Untitled Sermon (2)

Last week we looked at 1 Peter 1: 1-12

Peter was telling them they were Elect exiles that this wasn’t there home and the pressure that they feel is because of what they believe.

There not being thrown it to prison and killed like in 96 AD but because of there faith in Jesus they are seen as a hurdle to progress. Like a problem to be solved. like they just bother them in there progress to the good life.

Peter reminds them that they have ben born again into a living hope through the resurection of Jesus Christ.

Not only do they have a living hope but they have a inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.

Guarded in heaven buy God and the hope that they have helps steward the suffering that life brings till we come into our future Glory with Jesus.

Today we are going to look at 1 Peter 1:13 “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.”

Peter jumps right in and says therefor amnd therefor is everything we just covered.

The first thing we are to do is to hope fully that’s the command to Hope fully

We are to prepare our minds

Setting our minds on the hope that we have in Jesus.

We’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus

That hope gives us great confidence to live with joy reguardless of lifes circumstances.

he says to prepare your mind for action.

We have a choice of what we dwell on

hope is a choice

we can choose what we give our thoughts to

how many of you talk yourself?

No one is as mean to you as you are

nobody talks to you the way that you talk to you,

I bet if someone talked to you the way that you talked to you my guess is you’d punch them in the face

we have a God given ability to chose what we think about.

We have the choice to allow it in our minds and to give ourselves to it.

Paul said this in Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

We have a choice to feul and cultivate anxity, anger and depression or we can choose to cultivate joy goodnees and gratitude.

to stir up the hope that lives in us

nobody forces you to listen to things that rile you up

A few years ago Stephanie and I used to like watching a TV serice that had came out we watched the first season and thought it was good and thought the second season would be good as well.

A couple of episodes into the second season you start to see them begin to push there world view.

One of the doctors was a christian and they put her in a situation to where she had to proform a obortion or loose her job. despite her conviction she did the abortion anyway to keep her job. It seemed like every show that we watched was trying to program us with a world view that we are a hurdle to the worlds progress to there good life.

Things like that rile me up you watch the news it riles you up. we decided we are going to stir up faith, hope, love and joy by the things we allow into our lives because the enemy wants to stur up anger, hate anxity, frustration and were just not going to give into it.

So why don’t we try to create inputs in our lives that stir up faith ,hope and gratitude?

Instead of giving our minds over to things that stir up anger, anxity and frustration. Everybody has a degree in whats wrong and they have grown bitter and cold.

Peter says prepair your minds and put your hope fully in the gospel.

How are we to live our lives by hoping fully on what Christ has done.

By setting our minds on what is good right and true through the word of God and his grace.

I want to be an expert in the stenghts of others and help them see the hope that they have in Jesus .

The world wants to give you something to be angry and frusrtated about the enemy wants to take your hope from you by the frustration of the world.

The hope we have in Jesus helps us to live in a world gone wrong.

Not only do we hope fully but we live holy

1 Peter 1:14-16 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””

Peter is saying in verse 14 don’t feed into the things that God has called you out of. We are to walk as obedient children not following after the things we once walked in but seeking to be like the one that saved us

In these verses Peter isn’t talking about Postional Holliness.

Postional holiness is when you say yes to Jesus and you submit youer life to him. You are forgiven by God and Jesus rightousness is give to you so that when God sees you he see Jesus and his rightousness because of the finished work on the cross at calvery.

God sees you as holy and blameless in his sight not because of what you did but God did something for you in Christ.

This is not what Peter is addressing. Here he is addressing transformational holliness Which means I am becoming more like Christ the more that I follow him and dwell in his presence

I am being conformed to the image of Jesus as the word of God comforts and confronts me when I read it. It bears wight on me Because he is holy and his word is holy and I am not.

The more That I get into the presense of a holy God the more he confronts me and my sin helping me to look more like his son Jesus helping me live a holy life

look with me at Isaiah 6:1-7 “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.””

The Frist thing that Isaiah recognized in the presence of a holy God was that he was lost and was a man of unclean lips.

What’s the first thing you see when you come into God’s presence?

Do you see God’s word ?as holy that has the power to Transform your life? that has the power to to confront you and your sin and help you to live a holy life.

Not in a legalistic way where you thing you have to live and act a certin way to be saved

Or do you see it as a bunch of rules like God is trying to take something from you.

God’s comands in the Bible isn’t him trying to take something from you it’s him trying to give you something that is far better for your life.

How can God be glorified if you begrudinglly serve him with a atitude like this is lame.

No God is trying to woo us into his design for life.

When he says sex this way He’s trying to give you something.

When he says money this way he’s trying to give you something.

When He says marriage this way he’s trying to give you something that is Good and fruitfull by his design.

But we want to give ourselves away for the cheap thing that’s easy that has been twisted by sin to keep you from the fullness of God

Peter’s saying don’t do that. Let the holiness of God when you get in his presence transform your life.

