Go Hard!
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Go Hard!
Go Hard!
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, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 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.
1 Peter 1.3-7
Intro:
Right before execution Peter writes the two New Testament letters of First and Second Peter after 30 years of successful ministry to a group of dispersed believers....
He has assisted the growth of the Church.
He has experienced being threatened and persecution of Jewish aristocrats
And....
In my spiritual imagination I see him pleading his case with them to....
.....be strong and remain faithful even in difficult circumstances because he understood that the trials were shaping them into stronger and more faithful believers...
And here....
Peter is found expressing or introducing the inheritance of Christians, and praise to God for the resurrection of Christ and for new life.
(pause)
Look at it now....
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,
In other words....
Let us give thanks to God.....
who is so good to give us the privilege of being born again through His son Jesus Christ.
the writer indicates the reason we have a living hope, by explaining that we hope because God resurrected Jesus Christ.
(pause)
Then verse 4 talks about the believer in Christ’s inheritance.
and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
According to the text....
As a result of our living hope, Christ Jesus....
We as believers now have an inheritance....
meaning...
....God has something for you and I!
(pause and expound)
And then there is this description given to us related to what God has for us....
It is.......
Imperishable - It cannot be destroyed, beyond the reach of decay
..it cannot go bad!
b. Undefiled - It will never be ruined, or it cannot be spoiled
....it cannot be messed up by external influence
c. Unfading - It is beyond the reach of change, or it will never disappear
.....it cannot break down, or lose its substantive value
(pause)
And the bible says....
“What God has for us, is kept in heaven!”
and the meaning here is that.....
God is keeping or preserving, or guarding, or storing what God has for us!
and it is kept...
safely in heaven
(pause and expound)
Look at it now...
who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
The bible says......
We are protected by means of God’s power.
And so the question becomes what is the difference in being “kept” in verse 4 and being “protected” in verse 5.
(pause)
This word protected in verse 5 is a military term referring to being guarded by a garrison, or troops stationed in a fortress or a town to defend it.
(pause)
And so.....
The biblical writer is saying....
God is acting in heaven to preserve the believer’s future, and on earth to preserve them for the present.
And......
.......as the believer we are protected because we believe.
(pause)
And the reason these verses are so necessary to be understood is becuase of the trials that may occur in the life of the believer that are spoken of in verse 6.
(pause)
In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,
The bible says....
“In THIS” (emphasize)
The writer says.....
Our this that we just talked about is where we become extremely joyful even when we suffer vairous trials......
Our this..............
.......is our experience of rebirth, and all of the blessings spoken of a few verses earlier.
(pause)
The text says.....
.....even though we may have a season where we have to suffer grief of various kinds
(slight pause)
Our this......
...........is where we are able to REJOICE!
The bible says in....
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
In other words...
We gladly suffer when we run into problems because we know that they create what helps us to endure with the spiritual fortitude that bears us up under suffering.....
........and then our endurance creates our character that meets God’s approval
.....and then our character creates our hope of eternal blessing.
(pause and expound)
And while it may be difficult to agree to do this.....
Matthew’s Gospel teaches us that when we do the difficult we are wise!
Watch the text.....
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”
And so..........
Just in case some of us are so focused on our calamities........
........that we don’t believe that we could ever become calm enough to follow God’s instructions regarding rejoicing in trials.
Notice that.....
In Matthew’s Gospel the CALAMITY is happening to both houses.....
And Jesus is telling the disciples in my spiritual imagination.....
......I’m trying to prepare you for the inevitable calamity that’s coming to your house!
I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”
In other words.....
TROUBLE is going to find a way to come into your life......
BUT I need you to be COURAGEOUS
Because......
Jesus says......
“I have already OVERCOME the world”
Freedom family.....
We can either allow our challenges to potentially SHAKE our FAITH (shook up)
or.....
We can force our challenges to sit in God’s power to SHAPE our FAITH (shaped up)
(pause)
Look at it now....
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 text says.....
“there is a purpose in all of this......”
and that purpose is so that.....
…our faith and turst in Christ can show how strong or pure it is
(pause)
And then the text uses a metaphor by saying...
It’s worth more than gold.....
whereas Gold has to go through the fire to be tested
when the genuineness of our faith is tested by fire it is even more pecious than gold.
Because.....
.....when our faith comes out of the fire
.....the results are Praise and Glory and Honor when Christ is revealed.
(pause)
Here it is.....
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
Trials in our lives are not supposed to stop the work......
Trials in our lives are supposed to cause us to.....
“Go HARD!”
(pause)
Because according to the text......
Jesus says,
“The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact will do greater works than these!”
Greater - (Gk) - means - Megas or (mass/weight) which means “Measure, height, or length.”
Referring to number, quantity, or even age.......
Jesus understands clearly that.....
Our lives are going to experience struggles and difficulty.......
But......
Because of our FAITH in God!
Because we are EMPOWERED by the HOLY SPIRIT!
Because we are IDENTIFIED with CHRIST!
(pause)
CLOSING.....
There’s a Japanese art form known as Kintsugi.
It literally means “Golden Joinery”
It’s the process of using gold and metallic lacquer to put pieces back together.
It creates a beautiful golden thread through repaired pottery and other ceramics.
(pause)
And here is what blew me away.....
While kintsugi was first utilized as a way to fix something broken, artists discovered that the repair process ultimately made objects more beautiful than they originally were......
(pause)
And Freedom family......
We know that we are all broken......
.....But I would argue that God is MASTERFUL at making us look better when God puts us back together!
(pause)
Because God knows......
once I show them that BROKENESS can’t stop GREATNESS
My sons and daughters will look at themselves
..........and then they will look at me
and then look back at their trials and make the decision to.......
“GO HARD!”
(EXPOUND and CLOSE)
(pause)
..................................COMPLETION.............................
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