This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the book of 1 Peter, this will be the first of 20 times we are going to open up to the pages of scripture and see what Peter wrote to the churches that were scattered to all the believers scattered there. And we're and we'll look at where this is. This is first, Peter, chapter one versus one to five. And I invite you to open the Bible, please. If you've got a Bible nearby, will you open it up and turn there with me? And we just did a study here at our church through the law.

[00:00:41] The first five books of Moses. We read five books of the Bible who read all of the law, who finished the entire thing. OK. And it took us five months.

[00:00:51] It was 20 sermons through the five books of the law.

[00:00:55] All I'm asking you to do now is read five chapters. Who's with me? Come on, everybody.

[00:01:01] We're going to do 20 sermons through five chapters, and we want you to read them this week. Monday to Friday, a chapter a day read through first, Peter. And we're going to go through it word by word, line by line exegesis of the Greek language here. We're going to go through this letter that Peter wrote, and I want to start it right here, right now. Together. Are you there with me? All right. Well, out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if you would stand up for the reading of scripture, and I'm going to ask you to give this your full and undivided attention. I was inspired that God wanted our church to study this scripture at this time because Peter is writing to people who are scattered and he's telling them what to think. And so let's pay let's pay close attention to the word of the Lord. Please follow along as I read it, starting in verse one through verse five. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontoise, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bethania, 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.

[00:02:29] 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, an unfailing 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.

[00:03:02] That's the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And I want you to look right there at the beginning. We if you've studied the Bible at all, you know who Peter is. He was the spokesperson of the disciples. He was a fisherman there in Galilee, called by Jesus, famously denied P Jesus three times on the night before he died, before the rooster crowed, famously said all kinds of things he shouldn't have said, and also gave us some of the greatest lines in holy scripture. And now Peter, who was a bold witness for Jesus in Jerusalem at the beginning of the church, really the first preacher of the Church of Jesus Christ. He's now writing a letter. He says, I'm an apostle, I'm an eye witness of Jesus. I'm one of the twelve and I'm riding. Look very carefully at this with me. To those who are elect exile, since the unique way he refers to God's people, elect exiles, you don't fit in here in this world, but you've already been chosen by God. And he says of the dispersion, the diaspora.

[00:04:10] And this is where we get the title of our sermon scattered. I'm writing to people who are scattered. They are spread out and the diaspora. That was a phrase they used for the Jews because the Jews, they received the inheritance of the promised land. If you read through Joshua, if you got into a map, agree with us recently, you know, about the inheritance that the Jews received in the Promised Land. Well, they're not all still in that land. They've been scattered. They've been spread out. And they started to use this phrase. You can also see it in James chapter one, verse one, where Peter and James, when they're writing to Christians who've been spread out, they use that phrase DS S'pore to the scattered. Not all of them were Jews. Some of them would have been Gentiles.

[00:04:59] They would have had an understanding of the law, the prophets and the writings leading to the fulfillment, all the prophecies perfectly coming to fulfillment in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He says to the scattered. Now, here's a map of these places that you can see. And this map is basically what we would consider the modern day country of Turkey, which, when you look at Turkey, seems like a pretty big area there.

[00:05:28] On the maps, you can see the five places, Pontoise, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bethania. And so this is a wide area and these believers are scattered. What we're gonna find out as you read through the whole book this week, and I hope you are going to really read through all of First Peter this week to get the big picture of where we're going 20 times together into the word.

[00:05:52] You're going to see these people are having a hard time. The words suffering is going to be a common theme in this epistle written by Peter. He's going to talk about persecution. He's going to talk about submitting to evil governing authorities. He's going to talk about how people don't like it when you don't sin the same way they do.

[00:06:11] He's going to talk about fiery trials that are going to turn up the pressure. They're going to crank up the heat and they're going to test the genuineness of your faith. So he is right. And the people who are going through it, they scattered the diaspora. And right away, if you look here at verse two right away, you can see how he references the Trinity here, even in his greeting. He talks about how these people are known by the father. These people have been set apart and are being sanctified by the spirit. And these people, what he wants them to do in response to this letter is obey Jesus Christ.

[00:06:50] They've already been declared righteous based on the blood of Jesus. They've been sprinkled clean. They have atonement for their sin through the blood of. Jesus, and now he wants them to obey. What I really hear in his greeting here is the last words that Jesus gave to Peter, which were to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded. That's what he's doing in this letter. He's referencing the Trinity. He'll talk about baptism later on. He's thinking that these people have already been sprinkled by the blood of Jesus. He's writing this to scattered Christians.

[00:07:34] And he's saying to them, this is about obedience to Jesus Christ. I'm going to teach you here how to obey, even though your scattered.

[00:07:42] So people who are scattered, there's a temptation there of real isolation. There's a tendency there towards loneliness to withdraw, to get lost in our own selfish thoughts, to start to have a level of distrust towards other people around us because of what the distance creates. And and so think about this. And as we've experienced now over the last six weeks, a form of being scattered unlike anything we've ever known in our entire lives. And what would you say to people who are scattered? I know he's going to say five chapters where.

[00:08:18] But what would be the first thing? What do you go out of the gate with?

[00:08:21] What do you say? Hey, I know you guys are all spread out. You're isolated, you're weak, you're alone. Maybe you're even tempted to give in to sin or fall away from the faith. Maybe Satan is coming after your soul. And this is a dark time, a hard time, a trying time.

