[0:00] You will join me in your Bibles in 1 Peter chapter 1 just for a moment. Thank you so much for ministering to us in song. In your song, Jaden's song, you said, this is what we do to bring a message of God to help see you through.
[0:14] And you accomplish your mission tonight. And we thank you for doing that, using your talents for the Lord. With a few moments we have remaining, I don't have singing ability, but I get a few minutes and I have an open Bible.
[0:26] And so I would like to encourage you in this one expression, and about a lively hope. Let's not give up today. We have a lively hope. And I want to make sure you understand what those two words mean from this passage.
[0:41] You know it was extra special, Jared, to get to hear you up here saying, I always followed your dad through the years and what he raised you. Always had you in church around the things of the Lord. To see you living up, using the talent God gave you is super special.
[0:54] I'm glad that every one of our kids in here got to see that. And that's what we want for them, to take whatever God's given them and use it to point towards Jesus. Like we heard this morning about John the Baptist, these people used what they had to point towards Jesus.
[1:07] 1 Peter 1, verse 3-5. Blessed be the God and Father, Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith, and the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
[1:33] And ushers, if you wouldn't mind preparing, take the offering. I'm going to pray, and then we'll have the offering as we look at this passage. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we had heard tonight.
[1:43] Lord, through song, you remind us of your goodness, through testimony, through the life of a young boy named Jaden. Lord, you have encouraged us that not in the circumstances of this world, but our anchor can be found in you, and you alone, Lord, are our living hope.
[2:02] And Lord, tonight we look to you. As a song that was sung, Lord, we should never give up. It is too soon. Pray that you'll encourage my brothers and sisters tonight in the Lord to hold on to you, Lord, knowing that you are good and you are loving.
[2:17] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. This morning we looked at John the Baptist, and we said that he was a reed not shaken in the wind, and that's who we would want to be. Every one of us would like to be John the Baptist.
[2:28] But the Bible has a lot of different personalities. You know, the book of Luke that we just started in has more unique words than the other gospel records, right? And that should be expected that Dr. Luke would, say, have a bigger vocabulary than Trent from Kentucky would, right?
[2:43] Or from Mark or somebody else. Dr. Luke uses more unique words that God, his infallible word, communicated to us, but he did not change the personality of the writer, that he used them and that God uses different people.
[2:57] Somebody we haven't seen in a while because we've been in the Old Testament is the Apostle Peter. I want to remind you of something about his life. I would like to be like John the Baptist, not a reed, shaken in the wind.
[3:08] But Peter is mentioned in the gospel more than anyone else except for Jesus. No one speaks in the gospel more often than Peter. Jesus spoke more to Peter than any other individual. Jesus rebuked Peter more than any of the disciples.
[3:21] Jesus was the only disciple who dared to rebuke Jesus. Peter confessed Jesus more boldly and accurately than the other disciples. Peter denied Jesus more forcefully and publicly than any disciple. Jesus praised Peter more than the other disciples.
[3:34] Jesus addressed Peter as Satan and said, get behind these Satan with the other disciples. When Jesus woke up early in the morning to pray before the sun came up, Simon Peter led the other disciples to find Jesus to tell him what he should do.
[3:47] Peter put his nets out at the direction of Jesus to bring him a massive catch of fish. Peter stepped out of the boat during a raging storm, walking on the water with Jesus. Peter was the one to say, Lord, to whom shall we go?
[4:00] Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and assure thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, which is the proclamation we make as a church, that God will build upon that. Peter saw Jesus transfigured in glory together with Moses and Elijah.
[4:14] Peter cut off the right ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest, when the soldier came to arrest Jesus. Peter denied Jesus three times, cursing and swearing that he did not know this man. Peter was the one who ran to the disciples of the tomb with the other disciples to the tomb after hearing the report of the women that the body of Jesus was not in the tomb.
[4:33] And that's always funny because we learn that John was faster, but I guess he had to catch his breath because Peter went in there first. Peter was the one who received the personal visit from the resurrected Jesus on the day of resurrection.
[4:45] What I see in Peter is I just see a Christian life that has plenty of ups and downs, walking on the storm, but also denying Christ. And so I would like to be like John the Baptist and be that re-nut shaking in the wind.
[4:58] But so many times I'm like Peter when my life is just up and it's down. I ride those emotions in every direction. But God used Peter to give this expression of a lively hope.
[5:09] It's Peter in 1 Peter 1.15 that says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with the meekness and fear.
[5:21] Isn't it wonderful that Peter, who had denied Christ and who in that moment wasn't ready, says that every one of us should be ready at all times to give a reason of the hope that is in us.
[5:33] In Romans, the Bible describes hope like this. Romans 4.21, And being fully persuaded what he had promised, he is able also to perform.
[5:44] Miss Deborah talked about having a hope that was outside of our circumstances. To say that I am going to look to Jesus and him alone. Whenever faith in God looks to the future, it can be called hope.
[5:55] Our faith in God looking to the future is called hope. And so here we're told three reasons that Peter says that we can say that we have a lively hope. First of all, it says, according to his abundant mercy, we are completely undeserving.
[6:10] Your life will change in your up and down, but God's mercy is consistent through all of our stories. Not only that, it says he has begotten us again. We were once without hope.
[6:23] We were once aliens and strangers. But now we have hope because we've been born again. We've been given a new birth. And then also we have a lively hope because the living hope in Jesus Christ.
