I'm actually going to be reading this from the English standard
version, which it for me it is so much easier for me to
understand to to put things together.
I know we have the new King James and the Pew so but I'll
put the the verses up here for us to read.
We'll be starting in verse 13 of First Peter, chapter one.
It says there, therefore preparing your minds for action,
and be sober minded. Set your hope fully on the grace
that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ
as obedient children. Do not be conformed to the
passions of your former ignorance.
But as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all
your conduct. Since it is written, you shall
be holy, for I am holy. 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 ransom from the futile ways
inherited from 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,
having purified your souls by this, by your obedience to the
truth. For in sincere, 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.
All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of
grass, the the grass Withers and the flower falls, but the word
of the Lord remains forever, and this word is good.
Is the good news that was preached to you.
One point that I want us to get kind of an overarching theme of
this lesson is life is futile apart from knowing and enjoying
God as Father. This is what we just read about
in this passage and I hope to show you that.
And I want to think about how significant that statement is.
First, we see this in In the Word.
In verse 17 it says if you call on God as Father who judges
impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves
with fear throughout your time of exile.
The Bible says you know Christians were foreigners.
Foreigners in this, in this time of the Bible this was written.
Peter wrote this to the Christians who were dispersed
after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
They were they were refugees in other areas of the world like
Asia and Galatia and a few other places that we can read about.
So these Christians were pushed away from their home of
Jerusalem that they called and they went through many trials
and many many hardships and Peter was writing this to them
to encourage them. They were elect exiles that we
could that we see here. But even though Peter was
writing to these 1st century Christians, we can also take
these things and certainly apply them to our lives today.
Verse 18 says, knowing that you were ransom from the futile ways
which inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable
things such as silver or gold. Verse 18 says the futile ways
that we inherited from our forefathers.
The new King James states it a little little different or
order, but it was easier for me to understand as I put this
lesson together to to study it out of the English standard
version. If we're Christians, if we're if
we're following Christ, if we've been baptized for the remission
of our sins, we have been ransomed, We've been redeemed,
we've been saved from futility, from a futile life.
And some may think that that may be a strong word.
You know, when we we have been saved from a pointless,
meaningless life that were passed on to us by our
forefathers, we've lived a point we we used to live a pointless
and meaningless life, a futile life.
But now we've been ransomed from that.
We've been saved from that. We've been saved from futility
by God who is our father three times.
In First Peter, one God is referred to as Father.
Christians are referred to as those who are born again.
We see that in verse 3. It's the same language we see.
Language we see in verse 23 says since you have been born again.
And also in verse 14 it says Christians are called obedient
children. A Christian is a child of God,
someone who knows God as Father, one writer said.
If you want to know how well a person understands Christianity,
find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child
and having God as his father. This truth is evident in First
Peter. Life is futile apart from
knowing God, enjoying and enjoying God as Father.
So why is that such a significant statement based on
the Bible? Our life ultimately is futile,
meaningless and pointless if we live it apart from knowing and
enjoying God as father. We think about maybe our non
Christian friends or family members.
You know, if that statement is true, then their life right now
is futile. Their life is meaningless.
If you do not know and come to know, enjoy and enjoy God as
Father, then your life will ultimately be futile or
pointless. We'll miss the whole point.
And I hope to show today that God does not want us to live
that way. He does not want us to have a
pointless life. God wants us to live a life and
and die with the fullness and and meaning for what matters
most now and what matters most for eternity.
The opposing point of this statement, if we were to kind of
turn it around and state it on a positive sense, we would say
life is full and the deepest, most possible meaning of that
word. Abundant, meaningful, full of
purpose. Only when we know and enjoy God
as Father. I want to show us four steps to
have a fulfilled life based on God's word, all revolving around
knowing Him as Father each and every day of our lives.
I believe that is a lesson that we can get from this text that
we just read. The God of the Universe.
The Creator wants us to experience life in its fullest
meaning. Experience abundant life.
And that's what the point of this lesson is. 4 Steps to a
Full Life. These aren't my opinions.