[00:08:37] What's the first thing you would say to people in that situation?

[00:08:41] What's the thing that we need to hear as a church right now going through this crisis? Everybody in our own homes gathered together digitally online.

[00:08:50] What is it? Well, here it is right here. Verse three, blessed be the God and father. We're going to start. You know what you need to do? You need a worship God.

[00:08:58] That's what you need to do. Worship it. Bless him.

[00:09:03] Stop focusing on the circumstances and get this thought in your head. What good thing can I say about God today?

[00:09:09] How can I praise the Lord today?

[00:09:11] What is still true about God? That he needs to be hallowed for exalted, for that he needs his name to be lifted high for here today. Let's bless God and get my eyes off myself and my situation and what's going on with me and my family. And let's talk about my father in heaven and give him the glory. That's where it takes.

[00:09:32] Scattered people need to be worshiping people. And he says, think about the mercy of God, his great mercy can't even just say mercy. God hasn't given you what you deserve.

[00:09:44] God hasn't judged you according to your sin. You're not being held accountable right now for what you have done. No, you have been given mercy instead of that great mercy. And here's what God has done, because he's right in the people who are believers. And he's saying that God has made you born again. You have. You are a new creation in Jesus Christ. You have a new life. There's been a work of regeneration inside of you. Something that was dead in sin has been made alive and Jesus. It's very clear in his he killed 36 and John three and Titus three. This work of regeneration involves you getting a new heart and you getting the spirit of God put inside of you according to God's great mercy. He hasn't judged you according to your sin. Instead, he's given you new life, and his Holy Spirit now lives within you. And then he says this, and this is the idea we really want to focus in on. You have a living. Hope you have a hope that is alive. That is eternal. That is its own thing that nothing in this world can take away from you. And untouchable, invincible hope. That's what you've got.

[00:11:01] Says, get your eyes off of yourself, get your eyes on the Lord. And when you start to think about God and what he's done, you know what's going to come and fill your redeemed soul by the power of the spirit?

[00:11:15] Hope. Let's talk about hope here together, because this is we have place he at the scattered would have hope.

[00:11:25] Now, we usually refer to people as pessimists or optimists. You know what I'm talking about? Do you know which one you are? All right. Because if you're a pessimist, you wouldn't call yourself a pessimist. You would call yourself a realist. That's when you know you're a pessimist. All right.

[00:11:41] And to you, the glass is half empty and you're just seeing the bad and all of this situation. If you're a pessimist, you probably have right now probably three or four working conspiracy theories that you're ready to unleash on the world right now, that you use that people if if they could just put you in front of a camera, you could let everybody know what's really going on.

[00:12:04] See, see, a lot of people it's it's hard to look at the bright side. And then there's people who are who are just optimists and everything's positive. Right.

[00:12:13] And like and like things are going terribly right. And they're just the edge. Great life is good. They everything. And sometimes pessimists don't like being around optimists. Right. But optimists, they just keep it going. They don't look down. They just keep looking up. And sometimes it can feel a little bit fake when we're optimists, like we're acting like things are good when they're really not good. And we're kind of living outside of reality.

[00:12:38] Now, here's what I'm hoping to say today. I don't want you to be a pessimist and I don't want you to be a hoped optimist. I want you to be a hope to miss. That's that's what I want you to get a hope to miss. Yeah. I just came up with it. It's a new it's a new thing. We just invented it. All right. Hope Thomas.

[00:12:55] It's somebody who's positive, but it's real. We're it's the best of both worlds. All right. Somebody who's upbeat and they have good cause to be upbeat, OK? Now, when you have hope, it's it's it's it's uplifting. That's a good word for hope. Right. It's just a it's just like you've got this all of a sudden you're almost in a zero gravity chamber. It's like it's like gravity isn't really a whole new down anymore. There's a little extra pep in your step, a little extra spring when you're walking around.

[00:13:23] Right. I mean, I'm hoping that this sermon is going to give some of you are going to experience levitation because by the end of this, you're going to have so much hope. You're gonna be so encourage that you're not even going to feel like you're on the ground anymore. That's what we're going for here with the word hope.

[00:13:38] See, my kids are my kids, the kids at the Blakey house. We're spending some quality time together at the Blakey house.

[00:13:44] And my kids, they are smart because they know when they want dad to do something, when they want dad to get involved in what's going on. And they're saying, hey, dad, you want to come and do this? They say this thing in my house, they go, hopes are high. Dad hopes are high. Right. And they start raising their eyebrows. Right. They start maybe giving a little finger guns. Hopes are high. Dad, whenever they say hopes are high, it's like, how can you say no?

