[0:00] You're listening to the sermon podcast of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. To learn more about us, visit our website at gracereformed.org.
[0:11] And now, today's sermon. I'm sure many of you were shocked by the news of the shooting that took place yesterday.
[0:22] As I scrolled through the various news feeds and outlets, I was disturbed to watch some of the footage of what took place.
[0:34] The frailty of life can catch us sometimes off guard. I was spending time with my family. We were laughing while others across the state were suffering the loss of a loved one.
[0:47] As breathtaking as this world can be, it is under attack by an evil force at times that we are blind to.
[0:59] And its mission is chaos and death for sure. And this evil spiritual realm wants to fill our minds with rage and violence towards each other.
[1:11] And it's moments like these that it is good to remember what life is truly about. Life is fragile, is very short, and can end sooner than expected.
[1:25] Therefore, how we live our lives should matter to all of us. Now, there's different attitudes. I thought about the way in which I felt after this news. But there's various ways that people have responded.
[1:37] I've seen it. I've heard it. Some go into preservation mode. Removing themselves from any potential danger. Some go into protection mode.
[1:48] Actively taking a role in fighting back against this type of evil. Some fall into severe anxiety over the dangers of the unknown.
[2:00] How one... I mean, there's probably many other ways of responding. But how one understands this world is going to determine how we respond and reply to these types of acts and this type of news in the future.
[2:17] Peter wrote this letter to those in his context that were dealing with the very same experiences that we are dealing with. With all kinds of different sufferings and maladies of life.
[2:31] Including the death of loved ones. By the persecution of their emperor. So what Peter is giving the church is a hope and a purpose beyond the circumstances that they find themselves in.
[2:48] Christians are not called to self-preservation but self-sacrifice. Which is the opposite of what the natural bent that we have. We want to save ourselves.
[2:58] We see ourselves as... As Christians, we see ourselves as expendable for the glory of the king. If we understand what has happened to our life in Christ, there's a new purpose for it.
[3:12] There's a new aim. And the harder we try to preserve our life, the more anxious, unhappy, and selfish we become. The world is falling apart.
[3:26] And it's being pit against each other. And because it's trying to save each other, we often attack to preserve ourselves. The only power that will save a world such as ours, and the Bible makes this very clear, is a gospel.
[3:47] Is a gospel kind of power. Because the gospel is the power of God. Which seems to be the last topic that most churches today seem to want to focus on.
[4:03] Sadly, the gospel is being lost. And this morning, I want to do a quick review because it's not new to our context. The gospel being replaced with other means is not new.
[4:15] Peter is dealing with it 2,000 years ago. By the way, me and myself and Justin Perdue were laughing about sometimes when people say, I just want to go back to our roots.
[4:25] I want to go back to the first church. No desire whatsoever. Have you ever read what went on in the first church? Whatever you think is bad here, they have us trumped by 10.
[4:38] It was bad. Right? Right? Right? So when Peter is writing to the church, he's writing to it at a point in history where it may have been at its worst. We might be trickling back to that moment.
[4:51] But he's writing to them to help them understand. So what I want to do for us to fully understand when he makes the statement, above all, he's making a comparative statement, which means everything else that he said before.
[5:03] So I want to do a quick review of the four chapters so that we can see in full color these instructions to the church. In a very situation that we are facing, we can feel fear, anxiety, greed, selfishness, abuse, anger, rage, depression.
[5:17] These are the type of the responses we're going to feel come up because it's rooted in something other than Christ. So we want to go remove ourselves from a self-preservation mind and find ourselves sufficiently in Christ as Peter is leading the church.
[5:36] This morning I want to show us through Peter's letter, these first four chapters, how we can be set free from these feelings that all of us have. Fear, anxiety, selfishness.
[5:48] And how to live a life in the midst of pain. So we're not going to remove the pain. We're not going to remove the suffering. But how do we find a life filled with joy and hope in such a world?
