Marcus Mecum - These Last Days - Part 2
1 Peter 4:7-10 says, "The end of all things is now. Therefore, be alert and of a sober mind, or a clear mind so that you may pray", and now this is, I love how it says verse 8, "Above all". Think about that, "Above all else," above everything else. What are you and I supposed to do? It says, "Love each other deeply". And how do we do that? It says that, "Love covers a multitude of sin". I want to take just a minute here, and don't worry, I didn't take the Mark. The Bible says, "Love covers a multitude of sins".
So, there's three things that this verse brings up that we need to clarify. Most importantly it starts off by saying, "You have to be clear minded. You have to be sober minded". How do we do that? Well, first of all, we have to realize that the day that we're living in, this day is the day you and I were predestined to live in. There is a purpose for this day. I can't be clear minded if I look into past days. "Oh God did so many things in the past".
Wouldn't it be amazing to be alive when the Book of Acts took place? Wouldn't that be amazing to be when the Holy Spirit was poured out in the upper room? Wouldn't that be amazing when Peter would walk down the road and his shadow would hit people and heal them? Wouldn't that be amazing, those days? Wouldn't it be amazing to maybe be a part of what God's gonna do in the future and when we obsess over the past or we Romanticize the future, we cease to be clear minded. And the Bible says that, "We're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses". We're surrounded by Elijah, we're surrounded by Paul the apostle, we're surrounded by Simon Peter, we're surrounded by the greats like Abraham.
And that's, the Bible says that, "A cloud of witnesses". And what are they doing, "They are cheering us on in our race". You know what they're saying? All those greats that we talk about, all the heroes of our faith that we talk about, look down on our day with absolute jealousy saying to themselves, "I wish I would had a chance to be there in those days". This day, be clear about it. This is a day pregnant with purpose. I appreciate what God's done in the past. I appreciate what God's gonna do in the future, but we have to take this moment and we have to seize it and we have to say, "Okay God, you've put me in this hour. I want everything I can get from it".
Be clear minded. Then secondly, it goes on to talk about that number two, we should do our best to notice, "Above all else we love one another". And then it teaches us how we love one another, "Love covers a multitude of sin". So, love does not expose sin. Love does not defend sin. Love finds a way to say that's sin, the Bible calls it sin. It is not love to act like something is not sin when the Bible calls it sin. It is not love to walk around and be nitpicking and judgmental over everybody's sin. Neither of those is how love is defined. Love calls sin, sin and then it covers it. In other words, it lets the person know, none of us are defined by a mistake. None of us are defined by sin. None of us are defined by our past. None of us are defined by something we've done.
Our life, who we are as people is bigger than mistakes that we've made or things that we've done wrong. And so, God says, "The way we love one another is we cover one another's sin". We just simply look at one another and say, "I understand. You missed it, but now let's get back up. Let's keep moving forward". Think about the best example of this is when the apostle Simon Peter, Jesus has just told him that he's going to make a mistake, that he's going to fail. This is right on the heels of Jesus saying that he would build his church, that Simon Peter would be the primary leader of the New Testament church. So, he talks to Peter about his destiny. He talks to him about building the church, and then he says, "Oh yeah, by the way, you're gonna make some mistakes". Simon Peter goes out and he denies Christ three times.
The Bible says, "With a curse". So now we have one of the apostles is a cussing apostle. He ends up going back to his old life, the life that he was living before Christ. He's out fishing, Jesus is raised from the dead, goes to a nearby beach. He's cooking some fish over a fire, and he's talking to those who are just right off the shore fishing. He's talking to them, and it hits Peter, "That's Jesus". He jumps in the water. He swims as fast as he can to the beach. He's dripping wet. Really what he's dripping with, is he's dripping with the fact that he's failed. It's all over him. Can't get away from it. Every single ounce of who he is is dripping with the fact that he failed. He denied Christ and didn't just denied, he denied him with a curse.