[00:14:07] I want you to be able to say as we're scattered in the midst of a crisis. Hopes are high in Jesus Christ. That's what we want to say. Point number one, and the only point we're giving out today is you have hope. That's the point. That's it. That's the sermon, everybody. That's the point. You have hope that you may not realize you have it, but if you are have been born again by the mercy of God, if you as it's going to go on to say here, have experienced the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If you are in Christ, you are a Christian, then I'm here to tell you that you have hope. There's nothing you have to do to get it. There's nowhere you could misplace it or lose it. You already have it. In fact, trials, hard times, times when we're scattered are times where hope rises to the top. You've got a Bible term with me. To Romans, Chapter five, everybody. Let's hear the beautiful sound of Bible pages turning. Wherever you are. And let's go to Romans Chapter five. And I want to see you how situations like this where people are scattered, going through suffering trials. Peter knows where it goes. It goes right to hope. And maybe Peter's even thinking back to that night before Jesus died, when the disciples all scattered. And when he denied Jesus and Jesus in that Last Supper said so many things meant to give the disciples hope. And maybe that's exactly what Peter's trying to do for the scattered will. Paul talks about hope here in Romans Chapter five. And we just gotta remember when we read the word hope and right in in our English translation here of the Greek letters that these guys are writing this word hope it's not how we use the word hope today. Right. Hope is something that you that you just kind of are wishing for. I looked up the definition of hope. I Googled hope and it said, hope is a feeling of expectation or a desire for a certain thing to happen. It's like a wish. It's like maybe it'll happen. I desire it, but I. I expect it, but I'm not sure about it. I hope that's how we use the word today. That's not how they use the word hope in the pages, in the Greek language.

[00:16:34] No, actually, when I was on Google, looking up the definition of hope right down below, I saw something that I was shocked to see on Google. It said the what is the Bible say about hope? I was like, are you are you kidding me right now? Let's click on that for sure. And it said, What does the Bible say about hope?

[00:16:50] But in the Bible, hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised. Let me hear you, everybody. A man. Right. It goes from like expectation maybe to Karvonen expectation.

[00:17:07] That's what hope really is. And here in Romans five, start with me in verse one. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we've been declared righteous by trusting in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. So those are two great words, their faith. That's our next study from First Peter Grace. That's two studies away. We're talking about hope, faith and grace. And from first, Peter.

[00:17:42] And it says, by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice and hope of the glory of God.

[00:17:50] You can have joy right now and hope because of the glory of God. Look at this verse three. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. Hope is not dependent on circumstances.

[00:18:03] No, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance that stick to it liveness, that perseverance and endurance produces character and character produces. Say it with me, everybody.

[00:18:17] Hope.

[00:18:19] Do you realize what it's saying if you're a Christian? This is how this whole thing works. Six weeks ago, you start out really discouraged that this is all happening, you know, and then when you're suffering, it produces that endurance and then that endurance produces character.

[00:18:33] And then as you see God growing you maturing, you you have. Yep.

[00:18:37] Hope it rises to the top.

[00:18:41] In fact, it says this hope does not put us to shame another way that's been translated.

[00:18:45] Verse five. Hope does not disappoint. Because God's love has been.

[00:18:53] We already have God's love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. If you have a new heart and the Holy Spirit, through the love of God in your soul, you have hope. You've already got it.

[00:19:08] Nothing you got to do. You can't possibly lose it. It's there. You may not be aware. You may not be thinking about the hope that you have, but you have hope.

[00:19:20] I called my my dad and mom the other day, and I know they're watching this right now from San Antonio, Texas. Hi, Mom. Great to see you. Thanks for joining us. I think that's a good idea for everybody to reach out to their parents during this time of crisis. See how they're doing for some of you. You might just want to look at them right now, see how they're doing over there while you're watching this service. And I thought I'd give my parents a call, see what's going on in San Antonio with the Alamo over there, see how they're doing.

[00:19:47] And my mom, she told me something that was really interesting. She said that during this time, they're finding things hidden in the freezer, perhaps things that they didn't know that they had in the freezer. And they're trying out this what she said. We're trying out new recipes. New recipes, maybe a new favorite family meal try and some things that are way back.

[00:20:09] They're cold in the freezer. That might be where your hope is right now.

[00:20:14] Your hope you have it. You may not know you have it. It might be cold and in the freezer.

[00:20:20] Let me tell you what time it is. It's time to get it out and try a new recipe. Everybody stop being a pessimist and just always focus in on what's real. Stop being an optimist and haven't fake positive. Be a hope dimmest.

[00:20:32] And you know what you already have through the work of God in your life, in the power of Jesus Christ. You got hope. You really do have it, it will not disappoint you.

[00:20:44] You will never be ashamed of who you are in Christ. No, you already have it. God has already loved you through his son. He's already put it in your heart when he put his spirit within you. Say it with me, everybody.

[00:20:56] I have hope. I just want you to see it.

[00:21:01] I just want you to see it look at this first right here. This is a Fijians one 18 as this is Paul writing another letter.

[00:21:08] And he says he wants the eyes having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.

[00:21:13] I want God to open the eyes of your soul that you may know. What is the hope to which he has called you? What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints? I've only you could see the hope that you already have through the calling of God. I'm praying that God will open your eyes today.

[00:21:33] Here's another verse, Colossians. Chapter one, verse five. And so we're seeing Paul now is also bringing this out. And a lot of his letters to the church is one of the first places he wants to go to is Hope for God's people. And he says, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of this, you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel.

[00:21:54] Have you believed in the gospel? Do you know who Jesus is? Do you know what he did when he died? For all of your sin on the cross. And when he rose from the dead to give you a new life. If you have the gospel, you have hope. That's what cloches one five is saying.

[00:22:10] So we're going to try to now spend these next few precious minutes that we have together here in space and time to think about how we have a hope outside of space and time with God for all of eternity that you cannot lose. You already have it. We might need to just take it out of the freezer and try a new recipe, everybody.

[00:22:31] It's time for the scattered to have hope.