[6:01] So we have kind of really broken up this section into three. So Peter provides really three spiritual perspectives we're going to look at this morning, which then leads us into chapter four. First, it's a future protected by God's power.
[6:14] The second perspective he gives is the spiritual war we face. And thirdly, the purpose of our daily lives. It's just this is the whole section of four and five. The foundation's been set.
[6:25] Now how do we live in light of that? I don't think I've ever met anybody who doesn't think about their future. Even if it's the next five minutes.
[6:37] We're always thinking about what's to come. Now for those of you who have parents, our children can't see past the cookie that's in front of them, right? That's my future. That's what I want right there.
[6:50] We all wonder how our story is going to unfold and how it ends. It's very rare I meet someone who has followed their storyline perfectly.
[7:03] Very rare. Because we're not in control of it, are we? If we were in control of it, we would look a lot different than we do. We would act a lot different than we do.
[7:14] But unfortunately, because of a cursed world and an enemy that's attacks us, we all suffer. And sometimes we have these thoughts.
[7:28] Will anybody even miss me if I'm gone? Will I leave a legacy? Will I be poor? What will happen to my family? Will I even have a family? Church, I am not in any way, shape, or form immune to these questions.
[7:44] I often am able to write them down because I pull them from my own heart. I pull them from my own experience. The things that I have faced and what I struggle with as a human. It is normal to question what we can't see or possibly understand.
[7:59] That is normal. But sadly, we look to fleshly and worldly solutions to answer these questions. And so do I. Thankfully, our God loves us and has provided for us comfort and guidance if we are willing to hear it and believe it and obey it.
[8:17] Please turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 1. This section of scripture has probably become one of my favorite to comfort my heart in times of trial.
[8:28] This is why I titled the first section of the book, A Future Protection by God's Power, because we want that protection now, but that's not the promise.
[8:40] The promise is in the future. Look at 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
[8:57] So that means when we die, we have a living hope coming our way to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and kept in heaven for you. So anything that you could possibly want on this world, he says, I already have it secured and locked.
[9:12] And sometimes this is the way the Christian life is presented. How you perform now will determine how much of it you get. We do this to our children, right? You want video account?
[9:23] You want your allowance? You want whatever. We set the full reward at perfection, and as they obey, we remove it. This is not how God treats us. Keep reading. Verse 5.
[9:34] Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last times. So it is not by our strength that our future is secure. It's his.
[9:45] And I love how Peter starts this out. In this you rejoice, though for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. So the hope of your entire existence is based upon a performance not done by you, nor will be done by you, and it's a guarantee, and he calls it a future hope, a living hope.
[10:04] Because it's living according to God's power. This is what you have to fall back on in these moments of tragedy, because it reminds you, this is not God's final and ultimate destiny for my life.
[10:19] This world is not according to his perfect plan. But we all struggle to live in this present age. We can only see what is in front of us, and so our appetites drive us.
[10:31] And Peter is laying the foundation of our lives with we have nothing to work for or to keep that's been granted to us. So then what do we do with our lives? Turn with me to verse 13 of 1 Peter chapter 1.
[10:46] Because we've been rescued from a prison of our sin, and we've been blessed with the health and wealth and riches of our king, this is how we focus going forward.
[11:00] Verse 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.
[11:11] So our first and greatest hope is not anything in the world. That is hard, right?
[11:21] Does anybody else struggle with that? I'm sure on your way here, some of you were thinking about your finances, your health, your children, your country, the future of our country, right?
[11:32] There's so much that screams at us to hear this seems ethereal. Like, yeah, I hear you, Peter, but you're an apostle. You were special.
[11:43] You walked with Jesus. We, we don't get to walk with him. I'm thankful that Peter wrote these words because it was not a few years before Peter acted as we do.
[11:57] Where was he? Running, hiding, and cursing God. The men who God chose to use 40 days before they stood up on the day of Pentecost and proclaimed the power of God.
