Hope for the Journey

If you are visiting with us, it’s important that you know that we believe God wrote a book… and that book contains 66 smaller books… some of them are letters… others are history books… others contain poetry or prophecy... and each one of them has his words for living life in the world he created.

And so at Oak Hill, we love to study God’s word book by book… that’s our preferred method… we just finished the Gospel of Luke...

And today we are starting our study of the book of 1 Peter… it’s a letter really… written from the city of Rome at the end of Peter’s life to followers of Jesus spread out over a large section of the Roman Empire.

They are on an earthly journey away from their heavenly home. They are not where they eternally belong.

I don’t know if you’ve ever journeyed away from home for any length of time...

Maybe you’ve gone away to college...

Or been deployed with the military...

Or even gone on a long vacation or a business trip...

When you are on a long journey, sometimes there is a certain infatuation with that place for a little while...

But once you stay for a long enough time… you have a longing for home.

You start to realize just how out of place you are...

You realize all of the certain conveniences of home that you miss...

I remember sending Bruce some care packages with brownie mix and stuff like that in it when he lived in Japan…

There are just things that you miss when you are displaced for a period of time…

And Peter is writing a letter to encourage people who are feeling that...

They are living on earth but longing for eternity.

And he’s teaching them how to live now in light of their hope for their future in glory with God.

For every book study, I try to have a purpose statement that keeps us focused on the main purpose of the book throughout… and so our purpose statement for 1 Peter is this:

Let the hope of eternity change your life on earth.

Our goal is not just to study a letter and know some facts… our goal is life-change in the power of the Spirit at work through his word.

You should come to church expecting that God is going to change your life.

He wants to change your attitudes… your activities… he wants to change your relationships… he wants to change every part of your life to get you ready for eternity.

So today we’re going to dig into the first two verses of this letter… which are the verses of greeting in the letter…

But they are much more than a trivial greeting...

They set the themes for Peter’s whole purpose for writing...

They are like an overture in a symphony… giving you a taste of what’s to come...

And so today, here’s our goal as we get into this book:

Big Idea: Place your hope in God for your temporary journey on earth.

Context:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

Author: Peter

Apostle… now… but quite as journey to get there...

This is the Peter who was also called Simon… aboard his fishing boat where he made a living with his brothers...

Until his brother Andrew introduced him to this guy named Jesus who started calling him Cephas or Peter…

And Jesus changed his life…

He started following Jesus… and he saw Jesus heal people and he heard Jesus teach...

One time he was out on a boat and saw Jesus walking on the water… and said, “Jesus, let me come out there to you!” but he took his eyes off Jesus… and sank...

That type of experience was common to Peter… one minute you’re walking on water… the next you are sinking...

Like the time Peter saw Jesus reveal his true glory on a mountaintop… and he saw Moses and Elijah there with him...

Another time he saw Jesus reveal his true glory on a mountaintop… and he saw Moses and Elijah there with him...

And he did what any self-respecting man would do: he offered to pitch a tent for all of them! Only to have God the Father say, “THIS is my beloved Son, listen to HIM” and remove the glimpse into glory.

Another time Peter made this great confession of faith in response to a question by Jesus, “Who do you say that I am”

Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

And that was SOOO great… except that two seconds later he tried to act like he knew better than Jesus and correct him which resulted in Jesus calling him Satan.

And then there was the time that he told Jesus that he would follow him to death...

But as Jesus was arrested and put on trial, Peter denied him three times.

Things started looking up for Peter after Jesus was raised from the dead.

He ran to the tomb to find it empty and see the linen cloths lying there.

He then saw the risen Jesus a few times… including on the shores of Galilee… where Peter had returned to his fishing boats... and Jesus met him there and restored him from the shame of his denial.

And now… after all of that… the Holy Spirit has inspired him to write a letter to encourage the churches in the persecution he is seeing get really hot… and they are beginning to taste now as well.

Recipients: the Churches of Asia Minor

After Jesus ascended, this same Peter preached a sermon along with the other 11 apostles and 3000 people turned to Christ.

Then he was preaching boldly in the temple and was arrested, but miraculously escaped.

The same Peter who had a vision that led to the gospel being proclaimed and confirmed among the Gentiles.