[00:22:35] Now go back to First Peter, Chapter one, and we're going to see three reasons that you have hope that Peter goes through here. Three reasons that you should be feeling uplifted and looking up. And the first one here is also in verse three after he says that God has caused us to be born again. God's already done this work in our hearts. When he's saved us, he's caused us to be born again to this living hope.

[00:23:07] And then here's how it happened. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

[00:23:15] So our hope that you have right now and start cooking up that recipe, you have it. Our hope is based on here's our first little dash. Our first little southpoint. Past resurrection, past resurrection. This is where our hope comes from. It comes from the reality, the facts that Jesus rose on the third day they went to the tomb.

[00:23:43] The stone was rolled away and it was empty because he is not here. Why do you seek the living among the dead?

[00:23:52] That's what our hope is based on the past resurrection of Jesus.

[00:24:00] Now, let let's just think about this, everybody, because we just had Easter two weeks ago, a surreal Easter experience where we did not gather together as a church on the most famous day of church in the whole calendar year for sure in America.

[00:24:16] We did have a wonderful drive through experience where I got to see a lot of you, which was awesome, but an Easter unlike any other. Here's my concern. You know, people talk about CEOs. Have you heard about the CEOs? Christmas and Easter only. Right. People who only, like, come to church at Christmas and Easter. I'm concerned that a lot of people who go to church every week are kind of CEO themself in that they only think about the resurrection on Easter when it's saying that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the foundation of your living hope.

[00:24:56] It's what you're standing on in your life right now is the reality that Jesus is alive. See, in some ways it almost works against us that we so associate the resurrection with a specific day that we celebrate once a year because we are supposed to be living in the power of Easter every day of our lives.

[00:25:21] Can I get any man from anybody on that? This is why we gather on Sunday, because it's the first day of the week, the Lord's day, the day he rose from the dead. That's why the church started meeting on Sundays because of the resurrection. They wanted to remember every week, not once a year.

[00:25:39] Look at Romans, chapter six, verse four. I'm just gonna flash this verse up there on your screen for you. Romans six for not only claiming that Jesus rose from the dead, but saying that anyone who has trusted in Jesus, you also have risen within.

[00:25:57] We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life.

[00:26:13] This is the message that we were trying to get out on Easter in our Jesus Rises video service, that, hey, this is something that applies to you.

[00:26:21] You rise with Jesus, you get a new life. You get freed from sin. This is something that you experience as a Christian is your own resurrection, just as Christ rose from the dead by the glory of the father. You two have a new life.

[00:26:43] Now, if you ever get the chance while you're living here on planet Earth to go to Israel, I want to strongly recommend.

[00:26:52] And we're going to hopefully go there, lord willing, next summer. And if we get to go there, we'll go everywhere that Jesus walked will follow his footsteps. We're gonna do a special addition of the Israel trip. We're gonna follow even the footsteps of David. Go read some psalms in the places that they were written. But I'll tell you, there's only one way to end a good tour of Israel and you end it in the garden tomb. We show you a picture of this place right now, this place.

[00:27:21] OK. There's two possible places where they think Jesus was buried and rose. One of them's the Holy Sepulcher, which is there in the Old City. But there's all kinds of priests there lighting incense, all these crazy rituals and ceremonies.

[00:27:34] And then there's this garden to run by Christians from all over the world, right outside of town. So people think it may be Jesus rose in the Holy Sepulcher. But a lot of Christians go to remember his resurrection in the garden, too.

[00:27:48] And when you get to go there and you get to see this place after you've walked around with Jesus, after you've studied the teachings and the miracles and his death and his bird in there in the garden of guest cemetery, and now you're in the garden tomb, and they let you walk in to this first century tomb and says he's not here.

[00:28:08] He is raising.

[00:28:10] See, there's a very powerful moment when we gather together as a group there and I say, hey, everybody, let's think about how Jesus rose here. Now think about what does that mean for you? It says here and first Peter 1-3, that you were born again through to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Look back at that empty tomb.

[00:28:33] Can you see that place? Can you see that empty tomb right there?

[00:28:37] That's where you were born.

[00:28:40] That's where your soul was made alive. When Jesus defeated death, when he defeated sin, when he defeated the devil and he rose out of the grave.

[00:28:53] That's where you were born. Welcome home. I say to everybody. Welcome to the place where your life began. Everybody I've gone to the garden tomb with, they're like, yeah, this is where I'm from. It's a powerful moment when you realize that just as Jesus rose from the dead. You go there. This is the spot. This is the place. This is where my life began. This is how I've been born again. This is what I'm living in right now. Today is the power of the resurrection. You have it all the time. If you're in Christ, that's why you have hope. Because Jesus is alive. Here's another verse. Look at officiants. Chapter two, verse six describing you.

[00:29:42] All of you who have been made alive in Christ, it says and raised this up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's like when God raised up Jesus and he exalted him to the name that is above every name, and he put him at his right hand and the place of power and authority. It's like when God raised up Jesus and him. So he did with you. Do you see the tense of the language there in Ephesians two six. It says seated us in the heavenly places like you're already there, like you've already been seated in the presence of God because you're alive in Jesus.

[00:30:26] Turn with me to Colossians. Chapter three, let's all go to Colossians. Chapter three and let's really learn how to live with the 24/7, 365 resurrection mindset. This is what we need as Christians when we're scattered. This is what we need when we can gather.