[12:10] You know where they were 40 days before? Shrieking and hiding in a dark, locked room where they were rebuked by women. What are you doing?
[12:24] And these are the men who write these. So they're not disconnected. They understand. They feel the pressures. It's a matter of time before we realize with enough experience and enough heartache and enough frustration that the world really does not offer the solution, but our king does.
[12:49] This is why we have a hope. He starts with the foundation of our hope and then he says this again in verse 13. Prepare your minds for action and being sober minded. Why? Because the hope that we should have as a foundation is going to be attacked.
[13:04] I was talking with a couple right before the service started. We were talking about the idea between the confusion that often happens between the law and the gospel. See, the law cannot save you or change you.
[13:17] It can't. The law is amazing amazing because it reveals to us the nature and power of God. The law is glorious according to David, but it is powerless.
[13:29] Rules do not change the heart of death and rules cannot motivate you to love your God. You know what's interesting? The greatest command we have is to love God and yet we can't seem to fulfill the rule.
[13:46] As parents, I finally gave up on this. You will love your siblings. It's like, sure I will, Dad. I will outwardly, but inwardly I will not. What, this is a little bit ahead of myself, but what draws us to love others?
[14:02] John says, it's God's love for us. Right? So the law is the demands of perfection, but the gospel is the good news that he was perfect on our behalf and loves us and cares for us.
[14:15] What Satan wants to do is get us focused focused on something that is good, the law. But if he can keep us there and abandon the gospel or at least put it in the background and shade it, do you know what he has?
[14:28] He has got us in a state of hopelessness. It is not the law that is the power of God. It is the gospel that is the power of God. And so therefore, prepare your minds for action because the gospel will be under attack at every moment of your life going forward.
[14:44] just like the prodigal. We want to prove to God we deserve to be a part of his family and his mission. It is not because of what we do. That has already been secured.
[14:55] That's why these first three verses in Peter are so foundational for us. So we are not going to fight this war with our bodies and our minds and obedience to the law, but we are going to stay focused on what it is that Christ has promised and done.
[15:11] And this is what Paul says, how you have started this relationship with God. He graced upon you faith. He cleansed you and robed you and lives inside of you. You believe that?
[15:22] You have eternal life. He says, that's the same way you now live by faith and sufficiency in the power of Christ. Our bodies are going to want to take control. We're also going to try and figure out how to talk.
[15:37] We're going to want to come up with our own solutions. And Peter says, prepare your mind for actions and be sober minded, which means don't be intoxicated by the wisdom of the world.
[15:48] And what does he say? Put your hope fully on the grace that's coming, not in a relief now. Every week, we focus on the power of the gospel.
[16:00] I don't know about you, but today's songs, probably because I was thinking about this, it was just one wave of his grace upon another. in our weakness, in our frailty, his love ever endures.
[16:13] By the way, he is not just looking over our sins. He covers them with the blood of Christ. There's a difference, right? If we intoxicate our minds with this world, then we can quickly turn our hearts to the very thing that is a vapor and we're not only not effective for others, but we negatively affect them.
[16:33] And this leads us to the next portion of the letter that Peter's warning about. So he starts with this firm foundation, the future protected by God's power. This is how we live every single day of our life, but what are we going to be faced with?
[16:45] Number two, a spiritual war. This is the second perspective he is introducing the church to as they suffer. Over the last few weeks, we have covered some very strange passages.
[16:58] Some of you have come up to me and said, I've never thought about Sheol or giants or spiritual warfare or demons like this before. It has been strange.
[17:11] There are times I get up here and I am thoroughly nervous to see how you are going to reply to some of these strange portions of the Bible. But through these stories, we are given new eyes to see what is happening in a world.
[17:28] I had the joy and pleasure of teaching the youth this week. that is coming to an end soon but I am trying to enjoy it as much as I can. By the way, for all of you that donated and supported the youth to go, you have no idea the impact these kids have had on each other.
