The Eternal Lever | Wade Branch

Good morning, everyone. It is great to see everyone

who's here today. We have a great crowd.

And I'm honored to be able to teach from God's Word, to share

something that God is teaching me actively.

And I pray that we will learn together from the truths that

the Master teaches through the Holy Spirit.

And we're going to be learning from an apostle that we don't

often hear from in the New Testament.

As far as the letters that are written.

We're going to be learning from the Apostle Peter.

So if you want to turn with me there, we're hardly going to

make any outside references. We're going to spend almost all

of our time on first Peter. So we'll start there.

In verse one of First Peter chapter 1, it says there Peter

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

is Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the

dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethenia.

So he clearly identifies who's writing this letter as we've

studied some of their letters recently.

Some of them don't have an author.

We studied Hebrews or they don't have a clearly identified

author, and there's different reasons for that.

We learned about the book of Jude recently.

We know that Jude who is written by, but there is some debate as

to maybe who wrote James and which James it was.

Even though it says the name, there's really no dispute.

This is the apostle Peter. This is Apostle Peter who is out

in front all the time, sometimes leading with his mouth,

sometimes not leading with his actions when he should have

been. This is the Apostle Peter that

we have all come to maybe relate with, maybe laugh at sometimes.

This is the man Peter. This is the one who walked on

water to Jesus and fell. This is the one that was praised

by Jesus in front of all the other disciples for making a

confession of his faith of who the Messiah was.

But he was also the one who was rebuked in front of everyone.

He was the one who he was rebuked carrying the work of

Satan. He said, get thee behind me,

Satan. This man Peter is a fascinating

character to study. And it's kind of interesting to

me that we don't hear as much from him the rest of the New

Testament. But God has his chosen vessels

for chosen works in different parts in time.

Much of the New Testament is written by Paul, and yet Paul is

not involved in the life of Jesus the way Peter was.

So as we begin this, we all have our role, and Peter's role,

although it was primarily in the life of Jesus, he had a profound

impact on the people he wrote this to, both in the time and

day he wrote it and hopefully to us today.

He's writing, it says, to the pilgrims of the dispersion, and

he's writing to those pilgrims of the dispersion that are in

Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

The first thing I want us to recognize is this phrase, the

pilgrims of the dispersion is a phrase used to communicate with

Jews. The Jews had a strong bond

because when the nation of Judah was captured and was overtaken

by Babylon, the Jewish people scattered and they called one

another the people or the pilgrims of the dispersion.

It's a it's a term of camaraderie in the faith is

really what this is. But we know that first that

Peter is writing this letter to all Christians.

It's not just Jews. So I believe this is a nice

little, it's like an olive branch.

It's, it's a unifying statement to all the Christians that now

it's not just us Jews who are dispersed across the world now

it's not just us, it's all Christians.

You are the faith now. You are the pilgrims.

He identifies them as pilgrims just like we are called, because

they are not in their permanent resting place.

They're not in their permanent land.

They are not in the final place where they are supposed to

inherit. They are temporarily passing

through. And the dispersion, I thought it

might have been the dispersion from the destruction of

Jerusalem, but scholars believe this hasn't happened at that

point. So the dispersion is how the

Christians have spread out because of probably another

factor we're going to get to in just a minute.

So just so we know, where is this referring to?

What is this region? So if you look at the greater

map, you can see the, the southern border of, of, of

Europe over here with the, with Italy on this side.

And as you make your way E, you get into the Near East, which is

Asia Minor. And you can recognize many of

the names from churches. You might recognize Ephesus or

Colossi, Lycia or Crete. We've been reading a lot about

those letters that involve those cities.

And he's talking right now of this northern region as the

church spread into northern Asia Minor.

And you can see all these larger sections is who he's talking

about. You have Cappadocia, Galatia,

Bithynia, and Pontus is way up there on the northern side as it

borders, I believe that is the Black Sea.

This is a great spread. And this is still the early

years of the church, still in the 1st century.

The church has already grown massively.