[00:30:45] We need to live in the power that Jesus is alive every single day that we're alive. And here, Colossians. Chapter three.

[00:30:58] Pick it up with me in verse one. And the first word here is, is an F.. But it could be really a sense if then you have been raised with Christ or since then you have been raised with Christ. Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So let's just get very clear in our mind. It goes resurrection, exalted, ascended into heaven, sat down at the place of power, at the right hand of God, most high. Can you see Jesus where he is right now? Alive at the right hand of God. Ready to return. OK. If you've been raised with Christ, put your mind there. Don't put your mind on the Corona virus. Don't put your mind on all the evil things happening in the world. Don't set your mind for endless hours on conspiracy theories. Set your mind on Jesus at the right hand of God.

[00:31:51] That's where you're supposed to go. Set your mind right there. Set your mind on things that are above. Not on things that are on earth. How we doing with that compas HB? Stop thinking about the things that are on earth. Set your mind on the things that are above for you have died and your life.

[00:32:13] This is where your life is right now. It is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears. Then you will also appear with him in glory.

[00:32:27] Your life is not here. If you're thinking about here, you'll forget that you have hope.

[00:32:33] If you're if you're thinking that your life is with Jesus resurrected, seated at the right hand of God, and you set your mind on where Jesus is, on the things above, just feel yourself being uplifted right now.

[00:32:46] Just feel gravity not being so heavy upon you. Feel yourself having hope.

[00:32:53] You can have it because of the past resurrection. See where Jesus is right now. And watch that hope. Just fill your soul when your eyes are on Jesus. Who is your life? Seated at the right hand of God. Anybody starting to feel encouraged. We're just getting started. Go back the first beta and look at this with me here because he's got more. OK. He he's just barely gotten going. He wants to take us to verse four.

[00:33:23] And this is exciting for me as a Bible nerd to all of my fellow Bible scholars out there paying attention right now because we just studied the inheritance of Israel as we read through the book of Joshua. So we can get the full meaning now of what Peter is saying here in verse four, because he's saying now, here's another reason that you have hope.

[00:33:47] You have hope to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled on fading. It is kept in heaven for you.

[00:33:58] You have a let's get this down for our next dash here. Future inheritance in verse four. That's what you've got. You have a past resurrection that should be uplifting. How about this one?

[00:34:10] A future inheritance, the riches of the glory of the inheritance of all of those who are in Christ.

[00:34:19] So we we heard the promise to Abraham at Sheku that God was going to make of this man and his wife. There he was. They were going to have a son. They were going to become a great nation. God was going to give them the land. We have read through the law. We read through Joshua. We saw all of that happen. Abraham had a son, Isaac, when he was one hundred years old. They went down to Egypt. They became a mighty nation.

[00:34:45] And no, they went through the Red Sea, took him a while there in the wilderness. They went through the Jordan River. They drove out their enemies. They received the inheritance of the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey and blessings of the Lord. They got it all. Where are they now?

[00:35:03] Today, as we read first, Peter scattered in someplace that's not theirs.

[00:35:09] See the glory of that inheritance, that promise to Abraham? Well, let me tell you what happened to that inheritance. At least for these believers. Well, it perished. It got defiled and it faded away.

[00:35:23] From Joshua and all the amazing part that we read there of the promise being fulfilled to first Peter when they're scattered in Turkey, which is not even Israel, see the inheritance has lost all of its luster.

[00:35:38] And he's saying, hey, in Christ. You've got an inheritance that so much better than a land being promised you. Let me tell you what you've got coming to you. And let's go through all three of these words. Let's think, um, through imperishable. You have an inheritance that is not affected by time. Think about that. Everything we know is affected by time, you know what's especially affected by time. Bananas are especially affected by time and then they become banana bread, which I really actually enjoy. But there in the perishable depart. Right. Our human bodies, as we know them right now, perishable department some of us want to give, allowed a man to that. Perhaps some of us are still in denial. Don't worry. You'll experience that later on. Imperishable, not affected by time. Something eternal, something we've never yet known. How about this one? Undefiled, not affected by scene. But this is something we can't relate to, something we have never experienced. There's no impurities. There's no falling short of the glory of God. There's no tainted this corruption evil. There's none of that. This inheritance is pure and righteous.

[00:36:55] All together.

[00:36:57] The inheritance that we will receive will take us into a place where the whole environment around us will have no sin and we will receive new bodies where there is no sin within us, no sin without no sin within. That's in a man right there.

[00:37:13] How about this on fading? What does that mean? That means the glory never goes away.

[00:37:19] This is the only time this word is used in the Greek Bible. It says it's this word like this. This inheritance that we're talking about that you have in Christ. You already have this inheritance. It will never. It won't be. Think about that. It won't be affected by time. It won't be affected by sin. Like it'll be new. Forever is basically a way to say it'll be pure forever.

[00:37:47] Like the moment that you receive your inheritance from Jesus. Fast forward ten thousand years. That inheritance will be unfailing in your in your sight. It will be just as glorious as the moment that you first received it.

[00:38:03] Something that can be enjoyed endlessly.

[00:38:07] That's what's coming to you.

[00:38:09] Can't be taken away by time, can't be taken away by sin. And when you get this inheritance.

[00:38:16] It will be so glorious.

[00:38:18] It will be overwhelming to you. And that that newness, that excitement, that freshness, that tap that you'll feel in your step about it will never go away because the glory of it does not fade.