[17:46] I have actually had to tell my kids to stay home a little more than I normally do because they are wanting to hang out all the time and do good things with the youth. I was like, hey, dad gets to see you sometime too, right?
[18:00] But we were talking about what we were covering at summer camp which is trying to, we live in this third dimension, right, where we can see things and the Bible talks about the fourth dimension where there is a reality you cannot see and it's the spiritual reality and at times the Bible peels it back and you can see it.
[18:18] And what's funny is that the entire Bible is written for you to learn, engage, believe, and fight in that fourth dimension. This is why Paul says we're not wrestling against what you can see.
[18:31] You're wrestling against what you can't see. He says you're wrestling against a spiritual realm that cannot be touched with physical hands but is defeated by words, right? The weapons of our warfare is truth.
[18:43] This is what Peter is trying to get at when he talks about preparing your minds for action and be sober-minded, the spiritual war actually happens right here. That is, that's the hard part.
[18:54] It happens right here. Unfortunately, many of us ignore the war and it's evidenced in our actions. It's evidenced in the way in which we speak, in the way in which we dress.
[19:08] See, the enemy gets in through the ear gate and the eye gate and if we're not being sober-minded and washing and protecting ourselves, this is the very thing we were talking about last week where Peter is warning the congregation against sensuality and against lust and anger and he's gonna go on to some more of these warnings in the next chapter.
[19:24] But this is why Peter tells the story why even from day one in the creation story from Genesis 3 on, angels coming and creating giants and showing this rebellious spiritual realm interacting with the physical realm.
[19:44] And Peter tells of how Jesus, when he was crucified, descended into this pit, this place called Sheol or Hades, the place of the dead and it says that he set captives free and he declared victory and grabbed keys.
[19:56] I mean, all of this seems like a fantasy to us but he's telling Peter is writing to a congregation that is feeling the pain and suffering of a city coming down on them for saying only Yahweh is God, there is no other God and if you proclaim that publicly, you will be persecuted and he tells them this story to encourage them.
[20:17] You know what's fascinating to me? He doesn't give them the law, he doesn't give them a motivational speech of keep trying harder, he goes, let me remind you who was victorious over the very realm you're still fighting.
[20:30] Jesus was. So this is why it's important that Peter engages us in the spiritual war because these agents of darkness are still practicing spiritual warcraft against the church and the way in which I've been able to see it lately in my own heart and the hearts of others is what we allow our minds and our hearts to do, what we allow our mouths to do, the things that we say to each other and Peter reminds us that Jesus is one and if we rest in his gospel and his truth and protect our minds from being infiltrated by these lies, then we actually have a place where there's joy and peace but without it there is no comfort.
[21:15] the most significant damage Satan has done to the modern church is to convince them there is no power in the gospel and there is no power in their Bible and so we use it as a guide but not actual power.
[21:37] Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 5. I think we ignore these stories that are weird and strange in God's word because they make us feel uncomfortable especially with our neighbors who may not be faithful Christians or Christians at all and it makes it seem like we're like the pagans who believe in Zeus and Thor, weirdos who are uneducated, Vikings who are just violent people full of rage.
[22:11] There is a reason why Paul in Rome in the midst of all the other worshipers of other gods he goes I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed to proclaim it because whatever power they're believing in this message has God's power.
[22:28] And so we hardly believe Satan and his army exists because we have ignored the war throughout the whole Bible and this is why so easily we find ourselves filling our minds with lies.
[22:42] This is how he describes it. We're going to do a full exegesis on this passage later full explanation. This is 1 Peter 5 and look at verse 8. Again, once again he connects spiritual warfare to sober mindedness.
[22:55] Be sober minded be watchful your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking who may devour. You see we think of that command as like oh yeah like demon possession and evil voodoo worship.
[23:10] He does not mention that. He's mentioning the power that comes through the intoxication of the mind which can be the subtlety of lies.
