The Way it Ought to be: Hope

1 Peter 1:13

1 Peter 1:13–2:2 NIV

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

1 Peter 1:13–23 NIV

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

1 Peter 1:

There are so many expectations that we put upon the Christmas season. Football, food, caroling, family, and many traditions and quirks all make up the ideal picture of the Christmas experience to one form or another. For some, Christmas will never live up to the ideal again because of something or someone missing from the equation. “The Way it ‘Ought to be” can sometimes be a vision that is never attainable or fully satisfying. The Christian story of advent and Christmas surprisingly answers “The Way it ‘Ought to be” in deep meaningful ways through the coming of hope, joy, love, and peace found in Christ.

Advent is an opportunity through this season to anchor ourselves to our faith. This is a time in preparation for the incarnation. The birth of a baby, of a king, of the savior of the world.

JD Walt: Advent is designed to wake us up.... “Advent lifts our hearts to a future of unparalleled possibility and beckons us to awaken from the predictable certainty that our lives have become. Advent rings in a new year, offering Christians once more the chance to begin again. Let us together set our feet on the path of pilgrimage, the way of purposeful wandering.”

Over the years I have learned a valuable lesson in my life journey.... To not put any hope in the Cowboys. Last week there was this decade challenge, where you post a picture of yourself 10 years ago and then again today.

Show meme.

Now, my wife would probably argue by my weekly frustrations I put a little too much hope, still, on the boys. However, what if I really put life like hope. Like started to obsess. Put all my money on them. Woke up in the morning and read a devotional to them. Reminisce on the good ol’ days. Talked about them in every conversation. You would think I was seriously looney right?!

I dont think many of us struggle in this specific way with hope, but I bet there are some other things that can be taken away pretty quickly that we put all our hope in.

Every week you will see a provocative representation of our “the way it ought to be” for weekly themes of hope, love, joy, peace. For hope, we clearly chose a money sign. Come on kingwood stay with me here.... the way it ought to be in your life is some future vision right. Some level of success, some arrival point, some dream house with wrap around porch and picket fence with a dog and 2.5 children. The American dream. Or if it isnt that, then what is the place that shapes and forms you the most.

Think about it, what is hope? We know it is some emotion. We know it is positive. Hope is something good in the future that is not realized, we desire it, anticipate it. What we are anticipating shapes who we are in the present. And there are so many things that we give ourselves that are not alive.

So in our first verse he says....

1 Peter 1:13 NIV

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

1 Peter

Set your hope on grace brought to you. Therefore is an indicator that this grace has just been laid out. We look to the verses before....

In the opening section Peter delivers the goods… He will base everything on this section, appropriately. And especially our text for the day. Let’s read it.

1 Peter 1:3–9 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:3–12 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

There are some guarantees here that Peter is laying out about hope....

First, future hope in the resurrection.

We look forward in advent to the final coming of Christ and that final day. Inheritance is the thing we look forward to. Usually the other way around, It is the one inheritance you receive when you pass on. He is not a relative you are waiting to die, he is the one who defeated death and we have a promise sealed by him. Not only that but God’s power working even now to shield us as the text puts it.

Paul puts it this way:

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 NIV

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Cortinthians 4:16-18

Paul: do not lose heart....even in the struggle, fix your eyes on what is unseen....this will be your anchor, this will be your truth, this will be your hope.

Peter: This is our living hope.

Example: Melinda Dodd

Last year I had the opportunity to preach at my seminary’s president retreat at the Billy Graham center in North Carolina. They invited me as an alumni preacher but also because I was telling some of my mentors about lessons that of hope that I was learning at KUMC. They knew we had been through so much and as I was sharing all the good news out of the struggles that we faced it was all about hope. So when hope became the theme for their retreat they asked to come and preach. I got to tell the story of hope from here. One of those stories is the one from Melinda Dodd after Harvey and explaining her experience. In her video testimony, she shares this interaction as they were being boat rescued. Someone commented about the parts of kingwood that did not flood saying these people are lucky.... and Melinda said, "This is good, this gives me hope. Not everyone flooded.” She knew that there was others that could help.

See two things here: 1 the difference in perspective. One person hopeless in seeing what happened to them. The other person a perspective of hope because she could see things from the other side. There are people who did not flood. Hope is a perspective.

Secondly, as sin, and death, and evil, and brokenness, and suffering is all around us and happening to us....there is one who didn’t flood. There is one who defeated death, evil, and sin, and he can, has, and will help us rebuild. His name is Jesus. Set your eyes on the future hope.

There is hope that reaches back from the resurrection to us.....

It cannot be taken away....

There is the future hope of resurrection but that hope is already at work in us....

Again look at verse 3....

1 Peter 1:3 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Wesley says that the marks of the new birth are faith, hope, and love. For those that are born again have a belief and trust in God.