I'm imagining if I was Peter, I'd be stepping up expecting Jesus to ask the question, "How did you not only deny me, but you denied me with a curse"? If I was Simon Peter I would be expecting to be backhanded by Christ, right? And then, you know, look at the other disciple, "Hey, somebody pick him up. Let's do it again". That's how we think of God most of the time. When we make mistakes, we think God is wanting to punish us. He's angry with us. He's disappointed in us. But the only question Jesus ask Simon Peter is, "Do you love me"? "Yeah, of course, of course, of course". "No, do you love me? Do you love me"?
What was happening? Jesus knew if Peter would just get a Revelation of his love, that love covers sin. That Jesus was not holding what Peter did against him, he was calling it sin. It was clear that he made a mistake. It was clear that he had failed. Jesus was not avoiding that, but yet he was showing the apostle Simon Peter that moment of denial should never define him for the rest of his life. There is forgiveness, and there's mercy, and those types of things. And he encouraged him, "Go on, build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against you".
And then finally, number three. It goes on to say this, that each of you should take whatever gift you've been given and you should use it to serve one another. That's what we should do. We should use the gifts, the talents, the time that we've been given, we should use it to make a difference in the world around us. You and I are here, this is the greatest generation that's ever lived in history. This is the end time church. Right now, 7 billion people are alive on the planet. And did you know more people have come to Christ in the last five years than the previous 2,017 years before this moment. These are real stats.
Islam began in 708 ad and in it's first 1,300 years of existence, there was zero movement from anyone in Islam towards Christ. But every single year for the last 20 years in all nine branches of Islam, over a million Muslims have given their, Christ for the last 20 years. Every single year, over 20 million Muslims have come to know the love and the grace and the mercy that can only come one way, and that's through a relationship with God's only Son.
In China, every single day 35,000 people give their life to Christ. Under that communist regime where you are arrested, you're killed, you're taken to the hospitals where they'll cut you open and sell your body parts. This is, you can go to the religions around the world and the persecution of religions around the world. This is all, this is Washington D. C. facts, that they'll take your organs, "You either deny Christ or we're gonna take you and cut you up and give your eyeballs, send your eyeballs to Ireland, and send this to Japan, and send that to some other place".
Thirty-five thousand. 1.3 billion people in China and 10% worship every single day in the underground church in China, 130 million people in China today are coming to know Christ. It's a beautiful thing. So, God's pouring out his spirit. God is moving like never before. And yes, darkness is on the rise. Yes, darkness is increasing. Yes, sin is increasing. But the Bible says, "Where sin abounds grace much more abounds". Which me and you are here with the opportunity to be a part of all that God's doing in the earth. We're here, we've been given gifts, we've been given talents, we've been graced by God in our own unique way, and we're to take all of that and we're to use it to serve God's people.
I know it's the last days, I know we're talking about Jesus is coming back and our job is to say, "What can I do? How can I serve? How can I pray? How can I give? What can I do to make a difference in the world around us"? Why? So,we can be ready for his soon return. I want us to continue to check out Elijah's story as it wraps up. Let's check it out.
You know the idea again of the golden rule behind the second coming of Christ is simple and that is, "Many will not be ready". So, if Jesus were to come back, the Eastern sky were to split, and he were to come and take us, are you ready? Are you sure you're ready? Do you know you're ready? Are you persuaded? Paul said, "I'm fully persuaded that he is able to keep that which is committed to me against that day". Are you persuaded? Do you know that you know that you know? Are you sure? Is your life built on the rock or is it built on the sand? How do we know we're built on the rock?
We hear his word and we do his word. And the Bible says we deceive ourselves if we just listen to it and we don't act on it. So, there are steps you take. When you hear the word the Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word". So, you may not have faith and then you hear the Word of God, and all of a sudden you start feeling faith come. And you're like, "Man, I've never sensed that before. I've never sensed that". Because Paul called it, "The foolishness of preaching the gospel. It's foolishness". But something that happens when we speak God's word hits our ears, but more importantly, causes that measure of faith to come alive in your spirit and in your heart.