These are coming from clear commands that we read in this
text, and I hope to make those known to you this morning before
we get into those four steps. The whole passage starts with
the word therefore in verse 13. And of course we know that when
the word therefore is, it's there because of what the
previous statements were made by the writer.
And I want to look at what he says there.
And the beginning part of first Peter, Chapter one we'll start.
And verse three it says, there blessed be the 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 to an inheritance
that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for
you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for
a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while if necessary.
You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested
genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that that
perisheth through it is, though it is tested by fire, may be
found to result in praise and glory and honor at the
revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him,
and you love him, though you do not, though you do not now see
him, you believe in him, and rejoice with joy that is
inexpressible and filled with glory.
Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your
souls. Concerning this salvation, the
prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours
searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time
the Spirit of Christ in them was an indicated indicating When he
predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent
glories. It was revealed to them that
they were serving not themselves but you in the things that you
have now been announced to through those who preach the
good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things
into which the angels long to look, Peter says.
Then of course, in verse 13. Therefore, in light of all that,
of what? In light of all of what he just
said, we can know how to live. That's what verses 13 through
2025 are going to tell us. How do we experience that life,
a full life, and how do we make it count?
Verse 13 says, therefore preparing your minds for action.
Be sober minded. Set your hope fully on the grace
that will be brought to you at the Revelation of Christ.
The first step to a full life is to hope in God.
Set your hope fully on the grace of God.
In verse 21 it also says your your faith and hope are in God,
Hope in God. Have you ever thought of hope
being a command? You know, hope is an emotion.
But what we're being taught here is that hope is actually a
command that we're we're to do. Hope is a desire.
It's a feeling. How do you command somebody to
have a feeling, a specific feeling, you know, feel this
way. OK, I'll feel that way.
I mean, that's tough, that's, that's it's hard to explain that
the scripture never gives us a command without a practical way
of fulfilling those commands. God is actually telling us here
in verse 13, he says prepare your minds for action and be
sober minded. He's telling us how to hope.
God is telling us here that there are things that you and I
can do in our minds in order to cultivate hope in our hearts.
And it's very important. According to God, hope is not
some passive emotion that we cannot control.
You don't just not have hope, and then you just you don't know
how to get it. There is a way to get it, and
God is telling us how to get hope.
It's not something. It's not something we either
have or we don't have. We have control over having
hope. We can cultivate it and create
it in our hearts by disciplining our minds and our thoughts and
that letting our mind be ruled by the thoughts that are
contrary to God's word. Then be sober minded.
Of course we know a drunk person is disoriented.
They're not thinking straight. God is saying, God guard your
mind from disoriented thinking that pulls you away from hope.
In me we can read about that in Philippians chapter 4 in the
battle. You know that we can deal with
with anxiety and all other kinds of battles that we may have
going on our minds. When we're when we're tempted
when we worry when we're when we tend to get anxious or we feel
hopeless. We need to stop.
And I found this acrostic and what these And I thought this
was really good. Kind of helped me.
But the acrostics stop Look at what these these letters I
found. Stand for S seek God in prayer
about everything. Philippians 4 verse six says Do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything.
By prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request
be made known to God. This is how we hope in God.
We seek God in prayer about everything we lay our burdens
in. We give it all to him.
When we're feeling hopeless, when we feel tired, when we have
anxiety, we go to God in prayer. Trust God through prayers and
Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known
to God. His love for us is from before
the foundation of the world, His promises to us about the future,
His power that will guard and guide us to the end.
We thank God in prayer for all these things that we have that
He has done for us. Oh, open your mind to the word
that comes from God. This is what we're seeing here
in first Peter 113 and then also in Philippians 48.
Whatever's 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. This seems simple.
This is simple. But you know, we don't want to
make it too simple. I'm not saying it's easy, but
it's simple. Our minds are a battlefield, but
the instruction God is giving us in this battle is simple.
To think about what we're thinking about, think about
what's going on in your mind. If we spend all of our time
thinking about what's going on in the world, all the
distractions, all the various things that are going wrong or
have gone wrong or might go wrong, if we fill our minds with
those things and we're going to feel hopeless, we're going to
have anxiety and we will be discouraged.
