Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Worship our one true God together.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Please stand and sing.
[00:00:34] Speaker C: I saw darkness.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Run for cover.
[00:00:38] Speaker C: But the miracle that I just can't get over My name is registered in heaven Still a miracle that I just can't get over My name is registered in heaven yeah my grace belongs to you forever this is my testimony from death to life this grace rewrote my story I'll testify by Jesus Christ the righteous I'm justified this is my test testimony this is my testimony.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Son and father Our God will.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Finish what he started yes our God.
[00:02:03] Speaker D: Will finish what he started.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: This is my testimony from death and life Cuz Chris rewrote my story I'm testified by.
[00:02:18] Speaker E: Jesus Christ the righteous I'm justified this.
[00:02:23] Speaker C: Is my testimony this is my testimony.
[00:02:27] Speaker F: Only.
[00:02:42] Speaker C: If I'm not dead then you're not done Greater things are still to come oh I believe if I'm not dead then you're not down no greater things are still still to come oh.
[00:03:00] Speaker E: I believe I'm not dead you're not done you're not done Greater things are still come oh I believe if I'm not dead you not done Greater things are still come oh I believe.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:03:23] Speaker E: I believe oh.
[00:03:27] Speaker C: This is my test testimony from death to life Cause grace rewrote my story I'll testify by Jesus Christ the righteous I'm justified this is my testimony oh I'm alive this is my testimony from death to life Cause Chris rewrote my story I testify by.
[00:03:57] Speaker E: Jesus Christ the right this is my.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: Testimony this is my testimony.
[00:04:10] Speaker E: From death to life.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Good morning.
[00:04:35] Speaker G: Welcome to our worship here at Westgate where we seek to grow with Jesus, to engage in community with each other and to reach our neighbors and the nations. And so welcome to all of you. Welcome to all of you that are worshiping with us through our livestream as well. My name is Adam Just and I get to serve here each week as executive pastor of ministry and we have a lot of wonderful, great things happening here at Westgate. You can learn a lot by checking in with our website and also by our Westgate app. So feel free to download that as well. And as you came in this morning, hopefully you picked up a copy of Sermon Notes which are also available digitally on your app if you prefer that method.
And you'll see that it's a different picture this morning because we are starting a new series on the book of First Peter this morning for the next like month and a half. We're excited about that as well.
Also, if you are newer here to Westgate, a big welcome to you.
And we have these handy dandy connect cards. So if you'd want to fill that out, you can take it back to our guest center after the service. We have a gift for you as well. And I have an announcement that I wanted to share with you. Coming up in two Sundays, we have our partnership. Sunday, we're excited about all of our partners, our local partners, many of them will be here.
We'll be speaking, sharing what God's been doing through them and through all of you, as we have partnered with them as well as we have a partnership fair. And the one thing, when you hear Westgate Chapel, you hear the word fair, know that there's going to be a fun time, there's going to be food. And you also get to hear, meet and talk with many of our partners. That will be in the atrium after each one of our services on 3rd August.
And some of our international workers will also be here. Someone that we sent out, Paul and Lydia Ericks, will be here visiting with us. So we're excited to have them with us as, as well.
So a lot of neat stuff I wanted to share with you. Kind of a picture from, from about discipleship. And when I was in college, I had this guy, his name was Matt, he showed up at my dorm room one day and he said, hey, let's go outside and throw the football. And so we would. We went outside, we threw the football. We threw it back and forth several times. And every time he'd throw it, he'd also ask me a question. And he would say, so how are you doing today? Okay, good.
How is your, your family?
Okay, how is your walk with Jesus like your prayer life? And we talk about that. Then he would ask some different questions. He would ask, so what is the main theme in the book of Galatians? And I, oh, okay, that's a challenging, challenging question. And we would go back and forth for like an hour we'd spend together. And I think that was one of my first experiences, like in an intentional discipleship relationship. And here at Westgate, we disciples, we are disciples following Jesus, and we do that in a lot of different ways. Try to encourage us as disciples. Getting together, worshiping together, having fellowship, having Bible studies and classes and life groups as well are different ways that we seek to grow disciples here.
But one of the things that, that Jesus did say as he left at the end of Matthew, he told his disciples, well, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And teaching them all the things I've taught you and I'll be with you till the end of the age. And so I wanted to share that. Coming up this fall we are going to add another tool in our discipleship tool belt here at Westgate Chapel.
And it goes along with our five year vision. We have the deep broad reach, but now we also have deep roots. And so we are beginning a discipleship branch or root called deep roots groups which can, if you say it fast, it gets a tongue twister.
[00:08:54] Speaker F: Right?
[00:08:54] Speaker G: Deep roots groups.
But what deep deep roots groups are, they are an intentional group for a nine month period that goes from September into May.
And it is our focus to have these groups of three to six people be intentional discipleship groups where you'll be asking some of those difficult questions and one of the requirements is to, you know, kind of read a large chunk of God's word together.
So if you would like to learn more about a deep roots group, we are going to be having an information Sunday where we have two different classes basically information gatherings where one time during the first service, another time during the second service on August 17th. And up there on the screen there's also a QR code where you can take that also to visit the website or the app and you can sign up just to attend the information gathering and just to learn more about is a deep roots group right for you like right now and so hope to see you then. I will be out in the cafe area by a deep roots table and if you have any questions come speak to me afterwards.
Another great thing we like to do here is stand up and greet each other. So go ahead and stand up and meet someone you haven't said hi to yet this morning.
