God is worthy of All Praise

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Introduction

It is easy when you are a part of a the majority. When everything goes your way and the people who are the minority disagree with you, and get in the way, you simply marginalized them out of the group. When individuals who go against God raise up questions, as the majority we over-rule them, the majority wins and God is Good and has all authority with us! Praise God ! He is Good!

But, what happens when the table turns and we become the minorities as Believers. By believer I mean someone who takes scriptures as all authority in our lives.

What happens when we fall into a situation where God is slowly being pushed out of our Nation. We no longer have Godly values, but we adopt human philosophy as truths?

2021, we are seeing it happen right before our eyes. Christian values are becoming obsolete. Christian values are slowly being removed from all policies and legal systems. Biblical values are also being marginalized out of even our own churches! Can you believe that?

We are becoming a Godless nation! Once we were the majority, One Nation under God! Now believers who hold onto biblical truths, are considered as ignorant, out-dated and inconsiderate.

Young boys and girls, deciding their own genders. Also which bathroom or locker room they want to use. Humans are now in charge or have taken authority over what God has created deemed as biologically; Male & Female.

Even in our own churches, Biblical headship is no longer valued as authorized and designed by God, but interchangeable now.

God doesn’t tell us what to do, we tell God what we want to do. Just as Christ was the head to the church ? Nah, Christ, you be the body, we’ll be the head. We will tell God how it should be. Let us give God a lesson.

In 2021, when you stand for biblical truth, you get ridiculed and are called out as ignorant or inconsiderate for others. There’s even mobs out there that will send terror your way. Slowly, they will try to destroy your churches. These ungodly ideology and ways will invade your churches. Everything you hold dear to about scriptural truth, will be marginalized out.

Listen to me Church, we are trending as the minority today. Everything scriptures says and teaches, is no longer authority, but it has become the minority or secondary. God is no longer the popular vote. Scientists and philosophers are taking over as the majority.

Focus: What are we talking about today?

Today, the mighty Apostle Peter marches into our lives, and he reminds us that even though the world may be ridiculing you, marginalizing you, casting stones or even making fun of you for your faith,

Even if we are the minority in this Nation as believers,

We must continue to Praise God, who is worthy of all Praise.

As Kx Tshaj Koob taught us last week as the Apostle Peter reminds us that “God has chosen us.” This week Apostle Peter reminds us, the chosen ones, of whom this God is.

And today, we will see that this God, that has chosen you and I, “He is a God worthy of all Praise.”

That amongst all chaos and attacks against our faith, God is still worthy of all praise.

That the remedy to our souls as minorities in an ungodly world, that our mighty God in Heaven, still remains glorious and worthy, worthy, worthy of all of our praise!

That is what we are talking about today,

God is worthy of all praise.

Prayer:

God of all praises, you are worthy. All things in Heaven and on Earth, let them sing praises to you. Let each star shine because of you. Let each rock sit in a posture of giving you praise. Let every stream that flows, let every animal, insect and person, live and breath underneath your majesty. When the sun is at it’s highest, and when the night falls, your Glory remains high above, and yet it never changes. We come today as a church, only possible because of your Mercy. Every morning that you allow us to wake in consciousness, belongs to you God. Every breath we take, every move we make, every moment of our lives, is a moment worthy of giving you praise. So come what may, in 2021. We still pray for our leaders as you commanded us to. So we pray for the new President Joseph Biden, whom is our 46th president. God give our nation wisdom and reminders of who you are. We pray for the leaders at CMA headquarters as well as our District leaders in the Hmong District. We also pray that our local Pastors and Elders make decisions which give you honor and glory, for you are truly the God who is worthy of our praise. We pray for the members in this community, to remain faithful, and to never forget to stop giving you praises. Have mercy on us as we continue to fail, as we are helpless on Earth without you God. Today, Holy spirit guide myself, watch my lips as I preach your word faithfully God, that these lips can only say praises about you God. Lead us this Sunday Morning Lord Jesus, our living hope. It is you God that our hope is placed in, until the day Jesus returns for the second and final time. We give you all praises and honor to our Father in Heaven, to the son Jesus Christ and to the Holy spirit who dwells in our hearts, We pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Preview:

God is worthy of all Praise,

The God who you and I worship, we shall give all glory and Praise to.

