It's this terrible defeat for Germany and a glorious victory for the allies. Everything changes right there on that Eastern front of the European theater. And we don't think about it as much because we're more concerned with the Western side and the Pacific side of it, right? But because of that, because of this terrible defeat, they have to pull troops, German troops off the Western front to go fill out the Eastern one again. And you know that's going to have big consequences down the line. What's incredible, I found, though, about such a monumental victory, again, remembering the casualties, like two million. Can you believe that's only a battle? Two million is like most of Nevada just falling into a great hole. You know, and all we're left with then is Las Vegas. I was looking up the numbers. Or the more optimistic way, I guess, is if Clark County fell into a hole. That's about the same kind of figure. No, but we like Clark County. What I found so incredible about this was that no country and no soldier got to take a pass on the rest of the war after that. That was 1942 and 43, right? There was a lot more that still had to get done. There was still Iwo Jima. There's still the battle of Berlin. There was still Midway. There was all these incredible battles that still had to come. So much blood that was still to be shed. Yeah, that was an incredibly important battle in that war. And those soldiers, though no one got to give up, you have to imagine that that was a shot for their confidence, that they went forward now with a new hope that victory truly was on the horizon. Wherever it was, they didn't know, but it was out there. I find in that a storyline similar to where we are, although ours I find much more optimistic than any soldier in World War II. Like I said, there was no consensus. There is no consensus over a turning point in World War II, but there is a consensus over a clear turning point in scripture, in God's plan of redemption. It was when Jesus Christ conquered death and rose again. When he redeemed his people from judgment, he won. His work is finished. The decisive battle has come, and we live our lives after that. As Christians, we live after the major battle has been clearly won. And so we should celebrate that. We should be confident because of that. We should be spurred on to more because of that. We follow Christ because the victory has been won. Peter's big point here is that living in the last stage of God's plan of redemption should cause us to live in a certain way. Living in the last stage is meant to make us live in a certain way. And that's what we're gonna be talking about for, I don't know, a couple of weeks here. We'll see how long it takes us. The end of all things changes us. It changes our outlook and it changes our attitude. We're not supposed to have, as one commentator called it, end times hysteria, which I interpret to be something like pouring over charts and newspaper articles while bulk ordering canned food and ammunition, right? Some of you guys are like, back off the ammunition, you know? We're not called to hysteria in any form, but this awareness is meant to transform how we look at things, how we look at our lives, how we look at the scope of this big plan unfolding before us. Being in the last stage of God's plan of redemption puts the present and the future into new focus. The present you find is brought down to size when you put it up to next to eternity. This all-consuming here and now, it is a blip on the radar compared to eternity. This present age, all that we are used to here, all that we live, it is winding down. Whether we're talking about mountains on the horizon or the career that you've spent years building or the family life you enjoy, none of it is going to last. None of it is built to last for eternity. Knowing where we stand in God's plan, it has a way of changing our emphasis in how we live and how we look at things. We are certainly called to care about this present age, to labor for it, to value it, to invest in it, but we are not called to obsess over it. This present age is fading and we stand on the brink of the age to come. The temporary is passing away and the eternal is breaking in. That is where we are. We are on the brink of glory and of wholeness and of life. Nothing can be, nothing will be the same. Believing in where we stand in this plan, it will transform us. If you truly believe in the future that is certainly coming, it will transform how you live. And if you truly believe what the scripture says about where we are now, presently, it will transform how you live. We are meant to live with our gaze set, fixed on eternity. Why do we do anything that we do in this life? We do it looking to eternity. We do it for the sake of eternity. When you work at your jobs or in your homes, you are in fact doing it for the sake of eternity, no matter how mundane it feels. When we labor for good relationships with our friends and with our family, why do you do it? You do it for the sake of eternity, in fact. Why do you listen to this sermon? You do it for the sake of eternity. Paul Tripp said that what we believe about eternity must be lived out here and now. What do we believe? We believe that we are pilgrims, journeying through a fading world toward a new heavens and a new earth. And as pilgrims, we are called to live pilgrim lifestyles. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Because of our place in God's plan, we are called to an attitude and we are called to a goal. The attitude, be self-controlled and sober-minded. Self-controlled, reasonable, right, sensible, serious, sober-minded, be free from the mental and spiritual, and by all means literal, drunkenness of this age. He's describing an attitude that is clear thinking, that is purposeful, And notice how we are not supposed to react to the end of all things. He does not say, eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow we die. That is an attitude that is never acceptable by God's standards. He does not say, despair, the sky is falling. That is not the attitude we are called to. We're not called to a fatalism that says, well, nothing matters anymore. It's all going that way anyway. None of these are the attitudes we are called to. Clear thinking, purposeful. And the purpose of these characteristics, to make sure you're not misreading this, is not saying, hey, stop having fun already. We want joyless, passionless Christians here. It's nothing like that. But important things demand people who can be serious. They demand people who can be serious, and we live in important times. And we are doing important work, so we are called to the appropriate seriousness. And the goal of this attitude is for the sake of our prayers, to aid in our prayers. This is a time where I just did not see that coming. If you're following just the words one by one, Be self-controlled and sober-minded. I want to fill that in with like a number of things we've already covered because you're about to suffer, right? Be self-controlled and sober-minded. That makes sense to me. He didn't say that. Be self-controlled and sober-minded so that you can prepare defense for the reason or for the hope that you have in Christ. That would also make sense to me. He didn't say that. Be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. I find in that a priority of Peter's and of God's that I don't always share. God prioritizes prayer. I need to hear it. This week, I've told a couple of you, this sermon, I felt like as I'm trying to lay hold of this word and take it into me and do it justice so that I can receive it and give it to you, it was painful. I am bad at prayer. I am not what you would call a prayer warrior. And so I take this text about the attitude I'm supposed to have about prayer and the seriousness about prayer. And I feel like my insides are being met. You know, those guys who go and demolish buildings with sledgehammers. I feel like the Holy Spirit shows up with a sledgehammer in my heart and says, that wall's got to go. That one has to go. And he's just knocking down things because of how wrong my attitude is toward prayer. God prioritizes prayer. When we pray in these last times, God calls us to make ourselves ready for faithful prayer. Brothers and sisters, clear the clutter, mental, spiritual, whatever it is, you are called to pray. Prayer is not a hobby so much as it is a lifeline. Prayer is not a ritual so much as it is a relationship in which you must invest. How do you pray? How do you pray? Do you pray casually? Do you pray drowsily? Do you pray without purpose? So many of us, let's, we can be honest here. So many of us, we pray the exact opposite of how it is we are called to pray. God calls us to pray with purpose. Pray knowing who you are in Christ and pray knowing who God is. Pray knowing where we are in the world. and pray knowing where God's plans are going. The end of all things doesn't mean we stop praying. We pray because the end of all things is at hand. Pray because this age is winding down. Pray because the idols of this world are going to fall short, leaving so many of our neighbors essentially holding a cinder block in a stormy sea. Pray because this fleeting life has eternal consequences. Pray pilgrim prayers that look beyond today to the dawning of a new age. Pray for the faith to lay hold of the promises of the gospel. Pray to trust your God instead of trusting your paycheck. Pray to choose Him instead of choosing your idols, instead of choosing your pet sins. Pray for your soul and not just your circumstances. There is so much we need to pray for. Pray for your walk. Pray that it would be faithful. Pray for your growth. Pray that it would be deep. Pray for the lost, that they would be saved from judgment. Pray for our leaders and not just against our leaders. Pray that they would be wise. Pray that they would be faithful. Pray that they would come to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for sermons. You know, we have it in our bulletin, pray your pastor full and he will