[00:10:39] Speaker H: Nice job.
[00:10:41] Speaker G: Come, I can give you an extra minute.
[00:10:55] Speaker E: It.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Let us continue in worship.
We worship the God who was we worship the God who is we worship the God who ever more will be he opened the prison doors he parted the rainbow My God he holds the victory there's joy in the house of the Lord there's joy in the house.
[00:12:24] Speaker E: Of the Lord today and we won't be quiet we shout out your praise there's joy in the house of the Lord Our God is joy.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: And we.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Won'T be quiet we shine shout out.
[00:12:41] Speaker E: Your praise.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: We shout out your praise we sing to the God who heals we sing to the God who saves we sing to the God who always makes a way Cuz he hung up.
[00:13:05] Speaker E: On that cross Then he rose up.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: From that grave My God still Rolling Stones Away.
There's joy in the house of the Lord there's joy in the house of.
[00:13:20] Speaker E: The Lord today and we won't be quiet we shout out your praise there's joy in the house of the Lord Our God is surely in this place and we won't be quiet we shout out your praise name.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: We were the beggars and now we're royalty.
We were the prisoners and now we're running free and we are forgiven, accepted.
[00:13:57] Speaker D: Redeemed by his grace.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: Let the house of the Lord sing praise.
We were the beggars and now we're royalty.
We were the prisoners and now we're running free.
We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by his grace.
[00:14:22] Speaker E: Let the house of the Lord sing praise Destroy the house of the Lord Destroy the house of the Lord today and we won't be quiet we shout out your praise this joy in the house of the Lord our God is sure and we won't be quiet we shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of the.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Lord there's joy in the house of.
[00:14:55] Speaker F: The Lord today and we won't be.
[00:14:58] Speaker E: Quiet we shout out your praise Joy in the house of the Lord Our God is surely in this place and we won't be quiet we shout out your praise we shout out your prayer this.
[00:15:55] Speaker D: How great the chasm that lay between us how high the mountain I could not climb.
In desperation I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night.
Then through the darkness your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul.
The work is finished, the end is written.
Jesus Christ, my living, living hope.
Who could imagine so great a mercy?
What heart could fathom such boundless grace?
The God of ages step down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame.
The cross has spoken, I am forgiven.
The King of kings calls me his own beautiful savior.
I'm yours forever, Jesus, Jesus Christ, my living hope.
Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free.
[00:17:52] Speaker E: Hallelujah.
[00:17:55] Speaker D: Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name.
Jesus Christ, my living hope.
[00:18:12] Speaker E: Hallelujah.
[00:18:15] Speaker D: Praise the one who set me free.
[00:18:19] Speaker E: Hallelujah.
[00:18:22] Speaker D: Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name.
[00:18:32] Speaker E: Jesus Christ of my living O.
[00:18:41] Speaker H: How good is God.
How good is God. Amen.
He's our light in the darkness.
He's our living hope.
It's my prayer that each and every one of you came into church today knowing Jesus, knowing God ready to worship him.
But I'm also aware there are probably people here today that have never met Jesus, that have never encountered him. Because the reality is, once you've encountered Jesus, you cannot deny him.
He is undeniable.
When you encounter the Holy Spirit, when you encounter the love of God, you can't deny it. You're overwhelmed by it. You may not understand it, but you can't deny it.
So I pray even if these words don't mean anything to you, maybe you think you understand them, and maybe you've never given your life to Christ. I pray that you would begin to think about these words in a new light this morning.
Can I get an amen from all of God's people? Can I get an amen from those who love Jesus?
Can I get an amen from those who have experienced the love of God, who know that Jesus Christ is indeed our living hope?
As we sing these next verses and choruses here, I just want to encourage.
[00:20:05] Speaker F: Everyone.
[00:20:07] Speaker H: To continue to prepare your hearts for worship this morning. Because worship isn't just done through song. It's done through the studying of God's word. It's done through prayer, done through scripture, through gathering together like this.
But I encourage every single person in this room just begin to really think about these words that we're singing and just worship God this morning.
[00:20:35] Speaker D: Then came the morning that sealed the promise your your buried body began to breathe.
[00:20:57] Speaker F: Sing that again.
[00:20:57] Speaker H: Just like that. Keep it down, keep it down, keep it down.
[00:21:01] Speaker E: Then came the morning your every body began to breathe.
Out of the silence the roaring.
Then came the morning let's seal the promise your buried body be began to breath.
And of the silence the roaring lion declare the grave has no claim on me.
Oh Jesus, yours is the victory.
Hallelujah.
Praise the one who set me free.
Hallelujah.
[00:22:15] Speaker D: Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name.
[00:22:25] Speaker E: Jesus Christ, my living hope.
Hallelujah.
Praise the one.
Praise the one.
[00:23:09] Speaker D: Death has lost its grip on me.
[00:23:12] Speaker E: You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope.
Jesus Christ, my living hope.
God, you, you are my living Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
[00:23:43] Speaker F: Praise God.
[00:23:46] Speaker H: Oh, God, we thank you so much.
God, we thank you. We bow before you. We thank you that we can worship you as one body.
God, we thank you for being our living hope, being the one who rescues us from sin, who rescues us from the grave.
God, you save us.
And I pray that if there's anyone here today that does not know you, that they would not walk out these doors without knowing you. God, without experiencing your love, without experiencing the joy that comes from your salvation and only through your salvation.
You are so good to us. God, we thank you. It's in your holy name we pray.
Amen.
You can go and have a seat.