So what is the context maybe of the dispersion if it's not the

destruction of Jerusalem? Well, this was during the time

of Emperor Nero's reign. And you, many of you have heard

of Emperor Nero. He basically used Christians as

a scapegoat for things that happened in the city.

There was a great fire that burned Rome and Christians took

the fall. And so Christians were

persecuted, they're arrested, they were beaten, and they're

eventually burned in the city. There's one historian that says

that that the Christians were being burned to light the

parties at these places. This was a massive persecution

the Christians were enduring during this time.

So it's no surprise that there may have been a dispersion of

Christians that left that fled into these regions that maybe

were less populated and less consolidated by Roman power

where they could be affected. And so these persecutions were

great. And that's the greater message

of this letter is learning to work through persecutions.

But remember, I don't want us to feel distanced from these

Christians just because our persecutions aren't the same or

maybe as severe. I don't want us to lose the

message to us. The message is going to be the

same whether you are going through massive fiery trials or

whether you are in 21st century America where we are supposed to

have free religion and free speech and all these things.

There are still lessons to be learned, so please don't think

that these are the real Christians and we are the ones

that maybe one day will be like them.

It is true that anybody who stands for the faith has had

their faith refined by fire, as we're going to talk, and they

have been clearly identified through their struggle as a

faithful Christian. But the message of all Scripture

is have faithfulness wherever it is you stand.

If you're in 21st century America, be faithful here.

There's plenty of people who are not faithful in in 21st century

America. There were plenty of people who

are not faithful in 1st century Asia Minor.

The message of all biblical writers is be faithful where you

stand and that will lead to the recipe.

I do find it's kind of interesting that we ourselves

actually are pilgrims of sorts. Our country was founded from a

dispersion of people who wanted religious freedom, and so we may

have something more in common with these pilgrims of the

dispersion in that daytime than we realize.

He says in verse 2 to these pilgrims, he goes on to address

them as elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

OK. We have talked about election

recently, not political election.

We've talked about election reference in other New Testament

letters of conditional versus unconditional election.

We've talked about general election versus specific

election, but we're going to talk more about, I believe the

greater message of election in the next letter because he's

going to dive into it in a way that is very well explained and

powerful. And, and so I, I hope you'll

just hang on to this and, and excuse me for moving past it a

little bit fast because he's going to deal with it more.

But for now, let's just understand in this introduction

that the elect are people that God has chosen for a role in his

masterful plan. I'm going to say this again next

week when we or next time when we study into what the election

is. But the election is about the

work people want to focus about election being salvation.

And you read in the Old Testament, the election was I'm

choosing you for a role. I'm electing you to be, to play

a part in God's masterful plan in which you, yes, will be

saved, but you are supposed to bring the blessing to the whole

earth. And those who would counteract

that blessing, God will deal with them.

So the election I want us to see is we are called and we are

chosen for a great work. Don't get bogged down into the

debate about election being so. So don't even worry about that.

That's not even the point right now.

The point is you and I have a work.

So in light of this, let's consider what he's saying in

light of the fact that, you know, these people are under

great persecution. You have a work, you have a

responsibility, you have a a chosen role during this time.

He didn't say there's a job here if you want to take it or I'm

sure I can find something for you to do.

If you want to be a Christian, he says you are chosen, you are

elect. And because of that, you have a

responsibility. You are exactly where you need

to be. Whether you're being persecuted,

persecuted, whether things are all unsettled.

Everywhere you look, you have a chosen role to fulfil right now.

That's the message to these Christians.

Do you ever wonder where you stand in life?

Can you really do anything with where you're at right now?

Can anything come from your situation for good?

Maybe that's how you feel sometimes.

Maybe that's how they felt. The message to anyone going

through these questions or these frustrations or wondering you

have a chosen role to fill. It's not a job.

If you want to take it, it's not.

I could probably find something for you to do.

You're going to be an extra hand.

It's you have a chosen role and it was chosen for you by the

foreknowledge of God. God knew ahead of time.

God was not. You're not catching him by

surprise. You're not in your life

situation where you're at right now by surprise.

God knew you were going to be there where you're at and

wherever it is, don't neglect that role.

Identify. I am a chosen vessel of God.