Faith: Believing that he took away sins and has begun the process of healing, restoration

Hope: Remember, even looking forward shapes us now. Fear is driven out, anxiety is met with force

Love: Abounding love for God and love of people.

Finally, it cannot be taken away:

This future hope and this present hope. The inheritance and the new birth. Eternal life that has first fruits now…it is imperishable.

Peter says it never spoils or fades.

How many things in our life do we put our hope in that spoils or fades?

So what? Set your hope on this… How?

Sober living

Holiness

Living as Foreigners

Right here at the beginning he says we are to be sober. Look at verse 13 again:

1 Peter 1:13 NIV

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

With minds that are alert and fully sober, Prepare your minds for actions, actually literally says in Greek “Gird up the loins of your mind.” An ancient idiom. Loins freaks us out, hang on. They had these robes that they would have to wrap up in a way so that they could run or be ready to run. It was an idiom that meant prepare for action. Do this with your minds....means living soberly.

When I was 18 I was so ready to get away from home....a couple of years later everything was a blur and I missed out on the real things of life. There were a handful of those people that I invited to my wedding and then even a few less that I try to keep up with, but no one left from that season. All I had from that time was school debt and a whole lot of misplaced purpose.

Some of us may be living like this...

But most of us have become inoculated with the things of this world. Phone as an example.

Focus your minds on what is important.

Secondly, the call is to be holy. Live pure lives dedicated to the new birth that has been giving you. Live dedicated lives to the lordship of Jesus as we preached on last week.

Friends, do you believe that Jesus forgives you of sin? Do you believe that He also took away the power of sin. Sin, self, society....

And related...

Peter says to set your hope on this grace brought to you in Jesus....live as foreigners.

1 Peter 1:17 NIV

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

1 Peter 1:

This is not your home. This exilic language. It reminds them of the time they were in exile and hoping for future. Knowing that their citizenship was not there. So they lived as foreigners in the land....this is the imagery the NT uses in several places to talk about Christians. I describe it this way…be weird and be ok with it. Your hope will be different than what the world defines as hopeful.

Closing:

I love this illustration that Burt reminded me of this week. When you go and purchase something with cash…does anyone do that anymore? When you do, if it is a $20 bill or higher, what usually happens? They take a little marker and write on it. My son has one of these markers…it only writes on the paper from the coloring book that it comes with. So for hours he walked around marking everything in the house and it did not leave a mark. In a gas station they run this marker over a bill and if it does leave a mark they know its counterfeit. That is what advent is for. We are running the marker over our life, over our “The way it ought to be’s” to test if they are good. To see if they are perishable or imperishable. To test if the are from God or counterfeit.

any poll you take shows that 40% of Americans say they are regular attending Orthodox Christian believers (Catholic, mainline protestant, evangelical). Regular attendance is defined as attending 3/8 sundays. Which I would argue is a low bar. However, if you freeze everything on a Sunday you would see less than half of that percentage in church. And if you follow the numbers most Christians are only averaging attendance in church about 1 time a month. Now, you are here so maybe I am preaching to the choir. And attendance is not a direct relation to anything but it is an indicator or priorities.

We need to run that marker over our life.

If your hope is in the American Dream:

Your priorities:

career, success, money, status (check out what you post on social media), financial security, appearances, 2.5 kids, house, sporty children, retirement, travel, adventure, vacations, weekend social events

success,

money,

status (check out what you post on social media),

financial security,

appearances,

2.5 kids,

house, sporty children, retirement, travel, adventure, vacations, weekend social events

sporty children, retirement, travel, adventure, vacations, weekend social events

Marked by:

fear is always on the doorstep. Stock market crash, flood, medical crisis

Anxiety is close to follow because you know deep down all of this can be gone.

If your hope is in Christ:

Your priorities:

pursuit of Him in discipleship. Growing in love, mission, witness. You prioritize people in your life. Connected to the body of Christ, and those that desperately need the hope. Priorities are holiness, justice, and being the presence of hope.

Marked by:

As we have said; faith, hope, and love. There is a fearlessness, a freedom, and a peace for those marked by this hope. They see the other perspective in the flood.

any poll you take shows that 40% of Americans say they are regular attending Orthodox Christian believers (Catholic, mainline protestant, evangelical). Regular attendance is defined as attending 3/8 sundays. Which I would argue is a low bar. However, if you freeze everything on a Sunday you would see less than half of that percentage in church. And if you follow the numbers most Christians are only averaging attendance in church about 1 time a month. Now, you are here so maybe I am preaching to the choir. And attendance is not a direct relation to anything but it is an indicator or priorities.

The Way it Ought to be: Hope

Scripture

Introduction

Hope intro....

Jesus, our Living Hope

Future Hope: Resurrection

Hope Now: Born Again

This hope is imperishable

1. Sober living

2. Holiness

3. Foreigners

Closing: