Not Where I Belong
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
So here we are - the SECOND Sunday of Easter.
Woo hoo! Another Easter?
No - the same one. Easter is a season and we walk in it all the way to Pentecost.
You know Janine mentioned that Holy Week is hard because it’s always the same texts - how do you make it new? Honestly, it’s not a problem for me yet - I haven’t preached Easter before, so it’s all new to me.
But what isn’t new is what happens after the holiday. We get excited, buy Easter candy, maybe wear something nice, celebrate the day
… and then everything goes back to normal.
I felt that as a kid. I went to Buck Creek camp every chance I got — powerful messages, great community, the gospel preached clearly. I can’t count how many times I made a commitment to Christ.
And then I’d go home, and everything went back to normal.
And normal is a mixed bag. There are joys, yes — but also pain. We get sick. We lose people we love. We’re treated fairly sometimes, and unfairly other times. And as Christians, we know Christ died and rose for us. But if that’s true… why do we — why do I — still feel so out of place?
Is this how things are supposed to be?
Peter says yes — in a very real way, we are exiles.
We are not where we belong—but we already belong to the One who holds our future, guards our present, and has secured our inheritance.
And Peter gives us a good word today. We have hope and joy in the midst of this world because:
We are exiles, but we are chosen.
We are tested, but we are being made new.
We are waiting, but we are already protected by God’s power.
Let’s get started...
We Are Chosen
We Are Chosen
Let’s take a look at how Peter opens his letter:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Do you know where Bithynia is? Unless you’re a biblical geography expert, you probably don’t know. All five of these places are what is now in Northern Türkiye. But the geography isn’t the point. The key phrase is “elect exiles of the Dispersion.”
If you know your Old Testament, you might think of the Jewish exile - the scattering after the fall of the northern and southern kingdoms. But Peter isn’t writing to Jewish refugees. He’s writing to Gentile Christians. He’s writing to people that have never lived anywhere else.
So why call them exiles?
They didn’t move - their hearts moved.
They became God’s people in Christ.
They became different from the world around them.
They belonged to a new kingdom, a new family, a new future.
In other words:
They were exiles because they were chosen.
And that’s us.
We are:
Chosen by God, not God chosen by us.
Destined - not drifting
Sanctified by the Holy Spirit - not self-improved
Obedient to Christ - not by fear, but by love.
Sprinkled with His blood - claimed, cleansed and brought into covenant.
This is good news y’all!
Peter continues:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
Why do we have hope?
Because everything that matters most is something God has already done.
God has given us new birth.
God is making us holy.
God is keeping our inheritance.
If salvation depended on us, we would absolutely mess it up.
But it depends on God’s mercy — and that’s why it’s secure.
So then… What does that mean for us?
Stop interpreting your sense of not-fitting-in as failure.
Stop assuming your dislocation means God is distant.
Start seeing your “not belonging” as a sign that you belong—to Christ.do
Let your identity as “chosen” be louder than your identity as “unsettled.”
Your exile is not evidence that God has forgotten you. It’s evidence that God has claimed you.
Being Made New
Being Made New
We are being made new.
Not were made new — as if God did something once and then stepped back.
Not will be made new — as if we just have to tough it out until the end.
We are being made new. Right now. In real time. In the middle of whatever we’re walking through.
Peter says:
In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
The good news is:
God chose you, and He loves you as you are.
And He loves you too much to leave you that way.
The Holy Spirit is making you new today - not because you’re “not good enough” But because your faith, imperishable, is more precious than gold which is perishable. And God is refining what He has already given you.
In Peter’s world, gold ore was heated until it melted. Think how hot that must have been! When it melted, the impurities floated to the surface. The refiner skimmed them off. And then… did it again… and again... until he could see his own reflection in the gold.
The fire didn’t create impurities. It showed what was already there. So it could be removed.
Trials work the same way.
The don’t create doubt or fear or impatience - they bring them to the surface so God can heal them.
If anyone knew what that looked like, it was Peter. He doubted when Jesus told him to walk on water. The guy who promised never to disown Jesus, did so three times a week and a half ago.