I'm in this situation not by accident, but for his, but for

His glory and for His work. OK.

He says we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father. He's addressing these people and

he's saying they're elect in the sanctification of the Spirit.

Oh, that's a big word. We don't use that word a lot.

Sanctification just means to be set apart for a holy purpose.

This is going to again, play into our election lesson next

time, But sanctification means there's everybody who's doing

whatever they want, and then there's people who are set aside

for a lot of reasons, or maybe in a lot of ways set aside for a

special purpose. You and these Christians were

set apart of the Spirit. Who does the setting apart the

Spirit of God In the Old Testament, sanctification had

some very detailed processes, but really it's just basic

categories. You set something apart as

special in every area of life. There were objects.

They were set apart as special. For example, you had the altar

where they would perform their sacrifices to the Lord.

That was set apart as different. You don't just do anything.

You don't eat your food on this altar.

You don't come up here and just have a meal and kick your feet

up on the altar. This is set apart.

It's special. There were utensils they were to

use that were special and set apart and different.

There weren't just objects. There were places.

Again, pretty much every category, there are places.

There was a temple erected in the middle of the camp that was

going to be a special place, and even within that there was a

special holy of holy places just set apart.

It's just God wants some things to be different and not just

normal. Like everything else.

The rest of our lives just becomes the same.

But God doesn't want to be the same.

God doesn't want you to live mundane.

He wants there to be things in your life.

He wanted there to be things in the Old Testament, people's

lives that were separate and set apart.

You have the temple, you have the burning Bush.

As a more individual example, there's so many examples of this

in the Old Testament. There was the corporate version

of the temple, and then there was a holy place where Moses

stood on holy ground near the burning Bush.

And he approached and God said, take off your shoes, your

sandals. This is holding ground.

This is all sanctification. It's just making something else

special. Times.

They had times that were special, like the Sabbath, the

day of rest in the Old Testament, and they had special

feasts. Then you have people like the

priests who are designated and set apart from the rest of the

people for the service of God. Sanctification of the Spirit

just means there are things that need to be different, not just

normal, like everything else you do.

And that is carried out through the Holy Spirit, He says for

obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.

So of all the glorious ways God works through his Spirit, the

Spirit of God in our lives, however he accomplishes that

process, obedience is always part of it.

It doesn't matter what we think about how the Holy Spirit works

in individual ways. Our obedience cannot be

separated from sanctification. Our obedience cannot be

separated from that how the Holy Spirit will work in us because

we know the Holy Spirit teaches us through his word and changes

us inwardly. And you could say, well, I'm

changed inwardly so that my actions reflected or you can say

I don't really feel different on the inside, but I'm going to do

this because I know God says is right and then your insides

being changed, it's all the same.

It all gets to the result. The end goal is I want to be

acting and and being internally set apart for God.

I want to be completely reserved for His purposes.

And because of that, all glory goes to God in our

sanctification. All of our glory goes to God for

obedience. That's our part.

And the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Our obedience does us no good without the sprinkling of the

blood of Christ. That sprinkling is referring to

the Old Testament sacrifices, how they would sprinkle blood on

the altar. That's sprinkling for the

forgiveness of sins. And the atonement came from a

new sacrifice, Jesus Christ. All these things play into our

election and consecrating a new agreement.

And in that new agreement, yes, we have a sacrifice of Jesus.

But in the covenant that God has, every, in every covenant

God has ever set up, there is an obedience, there is an agreement

between both parties. And so may we consider ourselves

this morning, just like these people were to be sanctified

from the Spirit. May my objects, may everything I

own, may I focus on using it for the glory of God, to be setting

things apart for God. Maybe it's in the giving.

May the places I go be set apart for the glory of God,

specifically on days like today. But in how I use my week, may

those go to the glory of God. May the times in my life may I

set aside special time, whether it's in worship or maybe it's in

time with God on my own day, may I have it set apart.

And may the people I associate with and may the the person I

become be set apart and sanctified for God's glory.

He says to to these people who he just described, grace to you

and peace be multiplied. Did you notice that every person

of the Godhead was represented in that introduction?

