KEPT BY GOD

1 Peter 1:3-5

3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 

4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 

5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Introduction

Did you know that you are kept by

God? I know you thought it was your

healthy diet and your hours at the

gym that are keeping you. You’ve been

careful to eat a lot of green stuff, and

you’ve tried your best to turn away

from the unhealthy foods. Some of

you have been keeping count of how

many steps you take each day

and you’ve been amazed at the miles

you cover in a day, just walking from

the fridge to the sofa. The truth is that,

when all is said and done, you will live

as long as God allows you to live.

Today, you’ve been invited to the

reading of God’s will. He has an

inheritance waiting for you. It’s a

generous bequest…one that you

won’t want to miss out on. God wants

to bestow on you your birthright…as

heirs to His kingdom. Your portion will

be bestowed upon you at the end of

your earthly life. Until then, you are

kept by God.

KEPT BY GOD

Being an heir is exciting, especially

when your Benefactor is God Himself.

God cares so much for you that He has

made provision for you, not just for

your eternal future, but for your

physical present. You see, God works

on both sides of the equation, both

preserving the inheritance, and

keeping the heirs for the inheritance.

He leaves nothing to chance.

And if God is keeping us, we need to

know just what that means. We need

to know what it means to be KEPT.

Peter helps us to understand what it

means to be kept.

First, who keeps us? Peter says we

are kept by God. That word “kept” is a

military term. It means ‘not to be

passed by or overlooked’. We are kept

by the power of God as He continually

watches us.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV) For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. *

Why must God be so vigilant? The

answer is simple. Our weak nature

requires us to be garrisoned or

fortified by an external source. We

can’t behave on our own. So we are

kept by a faithful Father who

reinforces us with His Divine strength.

Philippians 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. *

Don’t think for a moment that you can

keep yourself. Sometimes you can’t

keep yourself from doing the evil that

you don’t want to do.

Romans 7:19(NIV)  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. *

We need God to watch over us…to

keep us.

We’re inclined to envision God keeping

us by building some thick,

impenetrable wall around us, to keep

even the feeblest of us in safety. But

God’s reinforcement is not from

without; it’s from within. He pours His

power into our souls so we can resist

evil. According to 1 Peter 2:1 His power

within us helps us to “lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking…”

Paul was on the same page as Peter.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.”

I don’t want to be kept by diets, or

fads, or factions…do you? I want to be

kept by a Divine Power who knows all

about my weaknesses and offers His

grace and strength to bolster my

inadequacies, my failings, my faults,

and my limitations.

First, who keeps us? GOD!!!

Second, how are we kept? We are

kept by God through faith. Faith is the

necessary condition through which

God’s power works in us and on us. If

you want to be kept by God, you have

to take that padlock off the door to

your heart and let Him in. You have to

let His grace, mercy and peace

infiltrate your spirit and take up

residence in you.

Faith has no power in and of itself.

Think of it as a pipeline, a conduit, a

channel through which we are able to

grasp God’s hand and let Him enter.

Some people turn the ‘faith faucet’ on

just a little bit. Then they wonder why

they only seem to experience a trickle

of blessings. If you keep your faith

faucet turned all the way on, you’ll

soon notice that you have an absolute

dependence on God and a calm

confidence and expectation of victory.

The measure of our faith determines

the measure of God’s Divine power in

us. Our bodies are the filling station for

“…the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13).

But there must be a conscious effort

on our part to remove all hindrance

and allow God full access to our lives.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for!”

If you want to replace losses with

victories…increase your faith.

If you want to turn darkness into

light…increase your faith.

If you want to replace hurt with

healing…increase your faith.

If you want to turn heartaches into

hallelujahs…increase your faith.

How are you going to increase your

faith? According Romans 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. *

We are kept by God through faith. But…

Finally, why are we kept?

We are kept by God through faith,

“unto salvation”. It’s a matter of our

inheritance…the complete and eternal

deliverance from all the ills that flesh

is heir to…all the sins that mar our

spirit. Instead, we are kept unto

salvation, to receive the eternal

possession of all the perfection and

all the blessing that belong to a child

of the king. If you can, imagine a

complete scrubbing away of all sin

and evil by the rushing tide of God’s

glory. Then you should you to shout

hallelujah! Peter says it is “ready to be

revealed”…and…it’s ready when YOU

are ready!

What a shame it would be to

relinquish your inheritance! To pass on

the promise of eternal life, the promise

that Jesus spoke of in John 10:28

when he said“…they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” *

Paul wrote, “If in this life ONLY we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

There is far more to salvation than the

joy we experience in this life. There

waits for us a far greater joy than

anything we can enjoy here in this

world. There is another life…a life

eternal with Christ.

We are kept for our inheritance, Titus 2:13 ”Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”

We only know how to perceive our

future based on our present. We have

a hard time understanding the

difference between corruptible and

incorruptible. The things we possess

on earth are corruptible. They have a

timeline. Even our fleshly bodies will

not last forever. But the inheritance

that awaits us in heaven is

incorruptible. It has the characteristic

of being eternal or permanent. Jesus

says, it’s the place “where moth nor rust doth corrupt”. (Matthew 6:20).

Imagine a wall that separates heaven

and earth. The Divine hand of God is

working on the other side of the wall

to keep the inheritance for His heirs.

And He is also working on this side of

the wall to keep US for the inheritance.

When it comes time for you to claim

your inheritance, you can rest assured

it will be there.

In the meantime, it’s okay to keep

eating your vegetables and cutting

back on those carbs. But while you are

feeding your body, remember to feed

your soul. It’s okay to exercise those

muscles but remember to exercise

your faith. Keep that faith faucet

turned all the way on.

In Genesis 15 God promised Abram an

heir. Abram was already an old man at

the time of God’s promise. Twenty five

years later, here comes Isaac. Abram

was old when God made the promise

and he was much older when the

promise was fulfilled. Abram had to

wait…and wait…and wait, to

finally receive the promise.

I know your inheritance seems like a

distant promise, but the Apostle Paul

reminds us that “in due season we shall reap if we faint not”. (Galatians 6:9). Your inheritance is waiting for you. One day… You will trade your earthly troubles for heavenly thrills.

You will trade your earthly discord for heavenly harmony.

You will trade your earthly crisis for heavenly comfort.

You will trade your earthly pain for heavenly perfection.

You will trade your earthly suffering for

heavenly safety, and your earthly

poverty for heavenly wealth.

On that day…YOU will receive YOUR

crown.

It will be “a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give [you] at that day; and not to [you] only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” (Timothy 4:8).

First, who keeps us?

Second, how are we kept?

Why are we kept?