As we begin to take up this morning's offering, encourage you to think of offering as a continued act of worship. That's what it is.
That's why we continue. You can usher, you can go and come forward.
Go and come forward. I'm gonna go ahead and pray again. I'm gonna pray for offering. Gonna pray for this morning. God, we thank you so much. Lord, we thank you that we get to give to you. God, we thank you. We get to give out of what you've given to us. Lord, we thank you for guiding us and directing us in that way. Lord, I pray you would stir our hearts, Lord. Stir our hearts to be.
To be more like you.
Guide us and direct us this morning. It's in your name we pray.
Amen.
Amen. You go and take those buckets and you can begin passing them.
And as you do that, just take it. Take a few moments and do that.
All right. As you continue to pass those. I want to introduce to you someone this morning. His name is Isaac Villa.
He's a dear friend of mine and a fantasy football partner.
[00:25:58] Speaker F: Yeah, player, player.
[00:26:00] Speaker H: And he's also a huge Bears fan.
Vikings fan?
Packers fan?
[00:26:06] Speaker F: No.
[00:26:06] Speaker H: Oh, it's the Lions. Sorry.
Yes. He's also an elder here and he's awesome. Okay, give it up for Isaac this morning.
[00:26:14] Speaker F: Thank you. Thank you.
Good morning, everybody.
Welcome. Welcome to those that are here. Welcome to those on the live stream watching right now. This is your first Sunday here. I am not the senior pastor, as he said. Our senior pastor, Rob Zimman, is on sabbatical. I will be giving the sermon this week. My brother Norm will be giving the sermon next week. And then Rob will be back in two weeks time. So we're going to be talking about a living hope. You can see that in the graphic. You can see that in the title on the top of your paper. We're going to jump right into that. But before we do, let me give you a few words about who I am, just so you kind of see what's going on and who's standing up here and talking to you for the next few minutes. This is a picture of my family. Our family has been attending here for about seven years. This was in the spring. We got to go to Greece and experience that as a beautiful trip for my daughter's Graduation. She just graduated with her bachelor's degree. She'll be starting grad school in about a month. My son Ethan is going into his second year of college here in a month or so as well. And my wife and I are functional empty nesters.
So we serve here in a variety of ways. My wife Susan serves in the high school ministry. And in fact, for some of you that went to life or sent a kid to life, she was one of those adult chaperones helping take care of your kiddos. So teaching them, guiding them in a lot of different ways. Myself, I'm an elder here. As Adam said, I'm a shepherding and a governing elder and we serve in different roles to shepherd and teach our congregation, but also to help lead some of the things behind the scenes that you don't hear about.
And the area I serve in that I love the most is with Julianne and outreach and missions. I love what we do with mission work. In fact, you heard earlier we're going to be in a couple weeks talking to some of our partners, local partners, and, and with my good friends Paul and Lydia who will be here. So I'm super excited to be back up here and again in a couple weeks to talk with them and talk to you as well. That's a little bit about me. But let's look at what we'll be studying and we're starting this series. It's a six week series that looks at the book of First Peter. And as we go through this journey, we'll be, we'll be reminded that in the midst of suffering, God is building his spiritual house and he's living and using living stones that are you and I and everybody else with Christ himself as that cornerstone. And I want to point this out because I think you'll see this theme as we go out through the different weeks is that his message will be clear. Simon Peter's message will be clear. This is our first fill in. If you love filling in stuff either on your app or on your handouts, I'll try and queue it for you. I love fill ins. There's a bunch in here for you. His primary message will be clear. It'll be to encourage believers to, to remain faithful to God while they endure suffering and distress in a fallen world because of the living hope they have in Jesus Christ.
Let's pray. God, thank you for the opportunity to stand here. Thank you for the, the opportunity to preach your word and to make sure that the people in this room have a chance to hear it. Lord, I pray for ears that hear, I pray for words to land softly in fertile ground.
Lord, I pray and ask that the body of believers that sit here and those that maybe are hearing some of these words for the first time, would let them speak right to their heart. In the name of your Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen. All right, so we're gonna start verses one and two in First Peter, chapter one. Your title says a loaded greeting. We got a lot just in the greeting. Let's read our greeting in verses 1 and 2. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. That's our greeting, right? That's a big greeting. That's a Midwest goodbye kind of greeting, right? There's. There's a lot going on. Just in that section when I. When Rob. Pastor Rob said, this is what you're teaching on. And I started, I was like, oh, my gosh. This is where we're starting. So let's dissect this greeting, right? Let's look at what Peter's saying. But first, let's look at who Peter is. And Peter identifies himself as an apostle. He's one of the 12 chosen. He's in the close circle, even the closer circle with Jesus. And we know a lot of stories about Simon Peter.
We know that he was the one that said, jesus, I'm going to leave this job as a fisherman to come fish for men with you. And we know he's the one that championed Jesus and said, you're the Messiah. I'm going to draw a sword and defend you when they try and arrest you.
But he's also the one who, when Jesus called him out of the boat to walk on water, he took one step and sank. He's also the one that denied Jesus at one of his lowest moments, the servant girl.
I think what we see in Peter, a truth that's so, so important, is that God doesn't call somebody because they're perfect or because they have their act together, because they figured life out. God calls people into a relationship because he chooses them. And that's, for me, a beautiful thing.