This is the Peter who was imprisoned multiple times… perhaps even at the writing of this letter… but kept speaking for God and going as an apostle of Jesus Christ...

A he writes from a place he calls “Babylon” (which is probably a code word for “Rome”)...

And now… after all of that… in the year AD62 or 63, the Holy Spirit has inspired him to write a letter to encourage the churches in the persecution he is starting to see get really hot… and they are beginning to taste now as well.

Situation: Suffering general persecution

He writes from a place he calls “Babylon” in chapter 5 (which is probably a code word for “Rome”)…

And in Rome, the Emporer Nero sits on the throne. He kills Christians for sport in the Colliseum, and in a few years he will light them on fire as what are known as “Roman Candles.”

And because of all of this, Peter wants to encourage the churches to stand firm in the faith.

He does this by reminding them that this place is not their home… they are sojourners… refugees… just passing through.

There is a hope that awaits them beyond this current crisis… a hope that Nero… or any other person or any other circumstance can’t touch.

It is a confident expectation of eternal joy that is based on the work of God in Jesus Christ.

This place is not their home… and for now they are on a journey in a foreign land…

Ultimately, Peter wants these believers to see that the suffering they experience now is not outside of God’s plan. It’s part of God’s plan.

GOD has prepared this journey for them so that they are ready for him when Christ returns.

These first two verses of introduction to his letter are like an overture in a piece of symphony music. These verses play on a lot of, if not all of, the main themes in the book.

And far from being insignificant, they teach us to place our hope in God’s preparations for our temporary journey on earth.

So today we want to see four ways we must do that… and the first is this:

Trust the Plan: Your journey was chosen by a loving Father

Your journey was Chosen By a Loving Heavenly Father

Explanation: (look at the first part of verse 2)

English Standard Version Chapter 1

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father

Recipients: the Churches of Asia Minor

We’re getting to know the original audience a little bit here… that’s very important for understanding the original intent of the letter...

And Peter has a very interesting title that he uses for these believers: elect exiles of the dispersion...

The NASB translates this word “aliens”… the King James translates it… “strangers.” Another word you could use is sojourner.

It’s someone who is temporarily living in a place that is not their true home. They are on a journey away from home… and that journey makes them a “foreigner.”

Now the term “exile” sometimes has a connotation of somebody being banished from a certain Geographic region… like a punishment... but that’s probably not the case here.

They aren’t Jews being punished by God in exile or Christians sent away from their home by rome.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

The letter seems to indicate that the primary recipients of the letter are churches with a lot of Gentiles in them...

(Peter talks about their former way of life as if they are Gentiles)

And there is no indication that the Gentile Christians were ever sent away from their home.

There was no government-driven large-scale persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire...

That’s a common misconception…

There were many localized persecutions… and many of the emporers, especially Nero who was in power at the time this was written, did many terrible things to Christians in Rome...

But it wasn’t an empire-wide policy.

And so these are not political or physical exiles...

God is not angry with them either… every indication in the letter is that God is delighted in them as his chilren...

God is not angry with them… every indication in the letter is that God is delighted in them as his chilren...

So the word “exile” here simply means someone who lives in a land that is not their home… a soujourner… a foreigner… an alien...

And in this sense, they are spiritual exiles… they live on earth while their true home is in heaven with Christ.

They live in evil earthly kingdoms while their true citizenship is in heaven.

That’s what this letter is all about.

“Let the hope of eternity change your life on earth.”

As believers, our home is with God in glory… that’s what we are looking forward to… that is our inheritance…

We can have a confident expectation of that home when we rely wholly on Christ in faith…

And that faith and taht hope WILL change the way that we live because there is an internal transformation… THAT’S 1 Peter.

They reside as aliens… and they are scattered… or disbursed… in earthly homes away from their eternal home…

Recipients: the Churches of Asia Minor

He mentions five locations… really they are large territories spread out over what was then Asia Minor and is now known as Turkey.

The order was probably the path that the one carrying the letter would have taken...

They’d start in Pontus… and end up in Bithynia…

So they are scattered over a large geographic area…

But they share this common situation: they SUFFER as aliens… strangers...

