Look Forward
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How do we navigate a life full of ups and downs. Highs and lows. At times, a life that feels chaotic.
Peter has given us a few ideas from chapter 5 of 1 Peter.
The first one we talked about was found in 5:6-7: I told y’all to Look Up!
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Humbly look up to God who’s might hand is coming down to help you.
It’s not a mighty hand of oppression meant to crush you or hurt you.
It’s a mighty hand coming down for you to grab on to so that he may lift you up!
Look Up!
Last time I told y’all, as we looked at 5:8-9, to Look Around.
This is war! Get your head in the game! You have an enemy who is a lot stronger than you and a lot smarter than you.
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
As you look around for your enemy, you are fighting him with faith in Christ. “Firm in your faith”.
You don’t fight him with your own efforts, your own works, by what you do or don’t do… Those are merely things that are a result of what you are really fighting him with! YOUR FAITH!
Today, for our last look at 1 Peter. We are going to see from verses 9-11 that we need to
Look Forward!
Look Forward!
To what some like to call Future Grace.
These are the things that Jesus has promised to do for us in the future.
So we are looking forward.
And if we read the end of verse 9, we see our first reason we need to look forward.
1. Because, now, we experience suffering.
1. Because, now, we experience suffering.
9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
According to Jesus and the Apostle Paul, Satan is the current ruler of this fallen, broken, and sinful world.
As a result of this roaring lion wreaking havoc here and now, we experience all kinds of sufferings.
Sickness
Heartache
Abuse
Strife
Sin
All of these troubles are realities right now!
Even Jesus promised us that we would experience.
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Even Jesus’ life was marked by tribulation and suffering.
homelessness
hunger
loneliness
terror
betrayal
abandonment
torture
death
Jesus experienced what we all experienced. Suffering.
Main Point is that this current experience isn’t worth our hope!
I’m not guaranteed
perfect health
lots of money
lots of friends
success and stability
NO! All of these things can be taken away in the blink of an eye!
BUT!!
This leads me to the last reason we need to look forward:
God has promised us a glorious future!
God has promised us a glorious future!
C.S. Lewis, when he was commenting on suffering and his let down experiences said this.
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Peter agrees!
10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
GOD HAS CALLED YOU!
TO ETERNAL GLORY!
There is going to be a day when all of life’s heartaches, mistakes, sufferings, wars, blunders, all terrible things that are a result of sin, satan, and death… THEY WILL BE REVERSED and joy, love, pleasure, and all that we were meant for will be a perfect reality.
No sin.
No war.
No sickness.
No death.
All will be made new.
Peter uses these words:
Restoration - things brought to where they were meant to be.
Confirmation - Your hope in christ will be proven to have been worth it.
Strengthening - There will be zero weakness or feebleness in the resurrected kingdom.
Establishing - Essentially a steadfast permanence.
To make it even better, Peter exalts God’s power and dominance in the realities he’s been expressing!
11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
This is why we must look forward.
Peter actually started this letter, with this idea: that this forward thinking is supposed to dominate our worldview. How we see everything. What we hope in!
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So, Look Forward to what awaits you!