But if we set our mind on who God is and how He loves us and
what He has done for us and the promises that He's given to us,
hope starts to cultivate in our hearts.
We start having that hope in God.
So we need to guard our minds, not spend so many times
scrolling through a screen sometimes, as we're so tempted
to do, you know, immersing ourselves in the world,
expecting hope to rise in our heart from doing that.
It won't happen. It does not happen.
Instead, we need to immerse our mind in God and His word and the
wonder who he is and what he has said to us.
Then hope starts to rise. We need to understand how
important our mind is. Even back in back in First
Peter, One verse 14 says as obedient children, do not be
conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, these
passions and emotions that were driven by lack of knowledge.
You know that's what was going on in our mind.
Peter saying you lit, you used to have these emotions, you used
to live this life. Your minds were driven to be
immersed in the world, but no more.
We don't do that anymore because we know what God has done for
us. So we live a different life.
Fix our mind on God, His grace, His promises, his love for you
and I. And we need to keep opening our
mind to that which comes from God.
P Practice the word of God. In other words, we need to live
our life according to what God's words say in the Scripture, not
according to the ways of the world.
Don't live according to the futility and hopelessness of the
world. We live on a higher plane.
We live with hope in God. So the first step to a full
life, to a fulfilled life, is to hope in God.
And the way that we generate that hope in our heart is by
filling our minds with love, with the promises, with the
truth and the wonder of God and His Word forever.
And it's not just steps that we take in our mind and in our
heart. Verse 13 says, you're preparing
your mind for action. So what is that action?
Be holy, like God. Verse 14 says, 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, there are a
ton of sermons on that phrase alone of being holy for the
simplicity of what I'm trying to convey.
I want us to think of a phrase that all of us are familiar
with, like father, like son. This statement can be a really,
really good statement if the father is a really good father.
If the father is known for integrity, then somebody
observes his son's life and says like father, like son.
That's a good thing. That's a good thing for that
son. But when we have a father that
may be evil, you know, maybe the father is known for being
prideful or selfish or lacking integrity.
Some may observe that kid and say like father, like son.
That is not a good statement for that person.
That's not a good thing. So the picture of God, the
perfect Father for for a God to be holy means God is perfect in
all of his ways, as Darren said in his his prayer, Limitless.
And I love that word limitless. He is perfectly loving,
perfectly, just, perfectly merciful, perfectly wise,
perfectly faithful, perfectly good.
You know, we could keep going on and on and on.
Perfectly perfect, if you want to say so.
We want to be, you know, If that's the case, don't we want
it to be said of us like father, like son, or like daughter?
We want to be holy because we want to be like our father, we
God, and we want to be loving and just and merciful and kind,
wise and faithful. You know, we don't.
None of us here thinks that, you know, we want to be an evil
person or we want to be, you know, not thankful.
We don't want to be labeled as being unkind.
We don't have that mindset. When I think about my own life,
I want my wife and kids to see the character of God in me.
We pray for people around us who are spiritually lost.
We want them to see the character of God in us.
We want to. We should and want to reflect
the character of God. And not just for their sake, but
for our sake as well. And when we think about it, you
know God created you. God created me.
God designed us. God knows what is best for us,
in our heart and in our mind, in our life, far better than we
will ever know about ourselves. So it makes sense that if we
want to actually live the most, get the most of our out of our
life, If we want to live a good life, then we'll live like the
one who is perfectly good. The holy life equals the good
life. The holy life equals the
abundant life, the full life. It is simple, but of course it
is not easy. We know that.
We can't make it more complicated than it really is
sometimes. Sometimes we're good at
complicating things. God really spells it out and
gives us some simple instructions that we can live
by. So be holy and to be like God is
the best way to be. Thirdly, the next step in a full
life is to be fearful of God. This is taken from verses 17
through 19. It says there, 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 ransom from the futile ways
inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like
the lamb, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
So that third step, to be fearful of God.
Sometimes we tend to think, OK, how am I to be fearful of God?
You know, I thought, we're not supposed to be afraid of God.
We're not supposed to have that fear towards God.
You know, we're told to be do not fear.
We can read in the Old Testament.
Be not afraid, do not fear, be not afraid.