So that's who Peter is. And he calls these people in verse one, elected exiles. What does that mean? All right, we're going to look at four different things in Those two verses, and the first one is that we are strangers exiled in a foreign land. Now he's writing to a specific group of people. So when I see, say we, you see, I put there we and they. So it's about them. But I think we can see a lot of things that work for us in the story as well. Strangers exiled in a foreign land. I mentioned the different locations. They were in five Roman provinces in what is now modern day Turkey. And you can see in the map kind of where those were spread out at the top, they're in red.
And around this time of 64, 65 AD, Rome had burned to the ground. And the Emperor Nero said, well, it wasn't me, even though it was him. And he pointed to the Christians and he said, it's them. So the people who are already getting persecuted, they were already hated. That hatred turned even stronger on them. So in an area of geopolitical hostility, these Christians were experiencing even more pain and trials and punishment and frustration. And Peter is writing a letter to those people.
And I think if we look around the world, we see a lot of people in our own denomination, the Christ Missionary alliance, and even outside of that that are being persecuted and having trials that are punishing them, that are.
That are killing them, that are things that are just so hard, they're being rejected and persecuted in ways that we couldn't understand.
And although we don't experience that directly in this country, I think we see a world that is progressively becoming more and more hostile, more and more evil, more and more dangerous to what you think, what you believe, and towards us.
And so what we see in this is people who are exiled, people who are taken from their home.
These exiled believers are in a place that they probably grew up.
But Peter's trying to tell him, this isn't your home. This isn't where you belong.
I grew up in the south end of Toledo. I'm a Southsider, Went to El Bowsher High School. Then I moved to the west side of Toledo. Then I moved to Sylvania and just recently moved to Blissfield.
Home for me currently is Blissfield, but it's not really home. Like, we've lived there a few months and never lived in a small town. So it's very different.
But the home that he's talking about here is saying that this place you're in, it's not the home you should focus on. And I think the faith chapter of Hebrews shows us this very well. In Hebrews 11, after going through this litany of all These amazing people in their faith. He finishes with this, starting in verse 13 of Hebrews 11.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth.
For people who speak thus make it clear that they're seeking a homeland.
But if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had the opportunity to return.
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city, you and me. And they are exiles because our ultimate citizenship, our ultimate allegiance, our ultimate home is a heavenly home. And that's what he wants them to remember.
Number two, in your fill ins, we are eternally loved and elected by God the Father. We're elected, chosen, set apart by the Father.
You hear the words exiled and you hear the words elected. And if you're a new believer and these are gentile converts, even then they would understand that those words pointed and identified to a Jewish people that for years experienced what it was like to be exiled, to be elected.
They would understand people like Abraham and Moses and the northern and southern kingdoms, and the words of Jeremiah, the people who had been taken from their home, but were still God's chosen people. And that's the message. Peter's trying to let them know who they are in Genesis 12, verse 2. The promise to Abraham from God that I'll make your name great, and I will make of you a great nation. I'll bless you and make your name great so that you'll be a blessing. You're chosen when it comes to choice. And when it comes to God's choosing, we really have probably in this room people who feel two different ways with that right that God chooses us and we don't have the choice with that. And others believe that it's God's foreknowledge that chooses us. And I want to say that no matter where you find yourself, if there's a truth here that's beautiful and so true is that God knows me and has known me since the beginning, yesterday, today, and forever. And God loves me and he wants me and he still chooses me no matter what I do. This election says God loves me regardless of the things I do. In a world that tries to define us in so many different ways, I want you to hear this. Nothing defines me more than I am loved by God.
Nothing. Not your race, not your nationality, not your political party, your job, not Your salary, not your favorite sports team, not your critics, and not your history. Nothing else defines you than this. The Creator of the universe says, I love you and you're loved by me. And that is who you are. And that's the message he wants these individuals to know. You're loved and elected by me, the God of the universe.
Number three. He says, we're set apart by the Spirit in sanctification of the Spirit. Right? And how do we do that? We see these elected exiles can choose to grow more and more in the Spirit Spirit every day. And those things happen as we surrender to God and the Holy Spirit, allowing us to become more like Christ, more like him in a reflection to the world that needs it.
And the fourth one is, we're united with the Son for obedience to Christ and the sprinkling of his blood. So the more we grow in Christ, the more we become like Jesus, and the more we experience that fruit of the Spirit in our life.
We see that fruit of the Spirit verse here. My wife told me when she got back from the Life conference that they there was a section where they talked about the fruit of the Spirit. And we see that in Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law. And that fruit of the Spirit, she said, they talked about it being something you have to cultivate, you have to grow, you have to take care of it. So you sanctify it, you move it along so it becomes this beautiful plant. Because a plant or a fruit ignored is not a good thing.
So we think about these things. Who doesn't want more of this? To be elected by God, to know there's a home for me and to be chosen and loved by the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, and union with the Son. So Peter's helping these elected exiles know three things.
Who they are, whose they are, and how they are defined, regardless of what goes on around them. And that was the introduction.
That's just the first two verses. So let's jump into this living hope idea, knowing how he tells them to look at themselves. We're going to look at first Peter, verses 1, verses 3 through 9.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he 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, unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes 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, you love him. 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.
Amen. Indeed. When you see someone is suffering, how do you respond to them? How would you write a letter or stand with somebody who's suffering for their faith today? Or a fellow Christian who's in a country where they're being persecuted and having these horrible things? Would you send them good luck or thoughts and prayers? Would you write a stern letter to the government oppressing them? Or make a TikTok video and put a hashtag that shows like I'm with you? Or would you say, worry, God only gives you what you can handle, which is a horrible thing to pick.