[00:38:33] And that might sound to some of you, as I'm saying this, some of you, maybe you're there with your family and the kids are distracting you right now. You're there with your roommates. You're pretty sure one of them just fell asleep. Maybe right now you're there by yourself.

[00:38:46] You're feeling a little lonely. It might feel a little too good to be true that you have an imperishable undefiled, an unfailing inheritance with your name on it. But let me tell you, it's true.

[00:39:00] And you have hope.

[00:39:03] Now, this has nothing to do with whether you deserve it or not. This has nothing to do with whether you've earned it or not. In fact, I'm here to tell you you don't deserve it. You haven't earned it.

[00:39:15] This is what Jesus wants to give to you because he loves you.

[00:39:21] Because he died for you, because he rose again to give you life.

[00:39:26] He has blessings forevermore that he wants to give to you because of him, not because of you.

[00:39:34] It's like it's like there's a spot right now in heaven that Jesus has prepared that says Reserved for your name.

[00:39:45] Reserved like VIP treatment.

[00:39:47] OK, like access. Special access only your name, Jesus has it there for you. Reserved kept in heaven for you that you could translate that word kept. They're reserved.

[00:40:03] Now, I remember one time that every time I read this past day, I always think about this story when I was dating Krista. And I wanted to impress her by taking her to a nice place. And some of you may know that I grew up on the mean streets of San Juan Capistrano. That's that's where my first memories come. And I had grandparents, Roland and Maggie Olsen. They lived there in San Juan Capistrano. So no matter where my family moved every summer, we always came back like the swallows to San Juan Capistrano, and we always went there on vacation. And so that always kind of felt like home base in my life. And my grandpa, he would take us to this restaurant called the El Adobe right there, downtown San Juan cap. Anybody ever been to the El Adobe before? I mean, you're talking about high quality Mexican cuisine. We're talking about people who are looking the part. We're talking about mariachis that will come up to your table and ask what song you want them to do. I'm talking about the full uniform, professional mariachis. The high noise is the whole thing. It's Cinco de Mayo every day at the El Adobe, chips and salsa just endlessly flowing. And I was like, I'm going to take Christa here and she's going to be like, wow, you know, about this place? And I want to be like, Yeah, I know about this place.

[00:41:17] Right. That's what I was gonna be like.

[00:41:20] And we get there and I immediately start feeling like like red Russian to the head. Sweaty palms time. I start feeling really nervous because there's a line coming out, the Al Adobe, and I'm thinking, oh, this is major fail.

[00:41:34] How long's the wait? Like over an hour something. And I'm like thinking we just went from, like, trying. This is when you're full of yourself trying to impress somebody who we know how that story ends. Right. Feel it. Playing the fool. Looking the fool. She sees that I'm the fool.

[00:41:49] And so I just make this desperate attempt just like this. This just reaching out, just hoping for something. Well, my grandpa is role into all scene. And he actually helped build this place. He built the ceiling that parts there in your main room.

[00:42:06] And the guy who's there, the maitre d at the at the reservation desk. Right. Have your party of what? The guy. He leans forward. He looks happy and he says Rolando.

[00:42:18] And at that moment, he takes me and Christa ahead of the entire line to a table for two with the mariachis, the chips and salsa. And I did not deserve that.

[00:42:29] I did not earn that. It was all based on who I knew. You have an inheritance.

[00:42:36] Waiting for you in the name of Jesus and you will go there and you will believe in his name and you will get blessings beyond your wildest imaginations. Beyond your best dreams. You have a future inheritance kept in heaven for you. Reserved with your name on.

[00:43:02] Anybody feeling a little lighter? Anybody feeling lift it up. We are not done yet. Go to first Peter, chapter one, verse five and look at this with me first, Peter. Chapter one. Verse five. OK. So I can look back and I can see how I have a new life through the resurrection. I can look ahead and I can see an inheritance waiting for me. But I'm living. Right. OK. Here come the pessimists. I'm live in right now and it's a bad time and we're all scattered. And I don't like what's going on right now. OK, well, here's here's the prison verse five, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

[00:43:44] You know what you have right now? This is our third little dash with verse five. You have a president. Power is what it's saying here. A prison power. That's like body guards guarding you. There is the power of God.

[00:43:58] The work that he has begun when he raised you up in Christ. The work that we'll be finished when you receive your inheritance in Christ. You have God's powers still working in you right now. And it works through your faith so that you will be ready for the salvation that's going to be revealed in the last time you have a president, power that guarantees the Holy Spirit, that seals the deal within you, that because God began a good work in you. He will be faithful to complete the good work in you. And that power will never go away. It is with you today. The present power.

[00:44:39] We've got the beginning. We've got the end, and now here we are live in in the middle to one of the things that we want to do a lot of times is we want to think, what is the work that I have to do in God? We should never think about the work that we have to do in God without thinking about the work that God is doing in us, because that's where all of our work comes from. It's not really about what work you're doing for God, it's about the work that God is doing in you.

[00:45:10] And if you're confident that God is doing a work in you, yeah, you'll do work for him. But it's his power working through you, because apart from him, you can do how much everybody not and not insulate it.

[00:45:24] That's how much you're going to do, OK. But with God. You're going to bear much fruit for his glory because it's going to be his power working in you go to Philippians, everybody.

