Sermon Transcript:I appreciate y'all Thank y'all so much for being here. And I know it may be heavy for you this week, I've talked about it before. But at any given time in our church community, about a third of the people here are involved in government job in some way, whether it's military or otherwise, I know this hits home. And then if you're not that, or even in light of all that, we also have our own struggles and brokenness and things that we're working through. So I know you may come to church heavy, you may come to church with questions, you may be just fine. You may have had a great week, you may have gotten a new job found out you were pregnant, somebody got married, somebody got engaged, all this kind of thing, your kid won some sort of honor, that's all good as well. So we come in a number of different ways. As we come to the Lord, we come to church this morning, the book of First Peter, which is where we're going to be reading from today, and we're going to be in this series for the next several weeks. Peter understood all this, he's really coming to us and writing us a letter that would have been circulated around Asia Minor, which is present day Turkey. As a more mature man, if you know anything about Peter, from the Gospels, you see this whole idea that he was close to our Lord and Savior, He was the mouthpiece, a lot of the disciples for good, or for ill. He was the one who got to walk on water. But he was also the one that sunk when he took his eyes off of Jesus. He's the one that denied Jesus, but he was also the one restored by Jesus. He was the one that was called to be fishers of men. And he dropped his net along with his brother, and he followed Jesus for three years, but he's also the one that has to be reminded of his commission and his mission at the end. And now we're about three decades beyond that. So about 33 ideas, when we understand Jesus died and rose again and ascended into heaven, about 30 years after that, Peter, the Peter, the pier that the Catholic Church recognizes as the head of the church, but that even we, as non Catholic believers recognize as a instrumental figure in the faith. This Peter is writing some three decades later, to the churches in Asia Minor, and he's gonna identify himself. And so we'll begin in verse one. And here's how this book begins. This letter is from Peter, and apostle of Jesus Christ. Now even these greetings, this would be something that would raise their hearts immediately up. Oh, good. It's Peter. We know about him. We've heard about him. We know he was with our Lord and Savior. He, unlike Paul, Paul often calls himself an apostle and undo time, why because he met the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, Peter hung out with him. Peter was there as an apostle, he was one of the original disciples that we call apostles. And he's saying, This is who I am, I'm telling you, I am from the front of my letter, I am writing to God's chosen. Now one of the things you're going to notice about the language of this letter is he begins to use Old Testament references to the people of God in the New Testament, or what we sometimes call the New Covenant us, the people of God. And oftentimes, we'll talk about Jews and Gentiles are Jews and non Jewish people. And what you see here is when Jesus comes, he comes for the world. And one of the things that happens is that we now know ourselves to be believers if we've repented and believed. And we understand that, in that faith, that we were chosen by God, that he orchestrated it all behind the scenes, just like he chose Israel as a blessing to the nations. He now is choosing us us as believers, that the hope of God resides in us that we are now what he's writing to God's chosen us, people who are living as foreigners. Now, that idea of foreigners like what is going on here, again, he's referencing Old Testament stuff that they would have understood the same way that James writes, we've already been through the book of James, but the same idea that the dispersion those who are scattered throughout many provinces or throughout many cities, he's saying, I understand that when you live outside of what the Old Testament would say, outside of Jerusalem for an Old Testament person, they wanted to maintain their home the residence in Jerusalem or through the temple, those kinds of things, but what happened to them when they were taken by the Babylonians, they found themselves in dispersion. That's where we get the book, Daniel and other things. We've talked about that before. He's using that same language to talk about us as New Testament believers. We feel like we're lost at times we feel like I'm not sure this is my home. I feel like I'm in my house. I feel like I'm in my city, but I'm not really in it because I don't feel at home. This is what he means when he's talking to some passages call this theWarners, some call it the dispersion, some call it to scattered. And sometimes we already talked about this, we have scattered lives and we have broken hearts. And that's what he's talking about. And he's saying, I'm writing to God's chosen people, which is us New Testament, New Covenant believers, understanding that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that's Ephesians. One, we're living as foreigners. That's how we feel we're in this world, but not of this world. And we're scattered, we're scattered this is again, Asia Minor, that they would be talking about all these different cities, these areas, these locations, so he's talking to all of us. Now here's what he gonna say, God the Father.Know the next slide God the Father knew you and chose you long ago. Okay, so you see how he worked originally through a nation and a people group Israel to bless the world. Now he's working through people. It's the whole idea of Pentecost, we referenced this last week with the guest preacher, the idea of acts that the Spirit of God comes down so that we may go out in the world. God knew you and me and chose us long ago, and His Spirit has made you and I holy. So now, the temple resides in the hearts of men and women. If you consider yourself a believer, a lot of times in the old way, we would say, we asked Jesus into our heart, or God changed