Again that word “chosen” or elect describes the whole phrase “exiles in the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia”

But they share this common situation: they SUFFER as aliens… strangers...

Just because they are not political exiles sent away from their earthly home does not mean that they did not experience persecution as exiles away from their eternal home.

Think about the refugees in Greec

While there was no law against Christianity and the Roman government often just left it alone, localized persecution could get pretty heated.

But here’s what I want you to see: this was all part of God’s plan.

Exclusive Worship

Rome: generally Tolerant society, so they allowed the worship of MANY gods… even the Roman system contained in itself many gods...

But the one thing they could not understand or tolerate was refusuing to worship the many gods that you can see in favor of worshipping one God who you can’t see.

Sound familiar???

General Misunderstanding

Viewed as a “superstition” rather than a “religion” (religions had to have some sort of political value… Christianity opposed most of the political values)

Cannibalism - the Lord’s Supper

Incest - a misunderstanding of the love feast

Viewed as a “superstition” rather than a “religion”

Economic Impact

Real (as in Ephesus in )

Scapegoat

Disrupted “Peace-keeping” Norms

Neglect of “necessary” worship of the gods that brought prosperity to the empireBreakdown of social order between classes (citizen, slave, etc.)Caused dissensions among the JewsTaught that humility was greatnessAccused Christians of “hatred of mankind.”

Those are just a few reasons Christians were persecuted… all of them we can relate to...

But here’s what I want you to see: this was all part of God’s plan.

(Reference slide) Not all the translations capture this well, but Peter says that they are “elect exiles of the dispersion”… the word elect is describing their exile… it’s an adjective...

They were chosen to be sojourners away from their eternal home, thus causing persecution…

But the word “elect” or "chosen” really describes the whole phrase “exiles in the dispersion, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia”

Further, after he says that all of this is “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”… the fact that they would be scattered about where they are is ordained by a loving heavenly Father.

Foreknowledge should be understood in the sense of a God of covenant love who KNOWS his own children… he knows their situations… he knows their sufferings… he knows what they need...

But we believe in a sovereign God who not only knows, but controls all things…

And foreknowledge should be understood in the sense of a God of covenant love who KNOWS his own children… he knows their situations… he knows their sufferings… he knows what they need...

He knows… from before the dawn of time.

And he loves us enough to choose situations for us so in which we can be purified in our faith.

So WE need to Trust the Plan: our journey was CHOSEN by a loving heavenly Father.

Sometimes my kids will ask me a question… maybe about what we’re doing that day… maybe about something that they want to do...

And then they’ll just keep asking and asking… and I don’t even have time to think or give an answer...

and I had to say to one of them the other night, “Son, I know what you WANT to do. I want the best for you. You need to let me THINK about it and TRUST that I have your best in mind.”

They need to learn to TRUST their Father.

And we need to do the same with our heavenly Father. Except he doesn’t need time to think… he already knows what is best.

We need to Trust the Plan: our journey was CHOSEN by a loving heavenly Father.

Application: If you are a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, God the Father knows and has chosen YOUR situation for you. That means (first of all):

The Father chose you. (if you are a follower of Jesus)

God chose your situation.

Those who are truly followers of Jesus Christ are chosen by God.

And that might mess with your concept of human responsibility and free will… but God isn’t bothered by it.

He says that he elects those who are saved. He chooses them. Not because of anything that they do… not because of any righteousness of their own… not because they are loveable… or nice… not even because he KNEW that they would make good followers...

He chooses simply because he wants to show his mercy.

The Bible describes us as DEAD in our sin. Apart from Christ we have no ability to come to life.

We would not choose God because we are so in love with our sin and with ourselves…

apart from God’s work, we don’t see our need for God… we don’t want God to cramp our style… we think that WE are God...

And therefore we are dead… separated eternally from God… destined for destruction by our own sin nature and sin choice…

And so God must choose dead sinners… cause them to be born again (give them new life… we’ll talk about that next week), and place faith in their hearts.

Like we sang earlier, we need him to “call our name” so that we can “run out of our grave.”

And he does this purely because HE is loving and merciful and gracious… we don’t deserve it at all.

We deserve hell… eternal separation from God… every single one of us DESERVES that because we ignore our creator and his design.