[23:22] The moment that we actually believe it's okay to indulge in the little sins what we call the white acceptable sins. I love this when a group of people get together for the first time and it's like hey let's confess how everybody's doing you know and you got that the typical first confession yeah just just pray for me man I really have been struggling with pride.
[23:41] It's like wow you went deep on that one and we appreciate you sharing that with us. Right because why is pride acceptable?
[23:53] It's just one of those sins that's okay. Right you don't hear people stand up and say yeah I've been really struggling with rage lately like whoa rage that's a whole other level than pride.
[24:08] I've been struggling with lust and envy I've been struggling with jealousy honestly towards my other brothers and my other sisters. We allow sin to infiltrate into our minds the little acceptable ones and this is where Paul is warning us if you let your mind slip into love of this world in any way shape or form you will be under attack and you will be taken out and I'll explain what that means here in a minute but the way I've been trying to explain this to the youth lately is that your mind is the data bank of your body and your body draws upon your mind I mean this is true of anything right if you're about to go take a test what do you put into your mind so that you can appropriately pass the test you put the data in there that's needed I mean that seems logical right it's not what I like to call rocket surgery it's one of my favorite terms I learned in the south it's not it's not really complicated to think that when my body is required to act or react what is it going to immediately draw on what it knows what's been put into the mind so this is why he says do not be like the world
[25:19] Romans 12 do not be conformed to the world and he makes it very clear afterwards by the renewal of your mind so if we fill our minds with suggestive grotesque evil even if it's sanitized through humor which I have found that our culture just makes a joke about things that are gross and all of a sudden it's okay it's okay comedians get away with it a lot but they're vulgar and I don't think it's funny to put vulgarity into our minds because we don't understand what it's doing if that's what's filled in our hearts and our minds immediately what are we going to draw on when we are required to face action so he says be filling our minds protecting our minds be sober minded not intoxicated with the world this is this is this is why we gather week after week to renew our minds with the power source far greater than the foes we face we feast on the gospel of grace week after week to have strength to say no to sin and yes to the will of our king that's why at times throughout the years I've been accused of emphasizing grace too much and I said well until satan stops talking about sin I'm not going to stop talking about grace because it's a war he is constantly attacking us at everywhere we turn therefore we have to counter that attack with more grace see it's logical to me because I don't believe that I have the strength to say no to my flesh
[26:50] I don't believe I have the strength to say yes to the will of God if I do not have his power and so this leads us to our last spiritual perspective that Peter gives to us so we've talked about the future protected by God's power that's our foundation what's going to attack that foundation is the spiritual warfare we face now he's going to talk number three about the purpose of our daily lives this is how it flows out the next two chapters what does this look like in the church what does this look like at home we've dipped in and out of that a little bit in chapter two but he's going to really jump into it now see the first two points can really feel kind of otherworldly it sounds great on Sunday but how do you practice living constantly breathing the gospel day in and day out right you wake up tomorrow morning and you're immediately faced with bills a problem at work and children who seem to love sin because I'm a parent who loves sin so I got a double problem how do we do that this is where
[27:54] Peter's section of his letter is helpful for us this morning so turn with me to first Peter chapter four and we're going to begin looking at what we covered last week which is verse seven he says this the end of all things is at hand or the end of this age is here this last stage of God's redemption and he says it again therefore be self-controlled and so reminded for the sake of your prayer Peter is so worried about what goes on in our brains but he always points us back to the hope we have in Christ not in our own self-will I covered a lot of this last week so I'm going to just kind of build on that and jump into verse eight because he makes this comparative statement he said a lot for this point a lot a lot of the things that we should focus on and do but then he makes this statement in verse eight above all okay everything else that I've said that I need you to work and focus on this is the primary this is the focal point keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins most critical point of everything that I need you to do and in
