Ordinary People, Extraordinary Impact

Sermon Style Sheet

Write that down in your formation Journal

Illustration

Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

Psalm 30:11–12 CSB

11 You turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, 12 so that I can sing to you and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

New Members

New members

1. Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy?

What we mean by this is that we agree that due to our sin, what we deserve is Hell and that nothing we can do, not good works, not anything accept for Christ’s mercy can bring us salvation.

2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?

What we mean by this is that we beleive that it is only through Jesus Christ that a person can be saved and we are going to rely on that. We aren’t going to also put faith in our good works, or superstition. Only through Christ.

3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?

This means that we are going to live like Christians. We are going to try our best to avoid sin and in particular, scandalous sins. We can’t do it by ourselves, we need the Holy Spirit to work that holiness in us.

4. Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?

We mean that we are pledging our time (we’ll attend and serve at church) we are pledging our treasure (we will give financially to the church) and we are giving our testimony (we’ll invite and evangelize). You are saying that you are going to help Mercy Hill grow and be healthy.

5. Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace?

We believe that the government of the church has a responsibility to correct members who are in sin and to encourage believers. And so you are promising to be a part of that system, like we talked about in the new members class. Promising it’s purity and it’s peace means that you will work to make sure that the members are living the way that they should and that you are going to be a peacemaker, working to make sure that there is peace among the members.

(All of) you being here present to make a public profession of faith, are to assent to the following declarations and promises, by which you enter into a solemn covenant with God and His Church.

1. Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy?

2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?

3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?

4. Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?

5. Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace?

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 204

2:36 - 3:26

1 Peter 2:9–12 CSB

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. 12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

Opening Illustration:

Helen Roseveare (Rose-uh-veer) 1950s 10 years

Here’s the question - do you think that you can have that type of impact on people? Do you think that you could impact people so much, love them in such a way that they would defy rebel soldiers to protect you?

Like here’s the question - Do you think you have it in you for that type of impact.

time

Compelling Lie - Felt/Bible revealed need

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There are a lot of unique things about her story - but that doesn’t mean that God only uses unique people - there are exception things about Helen, that doesn’t mean that God only uses exceptional people .

The big lie we believe is that there are two tiers of Christians. There are exceptional people that can have an amazing impact and then there is me. A normal person. A person who has a job or is looking for a job. A person with flaws.

How do you feel about yourself? Jesus can’t use me because ______________.

I want you to answer this question - not out loud, but just how you feel - Jesus would love me more if I _________? What? What would you need to do make God love you more?

when you are in Christ - there’s nothing left to add.

Listen, here is what Peter is saying- Listen very carefully - what He is saying is that If you are a christian, God can use you, where you are now. Now, all of us, 100% of us need to continue to grow as believers. We need to grow in our relationship with the Lord. All of that is true. But God doesn’t wait until we’ve arrived before he starts using us. He doesn’t wait until you are a finished product. He doesn’t wait until you’ve achieved something. He doesn’t wait - you know why? Because you will never arrive - you will never be finished - not until you die anyway. But God wants to use you now!

God doesn’t wait for you to arrive before he wants to start using you to make an impact - God doesn’t wait for you to be perfect before he makes you powerful.

you are ready to be used by God to do great things

Here’s the deal, here’s what this passage is saying - your upward ceiling is far greater than you think. Your potential is far greater than what you think. Because of what God has done with you, because of his working in you, you are a far bigger deal than you imagine.

Now, if we struggle with that today, they struggled with it too. The church was an odd group of people. It included people like Jewish Christians. They would have been reeling form being rejected by their family and friends. They were socially isolated and struggling to find a foothold. There were slaves - some scholars think about 30-50% of the early church might have been slaves. That’s huge. They didn’t have freedom. They didn’t have a voice. They were oppressed. There were a lot of women whose husbands were still pagan. It might seem odd to point that out, but it wasn’t like today, they didn’t have full freedom either. They didn’t have power. They didn’t significant influence.

There were free gentiles too, probably some with money and success but they would have had a past. Later on in 1 Peter he describes them this way, “carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.”

Look not exactly the your top picks for changing the world for Christ. They were like you and me, regular people. They still struggled. They still had problems.

But Peter tells them that they because they have Christ, they have everything they need to make an impact.

So let’s look at it in the text: the first thing he does is he really uplifts them

1 Peter 2:9–10 CSB

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Now, he is using a lot of Old Testament language here. He is using OT language to describe their NT life

Think about this passage

Exodus 19:5–6 CSB

5 Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, 6 and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”

But Peter isn’t just talking to Jewish people. He is talking to God’s people. He is taking this idea that was directed to Israel and applies it to Christians.

Race

The most important part of your identity is that you are united to Christ.

What he is telling them, is that they are part of a new group in an honored capacity. They are set apart and new and different. We think of race as being skin color or ethnicity. But in those days, the word could be applied broader and that’s what he is doing here. He is speaking to an eclectic group of people. People from all sorts of different backgrounds. People who are being socially derided by their families and friends. He is saying to them, who you were doesn’t matter. This is who you are now. You are part of a new identity - a new group - a new creation. If you are a christian, the most important thing about you isn’t your past, isn’t what you look like, isn’t your money, isn’t any of that. The most important thing is that you are in Christ.

But you didn’t get there by accident. You were chosen into it. You are God’s special people! That’s what’s most important about your identity.

Chosen

Gods’s relationship to you existed before you existed.

You are a chosen race. He wanted you ,specifically.

he knew what your sin was going to be, he knew what your station in life was going to be, he knew your gifts, he knew your failures.

You are a chosen race. He wanted you, specifically.