my heart. It's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's all the same concept, that what has happened to us is that God's Spirit has made us holy, you and I may not feel very holy, let me I feel dirty when they feel abused, and may feel misunderstood and may feel kicked around and they feel lost. Maybe like I don't know what's going on in the world or in my home life. But he's saying, I want you to stick with me because if God has put His Spirit inside of you, He has declared you and I wholly as a result, you and I have a bait him and being cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. So because of what because God quickened our hearts and many of us in the room made a decision to follow him. And we fall oftentimes in believers baptism to let the world know, I'm in. I want to be a part of this new covenant, this New Testament, He says, as a result of what God has done in our heart, then comes obedience. This is important and understanding the Christian faith, that it's not something we work up or or that we somehow do enough good things to a God accepts us or chooses us no, in spite of wherever we're at.He does this as a result, we now have obeyed him and been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. Peter's just dispensing this this morning. Do you hear the good news? I know this letter is almost 2000 years old, but we're meant to receive it as a church as a letter, say, Peter, saying make grace and peace. I mean, we, you know, we all hear the term alcoholic rageous need alcohol over and over again before they feel like you can survive and get up the next morning. Grace a Holic is a good term for us understand, like in terms of Christianity, that we just needed more and more peace, I need it more and more because I feel the unrest in my heart and in my spirit, and Peter's dispensing it to all who will hear and believe all praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, she see that Trinitarian action their Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is by His great mercy, that we've been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the hope this always sing about sometimes when you look at this verse, in other translations, you'll see this idea of living hope. That is the whole point this morning. That is the whole point of chapter one at first, Peter, he wants us to understand that Christ Himself is a living hope. And we'll define all of that means here in the next few minutes. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance, and inheritance that is kept in heaven for you. And for me, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. Because why it's not a dead faith. It's a living faith. And through your faith, God is protecting you by His power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed in the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There's wonderful joy ahead. And he said, Wait a second, I don't feel this, right. I'm feeling the pain, the suffering, the angst, he understands that he's writing to that very situation. But he's saying in that there can be joy, because it's secure. Our Heavenly reality what we see and what we feel doesn't always define reality. There is something beyond there is wonderful joy ahead. Even though you must endure many trials for a little while. I don't like it Jesus. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. Can there be another way Jesus it is being tested as far tests and purifies gold gold, I like gold, right? Like money. I like I'll be able to buy things I'll be able to do things though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. Wait a second. You're telling me my veryIf faith is more precious than that, so that when your faith remains strong, through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. So there's this transaction is going on all the time that we understand that there's a heavenly reality that we don't always feel that we don't always see that we don't always sense because of the real trials that we're going through. And he's saying there's a way to have joy in the midst of the trials and the struggles and the suffering. Because we understand even that itself proves to the world into our own hearts. Well, is this for real? Like, I'm still standing. Sometimes we think the devil's won. You ever been through a season like that, where you feel like, I'm not succeeding? I'm losing. I'm the biggest loser. I'm last. Everybody else is doing better than me. Whatever way relationally financially and work, whatever, school job. But here's the deal. Are you still breathing? Are you still standing? Did you still get out of bed and come to church this morning or listen later on online? Then the devil hasn't won, you're still here, you're still moving forward? It God's not done with you and me yet? This leads to the first point I want us to think about this morning. What is what is this living hope? Because this is what the passage is all about. He introduces this concept, it's going to be important. As we look forward into First Peter, I want to try to illustrate this with a phenomenon a natural phenomenon that is going on, from time to time on our earth. So I'm gonna introduce to you a picture up here of a desert in Chile. Chile, right? The Atacama Desert. Alright, maybe you've heard of this before, right? They had to come out desert and so not not that dissimilar from places that I could drop out in Far East El Paso, or maybe over the mountains of the Franklin Mountains, I get all that. But there's a unique history and story here. Because one of the things that you and I see when we see this picture is I don't want to go get lost out there. And not much to look at not too many pictures I want to take it looks dead. It looks barren. I want you and I realize that when people put Jesus Christ himself into the grave, it looked like the end, right? I mean, we know the story, but you and I understand that it looked like the end, it didn't look like there was much hope. He went to trial that was, you know, made up and all of a sudden, he's dead, and he's in the grave. And so if you look at that, he's okay, he's dead. For three days, you can just be real clear that it doesn't look good. It looks