[00:45:37] Turnover to Philippians chapter is anybody remember when we went through Philippines together? Philippine over to Philippians Chapter one, verse six. We're flippin over there. That was our last study that we did. Like this kind of ex Jesus in the Greek, this kind of line-by-line study. We had the summer of joy and one of the versus that we can never get tired of talking about Philippians, chapter one, verse six. And I am sure of this. Here's confidence.

[00:46:05] Here's dare we say hope. Everybody, here's some hope. Fauria, pull it out of the freezer. Hey, the corona virus crisis is heating it up. It's putting some pressure on our hope. Is Thawne out, everybody? It's not so cold anymore. It's warm it up. And here's what it's telling us. I am sure this here's something you can have open.

[00:46:28] That he who began a good work and you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

[00:46:34] God's not a half a job. He's not a slacker, he's not a procrastinator, God always finishes everything, he starts.

[00:46:43] He is faithful to the end. He is true to his word, is unchanging in his character. God is going to do his work in you, I promise you that. And if you really could just even grasp for a moment. That you have the power of the almighty God of the universe working through his spirit in you, you will be going around today saying hopes are high, hopes are high.

[00:47:09] Because you have a president power. That is out of this world.

[00:47:15] Greater is he who is in you? Then he who is in the world and I don't know what's Satans up to with this crisis? This worldwide thing going on right now. This isolation is shutting down of churches. This evil that Satan's work in right now on this planet. But I do know this. The power in you, in you is greater than anything Satan can do.

[00:47:39] You have a present power. You have a future inheritance.

[00:47:42] You have a past resurrection. You have hope.

[00:47:47] Now, I hear a lot of people saying something and I love it when they say it. I hear a lot of people from our church saying I can't wait to we can all gather together again. And they don't mean this digital gathering that we're doing right now.

[00:48:01] They mean they want to get back in the building. That's what they're saying. And I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it. The temperature's rising. The anticipation is increasing. I can feel it from our church family that our church is like we're superheroes and we're ready to assemble. You know what I mean? I'm seeing it like people are. I can't wait for that day. Let me know when the first services are going to be there. Like it's gonna be hard to find a spot in the room. Maybe it will end when we're able to gather again, when it's safe for everybody to gather again. And God brings us back to not just the same time, not just the same page of scripture, but the same place here on planet Earth. And we're going to hear the Amen sound from the people again. I don't know what you're excited about, about when we get to gather again.

[00:48:48] I don't know what you're looking forward to, what you're maybe putting your hope in. Maybe for you it's the donuts and coffee, maybe that that maybe you're missing that right now. I don't know.

[00:48:56] Maybe you just can't wait to see the brothers and sisters. You love that maybe you want to hear God's people sing. Like when the band all fades away and it's just the sound of the voices just singing like no. Like, nobody here is listening. But we're just singing to the Lord.

[00:49:10] Maybe it's that moment when the scripture just cuts through, cuts through everything straight to our souls and just shows us who we really are. Shows us who God is. I don't know what you want to look forward to about us.

[00:49:24] Gathering together as a church. But let me tell you, there's a much more exciting gathering that's going to happen than us getting together as a church. It's when we actually get to gather with Jesus. That's the gathering you should be open for.

[00:49:40] It says there is a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, like the fullness of your salvation. You haven't even known it yet. It hasn't even happened to you yet. Yeah. You've been saved from the penalty of sin. You're not afraid of dying and going to hell anymore. You've been saved from the power of sin. You can now live in obedience to Jesus Christ. But someday you will experience this salvation that will be revealed in the last time where you will be saved from any presence of sin at all.

[00:50:14] And your eyes will be open to see Jesus, not by faith. But you will really see. You'll see all of his glory.

[00:50:25] And it says everyone who hopes that they're going to see Jesus, that they're going to be made like Jesus they purify themselves just as he is pure.

[00:50:35] You are going to gather.

[00:50:38] As a church in the presence of Jesus. Focus on that. That's how you'll have hope. Turning to one more passage, John, Chapter 14.

[00:50:47] Everybody, you need to turn there with me to John, Chapter 14, because this is how Jesus gave his disciples hope on the night before he was going to die. On the night before he was going to be arrested in, the disciples were going to scatter. This is what Jesus said to those who are about to be scattered. This is John 14, verse one.

[00:51:10] These are the words of your savior. These are the words of your lord. Listen to them as he is speaking to your soul.

[00:51:16] Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms.

[00:51:27] If it were not so what I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.

[00:51:31] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and we'll take you to myself. That where I am.

[00:51:41] You may be also. You want to look forward to a gathering?

[00:51:47] Let's look forward to the day when Jesus gathers the Saints, not just scattered over North Orange County in South L.A. County, but scattered.

[00:51:57] All over planet Earth. And he gathers us together to come and be in his presence. Are you thinking about that? The day that Jesus comes and you get to see him, you get to be with him forever.

[00:52:13] Do you know that it says it's not like when you see Jesus. It's not like there's gonna be somebody famous over there. It's not like you're gonna be in this massive stadium and there's Jesus way over there. I'm sure there will be moments like that when Jesus is up there getting all the glory. And we're just one in a in a mighty multitude. But do you see a personal way that Jesus talks to you here?