Royal priesthood

Royalty - wouldn’t it be great if God used this person. But you are adopted. You are the person. You are who God wanted. You. As an adopted child of God, you get the dignity of royalty.

Not only do you get the dignity of royalty, you get the intimacy of a priest

compare the temple - you could only get as close to God as your identity allowed.

God is changing everything and you are part of the in crowd.

OUt of darkness into light - You were not a people but now you are a people - we weren’t a people once

once we didn’t have mercy but now we have received mercy

We love mercy. It’s not even our middle name, its our first name.

Roman govenor was like don’t you know I can give you mercy and Jesus was like, It’s my mercy you should be interested in. - Gospel

He chose you. You are royal. You are a priest. You belong to Him!

And what’s more You were in the darkness and now you are in the light - you once didn’t have mercy and now you do have mercy.

So that we would be able to proclaim the glories of God.

I recently went on amazon to buy a subpump. Basically, our front yard and driveway floods like crazy when it rains. So I finally decided to try to do something about it and I was asking around and found out about these special types of pumps - called a subpump. It’s a pump you submerse in water - usually used to drain pools or basements. To me, every pump is a generic. I am not well versed in the world of pumps. In case you are wondering, which is my favorite brand of pump - I didn’t even know there were brands of pumps. That’s where I am in this business.

So, like any normal person today, I went on amazon, I searched for pumps, I looked at the highest rated, and then I looked at the ones with the most reviews. The most 5 star ratings. That’s what I wanted. I’m not buying a pump with like 3 reviews. doesn’t make any sesne. But I don’t just look at the stars, I read the reviews. but sometimes, people give fake stars. There are bots and what not. So when you read the reviews, amazon gives them a label to let you know who actually owns one. One of the labels is One is verified purchase.

But there is a second one, that says “Vine Customer Review of Free Product” - customer review of free product. That’s means they did have the product and they probably did actually use it. It’s letting you know. Now, it did make me wonder what is going on people’s lives that they are being sent a free pump to review. I’m not judging, I’m just a little concerned.

But here is what Peter is saying. God did all this, so that you could proclaim the goodness of God - because unless you have encountered God, you can’t testify to His goodness. You can’t speak to that experience. You can’t share about.

Your unsaved neighbor has no idea what God’s like. People who are really nice, really good - can’t actually praise God.

We talk about being all in at Mercy Hill as three things - giving your time (serving) treasure (giving financially) and your testimony inviting people to church and sharing your faith.

You know why it’s important for you to share your faith - because no one else can. No one else knows. They’ve never experienced it.

You were saved to proclaim God’s goodness because only you can proclaim God’s goodness because only you have experienced God’s goodness!

And part of the way we do that is with our lives. But here’s the deal, you already have everything you need to make an impact for Jesus.

1 Peter 2:11–12 CSB

11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. 12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

He wants you to abstain from the sinful desires- We have them. They are going to be a part of your life.

that as you do that, you have an impact - they will still slander you. You can’t help that. It’s going to happen.

He urges them to abstain because he knows they can abstain.

Remember - I told you we all need to do that. But He gives us the power to do it! He helps us to do it.

But why should we do it? We should do it because your life matters and how you live your life matters.

The whole world is living as if this world is the prize. They live as if the goal is money. They live as if the goal is power. They live as if the goal is sex. They live as if the things of this world are going to satisfy them.

They keep hoping that it will satisfy them. These are the sinful desires that wage war within us. Driving us -telling us this will satisfy.

But here’s the deal - they don’t satisfy. They never pay out. But people have no real option. They have an inward desire, the culture says this is what you need, your parents live as if this world satisfies. Everything does.

Then the Christian comes along. And the christian says - its not sin that satisfies - it’s God that satisfies. It’s living for him. You were made to live for him. You know the famous saying - there is a God shaped hole in your heart and nothing else will fill it but God. That’s what we say. That’s what we believe. That’s what we preach.

Is that how you live?

Do you live seeking your own self-interest. Do you live trying to build your own kingdom. Do you cut people down to build yourself up? This is the question. Helen gave up her life as a western doctor to go care for people in Africa - they saw that and they came to her defense.

If you are in Christ, you already have the power to make an impact because you have the Holy Spirit.

Now here’s the deal about each and every one of you - you are each given the power of God and a connection with the Holy Spirit to such a degree, that if you decide to live for Him - if you decide to dedicate yourself to him, you can make that same difference in your community. In your family. Here in Polk County. You can do it too.

This is what the infrastructure of Mercy Hill is dedicated too. We want the church to help walk alongside you so that you can be great for the Lord. This is what I think about and pray about all the time. I am dedicating my life to your greatness. Because this area needs people who will be great for the Lord.

Look it. There are people today who don’t like Christians. Honestly, there has always been been people who didn’t like christians. There were people in my school when I was growing up. There were people 100 years ago. If you actually take your faith serriously and live for God, there will be people who slander you and call you fake, and call you all sorts of things.

But as we move out in love, as we devote ourselves to God’s kingdom and live lives that are honorable and different. then we start to have the impact like Helen did. We start to live lives with real significance. It makes a huge difference.

But it starts with having a relationship with God. IF you don’t I want to invite you to have one today.

And then we are called to live as light in the darkenss, because we are chosen. Becasue we are a royal priesthood. And we want do that not just as individuals but as a church together.

Mercy Hill is a group of people who didn’t have mercy but now have mercy trying to impact the community for Christ together!

Telling the story

Hadden Robertson - The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching

Chapter Markers:

What Type of Story (different plates)

What is your City?

What is your Dragon?

What is worth defending in the old city?

What's yous best line of attack?

Defining the Enemy

test

time

Hitting the Wall (why we fail)

test

time

Victory in Jesus

test

time

Text:

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.