But God GRACIOUSLY CHOOSES to awaken some to faith in Christ.

And he chose to make us his children… so that he could be our Father… and he could KNOW us from before the foundation of the world.

That’s incredible and so undeserved.

And so if you are a follower of Christ, don’t waste time debating election… it’s right there in the Bible… instead, spend your time TRUSTING and WORSHIPPING because of it!

Be in awe of the fact that God chose you… a wretched sinner… and worship him...

But he didn’t JUST choose YOU...

The Father chose your situation.

The recipients of this letter were “elect” exiles.

God chose for them to spend time on earth away from their heavenly home.

God chose your location.

Have you ever thought it would be really nice if God just saved us and perfected us and took us right to heaven?

But he doesn’t… and 1 Peter is going to help us understand a little bit of why that is.

And whatever your situation is… God chose to take you through that situation of living life in a fallen world to increase your faith in him and get you ready for eternity.

That should build trust in your heart that God has the plan… he knows what he is doing.

But he didn’t just choose you… and he didn’t just choose your situation...

The Father chose your location.

These are elect exiles in specific places… and God CHOSE that they would be there.

Peter could have sent this same letter to Pennsylvania and said, “to the chosen sojourners scattered throughout Quarryville and Lancaster and Harrisburg and Reading and Philadelphia and West Chester.”

And it would be awesome if all Christians could just create this perfect society on some island somewhere… like Australia or something… if the world just gave all the Christians Australia and left us alone...

But that’s not what God has chosen to do...

He’s not chosen to create a Christianized society or government or any of that...

He has chosen to leave us scattered all over the world… that’s part of his plan to work in your life… and it’s part of his plan to call others to himself.

Wherever you are, God has you there right now. He KNOWS and HAS KNOWN that you would be there since before the dawn of time.

Write this down: God has me at [your address] and in [your job/role/situation] according to his plan and for his purpose.

If you really grab hold of that reality… that your current location in the journey is part of the plan of God… that will change your life.

It will change how you look at your neighbors… and the people at the grocery store...

It will change how you think about the people who bug you...

It will change how you view your possessions and property...

It will change your attitude when you show up at your job...

To be able to say that where I am right now is part of the plan of a loving heavenly Father who wants to get me ready for eternal glory with him… that will flat out change your life.

And so my question for you is this:

Do you trust that the Father knows what he is doing in your journey?

Or do you act like the events in your life are somehow a surprise to him?

Like they are somehow outside of his sovereign control?

God chose you… and he chose your situation… and he chose what location that situation would play out… he chose it ultimately to sanctify you… to make you holy and get you ready for eternity.

That should give you tremendous hope for your journey.

We are learning to place our hope in God’s preparations for our temporary journey on earth… and the second preparation God has made to give us hope is the powerful work of his Spirit.

Rely on the Power: Your journey is in the context of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work.

Explanation:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit,

Here’s what he’s saying: “the fact that you are chosen sojourners scattered in all these places” is in the context of the Spirit’s sanctifying work in your life.

Your journey away from home is part of the process God is using to change you and make you more like Christ in his holiness.

Sanctification means “to make holy” or to set apart as holy.

God’s people are his “set apart ones.”

We are sojourners… strangers… aliens... we aren’t supposed to fit in on this earth anymore… we belong with God in glory.

And sanctification is the process of the Spirit setting us apart from the world and getting us ready for that glorious future...

…event while we are still scattered about IN the world.

We are in the world… but we are becoming increasingly not OF the world…

“in the world, not of it...” Jesus prayed that for us...

He’s releasing the world’s allure to us… he’s stirring our affections for something better…

The Spirit is working to release us from the world’s allure… he’s stirring our affections for something better…

In our lives, this is a process… there are constantly parts of us that are more in love with this world than the world to come.

There are thoughts and desires and choices that we make that have no place in the holy presence of God.

And the Holy Spirit is on a pursuit to root those things out and get rid of them.

He’s wants to remove the desires and deeds of the flesh and replace them with the desires and deeds of God.

And he uses our journey to do it.

He takes our experiences and our situations and our location of living and he uses it all to make us more holy and more ready for God’s presence.

But here’s what I want you to notice: the work of sanctification is in the power of the Holy Spirit.