That God elected us and we are known by the Father from time

past. The Spirit has done the

sanctification and is doing the sanctification, and Jesus Christ

offers the sacrifice of the blood man.

We're reading a letter to people who are struggling in

persecutions. The first thing he wants them to

know is that you were chosen for this work.

And secondly, you are surrounded by the work and the support of

the Godhead. Whatever you're going through,

that applies to them, that applies to you.

You were chosen for the work, and you were surrounded by the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

As you do this, I think those people might have already

started to perk up and get a little bit more strength.

Now remember, I've all these messages, Peter's going to

relate to the struggling or persecuted Christians.

It's all related to a focus, not a fix.

It's all going to be them having their attention directed away

from whatever they're going through and focusing on the

things that Peter's teaching them.

That is going to be the answer to our faith.

It's not going to be a fix. It's not going to be a quick

fix. It's going to be a focus issue.

He goes on to say in verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy

has begotten us again to a living hope through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

One man said all his goodness to us bring begins with mercy.

No other attribute could have helped us had mercy been

refused, as we are by nature or you might say by habit.

Justice condemns US, holiness frowns upon us, power crushes

us, truth confirms the threatening of the law and wrath

fulfills it. Everything else works against

us, but it is with the mercy of our God that all of our hopes

begin. And so blessed be our God, who

by his abundant mercy, not because of any of our goodness,

but because of our great and awesome God that we came to

worship here this morning, had mercy on us and continues to

have mercy on us. He's given us a living hope.

Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, and because of

that, our hope does not die with Him, it is resurrected with Him,

and we have hope and life in Him to an inheritance incorruptible

and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven

for you. Did you have a long week this

week? Were you underpaid this week?

Were you underappreciated this week?

Were you lonely this week? Were you unable to accomplish as

much as you would have liked to this week?

Maybe it's your own limitations physically, Maybe time wise,

energy wise? Do you ever feel stuck,

frustrated or tired? I'm young and I do, so I know

all those feelings can grow even with age.

And his message to these people is they are not only surrounded

by the support of the father and chosen, but they have an

inheritance that is incorruptible.

That whatever else they are going through, whatever you are

going through, that's all going to be gone one day and there's

going to be an inheritance that is waiting that is not going to

ever tarnish. Everything we do is corruptible

on this earth. People talk a lot about right

now about generational wealth. That's a hot topic in in all of

the whether it's political circles, young people trying to

build better lives, generational wealth.

You've got to start generational wealth so that I can start my

next, my children off on a better footing than I started.

And that's how we help one another going forward into the

future as you build it generation after generation.

And well, that's true and that's wonderful.

Everything I do is going to be corruptible.

We went to an estate sale yesterday.

I find them sad. This person worked their whole

life and they may have done some amazing things with their tools,

with their home, but then one day a company comes in, Hundreds

of people flock through like vultures, pick through their

stuff at half price, and it's gone.

Some of the stuff is still worth something.

Some of it is outdated because it was a tool that was invented

80 years ago. 50 years ago. It's been replaced with cheaper,

better things. Some of it is worn out by the

sun and no longer has any structure.

It's brittle. Everything we have is passing

away. But there is an inheritance

coming and it is better than anything I can give my children

because the best thing I could do for them is going to probably

have some money sitting in a in a retirement account or an

investment account that's growing for them.

But even then, inflation, as we learn, there's many things that

can happen in a day to change your financial outlook.

It's all corruptible. It's all fading away except for

our hope and our incorruptible all verse 5.

So he says these things are reserved in heaven for you who

are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation

ready to be revealed in the last time.

I'm amazed that all the people in this room and my brothers and

sisters that have continued to weather the storms of your

faith. I'm amazed by the people in this

room and people I know in the faith that glory goes to God

because that speaks to the keeping power of God.

One translation says that we are shielded that by the power of

God through faith, that yes, our faith is tied intricately with

God, but in that faith where He is tied in with us, He is

shielding and keeping us and protecting us in ways that we

cannot do on our own. It is not a small thing that you

remain firm in the faith and it is speaking to the power of God,

and people are able to glorify God because of you.