What we see in this letter is that Simon Peter tells these believers in the midst of their suffering, in the middle of the suffering, he says, here's what I got for you. And what he doesn't do is he doesn't minimize it. He doesn't attempt to remove it. He doesn't attempt to say it's not real. Instead, he gives them hope.
And we're going to talk about what that hope looks like. Number one, Peter gives a living hope for suffering today.
And the first thing he starts in on verse three is he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing he wants you to know is that God did the work. He says, it's not me, it's not my words, it's not because I'm important. He says, blessed be God that all of this comes from him, our salvation, his work. We're born again into the resurrection of the Son in Jesus Christ, in God's mercy. He says, according to his great mercy, what is mercy?
We're born again. This is a We're born again to a living hope. According to his mercy, what is mercy? God's mercy is us not getting what we deserve.
Us not. Make sure you get both of those.
Us getting what we deserve would be incorrect.
But mercy is us not getting what we deserved. The Curse of sin is beaten because of these things that God gives us. Aw, Tozer, this beautiful thing that he said about mercy. He says, mercy is an attribute of God, an infinite and inexhaustible energy within the divine nature which disposes God to be actively compassionate. And his mercy gives me hope. It's boundless, as Tozer says, it's inexhaustible. And that gives me hope. But what's hope?
What does hope mean? We hear people talk about hope all the time, right in your own mind right now. What are you hoping for today? And we all have hopes. What are you hoping for right now? Are you hoping, like, gosh, I hope it doesn't rain today because I got stuff I want to do. Or, I hope it rains today so I don't have to do stuff outside.
I hope this guy doesn't go over in his sermon today.
I hope my Lions can win a Super bowl someday.
Like, are these your hopes? Or sometimes we say things to people like, here's hoping. That works out for you. I hope that goes well. I had a lot of people this week saying, I hope it goes well for you. A lot of people praying for me, which felt good and hopeful for me.
Or we say things like, I have no hope at all that this will go well.
Or, I don't feel very hopeful.
Or maybe people say I've just lost all hope.
But what is hope?
Hope is not emotion. It's not a fleeting thing based on the moment. It's not a feeling. Well, we know hope is an A here. We know hope is the confident expectation that whatever God promises, he will carry out.
Let me say that again. Hope is the confident expectation that whatever God promises, he will carry out. When God says he'll do something, he's gonna do it. He's gonna make sure it happens. And that's my hope. And today we're talking about a living hope. What is that living hope?
What is that confident expectation I have in a promise from God? The living hope is the resurrection of Jesus, who's alive today.
That is my living hope. Amen. Absolutely. That is the hope I have in a promise from God that I can hang everything on. And Peter is reaching to these people who are in the midst of the hardest things and saying, this is your living hope that the Son of God lived and died and resurrected and went to heaven. That is your hope.
In John 3, 16 and 17 verses, we all know very well, he says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not Perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
This is our hope, this is our promise. And the resurrection is a promise from God to these people. It says, I can deliver you from anything.
You just gotta trust.
Second Peter gives a living hope for future glory. In verses 4 to 5, he promises them an inheritance.
What's an inheritance?
Some of you have obtained inheritances from family members or friends. It might be stuff you really wanted, might be stuff you didn't.
Some of you have are waiting for that uncle you don't know about who's gonna leave you a yacht and a house and a boat and two cars. Maybe, maybe that'll happen.
But like, what is the inheritance we leave? Because inheritance is this thing I have that I'm leaving for the people after me that I have it, but I want you to have it when I'm gone.
What inheritance do we leave?
I love board games. I'll put that out there real quick. I love board games. And some people are probably saying, yeah, I love board games.
Yeah, I play board games. We play with our family. We play with our family and friends. But I love board games. I have a lot of board games.
And you would say, sure, what's a lot? Right? What would you think a lot is like 50. If I said. If I said I have 50 board games. 30. 300. 300. If I said I had 50 or 300, you'd say, well, that's a lot, right? Like, who has that many? They even make that many games.
Why have north of 500 board games? Which begs the question. It begs a lot of questions. Probably in your head, if you don't know me, the handful of you, they're like, yeah, yeah, I knew that. Are shaking your head. And the people around you are going, really? You're going, yeah, really. But begs the question, what are my kids gonna do with these board games?
So this is the stuff I leave for the people behind me. It is literally a bedroom that I've turned into a library of games. I think it's cool. A lot of you probably don't, but what are my kids going to do with all these games? There's so many of them.
My games are a promise of an inheritance they don't want.
But Jesus, in this inheritance, this living hope, is a promise of an inheritance that we get super excited about. And we may not know all the details of it, but Peter tells us three things about that inheritance. So the first thing he Says is that it's imperishable, right? It will never go away.
My games, moth and dust doth corrupt them, right? They're going to fall apart. They're not going to last forever. You ever been in an antique store and see board games? They're a mess. Don't buy them.
But this inheritance, it'll never go away.
Second, he says it's undefiled. It can't be corrupted by sin. How do you corrupt a board game? Doritos, Cheetos, Melty Chocolate. Those are. And, well, I got friends that do that.
That's how you corrupt a game. But this promise cannot be corrupted. It can't be defiled by sin. It can't be made lesser than what it is.
And the third thing is, it's unfading.
And the elements can fade a game, right? Sun can make it look awful. Water is not great for cardboard.
But this inheritance, it's eternal. It's never ending. And it's ours.
And for these elected exiles, Simon Peters says, I've got a promise of a better hope, a better home, a better future, an inheritance that's beautiful. And you can see the living hope that for the future glory that you're going to have.