Every lip that can praise, shall praise our one true God, who is worthy of all Praise.

Movement 1: “God is worthy of all Praise”.

This is what we are talking about today, if you don’t catch anything else I say today, just remember that our God is worthy of all Praise

We know this because Apostle Peter starts his letter off by simply proclaiming it in

1 Peter 1:3a

Right after his greetings or salutation, Apostle Peter does not waste any time and says :

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Explain:

Apostle Peter knows what these believers in the Asian minors, as he calls them Aliens or minorities, are going through. They have a new Caesar who thinks he is God himself, and back in their day, Caesar was to be worshipped as God. Christians back would have to pay homage or worship Caesar, and if they didn’t, they would go to jail or get ridiculed. Today in 2021, we see that we have a new President, who puts out un-biblical policies, and if we don’t abide in such policies, we would be ridiculed, better yet punished under our legal system. Even though all of this is happening, guess what Peter says to them right away? Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter is saying, “Our God is a God who is worthy of all Praise, so let’s give praise to Him even now.” Even in these times of persecution, let us give God praise because he is worthy. This is the Big Idea or purpose of today’s sermon. “God is worthy of all praise!” So let’s praise our worthy God today!

The word “Blessed” is a way of saying “to Praise”, thus translating Peter’s big idea here into “Praise God who is all worthy”

It does not mean we are praising multiple Gods, but the one true God.

We give all praises to the worthy God! Peter leads us today with this marching order.

Today we have so many idols or hero’s that we praise.

Tom Brady is entering his 10th Superbowl appearance.

He has six SuperBowl rings

Even through he has left New England, you see his faithful followers still praising him and worshipping him. Even when the NE patriots had one of their worst seasons since Bill Bilichek became the head coach, the New England faithful still gives Tom praises.

Imagine if Christians were this faithful and committed to our God, giving our God praises for he is worthy of it all.

Some would argue Tom Brady will be the GOAT and live on forever.

Now I’m not bashing Tom Brady. He is a great Quarterback, who has accomplished great things as a leader and athlete. He demonstrates and represents hard work and dedication.

What I am doing is, using this illustration so that we can see, we are supposed to be that dedicated to God.

So this season as your situation changes, as you lose your favorite wide receivers. As you move to a new location, and have to work with different managers and coaches, as your community and circumstances changes this year, maybe you can’t attend the games with your season long tickets. Or maybe you can’t attend church in person as you normally do. Perhaps your situation is changing for the worse, may you continually praise our God who is worthy of all Praises.

I say to you, there is only one whose praise will last eternally. The only one worthy of All praises, is our God and our God alone.

Our God, definitely, is worthy of all Praise.

Let’s continue on to see if Apostle Peter tells us why God is worthy of all Praise.

Movement 2: We see in the next sentences of his letter that Apostle Peter tells us about a character of God. This character of God is very special because many things derive from it. So if God is worthy of all Praise, let us take a look at why God is worthy of all praise. According to Peter, God is worthy of all praise because of His great mercy.

God is worthy of all praise because he is merciful.

In God’s mercy we will see Apostle Peter highlight 3 truths for us: He lists out 3 special truths about God’s mercy for us, for why God is worthy of all praise.

Let’s take a look at these 3 truths together.

Truth #1

The God who is worthy of all Praise, In his Mercy has provided salvation for us

Verse 1 Peter 1:3 b:

“who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

Explain

we see that salvation was provided to us from God, strictly based on God’s mercy and decision alone.

If you study this passage, you will notice that man does nothing

It is from God’s mercy,

It causes us to be born again into a living hope,

It is done through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

God who is worthy of all praise has provided you and I, salvation by his great mercy.

It was very difficult to understand why God did these things out of “Mercy” and why the Apostle Peter writes to remind us of this great “Mercy”

I believe Mercy is the condition that drives these 3 truths about God. Mercy sets the stage and controls the interpretation of the following 3 truths

This is the key to understanding this entire passage and reasoning for writing such things during a time of persecution.

My beloved church brothers and sisters in Christ, we are not worthy.

we are Sinners

we don’t deserve any of this

we don’t deserve to be born again, we didn’t do anything to be born again.

Being born again is something God caused, meaning you and I, had no participation in it.

We definitely did not deserve Jesus dying on the Cross for us.