It’s not in your own willpower… it is the sanctification OF the Holy Spirit.

Peter is trying to show his readers that the whole Trinity is actively and personally at work as they live as sojourners… strangers in this world…

The journey is “according to the foreknowledge OF the Father”

And now the journey is “IN the sanctification OF the Spirit.”

The power to get through the challenges of life and come out on the other side more holy comes through the Holy Spirit.

Illustration: So when I was in high school, I went white water rafting twice… it was a ton of fun...

Now the whole goal of white water rafting is to get yourself in the right current so that the power of the river sweeps you through the rapids...

The power of white water rafting does not come primarily through your rowing (at least when you’re in the rapids)… it comes from the power of the river...

But the point of going white water rafting is to hit some rapids… the bigger the better.

You row to get yourself properly positioned in the river…

That’s where you grow and use the skill of rafting… that’s where you grow as a team on your raft...

Application: Your role in sanctification is positioning yourself in the current of the Spirit’s powerful work

It’s relying on him… surrendering to him...

It’s getting yourself around his word to understand his desires for you and seeking him in prayer…

It’s asking him for for the help you need to obey him and produce his fruit.

And so my question for you is this:

Are you getting in position for the Spirit to work powerfully to make you holy?

Sometimes we don’t see the need to become more holy… holiness becomes a bad word to us… it seems self-righteous… stuck up...

We don’t rely on the Spirit to make us holy because we don’t care about holiness… that’s a problem.

We are going to learn from Peter later in this letter that we are called to “be holy as God is holy.”

That’s a pretty tall order!

And so then other times we read a verse like that and get all worked up and run to the other extreme and rely on our own power to become holy.

We think, “I have to perform for God in order for him to accept me...”

And then we create a list of do’s and don’ts and we keep our list and then feel pretty good about ourselves...

But the call is to “be holy as GOD is holy.”

You can’t do that on your own… you will never be that holy...

You need God himself to empower that holiness in you through the Holy Spirit...

And your part is to position yourself in the current of the Spirit’s powerful work in your life.

This can go back to some of the growth goals that you were creating last week...

If you don’t have a discipleship plan resource, there are some out on the Welcome Table.

But the idea is to identify the areas that God wants to grow you in this year. Where is he convicting you that you need the character and obedience of Christ? What sanctification does he want to accomplish in your life?

Identify those areas, but then seek the Holy Spirit for his power to change them.

Rely on the Power: Your journey is in the context of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work.

Now that sanctifying work is headed toward a goal… there is a purpose…

And so the third move toward placing our hope in God’s preparation for the journey is this:

Embrace the Purpose - Your journey is leading you to obey Jesus and experience his purification.

Explanation:

When you are on a journey, it’s a good thing to know WHY you are on the journey… is this a vacation… a work trip… a mission… what’s my purpose???

Verse 2 again:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

The word “for” is a purpose word… this is WHY God the Father would choose you… in your situation… in your location… this is the aim of the Spirit’s sanctifying work in your life: Obedience to Jesus Christ and Sprinkling with his Blood.

Obedience to Jesus Christ and Sprinkling with his Blood

It’s a two-fold purpose… first...

Sprinkling with his Blood

Obedience to Christ

The goal of the Spirit’s sanctifying work in your life is obedience.

The reason that God has put you in the situation you are in and caused you to live in the places that you live is so that you would learn to obey Jesus.

This is part of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus...

How can I c

Disciples are taught to obey all that Christ commanded… that’s part of the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

Obedicence is the result of God choosing you… and the Spirit powerfully sanctifying you.

If you want to know if the Spirit is at work in your life, ask yourself...

Am I increasingly growing to obey Christ?

Do I live like Jesus is Lord in every part of my life?

Do I know his word and seek his word for the choices I make and the direction I go?

Do I make his priorities my priorities?

Am I concerned with obeying ALL of his commandments, or just the ones that are convenient?

Obedience to Christ is God’s purpose for your journey.

He wants you to look more and more like Jesus… because that’s the holiness for which you were created and the hope to which you were saved.

But at the same time, we will never perfectly obey in this life.