And that's what he really wants them to know about the future.
In part B, he gives them living hope that sustains their faith.
Sustains their faith. How do we sustain Faith? In verses 6 through 9, he starts to talk about faith and how it's challenged, right? And how do we hold on to our faith and trials in this world? How do we sustain. Sustain it. How do we strengthen it? And Peter wants to show it's that living hope that grows it, that strengthens it, that gives it the sustainability it needs. And in verses six on, Peter talks about different trials and how does he describe them? Right? If you read through there, he talks about them being temptations that can bring grief or sorrow.
They're tested by fire. They can be various, which means they can be a little guy or medium guy or a really big trial.
He says they're temporary, if only for a little while.
And he also says they're purposeful, they're necessary. How are they necessary? And letter I. Our trials are intended to strengthen our faith. They're necessary to bring strength to this faith that we need in its hard times to focus our prayer life, to focus our obedience, to focus and make us more like Jesus, which got me thinking in this verse. He says in verses six through nine that our faith, more precious than gold, though it perishes Though it is test by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor. And I got to thinking, what is, what does it mean to refine gold?
Like do they put it in like a kilns? I've seen a kiln and I've seen like in a fireplace cooking s' more Like I've seen that kind of fire. But what does this look like? So I started down a rabbit hole videos of refining gold and saw crazy stuff. But I found one video series and I thought, oh, why didn't I start here? If any of you have watched the series, how it's made, which is like such a cool thing to find out the crazy how they make Velcro, I had no idea. Now I know, right? And I looked up how did they refine gold and there was a how it made about gold and how it went from the ground to the bar. And I thought this refining process was really interesting. So we're going to show this video and you'll recognize the music right away.
[00:50:52] Speaker I: It's poured into the smelter whose Temperature is at 1600-degree C.
The smelter is rotated so that the contents heat evenly over two and a half hours. The heavier gold eventually sinks to the bottom while the impurities called slag, float to the surface.
The slag is poured out. A sample is taken to ensure it contains no gold. If it does, it goes back in until it's gold free.
By now the gold has cooled slightly, so they reheat to 1600 degrees Celsius, then cast it into bar shaped molds.
The gold takes about four minutes to solidify, then another hour to cool completely in a basin of cold water.
The gold bars are extracted from the molds and cleaned of any slight residue.
[00:51:50] Speaker F: Did you catch that? 1,000 degrees. That fire was not like fireplace fire. That was crazy looking fire. I don't encounter fire like that in my life, like real fire. But we do encounter fires, don't we? We get fire that trials, temptations, things that come after us. And God is telling them here that gold is durable and it can withstand that.
But how much more durable is our faith? And that needs to withstand that.
In James, chapter one, verses two to four, James talks about trials. He says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect. They may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
So James says, here's the point of this trial. It's going to produce something. And in the gold it produces something this big beautiful bar. And in us, in us it produces this faith that's even more pure on the other side of the fire. So even when my health is failing, I have faith. Even when I lose my job, I have faith. Even when the person I love so much is gone.
Even in my darkest times, I hope I have faith and I trust this living hope promise from God. And that is this promise that he gives them in the midst of their suffering, of a living hope to strengthen their faith.
We know that these trials come at us from all different ways. And these people that Peter are writing to, they're going through some hard, hard times. They're in the middle of a storm.
Sometimes it's easier to see things on the outside of the storm, but they're in it, right? They're in the middle of the persecution. How do we hold on to our faith in the middle of the storm?
Part C, I think gives us a thing that's super important for viewing this as we view the living hope with a. The living hope gives us a lens of eternity.
What's a lens of eternity? In these trials we know that where promises are going to come, we might fail. In fact, you will fail.
But ultimately what becomes of you on the other side of that? Simon Peter went through some trials, didn't he? He knows he's writing from a point of I know what I've seen and done.
In Luke chapter 22, starting verse 31, Jesus talking to him says, simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.
But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, you'd strengthen your brothers.
And Peter said to him, lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you've known me.
Peter failed, but not ultimately, not at all. Ultimately, Peter writes us this letter from a place of saying, I endured the test and I came out stronger on the other side of that test, on the other side of the fire. I'm here and I want to share that with you. That's Peter's perspective.
What we see from that is that the momentary suffering we experience now doesn't compare to the eternal joy and glory we experience in our salvation. Let me repeat that and it's one of your fill ins letter I. The momentary suffering we feel right now does not compare to the eternal joy and glory we experience.
The salvation and to experience that, you have to have a lens of eternity, which means you have to see a lot and not just right here.
I work as a physical therapist. Some of you may or may not know that I'm going on rounding into 24, 24 years of doing this.
I work primarily in orthopedics and sports medicine with a lot of athletes. I've worked with the youngest athletes all the way up to high school, collegiate Olympians. I've worked with professional athletes, and every one of them go through hard things when they have a major injury. A lot of you, you've gone through some of that Achilles rupture, an acl, maybe a near replacement or three hip replacement. You've seen it. You know what that's like. You know what the hard thing feels like.
I can recall a girl who recent past is her junior year. So this time of year, it's summer. She's going into her junior high school. She plays on the best club team. She plays in the high school team. She's going to college for volleyball. She is set and certain.
She tears her ACL and she has surgery.
And two days later, the first person she sees to talk to her about this new surgery is me.
To this face who walks in and says, ready to start some therapy? And all I see is tears.