That was 100% from Mercy.

Imagine you are a Father who lives with your only son. Your Neighbor comes out with a shotgun to kill you

In response, you want to let your neighbor know how much you love Him, so you offer up your son.

illustration continued

Peter rights about God’s great mercy, because he wants us to know we recieved salvation, not because we deserved it,

but because we are no better than those unbelievers.

Notice Peter does not tell us to retaliate.

He does not tell us to live angry,

Instead, He reminds us to Praise our God who is Worthy, because we live under Mercy,

and that is the only reason we have salvation.

What does that look like today?

You may have found yourself in a situation where you stood up for God’s truth amongst your unbelieving friends or co-workers.

As a Hmong person, it’s even more relevant, today we do weddings and funerals the Christian way.

Perhaps you did a funeral with only 1 session, 1 day and one service. You’re doing it to Glorify God.

And here comes your relatives,

Why aren’t you respecting our culture,

Whey aren’t you doing it 3 days, doing it this way or that way.

You don’t honor our Hmong traditions and ways

You Christians are so disrespectful to your own people

As a believer, The way you respond would be this,

“How can I praise the God who is worthy of all Praise

You don’t retaliate back at those who curse you

Instead you praise God by simply remaining humble, and doing the things that will Glorify the God of your salvation

Instead, your response, is to Love that person who is actually attacking you.

What is the most loving thing you can do?

Instead of causing havoc and chaos, you act with love and patience, so that you can calm them down, and then through “Mercy” you preach the Gospel of salvation to them.

* You will face ungodly attacks from unbelievers this year.

“Why are you coming to church? don’t you know Covid is deadly? why are you still serving that church? they don’t care about anyone. stop going to Church and serving. Stay home! Or stop hanging out with those believers because they don’t respect our social concerns.”

May you reply with Mercy, so that you can build a relationship with those people. The way you praise God is by telling them about the Gospel from your lips. You live to give praise to the God who is worthy by showing mercy and demonstrating your salvation that was given to you only through Mercy.

We know that God who is worthy of all praise, and in his mercy He has provided salvation, next we will see that this Mercy has also given us a heavenly inheritance.

Truth #2, this is the second fruit of God’s character of Mercy.

The God worthy of all Praise, through His mercy has given us salvation, and now a heavenly inheritance.

The God who is worthy of all Praise, In his Mercy, has also given us a heavenly inheritance.

A inheritance that is not of this world but eternally secured.

God’s mercy provides us an inheritance that is greater than any treasure found on Earth, it is a heavenly inheritance.

We see this in

Verse 4:

1 Peter 1:4 the word of God says:

to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

Explain:

This inheritance, first of all, it comes from God. It is not something we are a part of, but it belongs from God.

First of all, this inheritance belonged to God and by Mercy it is freely given to us.

Secondly, this inheritance is not perishable. It simply cannot be destroyed nor taken away.

And lastly, Peter says that God has reserved it for you and I.

Now I’ve been disappointed many times when making reservations at restaurants.

Restaurant disappointment

In God’s mercy, he has given us a heavenly inheritance.

Let’s take a look at what this looks like today.

If I know that my heavenly inheritance is provided by God ;

How does this change my life?

Do I seek peace by the sense of security on these wordly investments

Remember that stock market rises, but then they also fall.

Gamestop stocks just rose like 700% in a few short days, but remember, it will fall again. Don’t put all your hope into these worldly currencies. Don’t put your hope in the inheritance of retirement plans.

Why am I saying this?

Every type of currency has a termination date. that day ultimately will be judgement day for this world.

This year, When I lose my job, and my 401k drops down 40% l, and my social security is totally diminished, am I without baffled because that is the inheritance that I strive for?

Will not be shaken as my heavenly inheritance is guaranteed by God.

You will not see me roaming and seeking for fortunes on Earth when the market crashes and all currency values drop.

We praise our God who is worthy of all praises, because of his great mercy, he has reserved already our heavenly inheritance which remains.

Truth #3

The God who is worthy of all praise, by his mercy has given us salvation, He has also reserved a heavenly inheritance for us and now the third thing we see from God’s mercy is that God gives us an eternal assurance of faith.

The God who is worthy of all Praise, In his Mercy gives us eternal faith assurance.

God provides you and I, a faith that has total confidence till the end of this world and into eternity.