[29:08] Peter's mind the greatest gift a believer can give to each other is not just love in general but love genuinely a real affectionate love just to remember from a couple of weeks ago how does the Bible describe God's love for us this is the same love we're giving away he describes it as unconditional while we were yet sinners Christ demonstrated his love for us sacrificial the greatest demonstration of love is that a man lay down his life for his friend and lastly unending right there is no end there's nothing that will separate us from the love of God so if we're drawing on that view of the love which comes through the gospel we're drawing on the unconditional sacrificial unending love of God that's the genuine love that we give each other and this may sound simple and even worthless in our minds but it's powerful when you understand what Peter is introducing to a suffering church Peter has called the church this mobile temple he says every single person is part of this mobile temple of God you've all been robed which means you've been recruited you have been given a title and this is priest which means you have become the representative of God to each other and also to the lost world in other words we will need each other to fulfill the very mission that's been given to us and it requires that each of us reflect this mission in love so how is this body to function
[30:40] Peter says the greatest focus of this member is loving each other now hold on everybody look up here I get this follow me I know most of you in here I know a lot of your stories I was a pastor's kid and I grew up in church and I've been a part of many churches when this command comes as to some of us it's very hard it's very hard why because we've been hurt and abused and taken advantage of and lied about in the very thing Peter says we are to love many of you come in here very cautious and shy and I understand why because the church became the playground of Satan and he used it as a weapon and it was happening in Peter's day this is why
[31:40] Paul has written some pretty stark warnings James his warning on the tongue is scary right because of what our tongue can do we can speak words of life to people that can literally cause them to move from suicide to absolute joy or we can move words where the person says I don't want to live anymore because if this is a place where God's presence is felt then God does not exist we've all felt this at some level so I want to point out that I understand there's complications in Peter's commands when he says that sin covers a multitude of sins what he means is the affection that flows from our king which we have already have found the foundation of in the first three verses that's the kind of love that covers a multitude of sins but not transactional love the patience and kindness that our
[32:44] God shows us because of his love is what he's calling us to do the same and so there is a difference between earthly love and the genuine love of the gospel I think this is why I have no hope other than to preach Christ and him crucified in the gospel of Jesus Christ in grace so that we all may have a sliver of chance at giving that to each other and being refreshed and renewed some of you in this room know what it feels like to receive that kind of love it really is life giving you could be dying of cancer you could have lost a loved one you could be on the brink of utter destruction and the affection of another brother and sister changes everything and God knows this it's a weapon that the world does not understand it cannot understand because it comes from
[33:44] God why can love cover sin that we commit against each other because love is more about giving than it is about receiving turn with me real quick to 1st John chapter 4 I love how John describes this he's described as the apostle to whom Jesus loved I think this man understood how unlovable he was and yet was overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus would love him it wasn't a title of achievement above others it was a title of affection he loves even me he loves even me 1st John 4 10 and this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins to be the repayment the place the replacement for our sins this is so different from human love but jump down this is this is this is good look jump down to verse 18 this is how you know when real love has stepped in there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love then John says we forget the first verse we always quote the second then John says we love this way we love because he first loved us see love is not the acceptance of sin love is not me accepting your sin but love is to love someone in spite of their sin to overlook it with
[35:36] God's grace and mercy he says above everything else I've said to survive in a world full of pain and darkness and to advance the mission of God so that others might be received into this love above all love each other it's the one thing that's under attack you see he's been warning us about our minds because our hearts can be drawn to love the flesh can be drawn to love satisfaction sensuality we're always being twisted in our minds about what love is and the gospel is that constant reminder that love has nothing to do with performance of self but everything to do with God therefore we can actually become expendable what's hard about church is that we don't feel that time is worth the payout see our mind is I'll put the time in at church if I feel like it's going to be beneficial for me sometimes people show up in their first or second week and you know what the question they ask me is what can