If I want to make God's name famous, this is where it starts

for us. I want to make God's name

powerful in the sense that He can say He took some lame, weak

person like Wade Branch and he's kept him.

He can keep me and God is alive and he's doing great things

because through my limitations, God will be strong and God will

hold and uphold those who are in the faith.

And he says we're being kept through the faith for salvation

that is ready to be revealed. Sometimes we think about when

Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you.

I know Frank has probably mentioned this recently, but

it's like he, he, it's going to take him a long time and he's

still building the house and, and he's going to get done with

it eventually and he'll let us come in.

No, he says it's ready. He just needs to reveal it.

We know that the long-suffering of God on those who are

perishing is why the earth still stands.

It is ready right now. It was ready so long ago.

Jesus can come back right now and it will be ready for us.

It is that real and present. We just can't see it.

And for the people who are enduring suffering, it's like

there's a veil and you just push aside the veil and it's right

there. Just keep holding on a little

bit longer, keep striving for the faith, keep holding on to

God and it's ready to be revealed for you.

So as we continue through, Peter's message to the

struggling is he reminds them of a hope in their future of war.

He reminds them of the resurrection and reminds them of

God's power to keep them. Verse 6.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while,

if need be. You have been grieved by various

trials if need be. What does that mean?

I think it could mean a lot of things.

There's a lot of reasons why we might need to go through

something. We've talked about them

recently, but I'll just throw a few couple categories up here.

Maybe God's working on us as Frank talk about the pruning and

the trimming that happens to us and our faith in a previous

lesson. I don't move forward without

trials. Not only am I weak where I

stand, I'm not strong enough to even get myself to the next

level of my faith without something to push me there.

And so I need trials. That's the hard reality.

Maybe God is working through US. God has done wonderful things in

people's lives through their suffering to benefit someone

else. And maybe someone else is being

supported because of that. It goes so far beyond this.

And so maybe he says, for a little while you've been grieved

with various trials. And if you know about this

persecution and it didn't go away overnight, it wasn't a

little while like the storm of Nero blew over and that all was

fine. That wasn't the little while.

It's all in perspective of eternity.

I'm young, many of you are older.

You know how time flies. You look back and you see how

life has just passed from children to grandchildren to

great grandchildren just like that.

That's the context of this. It's the eternal perspective, if

need be, you've been grieved by various trials that the

genuineness, the realness, the trueness of your faith being

much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is

tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the

revelation of Jesus Christ. He uses a lot of words in here,

and so I'm going to try to get the simple piece first.

He's saying that our faith is what is more precious than gold.

We, they understood and we understand on some level how

gold is purified. Gold has to be, has to be taken

through a process to remove all the impurities.

And so while you may have a lump of minerals or ores that you

might call gold, it probably has a lot of other stuff in it and

maybe more things than actual gold is in it.

And so they have to take that gold and they have to superheat

it to the point that the gold, what is heavy, rests to the

bottom and the impurities float up to the surface.

And those impurities are then scraped off the top by the

whether it's the Smith or the jewel or whoever that is.

And he's saying you're, you know how that works with, with

metals, He said. Your faith is so much more

precious than that. The ground of the streets of

heaven is described with the precious things of this world.

How much more the people who walk the ground to glorify God

in heaven. He says.

Your faith is so much more precious than gold and it is

tested by fire just like the gold.

That is how God is going to work out the impurities with us.

That is how God is going to purify our faith.

May we somehow figure out how to welcome the fire.

Sometimes we talk about how, you know, there's people who are

always going through something worse than us.

There's people overseas who are being beheaded by anti Christian

groups who are going through something worse than us.

OK, that's true. But don't lose the the

realization that you have the fire too.

Because if you don't think you're in the fire, at some

point you're going to be discouraged when your trials run

around because you're going to think that it doesn't have any

meaning. And then you're going to be

confused and frustrated, and you may even become bitter, and you

may not even take advantage of them to grow towards God's glory

and in your faith, which is the whole point of the trials.

Don't forget that. Yes, other people may have it

hard, but you have trials and fires and heat.

