Well hey there! Hello to ya today. Welcome to episode number 200 of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast. I’m so excited and grateful that you’re listening today. Let’s jump right in!

You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, playing via the Edifi app. This is episode number 200, and we’re looking at some promises from 1 Peter.

So recently during my prayer time I started jotting down thoughts that I had while I was praying. It was for sure not just me thinking these things in my own mind - it was really the Holy Spirit encouraging me. Let me share what I wrote down.

Make a promise or keep a promise; which means more?

Boastful speech with little love or fewer words and a God-honoring life; which is better?

Loving God and loving others or making excuses for a cold, hard heart; which describes me?

Dancing with the world or bowing at His feet; which do I do daily?

Living for pleasure or living for Him; what do my daily choices reveal?

Preparing for the King’s return or preparing by default for eternal hellish torment: there is no more time.

So, yeah. Very encouraging, very convicting, very sobering and that last bit, there is no more time, was somewhat heavy. I had the sense that I ought to share this on the podcast, because I’m guessing I am not the only one who needs to be reminded often that how I spend my time, how I love others, how I honor the Lord, what I live for matters and I only have so much time. My lifespan is not unlimited on this earth (although it will be unlimited in eternity). It’s important to pause, evaluate the condition of my heart, to discover yet again that there is a beam sticking out of my eye and I need to remove it before pointing out the toothpick in someone else’s eye.

Sharing this was not exactly what I wanted to do. It felt pretty personal, ya know?

But obedience to the leading of the Lord is important, because Jesus said those who love Him will obey Him in John 14:23.

1 Peter 4:7-9 and 10-11 from the NLT: The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.

God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God Himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen.

In the Amplified Bible, verse 7 reads like this: The end and culmination of all things is near. Therefore, be sound-minded and self-controlled for the purpose of prayer (staying balanced and focused on the things of God so that your communication will be clear, reasonable, specific and pleasing to Him).

This is the passage the Lord led me to read after I wrote down what I read to you a moment ago. This is not a portion of the Bible that I have memorized, where I know by the reference exactly what it says. I ought to, because this is good stuff, but I didn’t just know in my knower what the passage said when the Holy Spirit led me to read 1 Peter, and in particular these verses from chapter four of 1 Peter.

And these words go hand in glove with what I wrote down during my prayer time that morning.

Listen carefully. God’s Word never returns to Him void but always accomplishes that for which He sends it forth. And so it will do what He wants it to do. God keeps His promises. He is unfailing in His faithfulness. His love and compassion know no bounds, His mercies are new every morning. He is a good God, a good Father. And this portion of Scripture says the end and culmination of all things is near…therefore, we need to be sober minded, earnest in our prayers, focused on Him, staying balanced in what we are focusing on so that our communication with Him in prayer and with others in our lives will be clear, not muddled or confusing, and reasonable, and specific, not vague, not bouncing all over the place, and pleasing to Him.

So what matters more? Making a promise or keeping a promise? Which is better?

And if the end and culmination of all things is near, is it important for us to know that God does not just make promises and throw them around willy nilly and leave it at that, but He keeps every single promise perfectly and to perfection? Yes, that’s something we need to know, each of us individually, as the end of the world is coming soon, as the NLT says.

Do you personally know that God is keeping, has kept and will keep all the promises He has made? And that you have promises from Him that He is keeping and will keep right til the end of it all? It’s so important to know that. And to know it for yourself.

As I think about verse 11, as a podcaster and speaker, it’s convicting but also encouraging to consider that each episode is me using the gift He gave to hopefully serve everyone who listens. And you serve when you use your gifts. Now maybe nobody has told you this in a while, or maybe ever, but when you do what the Lord equips you to do in service, that’s invaluable. It’s truly more precious than most of what we spend our lives on. You being the you that God created you to be is serving. Thank you for serving the way that only you can. You know, only my husband can give our grandchildren a hug that is from grandpaw. Nobody else can give them a grandpaw hug. It’s not possible. That’s how it is with your gifts. Nobody else can do what you do the way that you do it. So please keep doing it and thank you for doing it. You glorify God when you do so - and that’s the Biblical truth. It’s right here in verse 11.

Let me read 1 Peter 4 verses 1 and 2 from the J.B. Phillips New Testament.

Since Christ had to suffer physically for you, you must fortify yourselves with the same inner attitude that He must have had. You must realize that to be dead to sin inevitably means pain, and you should not therefore spend the rest of your time here on earth indulging your physical nature, but in doing the will of God.

That’s not a Bible translation we often read from, but it phrases these verses really well.

Part of the promise for us as Christians is that we will suffer, because we follow Jesus and He suffered. We must fortify ourselves with the same inner attitude Jesus had. We must realize that to be dead to sin will inevitably lead to pain. We should not spend the rest of our time here on earth indulging our physical nature, but in doing the will of God.

Make a promise or keep a promise; which means more?

Boastful speech with little love or fewer words and a God-honoring life; which is better?

Loving God and loving others or making excuses for a cold, hard heart; which describes me?

Dancing with the world or bowing at His feet; which do I do daily?

Living for pleasure or living for Him; what do my daily choices reveal?

Preparing for the King’s return or preparing by default for eternal hellish torment: there is no more time.

Let’s lay aside the boastful speech with little love and choose to perhaps speak fewer words and live a God-honoring life, because that’s truly better.

Let’s love God and love others, and stop making excuses for our cold, hard hearts.

Let’s stop dancing with the world and get serious about bowing at the Lord’s feet daily.

Let’s be done with living for pleasure and choose to live for Him.

Let’s be prepared for Jesus’ return, because otherwise what are we preparing for by default?

And that last bit, there is no more time…my friend, we don’t have many more days to waste. When the Holy Spirit led me to write down those words, “There is no more time,” and then led me to open 1 Peter chapter 4 in my Bible, well, this is no coincidence. The enemy Satan has no reason to quote unquote trick me into readying myself for the Lord’s return, to trick me into loving the Lord more and living a life that honors Him, to trick me into bowing at His feet rather than dancing with the world, to trick me into preparing for His return. See, that wouldn’t make sense.

I know many people do not believe that Jesus is returning soon.

And I know many people, students of the Word, see things lining up for His return and they are doing what Jesus said we are to do in Mark 13, verses 34-37, “The coming of the Son of Man can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. When he left home, he gave each of his slaves instructions about the work they were to do, and he told the gatekeeper to watch for his return. You, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know when the master of the household will return - in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak. Don’t let Him find you sleeping when He arrives without warning. I say to you what I say to everyone: Watch for Him!”

Those are the very words of Jesus. And He doesn’t say that since no man knows the hour or t he day, just don’t think about it, don’t talk about it, don’t preach any sermons about it, don’t keep yourself ready for His return, just say that there’s another fifty or one hundred years yet to go (which is kind of funny - why is it always, always fifty or one hundred more years? Just strikes me as a funny go-to for those who don’t believe we are actually in the very end of the end times.)

Jesus said not to let Him find us sleeping when He arrives without warning. Those who a...