We see it over and over. So how do we hope, have hope in
God if we are to be afraid of God?
And I want us to think about it like this.
And when we find out the answer, it's really pretty awesome.
It is right and good to fear someone that you love dearly.
It is right and good to fear someone when you love them.
The simplest illustration that I can think of is is my love for
my wife Lizzie. I love her so much that I fear
doing anything that would harm her, that would dishonor her,
that would dishonor the love that we have between each other.
And in light of the way that she loves me, I don't want to do
anything that is going to tarnish that relationship.
I fear that because I love her so much, I dread that.
And that's the sense of fear that we're seeing here in the
relationship with God. In one sense, yes, we do have
that fear of God because we will be judged before.
We will stand before, and be judged because of the things
that he has taught us. Absolutely.
There's a whole other sermon on that about the Day of Judgment.
The emphasis here in verse 17 through 19 says to conduct
ourselves with fear throughout your time of exile, knowing that
you were ransomed with the. And then as it goes on, it says
with the precious blood of Christ, there's a relationship
between fear and love. Here God and his love sent his
son to shed his blood for our sins.
And let's not all forget, you know that for all of us who are
Christians who know God as Father, we are to fear Him
because we love Him, which means that we live in a way that shows
that Jesus blood and God's love are now very, very, very
precious to us. Fear disobeying God his Father
as we give into sin, knowing that God gave his Son to free us
from that love for God produces that kind of fear.
I found this illustration. It's not perfect, but I think it
helps communicate the point. Imagine an 18 year old girl
kidnapped from her wealthy father.
The kidnappers demand a huge ransom.
So the father of course liquidates all of his assets,
sells his house, his possessions, right down to his
wife's wedding ring, All that he has.
He brings it all to the appointed place, sets the ransom
down in a field, and walks away. Soon the daughter comes out,
it's the ransom, and takes it back to the kidnappers.
Then she puts her arm around one of them as she walks away,
looking over her shoulder at her father, laughing and hollering,
saying, you fool. First Peter is saying don't live
like that, don't take what God has done for you for granted.
Understand what He has done with the love for God.
Understanding His love, we are to be fearful of Him.
When we love God like this, when we know the depth of value and
the preciousness of His love for us, then we are experiencing
what it means to know and enjoy God as our Father, which is a
great way to live. Nothing in this world can
compare with knowing and enjoying God as Father.
This intensity and love and fear that I have in the relationship
with Lizzie. That's why I enjoy her so much
as my wife. Love like God is our next point.
Love like God, so hoping God be holy like God, be fearful of
God, and of course love like God.
We see this in verses 20 through 2 through 23.
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. This phrase, having purified
your souls, excuse me, having purified your souls by
obedience, by your obedience to the truth, is talking about how
people become Christians, how they obey the gospel followers
of Jesus. They obey the gospel of Jesus
Christ and saves them and appears, fives them from their
sins and then they follow him as Lord.
It's followed by of course, in verse 23 since you have been
born again, since you have been born again through the living
and abiding word of God. It's so awesome.
What's so awesome about this here is is God is linking their
conversion to Christ with their affection for one another.
In the church, when we think about holiness, we often think
about holiness is not doing specific things.
You don't do this. You don't.
You don't hang out in this place anymore.
You don't see these people anymore because they're bad
influence. You don't do this.
And that is a part of being
holy. We're to flee those things.
But specifically, here is God. God is saying holiness is
defined in what you do in this world to show love for one
another. His Word has created a new life
in us. His Word has created a new love
in us, a sincere love, like family, brotherly love.
It's earnest from a pure heart. And the picture here is, it's a
really, it's a supernatural love, a love that is not natural
to us because it's made possible in us by the living and abiding
word of God that we can read even this word earnestly right
here. That word could actually be
translated, stretched or strained.
It's a depth of love that is not natural.
You know, sometimes we need to hear that, that we need to have
a love that is stretched or strained.
You know, we can have so many arguments about or disagreements
about, you know, maybe the justice going on in this world,
race or politics. There's so much temptation to be
critical of each other, a suspicious, suspicious of each
other, even give up on each other.
But what God is seeing us here is we're saved for a sincere,
brotherly love to have towards one another.