Life heats up even if you live in a society like ours that

seems to be very stable relatively.

May God be gracious with us and gently break us, as the song

says, and heat us to the point that he can scrape off some

impurities. Because the metal will cool

down, it'll go back to a more solid form, and it will be worth

it once the impurities are gone. And it'll probably have to

happen again because you I don't think you get all of it on the

first try. Maybe we'd be humble before that

process. It really helps me to consider

faith through the lens of muscles because I think faith is

often more of a muscle than a than a gear.

Sometimes we think like, I need to get the fix for this problem.

I need to get the answer to this so that everything stops being

hard or it's a quick solution. But as the process with heating

is painful, I think our bodies reflect really what faith is all

about. In your bodies, as I'm sure all

of you know, your muscle breaks and grows.

That's how it grows. And during the exercise

movement, if you're not sure what happens is under tension,

your muscle fibers tear. They have micro tears that when

you stop working out, you stop exercising.

They then heal and grow larger than they were before in order

to handle the new loads that it perceives that you're going to

be taking on. And those micro tears can only

come from something that's there.

So I can't have a micro tear between my head and my toe

because there's no muscle that connects those.

You have to have some fibers connecting 2 joints or two, two

connection points. You have faith.

Your faith may be just a couple of fibers.

It may be faith like a mustard seed.

But if you will hold on through the tension and the challenge,

those muscle fibers that tear and you feel pain through them

when you're holding firm, those will come back stronger.

The more you hold, it will come back stronger.

And you know, what's kind of hard and, and difficult is the

muscle science is coming out right now more and more in like

current studies is showing that actually your greatest growth

comes from a couple key areas #1 hypertrophy.

Hypertrophy means you go to muscle failure when you

literally can't do anything anymore.

If you really want to grow your muscles, it's not just about

doing heavy stuff. It's not just about doing it

frequently. It's you need to go to failure

to get maximum growth. Number 2, they say stretch at

your fully lengthened part. So if you're dealing with the

bicep, this is the fully lengthened part.

It's stretched, but it's also load.

If I'm fully stretched but there's no load, my muscles not

going to grow. But if I'm fully stretched and

there's a load, scientists are saying that's where the most

growth happens spiritually. That's kind of tough news

because that means that there's going to be times where we are

stretched beyond what we can think is possible and we're

carrying the load we didn't think we could carry.

But that is specifically when our bodies are designed to grow.

I do believe that is probably where we grow the most in our

faith, not because we just had the answer, but because we will

continue to hold on. Faith is a holding on because

there are some areas of life and some loads where it's like

blocked in, no problem. Got it.

This issue is bolted to the wall.

It's not going anywhere. But there's other things that

are being held by fibers, by intention that take struggle,

and that is where our faith is refined and we are able to grow.

And may we welcome the load and face the fire.

Because he says that that faith may be found and will be found

to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

He didn't say who. Who's he talking about?

Who gets the glory? Who gets the praise, Who gets

the honor? Is it us, is it God?

I actually believe he says it this way because it's both.

Think about it. We are honored in the highest

way possible when we have been identified as a faithful child

of God, refined by fire through the challenges, through every

difficult thing that came our way, and we still held on.

Can you have a greater honor than to stand on Judgement Day?

God's not going to come down and be like, oh, we're salvation.

Why? You built that really nice car.

No offense, Terry, you built that really nice house.

Is that the greatest honour that we're going to have?

No, the greatest honour we could possibly imagine having is to

stand at the feet of the master and be greeted by him knowing

that you've been heated up, you've been stretched, you have

been pulled in every direction. You held a lot.

Is there a greater honour? I can't think of a single

greater honour. And so when Jesus comes back,

you bet there's going to be glory, honour and praise.

That is no doubt in my mind. But absolutely God is most

honoured in the way that He can be honoured more than anything

else by standing in front of a Christian that has just

completed their gruelling work and has held on to Him and has

shown true faith to Him, to our God is so great.

I would go through anything it took to show faithfulness and

allegiance to you. How is God more glorified than

that? Is God most glorified?