[6:35] First Peter 1.21, Who by him do they believe in God that raised them up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. Our assurance as Christians is certain and sure because Christ is alive.
[6:49] It's a lively hope. That means it's sure, it's certain, it's real. As opposed to deceptive and empty and a false hope, we have a lively hope and we should rejoice in it.
[7:00] My wife, Stephanie, that's the only wife I have, but her name's Stephanie, all right? Stephanie's always saying, Trent, people like it when you give us something to write down and they like lists. I don't know if that's true, but Stephanie, I have five things I'd like to say to you about a lively hope that could help you on Monday when we are scared about the future of our children, of many of our friends.
[7:23] Here's five things I'd like to say to you about our lively hope. Our lively hope means that we see life more clearly because we have faith in an unseen God. See, Peter is already writing the people that have never seen Jesus.
[7:35] Jesus has already ascended. He's speaking to people like you and I. We didn't walk with Jesus. We didn't eat with Jesus. Whom, having not seen, you love and whom, though you not seen him, not yet believing, yet rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory.
[7:48] Even though I've not seen Jesus, I know him and I love him because he was revealed to me through this Bible and through Sunday school teachers that taught me the Bible and through friends that opened up the Bible.
[7:59] I know Jesus and I love Jesus and though I don't see him, I have faith in this life, yet not seeing him, I love him. A faith that keeps us. Faith in God doesn't only save our soul from eternity, but it saves our mind in this world that we live in.
[8:16] Saves us from that straitjacket. My faith in God that I do not see has saved my mind from destruction because we see things clearly who have kept by the power of God through faith and the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
[8:30] My faith in an unseen God allows me to see life more clearly. And so that's a lively hope on a Monday. Number two, our lives have been changed by knowing and loving God. Love is a response to what you know.
[8:42] Though we have not seen him, we know him. It would be hard to love God if we had not seen him, but we did not know him, but we do know him from his word. I've already said that. Number three, we have a joy that is unspeakable.
[8:55] It is the truth that we rejoice in, the truth of his mercy, our new birth, the resurrection, wherein we greatly rejoice. Verse six, our joy goes beyond the comprehension.
[9:07] Our joy goes beyond this world's comprehension. How does God keep a family at a time like this when everything is falling apart? Our joy goes beyond the world's comprehension, but it also goes beyond our vocabulary.
[9:19] Larry, it's unspeakable. I don't know how to say it. So there's no one song that's going to do it. So God's going to need them to write many songs, and he's going to need you to write songs, and he's going to need people in other languages to write songs, and he's going to need every one of us writing every song and saying everything we have to say because words are not enough to express the joy we have because we have a living hope in the resurrected Jesus.
[9:43] And we even have joy in our sorrows. We do not have joy and sorrow. It's not off and on. It's not that we have good days or we have bad days. It's that even in the most difficult times of our lives, our lively hope in Jesus gives us a joy.
[9:59] Wherein you greatly rejoice, verse 6, though now for a season, if need be, you are heaviness through manifold temptations. 2 Corinthians, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.
[10:10] This kind of faith of a living hope can enable us as believers to rejoice even when they're called on to suffer grief and all kinds of trials. Even our trials can become an occasion for joy.
[10:23] God takes Jaden's and he makes beautiful songs and he encourages people in this. God takes what's in your life and in your hardest days he can give you joy because our hope is alive and our hope has a name and his name is Jesus.
[10:38] And then lastly, we have been kept for an inheritance that has been kept for us. We have something reserved for us in heaven, an inheritance that's incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us.
[10:50] But we who, in verse 5, who are kept by the power of God through faith and the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. I just know Peter. I know I see him. He's the kind of guy that loses his keys, right?
[11:02] He's the kind of guy that's all over the place who's up and he's down. Another key loser right here, okay? I'm a key loser as well. One time my wife and I lost our keys on top of our house.
[11:13] I'll tell you about that another time. But here's Peter who says, God, if you give me anything to keep I'm going to lose it because I may be there in one moment but in the next moment I am going to be denying you and I shouldn't.
[11:27] But God, if you will keep me then I will be kept. I have a hope in that because if you give it to me I'm going to mess it up. But I have a living hope. I have a Jesus Christ who overcame death, hell, and the grave and he says I'm going to keep your inheritance in heaven and I'm going to keep you.
[11:43] So we have a lively hope and how does it make a difference on Monday? We see things more clearly because we have a faith in an unseen God. Our lives have been changed by knowing and loving him. We have a joy that is unspeakable.
[11:55] We have joy even in our sorrows and we are being kept for an inheritance that is kept for us. Whenever faith in God looks to the future it is called hope. And because of the resurrection we have a lively hope that is worthy of talking about tomorrow and it's certainly worth us coming back here next Sunday and celebrating this living hope we have in a resurrected Jesus.
[12:20] I promise you that God's going to put people in your path this week and you know what they need? They need to hear about your lively hope. They need to hear about something that is greater than what they can see. They need to hear about something that does not change in a world that is always changing.
[12:35] Let's take a moment. I want you to pray and then I'm going to pray. I'll make a few announcements. Thank you. Thank you. Good night.
[12:54] I'll make a few Gomorrah to be honest. Thank you. Thank you. You can see be generous GDP and see哪 best PPP everyone