preach you full. It's a wonderful attitude. I totally endorse it. I offer you one addition to that. Don't just pray for us during the week. You know, I can imagine a super faithful prayer warrior among you praying six days and you get here on Sunday and be like, okay, let's see what he's going to do now. I did my part, do your part, pastor. Pray during the sermon for your pastor, for yourself. Recognize that your pastor speaks with eternal consequence. We pray for the scalpels of surgeons. By all means, let us pray for the words of pastors. Recognize that your pastor will be held to a stricter account for every word that he says up here. Pray that he would be preserved, protected, made faithful. Pray that he would be strong to say what he must. Pray for yourself. You sit under the words of God. You will be called to account for the things that you have heard. There is no free pass Sunday. You hear the words of God and you will be called to account whether you believed them, whether you obeyed them. Pray that you too would be faithful to the word. May God never be able to point to a time in your life that you scorned his word or that you treated it lightly. It's the benediction I wish upon you. Let God's word on the Lord's day find the soil of your heart to be rich, rich with eagerness, humility, and faith. As a preacher, I would ask you, pray for whoever is bringing you the word. I would ask you commit to fervent prayer the entire time he is speaking. Pray that the Lord would give you whatever blessing that you know must be there because God's word is being spoken. Pray that he would give it to you. Pray that that preacher would be faithful to proclaim what he must. And I just have a suspicion, and it's not one I came up with myself, but I have a suspicion that if you would commit to do so, to pray the entire time, not just the week, but the entire time he's up here preaching, you would find yourself hearing sermons more powerful than you can ever remember hearing, because God would work. He would work through that. In all these prayers, pray in awe. that the King of all creation would make time for you. Just let that soak in. He makes time for you. We act like prayer is this like noble self-sacrificing discipline. Look, it's so hard to carve out all the time for prayer. The king offers his time freely to the slaves and the slaves have a hard time taking him up on it. Like what messed up irony is that? We refuse to take the king up on all the time he offers us. Take him up on it. He makes time for us. What grace is this? And brothers, sisters, Assumed in this, be sure that you are praying. We've talked about how, for some of us, we just need to hear that we need to be praying. Like Esau, so many of us forsake the precious birthright of the children of God. Forsake it no more. He grants the privilege to pray to his children. He grants it to his blood-bought servants. Don't score in your privileges. Don't score in your birthrights. We pray because this last time demands that we pray. We pray because we recognize its value. There is so much to do in this dying world. But we have the King's ear. He said he will listen to us. We can address the only one who actually saves, the only one who actually heals or helps or does anything that makes anything happen. And we pray because we recognize our need. When we pray, we pray to the one in control of all things. And we pray as those who are in control of nothing. We pray as those who will have nothing unless God gives it to him. We are the poor. We are the needy. There is no other attitude with which to pray. We confess to our God, I have no hope unless you act. There is no hope for my forgiveness. There is no hope for a godly life. There is no hope for daily bread. There is no help for healing or for help or for any God ability. Well, there's nothing if he does not answer us. If he does not move on our behalf, if he is not gracious once more, Father, we pray, answer the prayers of needy beggars. So let us pray. Let us pray soberly, not drunk off of this age, nor drunk off of our delusions that, oh, I don't need to pray for anything right now, I'm fine. Let us pray with self-control, not like we are the ones in control, but let us be self-controlled so that we can go to the one who is in fact in control. Let us pray. Our Savior has won the victory and the end of all things is at hand. This is why we pray. Join me in prayer now. Help us Father, help us we don't even take advantage of the things you've given us. And we are feeble, helpless children without you. May we never be deluded to think that we are anything but that. May we come to you boldly boldly in our feebleness to go to the one who truly does act, who truly does save, who truly does bless. May we be a people that prays. Forgive us that we don't. And may we know the stage of your plans that we are in. Make us faithful to pray because the end of all things is at hand. May we not be ignorant. Make us your faithful people. We pray this in the Lord Jesus Christ's name. Amen.