Everything's over. How will I ever play again? How will I ever trust this knee? How will I ever hit a volleyball? Am I shorter on this leg? The questions that are, like, all over the place, and all she sees is the momentary suffering.
She sees this, and I see it from this lens of eternity. It's not really eternity. It feels like eternity if you've been to therapy.
But I see it in days and weeks and months and years. And I see her her senior year doing everything she needs to. I can see her go to college. I can see that. But she doesn't see that.
All she sees is the tears and the hard things.
And what do I do? She's sitting on the palant. You've been on those uncomfortable tables.
PT she's got her leg jacked out like this.
And I have to come down. I get down on a knee and I say. And I hold her leg, right? And I say, it's gonna be okay.
I got you.
You're gonna make it.
I'm gonna be here for you through this whole thing.
It's gonna be okay. I got you.
You're gonna make it.
If I can do that and see that, how much more does the God of the universe give us a lens of eternity, that we can see that in the hardest parts of our suffering that. That God sent his Son to live and die and be resurrected, to come down on his knee and look at you and say, I got you.
You're gonna make it.
You can do this right here for you.
Jesus does that same thing. And that lens of eternity that we have to have in the midst of the suffering tells us that the momentary suffering we feel now does not compare to the eternal joy, the eternal glory that's due to us. Jesus makes the same promise for them at the time of this letter that he does for us, that in the midst of the suffering, we have a living hope for suffering today.
We have a living hope for our future and inheritance.
And we have a living hope that sustains us in our faith through a lens of eternity.
And finally, what I want to finish with is a living hope that has been present forever. First Peter, chapter one, verses 10 through 12. This is our come home. This is our finish, verses 10 through 12. And one Peter says, 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 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. And the things they've been, they have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Peter finishes by telling these elected exiles that everyone before you left you a different kind of inheritance. The words that they said and the fill in here for one is a living hope. And that was sent by the Holy Spirit to the prophets and marveled by the angels. The Holy Spirit took up residence in these Old Testament writers who would ask questions like, who will be the Messiah? When will he come? And there's so many of them that served not themselves, Peter says, but they served you. They served those individuals who are going through the hardest things in this letter, and they served you and me and, and all of us here when we're going through the hard things.
They told of a future Savior and a future plan that we would see on this side of the cross. But that living hope has always been part of a promise.
And there's so many words in this Bible, right? So many things to sustain us in times of suffering that were written for you. And there's so many that we could go through in here. But I want to focus on One guy in particular I mentioned, that's Jeremiah. Jeremiah, also known with his affectionate nickname, the Weeping Prophet. Jeremiah, who wrote a book as he watched the city he loved of Jerusalem fall to Babylon or fall to the Babylonian hordes in 586 BC Jeremiah, who wept at so much destruction and pain, who wrote a book in Jeremiah, who says a verse that we all have seen and love in Jeremiah 29:11, that he's got good plans for us, he's got a hope and a future. But he wrote that in the middle of the hard things.
Jeremiah, who wrote Lamentations, the loud cries of Israel. And there's so much in Lamentations that is loud cries, isn't there? Let's look at a few of them. I just kind of pulled a few out. Lamentations 1 17. Zion stretches out her hands, but there's no one to comfort her. The Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes. Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them. I just want to hug what he's saying in Lamentations 3:17.
My soul is bereft of peace, it's deprived of peace. I've forgotten what happiness is.
Over and over we see the sadness that Jeremiah laments. And this book has a rhythm and a poem. And we see these things where there's just a calling out of I have lost all hope. I just need something.
In Lamentations. If you read through the rhythm of it, there's a pattern. It's 22 verses in chapter one, each verse starting with a Hebrew letter alphabetically in chapter two, 22 verses, each letter starting with it. Chapter three, 66 verses, each letter repeated three times. There's a rhythm to this. And if you took the literary center from both ends and came right to the middle, amongst all the pain and the suffering, at the heart of this message are these words in Lamentations 3:21, 24. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end. They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will have hope in him.
Great is thy faithfulness. All that I have ever needed your hand has provided.
And the question with this is, in a world marked by brokenness at your center, do you agree with this? Do you believe in this?
Do you trust this?
Because what Peter tells these believers, they're going through the hardest things, the same thing he tells you and I, that Jesus Christ offers a Living hope to us that sustains our future, sustains us in the present and reshapes our perspective on suffering.
So for you personally, we want to ask you, do you believe those things? And we have some questions for you to consider this week in your hand out things like what trials are you currently facing? In what ways have you seen God walk through those trials in your life in the past? And how is your faith being strengthened and purified? Today we come to the end of the service. We'll have our prayer team up here. We want to encourage you. If you're looking for an opportunity to trust in the living hope that is Jesus, we invite you to come up and and talk to us about that today.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you so much much for the opportunity to to give your word.
Lord, I pray for the hearts in this room that have heard these truths. I pray for individuals that just today needed to hear about the living hope that sustains us, that promises us and moves us to understand what's going on in some of the hardest parts of our lives.
God, reach out into the people that need you the most in this room. Help them to see that you are faithful. Great is your faithfulness in so many ways.
Lord, as we move into this time of worship, I ask that everybody would have their hearts turned and moved in a way that they feel that they know that and they can trust that it is in the precious name of your son, Jesus Christ, we pray these things.
Amen.
[01:05:29] Speaker B: I find hound in chains, heart confined empty I dare to hope I feel alone where are you Lord I awake my peace I found my heart is free no longer bound my hope hope you're always here, you never fail, I will not fear.