When he gives me something nice and I turn on and say thank you

and praise a nice song, Everybody's going to do that.

But when I will face the heat of life's fire, think about it like

a marriage for our golden couples in the room.

The greatest honor you share between one another is getting

through life struggles, coming down to the wire and enjoying

the golden years together. Why?

Because you faced the fire together.

You were faithful to one another.

You returned to one another through whatever happened.

You held on to one another. That's gold.

And you honor your spouse, You appreciate your spouse because

of that. They honor you and appreciate

you because of that. Is there any greater honor

between two parties? And that shown when fire has

been faced and faithfulness has been revealed and tested over

the years. And so that praise and honor is

going to be in both directions in a way that is more profound

than I can ever imagine. When is it going to happen?

At the revelation of Jesus Christ?

That will be the moment. You will know exactly when it's

coming. There are sometimes when life's

challenges, you don't know what's really going to end, but

you will know when it's over because Jesus is going to arrive

and it'll all be done. And at that moment when Jesus is

revealed to us and returns, that's the moment. 2nd

Corinthians verse 4 says it this way, Or chapter 4 says for our

light affliction, which is but for a moment is working for us a

far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Again, lightness is not describing the load, it's

describing the load in comparison to the glory.

It's not that the weight is light, but the grind you are

enduring today has ramifications far beyond what we can imagine.

Some people never get past the the thought of, well, I got

saved, That's all that matters. Life is more about than just

getting saved. It's about the weight of glory

that's built over your lifetime to stand at the feet of the

Master and show Him honour and to be appreciated in return.

And so our actions have far reaching implications for

eternal weights of glory. And I don't know how many of you

know the physics behind a lever, but pretty much everybody knows

how lever works. If I set up a lever, I'm able to

lift things much greater than my own strength are because of the

length of the lever. So if I have a a load on this

end and it's close to a point where it's tipping, I can I can

lift heavy loads. One man said give me a lever

long enough and a place to stand and I will lift the earth.

The calculations for it if if you run the the physics.

I know there are men in this audience that could attest to

this. If you have 100 foot lever you

can lift a £500 object with only 55 lbs of force.

So a lever reaches a long way. That'd be hard to do, but you

can lift some heavy stuff. This man is lifting a car by

just standing on the end of the lever, and that's not a very

long lever. God has given you a place to

stand wherever you're at right now.

He has given you an eternal lever that stretches into

eternity, and He has given you a load to bear.

But Scripture clarifies it's not too much with faith.

There are people in this audience that are lifting

eternal loads and eternal weights that aren't very strong

physically. Sandra can't lift much right

now, but she is lifting eternal weights of glory to the trials

of life. There are people who are

enduring struggles and have endured struggles that have a

lever attached to eternity that's going to influence an

eternal weight of glory. That's going to happen one day

because the lever's that long and what you're doing matters

more now than we will ever be able to fathom until that day.

And so, as I think I've mentioned before in analogy,

when I got done with that workout and practice and I

didn't give everything I had, I just felt like it.

Now there's now the exercise. The workout was over.

I could have given more. I had more left in the tank.

I could have given more. I don't want us to end life like

that because the ramifications are going to stretch so far, far

and powerfully into eternity that it's worth whatever effort

we give. And May God give us the energy

and the strength to do it again today.

It is tiring. It is weakening, but God gives

strength each new day to bear this load for an eternal weight

of glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom now having

not seen, you heard, and having not seen, you love this Jesus

who's coming. Having not, having not seen you

love Him, though now you do not see him yet, believing you

rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the

end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

There's a show on right now that I'm not going to recommend that

is called Love is Blind. And the whole premise behind the

show is love is more true when it's not dependent on all the

other things that go into what we consider to be love.

But it's focused on the essence of a person.

It's focused on the character of a person.

The premise applies to us as Christians.

While it has its problems with love and relationships, there is

a truer form of love that we get to experience because it is by

faith. Jesus says blessed are they who

believe and have not seen them, and we can rejoice with joy

inexpressible and full of glory today of this salvation, this

special salvation. The prophets have inquired and

searched carefully. People have been interested in

this for a long time. Who prophesied of the grace that

would come to you searching what or what manner of time the

Spirit of Christ who is in them was indicating when he testified

beforehand. He's saying there were people in

the Old Testament who for a long time were really curious to look

into this, like what's going to happen, what's going on?

