Youth Group 22Jun2026

1 Peter 2:1-12

Theme: Built Together

Identity, holiness, the church as God’s family, living faithfully, persevering in suffering, humility/hope/standing firm in the gospel.

To start with:

I’m not the usual guy.

Who’s the introverts? Who are extroverts?

Who has been in the church/a christian for a long time?

Singing

Not gay.

Men:

If you’re going to lead a family, a company, a group of other men, you need to take the initiative.

You can’t make someone else care about something if you value coolness over the things you actually think are important.

Invite to pray. Up front.

They stand in as our person to pray for us.

It’s not “God, for me, bless them.”

It’s “God, we come to you together.”

AND YOU PRAY WITH THEM.

Structure:

7:10 in room 108.

Intro/Ice breaker

one random question

one related to the message

Observations:

10 minutes

give them direction, then they go to their tables and discuss questions.

give questions like Key Themes, Standouts, questions/concerns

Interpretation:

Give recap of their group discoveries

give background information for better interpretation. 5 minutes.

they talk about how it applies to life & the church (10 mins).

Teaching:

Teach the lesson, expand on their points, and apply them.

Application:

they go to small groups, discuss how to apply to their lives, and apply them.

The Passage:

Context:

Who does Peter Write to?

Exiles.

Throughout Asia/Rome

According to God’s will,

in Sanctification

for obedience,

and sprinkling with his Blood.

They are being persecuted.

The temple has been destroyed.

The purpose is encouragement.

Reminders of:

Christ’s example

the coming inheritance

the hope of his return.

Suffering is temporary. Faithfulness lasts.

Immediate preceding verses:

Speaking to The Church - Who has not seen Jesus directly

3- Praise God - He has given us hope through the Resurrection.

4- Reminds them of the promise of Salvation.

8- Reminds them of the Joy of this promise.

10- Speaks of the prophets who spoke about Christ. Notes that their promises were only fulfilled after the prophets died - only then could we see the promise fulfilled.

v12- He notes that The angels are fascinated by this.

So...

Prepare your minds for action.

Be sober minded.

Commit your hope and mind to this future hope.

Changes made...

you were all formerly ignorant and not holy.

God is holy and Judges in a holy way.

Conduct yourselves well, therefore, during the time of your trials.

You were ransomed from THE FUTILE WAYS INHERITED BY YOUR FATHERS

God gave you the gift of the resurrection so that you would not have to doubt. So you would have a foundation for your hope.

Main sections of this passage:

“Therefore”

“in light of all these things, What should we do?”

2:1 - Put away malice/deceit/hypocricy/envy

2:2 - Long for Spiritual Milk - If you’ve seen that it’s good.

This letter is not for searchers.

If you have seen Christ, come to understand, and realize that He’s saved you...there are some realities you need to come to grips with. And there are some changes you need to make.

v4 - Christ was rejected by men. Which men?

Jews. The chosen people.

Tell me the story of the old testament.

God creates the world

Mankind rebels.

Mankind gets to the point of no return, and we have the flood.

God chooses Abraham - a faithless coward, to try again.

He is told he will bring about a great nation and all people will be blessed by him. Put a pin in that.

Isaac is like Abraham.

Jacob is outright deceptive and awful. He gets a new name - Israel - “Struggles against God”.

If you haven’t adopted this as your own name, give it some time.

Then we go forward to Joseph and Moses, who try to put israel on track.

Moses says “these guys keep screwing up. How do we fix that?” and we get the sacrifice system to let people connect with God.

Then the israelites fall away and forget about God.

Then we get to the judges, who are a huge mess. and even they, as the leaders, forget about God.

then Saul becomes king and forgets God.

then david takes over and is mostly good except he forgets God.

and so all of the kings of israel do so poorly that they either forget God completely or fail to pass it down to their kids.

and then israel exists as a sort of slave-nation until the time of Jesus.

Peter proclaims them a few titles:

Living Stones built into

A spiritual House

a holy priesthood

to offer spiritual sacrifices

“whoever proclaims him will not be put to shame”

Have you been put to shame?

What is shame?

Have you made a claim and had it come up false or wrong?

“the stone that the builders rejected”

We understand that jesus is the stone.

Why was he rejected?

What were they expecting?

But You...

A chosen race.

A royal Priesthood.

A holy nation.

A people for his own possession.

That you may...

Proclaim the excellencies of the one who...

The one who called you out of darkness into marvellous light.

Once you were not a people.

(look at the people to your left and right. Consider how many people in this room had the same upbringing, experience, parenting, and challenges as you.)

Now, you are God’s people.

Once you had not received mercy.

(consider how many times youve acted in ways that hurt the people around you. The times you made your friends feel like they were stupid. The times you purposely made your parents feel like they were failures.)

but now you have received mercy.

These past things are gone.

You are Sojourners and Exiles. You are people without a home, looking to follow God and establish a home.

Abraham lived in a tent that he had to move whenever things went poorly. He struggled to follow God, but he tried.

The book of Hebrews says that “he was counted as righteous”.

You are all messed up. But we’re also all together in that. and God has chosen to see that and take us in and renew us despite it.

And so Peter - The most impulsive and difficult disciple - the one who can relate to you (and me) more than any other - says the following:

Abstain from passions of the flesh.

Keep your conduct among gentiles (the people you come from) honorable.

Because when they see your deeds, they will glorify God.

It’s tough to come to grips with, but we are no longer a part of the world. All of high school, i wanted to be committed to Jesus, but I also wanted to be able to curse my mom because she brought me to church and made it so I couldn’t go and do the fun things that were bad for me. All the while, those things were a struggle inside of me, but affected the world around me. Eventually, someone at school decided to start spreading rumors and telling lies about me, but they wouldn’t stick. Anyone who knew me would hear it and say “yeah, that can’t be right. He’s annoying, but he’s not doing that.”

The point is...if you know what you believe, if you know Christ as your savior and believe that you need him...Don’t waste any more time. Start asking what you need to do to follow and ask what’s keeping you from doing so.