bleak. If you walk out to a desert like this, again, whether it's our local ones, or wanting to lay, you would think not much going on here. But one of the things that we need to realize is there is something going on underneath the surface. There's a natural phenomenon that occurs here that every So couple of years, sometimes every five years, seven years, sometimes it takes as long as 10 plus years, there is a torrential downpour of rain, and what looks bleak. And what looks barren, is all of a sudden going to be revealed. Because there are bulbs underneath there are flower bulbs underneath this barren desert, that doesn't reveal itself unless it is fully, fully, fully immersed in water, there has to be enough water that year in order for something to occur. It looks bleak, it looks barren, it looks dead. But there is hope. There is something beyond what our eyes can see beyond what our feet can touch beyond what our hands can feel. And so would you please go to the next slide and show what happens when this happens in Chile, if you think oh, he's making this up, but this is preacher stuff. No, you can Google this this is this is this is well known and documented that this happens every five 710 years. Plus, who knows it takes a long time. But when the rains start coming, and people think that's not something I want to go out and see all of a sudden everybody wants to flock here. And in fact so many people flock here and try to take pictures and all that kind of stuff that Chile which is not known for you know making things a lot of national parks and protecting has to call this a national park here because too many people were trying to go and pull up the bulbs when they saw the flowers blooming. Listen guys, we do not have a dead hope. We do not have a maybe hope. It is living and active. It is there and God will reveal and make his purposes plain in his time. I mean, it is in his time, but we just think it's hopeless. I'll show you a couple other pictures just so you can see the comparison here. This is what it looks like up close. Not only pink, but if you look there's different. If you look at some wider pictures, you can again, explore this on the internet at your own leisure in time. There's yellows, there's blues, there's purples, it's just a thing of beauty that only occurs every generation or so and then go the next one here. This is again just the exact picture of what they took it who wants to go to that one area right? You wouldn't want to wander there.You won't want to take some pictures there. But that's what's been done to show us some comparison, I want you to remember this illustration, because it's very similar to what the hope that we have here, it's really not dissimilar, although it's a more stark contrast to the puppies that we get a lot of times in our own area come May, that there may be is not much to look at on the Franklin Mountains. But if you've been here long enough, and enough seasons, we sometimes have some really, really beautiful poppies Well, we can see that there's something going on underneath the surface, and that there is a living hope that Christ has called us to put our hope in, let's continue on this passage, because this is an all that God wants to show us this morning. I go on in verse 13. A couple of verses later, it says, so prepare your minds for action and exercise, self control. This in and of itself is a novel concept and 2023, that we would exercise self control, we would put on your hope, in the gracious salvation that will come to you and Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God's obedient children don't slip up back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You see the temptation, I feel and see the temptation all around me, just like you do, to just live for yourself, to just live with the base instincts of whatever I have, whether it be sexual, financial, or whatever. And that just, that's my mode of operation. But he's saying, No, you were called by Christ, you now have new ways of living new desires, because of who he is and what he's done. You don't know you didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy and everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.For the Scriptures say you must be holy, for I am holy, he's quoting scripture here. And what's going on here, we, we oftentimes will sort of gloss over wholly or wholly in his passages, because we want to throw up our hands as well, nobody's perfect, and I'm not perfect. So you know, why try? And that's what a lot of us will do. And, you know, we'll sort of weasel our way out of whatever the scripture say, or whatever God's telling us to do. Because we somehow fool ourselves into thinking, well, he can't really mean what he says. And when he's talking about here, first of all, I think you and I can live a, a holy, blameless life, that doesn't mean sinless or perfect. It just means that we can live life in such a way where we are upstanding, upright people, both in this world and in the next, what it's really talking about here is that we're not participating in evil, that which God calls evil, that which our conscience has condemned US for, like we were in the past. I mean, that's what he's calling us is always calling me too. So it's calling all of us to, and that we now understand that we now have a sanctification mindset. It's a big word, but I'm sure you've ever heard it before. If you've been in church, it's that whole idea that God is making us holy. But it's very important that we remember the principles of Christianity that you and I do not sort of do things so that our god or gods may be pleased with us. No, it's the whole idea that because what God has done in our heart, through the triune, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because of what he's done, now we live out our lives. It's a big difference. We talked about this, this little phrase that I say sometimes, are you doing things so that God will be pleased with you, or because of what God has done for you, it makes a big difference. And it makes a big difference in how you view your life, and your sanctification. Sothat's what it means that we're set apart for holiness that we have now been put on this journey