1 PETER  ·  WEEK 6

Don’t Waste the Life God Gave You!

1 Peter 4:1–11

BIG IDEA

You get roughly four thousand weeks. You can’t add to them — but you get to decide what goes in them. A rich and satisfying life comes from sorting your passions, showing up for God and people, and spending what’s in your hands.

KEY VERSES

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” — John 10:10 NLT

“Since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had… You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God.” — 1 Peter 4:1–2 NLT

“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another… Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.” — 1 Peter 4:10–11 NLT

THE SETUP

Jesus puts the thief and the promise in the same breath. He never promised a life without struggle — he promised a life with himself in it. Last week we saw that life is a struggle for everyone, and that God sets the table in the middle of it. So the next question is: What’s my posture for the rest of my life? How do I live that rich and satisfying life right now?

Think about how differently you treat something when you’re running out of it. At 5% battery you close apps and switch to low power mode. With $1,000 in the account, twenty dollars is nothing; with $23 left until payday, it matters. Nothing changed about the twenty dollars — what changed was your awareness of how much you had left.

Now do the math on your life. Oliver Burkeman’s book Four Thousand Weeks points out that if you live to eighty, you get just over four thousand weeks. Take your age times fifty-two, subtract it from 4,160, and that’s roughly how many Mondays you have left. Peter is counting too — verse 2 says “the rest of your lives,” literally the remaining time. In eleven verses, he gives three moves: Sort. Show up. Spend.

MAIN POINTS

Three moves for living well with the weeks you’ve got left:

1. Sort Your Passions

“You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy… You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God.” — 1 Peter 4:2–3 NLT

“Arm yourselves” is a soldier’s word — a soldier decides to put on armor before the fight starts. Peter says decide now. It’s like climbing the high-dive ladder: you made the decision the moment your feet left the pavement. “Finished with sin” describes a side picked — and the struggle continues after you pick.

Peter’s phrase is “you’ve had enough.” He’s talking to people who tried the old life and know how it ended: it promised a full life and delivered an empty one. How much more of your marriage does bitterness get? How much more of your life does pornography get? How many more years does an addiction get? Sin has already taken enough from you. Don’t give it what’s left.

Verse 2 hands you two columns: what pulls me back (“chasing my own desires”) and what sets me up (“the will of God”). Run anything through it — a habit, a screen, a friendship, a grudge, a hobby. Is this pulling me back toward who I was, or setting me up for who I’m becoming?

“Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.” — 1 Peter 4:4 NLT

Look at what got them criticized: they stopped participating. The proof your faith is real is often what you stopped doing. (Verse 6 points to friends of Peter’s readers who died for following Jesus — and says they live with God.)

Reflection: What’s one thing in the column that pulls you back that you’ll put down this week?

2. Show Up

“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.” — 1 Peter 4:7–9 NLT

Imagine somebody yelling, “The world is ending!” You’d expect them to stock up, sell everything, build a bunker. Peter says pray, love people, open your home. The most eternal things we do are often ordinary: the dinner invitation, the hard conversation, the forgiveness you extend, the person you notice that everybody else overlooked. Peter’s three directions: up to God, around to others, in to my life.

UP — be disciplined in prayer. In Gethsemane, Jesus asked Peter to stay awake and pray; he fell asleep, and hours later he denied Jesus. Peter’s message: “Don’t make the mistake I made.” Prayer prepares you for battles you don’t see coming. “Disciplined” means a set time, a set place, a plan. Nehemiah waited about four months between his first prayer (Nehemiah 1) and his chance to ask the king (Nehemiah 2) — and when the moment came, he sent up a one-line prayer on the spot and then spoke. The quick prayer worked because the long habit was already there.

AROUND — love recklessly. Peter’s word for “deep love” is “stretched,” like a muscle at full extension — love that isn’t keeping score. “Covers a multitude of sins” comes from Proverbs 10:12: love doesn’t let small offenses grow into big divisions. Peter learned this from Jesus, when he hoped seven times was a generous number of times to forgive and Jesus answered with a number nobody could keep track of (Matthew 18:21–22). Covering a sin means forgiving it and keeping it off the group chat.

A note: Abuse still gets reported and boundaries still get set, same as last week.

IN — invite people into your life, personally. Peter’s word is love of strangers. Roadside inns were rough places, so traveling Christians depended on someone’s home. Hospitality is access: people see the real house, the real kids, the real dishes, and the real you. Jesus pushes it outward — invite the people who can’t pay you back (Luke 14:12–14). The Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:8–10) noticed Elisha passing through, fed him, and then built him a room on her roof with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp — before anyone promised her anything.

Reflection: When do you meet with God? Would others say they feel most loved by you? Who has been in your phone for years and never in your home?

3. Spend What’s In Your Hands

“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.” — 1 Peter 4:10–11 NLT

“Each of you” — nobody gets skipped. “Great variety” is one Greek word that Peter also used in chapter 1 for the many trials believers faced: varied trials in chapter 1, varied grace in chapter 4. Sometimes God delivers that grace to you through somebody else’s gift.

Peter’s word for you is steward — a household manager running someone else’s property. In Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14–30), the servant who buried his didn’t lose it; he wasted it. Every asset is a tool or an idol. Peter says use all of them for God’s glory and for people.

Moses (Exodus 4): Moses is making excuses — What if they don’t believe me? What if I’m not the guy? God asks, “What is that in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff.” By the end of the chapter it’s called the staff of God, and it goes on to part the Red Sea and bring water from a rock. Same stick, different hands. God didn’t hand Moses new equipment — He asked about the old. Jesus does the same in John 6, when a boy’s five loaves and two fish — which Andrew wondered would do any good against a crowd — feed five thousand men.

Verse 11 says “the strength and energy that God supplies.” The Greek word comes from the person who financed an entire Greek chorus. You’re the instrument, and God is the budget. God puts things in your hands because He wants to give something through your hands. That’s how a rich and satisfying life works: it’s supplied, and then it gets spent. Jesus follows John 10:10 with the Good Shepherd laying down His life (John 10:11).

Reflection: What’s the asset God gave that you won’t give — your time, your home, your money? What’s in your hands, and who is it for?

WHO YOU ARE FIRST

You can’t steward your time until you know who you are.

• If you don’t know you’re chosen, you’ll spend your life proving you matter.
• If you don’t know you’ve been bought, you’ll spend it earning what you were already given.
• If you don’t know you have a place in what God is building, you’ll spend it standing alone.

If you know all that, verse 2 is an invitation: don’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but be anxious to do the will of God.

WHAT GOD PRODUCES

A rich and satisfying life isn’t found by escaping struggle. It’s supplied by God, and then spent.

• A heart that sorts what pulls it back from what sets it up
• A life that shows up — up to God, around to others, in to the home
• Hands that spend what God has put in them

Look at the movement of these eleven verses: the rest of your life (v. 2), the end of all things (v. 7), glory forever and ever (v. 11). Knowing the story ends gives more than drive — it gives purpose.

TAKE IT HOME

Three questions, one answer each:

• Sort: What’s one thing in the column that pulls you back that you’ll put down this week?
• Show up: When will you meet with God — and who will you invite into your life?
• Spend: What’s in your hands? Who is it for?

Before you leave today:

• Tell God what you’re laying down.
• Commit to a time with Him today, and tomorrow.
• Pick the person you’ll spend time with.
• Decide to give to God’s kingdom whatever is in your hands.

You get four thousand weeks, give or take. You can’t add to them. You get to decide what goes in them.

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