[00:52:32] Like I go and prepare a place for you. Not just everybody you, but like you. You. I mean, it says in Revelation. The level of like intimacy and Jesus preparing a place for you. That when he gives you your reward, when he welcomes you into his kingdom, that he's going to give you a name like a nickname, a personal name that is only known by Jesus and by you. So at least there's going to be some kind of a moment where it's just Jesus and you and he's going to tell you who you really are, how he knows you. It's going to give you a name that's going to mean so much to you. Like, all of my life makes sense because I know Jesus and he knows me. And then he's going to have a place there in the new Jerusalem, a place that he says he prepared for. You.

[00:53:25] So if you really want to have hope.

[00:53:27] Hope that doesn't rise and fall based on circumstances. I hope that's positive, but also real.

[00:53:34] You have to have your hope in gathering in the presence of Jesus Christ, not gathering as it as a church.

[00:53:41] Don't get me wrong. I can't wait till we can get. But really, what we're supposed to want is the ultimate gathering of all of the people of Jesus of the Church of Jesus Christ. And his glorious president. There's this there's this song that Ryan Pearson I found one day when we were studying old hymns. Maybe you've heard of this hymn before, the Throne of God above before it's this hymn. And we were like study in it. And it was written by this young lady named Charity and Charity, grew up in Ireland and she lived in the eighteen hundreds.

[00:54:17] And she wrote, maybe you've sung that him before, before the throne of God above, like this young lady in Ireland. I picture with like red hair flowing in the breeze or something. But this young lady, she's out there. Right. And hymns about being in God's presence. And we're like, oh, she's written more hymns than just this one that we know what other songs as she written. And she has this song called Oh for the Robe.

[00:54:38] And we're like, what's this one about? We look it up. It's called, Oh, for the Robe of Whiteness.

[00:54:46] Young lady charity living in the eighteen hundreds, she says, oh, for the bliss of dying.

[00:54:52] Why, because I want to meet Jesus. I want to see Jesus the gathering, I'm hoping in the thing that lifts me up.

[00:55:00] The thing that keeps me going is I'm going to see Jesus and she wrote about that day.

[00:55:07] When you and I will be there and we'll be wearing white.

[00:55:10] We will be pure as he is pure. We will reflect his glory. That will be just all around us and with our eyes.

[00:55:19] We will see Jesus. And be in his presence. Think about that day.

[00:55:24] And you will be able to say, I have a living hope. Let me pray. And then we're gonna sing that song all together. So let me pray for us right now. Father in Heaven. I pray for my brothers and sisters wherever they may be. All of us who are gathered together right now. Hundreds of us coming to you in this moment of prayer.

[00:55:48] And God, I pray that you would speak to us, your word today that we have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the dead to an inheritance imperishable.

[00:56:01] Undefiled, unfailing, kept in heaven for us who are being kept. Who are being guarded by your power. For a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. God, will you please. Put that word on our hearts. Speak to our souls. And lift us up got. Let us be able to say that we are hope to miss that our hopes are high. Maybe even some of us who have been so down, so discouraged, so alone, so isolated. Got to pray that we would reach back into the freezer right now. We pull out something. Try a new recipe. And we would be able to say today that based on your word, based on who we are in Christ, I have hope and I can't wait to gather. In the presence of my Lord Jesus, we pray this in his name. A man.

[00:57:12] For that, she is. For that, the is.

[00:57:29] It's, uh.

[00:57:34] For the.

[00:57:43] Uh.

[00:57:47] And this tool kit.

[00:57:54] Uh, red. Fees.

[00:57:57] Uh.

[00:58:05] Some say see? To see.

[00:58:18] Shining in his low key for through.

[00:58:33] For the plates.

[00:58:40] He is in.

[00:58:46] For Fred.

[00:58:53] For. He's.

[00:59:00] For the.

[00:59:07] Say, if they.

[00:59:21] Hot, sweet meeting.

[00:59:31] Some say see?

[00:59:37] To see.

[00:59:44] Shining in his low key piece for.

[00:59:58] Some say has seen.

[01:00:05] Them so, yes.

[01:00:12] Should have.

[01:00:17] Before the.

[01:00:51] They see the.

[01:00:57] See?

[01:01:04] Me is.

[01:01:16] So say see.

[01:01:45] No beef for.

[01:01:51] Father in heaven, we want to thank you right now for this hope that we have.

[01:01:56] That is alive that you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ. And I pray for all my brothers and sisters.

[01:02:03] They will lift them up.

[01:02:04] Father, they will stop looking down and they will look up to see Jesus at. You're right.

[01:02:08] And they'll set their mind on the things above. And they will long to gather in your glorious presence as we stand before your throne and worship you and live.

[01:02:20] Ty, the name of Jesus Christ. We pray this in his name and everybody said a man. And hey, we've done the worship, we've done the getting in the world. But we can't do church without you. So now's the time. Everybody be the church. This is the time when we would break up into conversations. We get some donuts and coffee. So who can you reach out to right now? Who can you give a phone call to jump on a Zoome room with? Send him a text message. Face time. Who can you reach out to that you would see at church? Well, we're at church. We're finishing up church right now. Reach out to them. I saw Norm Ray wearing his usher shirt today. Norm. God bless you, man. You can bring me into the presence of the Lord anytime, Norm. Thank you. There's somebody out there right now that could use some encouragement from you. Don't just go straight to your car after the service. Everybody call somebody, reach out to somebody and let them know that you love them. Let them know that you have hope. God bless you guys. We love you. Have a great day. Thanks for being here, everybody. All right. See you later.