that God's got us. We need the grace every day, we need the peace every day, to sustain us that only he can provide that we're saying yes to God and no to evil desires, because he's put a new spirit and a new heart in us.Last Will pester wants to look at this morning, and really take us to the end of the chapter here. And remember that the Heavenly Father to whom you pray, has no favorites. He will judge reward you according to what you do. And I thought he said, Wait a second, I thought that it didn't. It didn't matter what I did that God will accept me and love me. Yes, that's true. But if you have been accepted in love and chosen by God, you and I will change what we do. It's just it's just so clear, that that's what happens to those who are redeemed, those who are believers, that now we understand that we have given a new heart new designers and God will judge us current what we do, of course, he will because now we are have responsibility, moral culpability, so you must live and reverent fear of him during your time here as temporary residents, it's that kind of the other side of understanding for him that we feel like this is not our home. And now Peter is proclaiming Of course it's not your home. Your home is a heavenly reality. You seek the Jerusalem the city, which is to come. I'm gonna use thatlanguage we're talking about the Heavenly Jerusalem, the hope that we have, we are to give to all people indiscriminately, and that includes Jewish and non Jewish people to say, Man, the Messiah has come, the Messiah was born, the Messiah came to redeem, He has redeemed, he has ransom, you and me, let's believe in Him. Now that God paid a ransom, that's what I already talked about to save you and me from the empty life we inherited from our ancestors. We talked about it a lot around here that you and I have the opportunity to change our narrative, we can change our family tree, I know that in this room, there's all kinds of records that you have been a part of whether of your choice or not of your choice, or whether of your doing or not of your doing. And when he sang yours, that peers wise enough, he's 30 years out from the ascension of Christ to say, I get it. You are inherited a certain life from your ancestors. But here's the deal, you've got something better a ransom better, and it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. Okay, inflation we get. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless spotless lamb. There's that holiness, there's that perfection, who God is and what he did, God chose him this choosing again, as your ransom long before the world began. This was his plan from the beginning, to love you to love me to set his affection on you to set his affection on me. But now in these last days, which is just the church days, you like how long we've been living in the last days, since Christ came, died, burial, resurrection ascension, he has revealed for your sake, he again, if you want to understand what's going on halfway around the world, there's a real pragmatic thing going on, which is we're trying to prevent world war three, and that there's really a hatred of some of the West and things that are going on here, which includes US andIsrael and Judaism. But more than that, something else that is going on here is this whole idea that when God dealt with the world, he dealt with Israel to be a blessing to the nations that was the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, Jesus came and said, Listen, it's for the whole world. And now you don't have to go to Jerusalem, you don't have to go to a piece of land in the Middle East in order to find me, I am bound, and I reside in the hearts of men and women who carry my message throughout the ends of the earth. That's good news, people. That's what's going on here. And in the last days, this has been revealed for your sake in mind, through Christ, you have come to trusting God, and you have placed your faith and and hope in Christ because He raised Christ from the dead. It doesn't seem very hope filled, right. But the puppies will come here every year, and the flowers will bloom and Chile when he decides to pour differential downpour of rain.He raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You are cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth. And now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. One of the things that we're trying to do here at 15 at Joe battle is we're trying to be a place where people come to go out, we come to gather to scatter, this is an original with me, we have to ask yourself that what does it mean, to love deeply and sincerely if we are going to make it through trials and bumps that will inevitably happen in this life, we have to look at each other as brothers and sisters in the faith in the family that were scattered throughout the whole world. But we also have a location at a certain place in time, which is El Paso, Texas in October of 2023. What does that now mean for us to love deeply and sincerely, in this season, it really means that Christian love is rooted in community. That's why he names these cities, he names these towns in Asia, mine are some 2000 years ago. And he God loves and knows about us here and loves us here at Life Church, this community of faith. The other thing that he's trying to say here is that when you love deeply, and we love sincerely, that we don't get a pass on love, because a hardship. Do you often give yourself that pass? We've already talked about the past, we sometimes give ourselves a being holy, because they're like, Well, nobody's perfect. I'm not perfect. You're not perfect. So let's just sort of let it all hang out, or do we want to who cares about self control because everybody else is eating like this, doing like this, behaving like this acting like this going here doing that. He's saying, okay, not only are you to be holy, because I am holy, but you're to love because I loved and this whole idea that we don't get a pass on love because of hardship. In fact, that's when it's needed the most. I mean, you understand that Andrew and Karen Bush who have been our connection for years long before I became your pass

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