The Spirit of Christ was in them, indicating when he

testified before, beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the

glories that would follow. And to them, to these prophets,

it was revealed that not to themselves but to us, they were

ministering. How about taking the load off of

people and giving them strength when they're going through

something difficult? Realizing there's people who've

been preparing this for me for a long time.

They were serving us the things which have now been reported to

you through those who have preached the gospel to you by

this Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels

desire to look into. Prophets wanted to understand

it, the Holy Spirit gave it, and angels still want to understand

it. The finishing up here.

Therefore, he says we got to get a little bit of application.

He said a lot of things about all the blessings we get and all

these wonderful things, but I want something to to sink my

teeth into and to be able to take forward.

He says. Therefore, gird up the loins of

your mind. They used to wear long flowing

garments and you can't run well in a skirt.

You women know, hopefully some of you men don't know, but some

of you might. It's hard to run in a skirt.

And so they would take that, that that cloth, and they would

wrap it up and tie it up to where they could have their legs

free to run. He's telling them tie up the

excess. You don't have time and energy

to to worry about everything, to be dragged down by everything.

You've got stuff to do. You've got faithfulness to be

had. Gird up the loins, take up your

mind and be sober. I call that go mode.

There's a certain mode I get into when I can be very like

lackadaisical. I can complain, I can be

overthinking, but there's times where something has to get done

and I'm in go mode and I have to just move right on through.

Maybe it's on the job site when when something had to get

accomplished, the concrete was being poured.

You don't have time to think about whether you're hungry or

tired or whether that thing is just not just perfect on the

job. You just got to move.

You have to cut the excess. What can be things that have to

be excess? They have to be gotten rid of.

How about sin? Absolutely any kind of sin is

weight that easily besets us. We're told in Scripture we have

to get rid of specific distractions.

Maybe there's things that are in our way, they're distracting us.

Some things are just extra. Maybe it's not necessarily a

sin. Maybe it's not necessarily one

thing, but it like that's a keeping our attention, but maybe

it's just it's unproductive, it's excess, it's maybe worry,

maybe it's complaints. Maybe we're just in a mindset

you got to snap out of and say nobody has time to I don't have

time to deal with this, this worry.

I got to, I got to keep moving. I got to cut it out.

I got to cut that mindset out and I got to sometimes cut out

my idea of perfection and I got to, I got to keep moving because

some projects will never get done if you continuously tweak

and tweak and tweak and just always have to get it right.

Sometimes you have to lay aside the things that are not

productive for you and you know what's your unproductive extra

loins that you need to gird up and rest your hope fully upon

the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of

Jesus Christ. I'm going to have to stop right

there because we're already getting a little long.

May we gird up our our minds and instead of being motivated and

and hopeful in and focused on all the things that make us go

up and down and all the extra things that caused those

worries. May we take our hope and place

it intentionally. Not on whatever might pop up

that's the most intriguing at the time, but on the hope that

is to be brought to us and that will help us eliminate a lot of

the noise that comes from inside and outside.

So we may serve him and enjoy that election in that role that

he has called us into because it's going to have an eternal

weight attached to it. If you have not started this

walk today, please begin. It's never too late.

There are people who great built great business empires in their

lives but neither success came until age 70.

There's amazing things people have done late in the game.

You might say it is not too late to start.

You can start today and begin a new life where God can work

through you. And it begins with hearing the

word of God and believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

And we make a decision to confess, to repent our past

life, to change and turn towards his direction and to follow him.

Confessing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and there's no

salvation in any other. Not a Buddha, not a shaman, not

our own goodness, but through the Lord and Savior alone.

And that we will be baptized for the remission of our sins, to

contact his blood, to have our sins washed away as we see

exemplifying the New Testament. If you've already done that and

you want to get back on the right track, we'd be happy to to

pray for you now if this is, if this is appropriate, while we

stand and while we see.