Great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
[01:06:20] Speaker E: Me all I ever did I provided.
[01:06:31] Speaker B: Great is thy faithfulness I will call on you I will place my life in you I know into all things I trust you Lord, you are my king.
Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I receive.
[01:07:25] Speaker E: All I have needed, thy hand has.
[01:07:31] Speaker B: Provided greatest.
[01:07:39] Speaker E: Lo.
[01:08:03] Speaker B: Hope for tomorrow.
Mercy and grace you pour over me and what you have done and what.
[01:08:22] Speaker E: You will do.
[01:08:26] Speaker B: As you have done.
[01:08:28] Speaker E: Heaven you forever will be Strength for today.
[01:08:39] Speaker B: Hope for tomorrow.
Mercy and grace you pour over me and wash you have done.
[01:08:57] Speaker E: What you will do.
[01:09:02] Speaker B: As you have been you forever will be.
Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy my faithfulness.
[01:09:22] Speaker E: Morning new mercy I see all I have provided Great is thy faithfulness.
[01:10:07] Speaker C: What.
[01:10:08] Speaker B: You have done and what you will.
[01:10:14] Speaker E: Do.
[01:10:16] Speaker B: As you have been, you forever will be.
[01:10:28] Speaker H: Thank you God.
[01:10:30] Speaker A: Thank you God.
Church family may have a seat as we wrap. As you heard Isaac say, if you would like prayer today, we have a prayer team. We have our prayer room over here but also we have our prayer team that comes to the front of both sides that would just love to talk with you about whatever is on your mind and pray to the God who hears together with you. And if you said yes to Jesus as he was talking about that image of Jesus bent over saying he is here for you and we can have a relationship with him. We do have our I said yes cards in the pews and we'd love for you to bring that to our prayer team as well. Or if you just want to ask questions or lament or you want to share with something else on your mind altogether. Our prayer team is here each week for that online friends, we'd love for you to send in an email and just yeah we want to do this thing together.
Speaking of prayer, it is my privilege to bring up our Costa Rica Missions team. Westgate Chapel loves missions and we have the opportunity of sending a team of 10 to our partners in San Jose, Costa Rica. There are you can see this group of 10 also our staff and elders are going to be invited as well to commission them out with me. But this group of 10 has said yes to go and serve in the capital city city. There is a barrio named Mantufar that we have been to. I got to go there last summer and we have just had a rich partnership over these last few years seeing what God is doing in that community.
There's a Christian Missionary Alliance Church, a sister church in national Costa Ricans that have gathering every Sunday walking in and out in their community but they invite partners like us to come and encourage them serve alongside them. It is a win win for them and for us to just see God at work. And so this week they will leave tomorrow morning 7am they'll meet here and then begin a day's trek down to San Jose and then we're really excited about what God is open the doors in the public school to have a VBS so they will have an 80 minute VBS type assembly with every kid in the Montau Fire Public elementary school where we will get to play games and sing songs of worship and Rebecca will be giving the Gospel presentation. So that is the first time we've inka link has been invited and we are praying over Rebecca and our team as they Share. And also over these kids in the school as they hear the good news. As we said, we're doing it all with the local church. We'll invite them back for a big block party. Go to church with us.
Community outreach, basketball. There's a lot of amazing things throughout the week. And you can see that we are sending four families. We have three Westgate kids, a Westgate student and our Westgate adults going.
I love that our church sends together. So we're just praying for their unity as they go.
They are joking about the not loud snoring, but they really are sleeping in one large room together.
So for rest, for their bodies, for long days and just that they will be bold with their faith. The same thing we're praying for each of us when we say yes to Jesus. And I just love that we are part of this church. So in the Book of Acts, the same thing Isaac was sharing about how the Holy Spirit calls people to go. These people have been called and they said yes. And then it says the church, when Barnabas and Saul Paul were called by the Holy Spirit, the church came and laid their hands on them and prayed and sent them out. And so church, we would invite you to lay your hands on them from afar if you feel comfortable. And we're going to send them out and I'll pray for all of us as we go into our week too.
God, what a gift it is to be ascending church. What a gift it is to walk with these people in prayer, in funds. We do pray for those last $4,000 to come into today that the team has been raising. We thank you for the way the rummage sale and the people have given so that this team may go again and again. Lord, we pray over their traveling, their conversations along the way. They each bring different gifts that they're going to take and serve in this team. Lord, we thank you that they get to go together as a family, as four families and one family. Lord, what a gift. Lord, I thank you that we are a church that sends our staff and the people that invest and serve here, we get to be part of that and we send our kids.
Oh, man, there's so many things I'm thankful for. We just do lift up each of the interactions they have in this community, in this barrio, with the national Costa Rican Church, with the missionaries that are there serving long term with Stephen Crick Volstead who are coming down to meet them and walk this trip with them and then with each other and the kids in the public school. We do very special.
Yeah, just your supernatural understanding as Rebecca shares the gospel with each kid in this school. Lord, we understand that you are the big deal and you have changed our lives. And we want them to hear how great it is to have a relationship with you, that you are the living hope in a broken world. And I got to pray that same thing for each person in this room right now as our people, as each person in this room is going to go and live their week in return to their homes, their workplaces, their neighborhoods, wherever we might spend our time this week. May we just feel that same empowerment to walk with you where you can hear our laments and also fill us with your living hope in this broken world. So God, what a privilege it is to be the church. And we are excited to come back next week and share how we saw you at work. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right, church, you may have an awesome week and we'll see you. See you next Sunday.