It is a faith that does not give-in to dark times, but rather a faith that overcomes all seasons.

God’s mercy has provided to us, an eternal assurance of faith.

Where do we find this in scripture?

1 Peter 1:5

who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Explain:

It is a salvation that God holds, God protects, God defends,

The only way our faith is lost, is if God is somehow removed or defeated. We know that is an impossible thought as He is the creator of the universe.

In God’s mercy to us, he protects our faith, he defends it, he hold’s it for us until the day of Judgement.

Well wait a minute? I thought believers can lose their faith? And then somehow we have to revive our own faith? Isn’t this what some Pastors teach us?

Well I say, according to the Apostle Peter, and many teachings by the Apostle Paul, your faith is given to you by God, it is protected by God till the very end as it is written in 1 Peter 1:5

“who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”

What does this look for for us today?

Does this mean that true believers cannot lose their faith?

I always answer this to anyone who asks me that same question:

You cannot lose, what you did not gain by yourselves.

I rejoice to this truth because I am thankful my faith is assured not by myself, and my efforts. But it is assured and protected by God Himself.

Some days, I feel as though if my Faith was based on how I am doing as a human being, I would have 0 chance at getting into Heaven based on my own efforts and assurance of faith.

I thank God, He is the one who secures my faith, protects my faith and reveals my faith in the last time.

The counter-argument to this statement is this, “well if that’s the case, let me sin and do nothing everyday, because God has taken care of my faith assurance. Let us live carnal lifestyles right? It doesn’t matter?”

Remember, someone who has true faith, will be obedient to God and produce good works. (See the book of James)

So today, we find ourselves in the Mercy of our mighty God, who is worthy of all praises, and we see that he has given us a faith that is assured till the very end.

Our faith does not disappear, because we cannot meet on Wednesday night Bible studies. Even so! we shall continue to have faith and live faithfully, by studying the word of God on our own.

This year, you will come across opportunities to serve God. Your local church may reach out to you to serve again. The first though you will have is, well Covid-19 is too deadly. Everyone else is hiding, I’m sure my church will understand if I can’t serve during this pandemic. I’m sure God will understand, I mean it is a global pandemic right? So many churches are closing and so many members are no longer available. My faith is on pause until we return to “normal”

The correct response according to 1 Peter 1 verse 5 is this: Yes Lord, the faith you have given me, still remains, these trials will not make me lose faith. I will serve you faithfully as you are the protector of my faith, till the day Jesus returns. I am not alone, but God you are my defender of faith till the very end.

All these young Pastoral men & woman, who graduated from Bible College during these times.

Don’t trust your eyes and trust the economic downfall happening before you.

Remember who called you.

Remember who saved you.

Remember who is protecting you still, today.

Don’t forget your calling to serve God faithfully till the very end.

Even in today’s world.

Conclusion

Who is this God that Apostle Peter speaks about?

He is a God worthy of all Praise.

This year you will see that this world we live in, is changing.

As a believer, you will notice that your corporate jobs, your local an industrial work place, locally at your church, and especially with your local schools. There will be many changes causing us to become the minority as believers. You will be ridiculed for your faith in many ways.

We have already seen our new President making executive orders that have great implications to our communities.

This world we live in, is becoming more and more ungodly. You and I, are going to get ridiculed for standing firm in our faith.

Our societies will look at us and call names, tell us we are ignorant, we will be threatened and perhaps, I pray not for this to happen to anyone, but some violence may occur. The MOB will come after you or your church. They will perhaps even threaten your family. But let it be known that our God, in Heaven, remains worthy of all of our praises. We live under God’s mercy so may we never stop giving God the praises that He deserves. For we are sojourners. Living in this temporary world, as await the return of Christ. Do your best to have peace with others, even those who ridicule you. For praising God daily is of our primary concern. Do not stumble and give in to those who are persecuting you. Instead Give praise to the God who is worthy. Demonstrate the salvation that you had recieved from mercy. Live as though you have a inheritance kept safe in heaven, and march on with a faith that is defended and upheld by God Himself.

So when you find yourself in a place where you have been beaten down, feeling weak and alone and persecuted as a minority,

Get up, dust yourselves off, never forget, Your God is a mighty God who is worthy of all Praise.

Let us pray.