Which is why we need the second purpose of Christ that Peter mentions:

Sprinkling with his Blood (Purification)

In the Old Testament, the sprinkling with blood was an act of purification.

Lepers were sprinkled with blood in order to become ceremonially clean.

Priests were sprinkled with blood in order to become ordained and set apart.

An altar was built and sprinkled with blood at the confirmation of the covenant.

The sprinkling with blood was a recognition that the person or thing was made holy… and in order for that holiness to be fully achieved, a death had to occur.

And Jesus was the once-for-all sacrifice to end all sacrifice.... and to fully and completely purify us before God.

God is constantly working in your life to the end that you would both see your need for that sacrifice… AND so that you would experience the reality of that sacrifice.

In the Christian life, we MUST hold these two purposes together… God’s ultimate purpose is for us to obey Christ… AND God’s ultimate purpose is for us to experience purification through the blood of Christ.

We do great damage if we separate them: God’s ultimate purpose is for us to obey Christ… AND God’s ultimate purpose is for us to experience purification through the blood of Christ.

Positional purity and practical purity… they are NOT at odds…

I don’t even think it would be right to say that we are to hold them in “tension.”

That makes it sound like they are opposing forces...

But God is working both positional purity and practical purity TOGETHER in our lives.

They are BOTH his purpose for us!

And so the question is this:

Are both obedience to Christ and purification by Christ YOUR purpose in life?

The meaning of life… the purpose that God created you for is not difficult...

It’s that you would walk with God and bring him glory...

That’s why he created you… for relationship with him..

And that relationship is played out when you obey him as your God and receive his purifying work in your life.

And so in our journey away from our future home in glory… The Father is choosing… the Spirit is sanctifying… the Son (Christ) is both commanding our obedience and sprinkling us with his blood.

And all of this is a work of his grace.

Application:

God is not holding out on you… he is giving you everything you need to finish the journey he has ordained for you.

Which is why Peter prays what he does at the end of verse 2:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

This is more than a trivial greeting in a letter… some nice thing that you are supposed to say...

This is a prayer that they will need if they are going to experience everything that Peter wants them to experience in their life journey.

If we are going to place our hope in God for our temporary journey on earth, we are going to have to....

Seek the Provisions - Your journey is furnished with limitless supplies of grace and peace.

Every journey needs provisions… you need snacks for the car… water bottles… entertainment options for the kids… gas in the tank… every journey needs provisions… and God has given us two incredible provisions that Peter prays for here. The first is...

Grace - The Provision of Divine Enablement (see )

says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

He gives the humble what they need to resist the enemy and stand firm in the trial.

It means that when we recognize our need for him, God is ready and eager to draw near… he’s ready to give us himself.

The second provision Peter prays for is...

Peace - The Provision of Divine Relationship

Peace in the Bible is the experience of everything being in proper relationship...

Your relationship with God… with others… with the creation...

All of it is in order...

And when God is the only one who can produce that peace in our lives.

HE HIMSELF IS our peace...

And he chose us… in our situations… to make us holy… obedient and purified...

So that we could have PEACE in him...

When our relationship with God is in order through the salvation of Jesus Christ and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit… our relationship with everything else God has created can find its proper order.

That’s a HUGE theme in 1 Peter.

And I believe that the fact that Peter PRAYS for these things is instructive to us.

He knows that grace and peace ONLY come from seeking God.

And when we seek God for it, God wants to provide grace and peace in ABOUNDING MEASURE...

Limitless supplies...

Everything we need for the journey...

So here’s my last question for you:

Do you regularly seek the grace and peace of God through prayer?

Or do you ignore your need for his provisions?

Do you assume that he doesn’t want to give you those things… like he wants you to figure this journey out on your own…

And so later today, maybe get alone with God and ask him, “God, I want to see you at work in my life. I want to get the most out of this journey through First Peter… and most of all I want to get the most out of what you want for me in my journey on this earth.”

That’s a prayer that God would love to answer.

I can’t wait to get into the rest of the book of 1 Peter… today was a glimpse of what’s ahead...

I believe God is going to use this study in our journey together as a church...

And I believe he is calling us to place our hope in HIM for the journey he has for us...

Let’s pray...

As we do, think through the questions that we’ve asked throughout the sermon...

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