But when it comes to doubting, Thomas is the one we remember:
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Thomas had eyewitness testimony from his friends. He had Jesus’ own promise that He would rise again. And still he said “Show me.”
And Jesus did.
But the most important part is Thomas’s response: “my Lord and my God!” — the clearest confession of Jesus’ divinity in the whole Gospel - from the disciple who struggled the most.
That’s what refinement looks like.
Not perfection.
Not pretending.
But Christ meeting us in the middle of our fear and shaping us into something new.
And then Jesus says something that Peter never forgot:
‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
Years later, Peter writes to Christians who never saw Jesus in the flesh and says:
‘Although you have not seen him, you love him… you believe in him… you rejoice with a joy that is indescribable.’
In other words: the blessing Jesus spoke over Thomas’s doubt is the blessing Peter speaks over you.
You haven’t seen Him.
You weren’t in that locked room.
But you are blessed.
And your faith is precious.
So what do we do with this?
Don’t assume trials mean your faith is weak.
Don’t assume doubt disqualifies you—Thomas wasn’t disqualified.
See your trials as the place where God is refining what He already gave you.
Look for Christ the fire, not after it.
God is not waiting for you to be finished. God is working in what you’re walking through.
Protected AND Given Joy
Protected AND Given Joy
God’s love and favor are not future promise. They are present realities.
Peter has already said that God has given us “a new birth into a living hope,” and then he continues:
and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Three present realities:
Our inheritance is kept in heaven—already secured.
We are being protected by God’s power—right now.
Our salvation is ready to be revealed—already prepared.
None of this is “someday.”
None of this is “if you hold on long enough.”
This is what God is doing now.
And how do we know this is trustworthy?
Because this is how God has always acted.
Peter uses a word here worth knowing: kairos.
Not time on a clock.
Not minutes or hours.
But the right moment—the appointed moment when God acts decisively.
And Scripture is full of these moments.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
The first kairos—the kairos of Creation. God speaks at the right moment, bringing order out of chaos.
Four hundred years after the last prophet spoke, God sent His Son.
The long kairos of the Nativity. Longer than our nation has existed. Silence… and then angels, a star, a child.
After three days in the tomb, God raised Jesus from the dead.
The short kairos of the Resurrection. Not long at all—but exactly right.
After fifty days of waiting and praying, God poured out His Spirit.
The waiting kairos of Pentecost. Uncertain days… and then the Spirit comes in power.
And the next kairos—the revealing of Christ—is already prepared.
Not being prepared.
Not almost ready.
Ready.
So what do we do with this?
Rest in the fact that your future is not fragile.
Practice joy—not as emotion, but as trust in the unseen Christ.
Anchor your hope in God’s timing, not your circumstances.
Remember that faith itself is a gift God is guarding in you.
We are not where we belong.
But we belong to the God who protects us,
who keeps our inheritance safe,
who guards our faith,
and who has never once missed the right kairos.
And the God who acted at the right moment before
will act at the right moment again.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We began this morning with a simple question:
Why do I feel so out of place?
Why does life feel like exile, even after Easter, even after joy, even after faith?
Peter’s answer is not to deny the feeling.
It’s to name it — and then to anchor it in God.
We are exiles, yes.
But we are chosen exiles — loved, claimed, and given a new birth into a living hope.
We are tested, yes.
But we are being made new — refined like gold, not destroyed by the fire, met by Christ even in our doubts.
And we are waiting, yes.
But we are protected in the waiting — our inheritance kept, our faith guarded, our salvation already ready for the right kairos.
From creation to Christmas,
from the cross to the empty tomb,
from Pentecost to this very moment,
God has never once missed the right time.
And He will not start now.
So when you feel out of place,
when life feels unfamiliar,
when grief or uncertainty or longing makes you wonder where you belong —
remember this:
You belong to the God who chose you,
who is making you new,
who protects what He began in you,
and who will act again at the right moment.
We are not where we belong.
But we belong to the One who will bring us home.
Amen!
Let us pray,
—
Father God,
We love You and Praise You, that not only are You the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth,
But the Lord of Kairos.
There is nothing outside Your control. No power You do not wield.
In Your perfect time, You make all things new.
We pray for Your joy in this season
Amen.