[36:41] I do what can I do what can I help and I was like whoa now that's not normal it's refreshing versus tell me about your programs tell me what you offer and I just smile and I kind of graciously without saying these words say these are not the droids you are looking for these are not the these are not the churches that you're looking for we're broken we're gonna hurt you we're messy we get together and we spill guts on each other and it's a mess but you know what we love to do we love to give each other the gospel we love to try encourage and build one another up to not sin again but you have to first confess the sin in order to be freed from it so if you want to know if this is a place where you can hear the gospel confess your sins and reach the culture around us yeah this is a actual church that wants to do this this week in our men's group we do this at the end of all of our time together praised to give a sin to confess a burden to carry something to pray for and we had some men who really confessed some deep struggles with sin this week and you know what they were met with not a free pass not a pat on the back and say well we all struggle too man no they were met with love and compassion as men stepped up and said
[38:15] I'm going to help you fight this sin because I love you because I love you love is not to overlook the sin love is to consider it and say it will not affect my relationship with you and I will be here to love you through it so Peter is looking at a church that's really hurting and saying man if you guys really want to make it through you have to love each other I know there are many who are here today and think that their life is probably meaningless because there's no way that God's going to ever use them especially in this idea they're too broken or some might say that's good for the little people but I have bigger talents and bigger money and bigger fame and I'm going to use that he said above everything else church no matter what your status is in the congregation we're to love each other and so we can easily slide into our routines that keep us from loving each other because our minds have been intoxicated to self-love and preserve ourselves we don't want to lay our lives down because I don't believe that's real joy there so Peter is giving us a new perspective on life first we're safe we don't need to try and preserve ourselves anymore we can actually die for a king it's totally called for second we're in a war and that war is to cause our hearts and our minds to get off the message of the gospel and so that
[39:41] Satan does not have to worry about us proclaiming the power of God that saves people and number three we truly can fulfill the mission that we've been given by purely as crazy as it sounds being loving being loving it's crazy a community that is truly healthy and caring for each other is a powerhouse that Satan cannot touch because our minds are sober our hearts are full and we are not going to allow the destruction of self-innish into our congregation so Peter talks about this in this letter and his second letter which we'll get into in the next few months don't ask me when we're going to be done we'll be done when we're done so so I didn't want to try and put this into two sermons he starts with love and then what does he go to hospitality so he then explains what does love look like it looks like being hospitable using the gifts that
[40:45] God has given us for the benefits of others and understanding that our words he calls them oracles that the words that we speak to each other actually come if they're coming from a love of God through the gospel that we can hear them as God's words to each other and at the end he goes when you serve each other this way all glory goes to God you see I don't want to love you and then you at the end go man John John's amazing person well that was then I don't know what I did I did something wrong I want to love you and at the end you go God is an amazing God I don't need your praise I am nothing I'm actually terrified for you to find out just how wicked I am but then I remember you're too also a sinner so I'm in a safe place because we're all in equal need of God's grace so my encouragement to you is then how is it that we are to love each other you have to be in proximity you have to be in life with you have to feel comfortable enough to open up your mind and your heart to go
[41:49] I'm not okay I've struggled I've done wrong and if you want to fulfill the very law of Christ which is to carry the burdens of others you actually have to be around to hear the burden so this is why we have created and structured our church in such a way where that throughout the weeks we give you opportunities to sit down with other men and other women to confess this to talk about this we even do it with the youth we divide the youth up into smaller groups so they have the opportunity to learn now what they need to be when they turn 18 19 and 20 so this weird transition doesn't happen where they go out of the church and have nothing to do I want us to be able to truly understand what does it look like to live in a church that says this church loves me and I love this church because of what Christ has done for me this is what he means by above all love let's pray father I'm so thankful that I don't stand up here as one who has figured it out you don't require me first to be perfect in order to proclaim but you've picked sinners to proclaim the gospel and so Lord may we all be convicted this morning of our selfishness and we all be comforted by your gospel so that we all may love one another this morning in Jesus name amen thanks for listening to the sermon podcast of Grace Reformed
[43:17] Church in Spring Hill Tennessee where everyone is in equal need of grace to plan a visit or to learn more about us visit our website at gracereformed.org intelligent hell19