He gives that to us. There's coming a day in the
future when we won't have conflict with each other, there
won't be striving among each other.
There won't be conflict. There won't be disagreements.
That day will come for us. There will be nothing of that
anymore, John Newton once wrote. John Newton was a captain, as on
a slave ship. Before he became a Christian.
The word of God changed his heart.
Then he began to work against slavery.
He's probably most well known for writing the hymn that we
know, Amazing Grace. He wrote many other things,
including a letter called On Controversy.
And when he wrote that, there was a church leader who had
written John Newton saying that he was going to write an article
criticizing another church leader, Newton replied with some
caution for him to consider not just in his writings but also in
his art. And one of the things Newton
talked about in his reply was viewing this other church leader
in light of eternity. And I want to put it up on the
board here what John Newton wrote to this church leader who
was going to be critical of another church leader.
He said, if you count him a believer, though greatly
mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of
David to Joab concerning Absalom are very applicable.
Deal gently with him for my sake.
The Lord loves him and bears with him.
Therefore you must not despise him or treat him harshly.
The Lord bears with you likewise, and expects that you
should show tenderness to others from a sense of the much
forgiveness you need yourself. In a little while you will meet
Him in heaven, and He will then be dearer to you than the
nearest friend you have upon this earth is to you.
Now anticipate that period in your thoughts, and though you
may find it necessary to oppose His errors, view him personally
as a kindred soul with whom you are to be happy in Christ
forever. That is great advice.
When we're so tempted to be so critical and to go just, you
know, be critical as somebody else, We need to think about
what Christ has done for us. Really good advice.
Deal gently with them. Deal gently with each other.
Deal gently with our brothers and sisters, as Christ would
have us to do. We need to anticipate the day
when we will love our brother or sister more than even our
closest family member or friends right now will love him today as
one of whom we will be happy together in Christ forever.
Forever. That is an otherworldly love.
That is a supernatural love. It's a critical step to a full
life, which is right where this take This text takes us next
into verse 24 through 25. It says, for all flesh is like
grass and all its glory. Like the flowers of grass, the
grass Withers and the flowers fall.
But the word of the Lord remains forever, and this word is the
good news that was preached to you.
What this is saying is basically the world is fading.
These things are temporal, and we need to understand that.
And because the world is temporal and fading, we need to
live like that. We need to live understanding
that these things on this earth are not going to be here
forever. And God has told us what your
life will be full when you know and enjoy Him as Father.
This means that we are to hope in Him, to be holy like Him, to
be fearful of Him, and to love like Him.
So what are we going to do with what God just taught us?
What are we going to do with that?
We have two options. One, we can choose to not
believe what God has just said, stating in our minds, you know,
thinking to ourselves that we're going to go ahead and reject
that love. We're going to reject that hope.
We're going to reject all these things that were taught to us.
I guess maybe we could, we could also say in our minds, you know,
I'm going to believe some of that, maybe all of it.
But I'd still rather live my own way functionally.
I'd rather live apart from knowing and enjoying God as
Father. Or there's a section second
option, which is to believe what God is telling us and to choose
the full life. To choose the life that he has
shown us. Moses said in Deuteronomy 30
verse 19 it says I have set before you life and death,
blessing and curse, therefore choose life.
God wants us to have a life which is only possible through
knowing him as our father. It's possible for any of us, no
matter what we've done, no matter who we were, no matter
what we've experienced, no matter where we're at in our
life, we can experience God as our Father by obeying the gospel
of Christ. He wants us to experience that,
and I want us to. I want to invite anyone, of
course, this morning who has not been baptized for the remission
of sins to take those steps to believe that Jesus is who he is.
We've heard the word some of the word this morning, fearing,
believing, repenting, changing our old way of life, confessing
the name of Christ, and being baptized for the remission of
our sins. There may be most or all who
here who have done that. Maybe there's somebody here who
needs to make a public confession, think that has
brought, you know, reproach upon the Church in a public way, or
just needs the prayers of the Church.
We ask you to please come and do that at this time, while we
stand and while we see. We thank you for listening to
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Bakersfield. If you would like any additional
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