It’s not always easy to follow Jesus but it’s always about you being lead into the fullness of life.

Look with me at verse 17-18

1 Peter 1:17-21 “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

He says conduct your selves with fear throught out the time of your exile.

Fearing God is not teror, fearing God brings awe.

When Isaiah saw the Lord seated on his thrown it brought him to a place of awe for the Lord and he said woe is me.

Today there isn’t a healthy fear of God.

We don’t look at God and hias Holiness and it bring us to fear that creates awe.

He is Holy and we would do good to see him this way.

Jesus isn’t our buddy, yes he is a friend of sinners but he is also KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS

And he is going to judge the living and the dead and we feel the wight of that.

Knowing the price that was paid for our ransome should bring us to a place of awe.

Listen Jesus isn’t powerless to keep us. He wants us to be serious about about putting sin to death in our lives when he reaveals it to us.

Because what he is doing when he reveals these things to you is he is calling you into a deeper place with him conforming you to the image of his son that deepens the holiness of God in your life.

We have been ransomed not with things that perish but with the prescous blood of Christ.

We’ve been redeemed God paid a price that you and I could not pay.

Man I know who I am and this truth draws me to want a deeper relationship with him. to know more about the truth of why he loves me the way he does.

Peter is saying we are to live life like this we are to hope fully, live holy and fear God.

Then in 1 Peter 1:22-25 “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

Peter is saying are to love one another with a pure heart through the gospel.

Knowing knowing the price that God has paid for us through his blood.

The abillity to love God’s people is not rooted in there likabillity but in the shared story of redemption

We all share the same story we have been redeemed.

We look at the church like it’s a mess And we see people bailing on the faith. if you read the Bible the church has always been a mess.

We are the only place were everyone is in process none of us have it all togethter.

We look at everyone and all we see are inconsistancy

Were all inconsitant.

We don’t look at each other with the same grace that God has given us.

To demand that you get grace and no one else does is self rightouness because another christian isn’t up to your standard. If you want grace you better give it to someone.

Listen he says to love the brothers with a pure heart. A pure heart isn’t a perfect heart it’s just honest.

How many of you have christians you don’t like?

How many of you have Christians that don’t like you?

We may have diffrences but we move towards one another in the shared story of redemtion to love one another .

I’m not saying that you have to be best buddies but I am saying that because of our shared story we move towards love and not hate for the person.

Everyone in this room needs to find there few

And what I mean by that is everyone needs 2 or 3 people in there life that are going to see you to the finish.

Ladies you as well you need women in your life to see you through to the end.

This is not who your going to hang out with and watch the game

This is who’s going sheild to sheild with me? to come along side me and acknolgde there is a real enemy that hates me and wants to destory me.

He wants to isolate me , lie about me and destory me.

I need some brothers that are with me and instead of me being on the defensive we are on the offensive waging war aginst him.

Where are these people at in your life. this isn’t easy because we don’t want to let people in afraid they might hurt us.

We have a real enemy that doesn’t want us to love one another.

Listen I need some guys in this church to come along side me and fight with me. That know how to pray for me and me do the same thing for them.

We just don’t know where people are at and when we love one another we extend the same grace that we would want ourselve bcause of the grace that God has shown us.

We simply don’t know where people are coming from they may be far more mature than we think we just don’t know what they’ve been through.

Be paitiant be gracious. How paitent and gracious has God been with us.

Like I still can’t believe that I get to do this. I know me .I got real issues with me.

The stuff the Lord and I have been working on for the last 12 years. I don’t have that kind of paitiance But the Lord keeps moving towards me saying I got more for you than that. I fall down and he keeps picking me up.

You’d think That the longer you walk with him things would get easier and some things do but somethings persist but he keeps moving towards me calling me deeper to him.

So let me ask you. What are your inputs doing to you? The things you watch the things you listen to.

The things you let into your heart and mind? Are they framing and shaping goodness and gratitude in your life or are they making you bitter and clod with all thats gone wrong

What about holiness?

Do you see the commands of God and all you see are rules that you follow that are keeping you from something

Or do you see it as a invitation that God is trying to give you him and more of his presence That brings more joy to you than if you give yourself away to some cheap thing that sin offers.

What about reverence? The awe of a holy God. We are all going to stand before him naked as all get out. no secrects. That day is coming is there grace for it there better be or man were all in trouble.

the new testament dosent shrik back from the fact that you are fully loved and covered by grace. but we will also stand before a holy God one day and that creates reverence in our hearts.

I want to ask you have you allowed a root of bitterness towards another christian to grow in the deep in the soil of your soul? I’m not saying that you have to hang out with them and have accept what they have done to you. I’d caution against it.

But we do bring those things before the Lord over and over again not with a perfect heart but with a pure heart until he releases you from that.

I know what it’s like to be hurt by people.

We bring that before the Lord. When that root begins to well up indside you we bring it to the Lord . God I don’t want to hate this person you don’t hate this person. Help me to love them the way you do.