Working Toward the New World

But we are in our sermon series, Hold Fast to Faith, looking at the book of 1 Peter.

And we've got a few more weeks as we wrap up this epistle, this letter written by the Apostle Peter to the church that he calls the dispersion.

This is how he refers to his audience.

What we have to realize is that this is a broad group of Christians that are scattered throughout Asia Minor.

So this isn't a very specific demographic or very specific people group.

It's a diverse people group spread throughout Asia Minor that are experiencing some semblance of suffering for their faith, socioeconomic, relational, geopolitical suffering.

And he's encouraging these Christians to stand firm and to hold fast to the faith that they confess.

And so suffering has been a common theme throughout this letter.

And uh we at and throughout, as we've preached verse by verse through this book, we've seen that theme continue to pop up.

And this uh day is no different.

He continues laboring the point of suffering because the reality is we will experience suffering.

You see, that's a critical, we'll talk about this, but that's a critical point of Christian theology to embrace the reality and expectation that we will face and encounter suffering in this life.

And so he's going to help us understand that suffering will come, but he's gonna help us work through where we put our faith and trust and also how we live in life in response to it.

So let's dive in, because we've got a lot to work through here.

So, 1 Peter 4, 1 through 11, if I was gonna try and help us break this down to understand it better, I'd section this off into two kind of chunks.

The first chunk would be 1 Peter 4, 1 through 6.

And if I was gonna summarize that set of scriptures, I would summarize it this way: suffering can have two outcomes: sanctification or condemnation.

Suffering can have two outcomes, sanctification or condemnation.

Here's what I mean by that.

We'll work through to understand that better.

He starts off with, since therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh.

You see, Jesus suffered in the flesh, literal physical body, and remained consistent in righteous obedience.

This is very necessary to understand that Jesus was a literal physical person who experienced literal physical suffering.

And that suffering is incomprehensible.

If we try to limit the suffering to just the passion week, right, that uh that and of itself, none of us will face more than likely that level of suffering.

But then if we don't just limit it to such a narrow scope of suffering in Jesus' life, we could look at other aspects where he was rejected by friends, where he was uh uh called a blasphemer and persecuted by the Jewish leaders.

You can look at the suffering in the desert as he was led out by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil for 40 days.

We can look at all these different aspects of suffering, but what we probably will never be able to understand fully is the suffering emotionally in his flesh of being removed from the glory of which he came.

We can't imagine that.

He knew God intimately, eternally, perfect communion and relationship, and he came from heaven to earth.

And imagine his longing to be back with the Father.

Imagine the times when he was going through things in this life and in this world, and what kind of emotional and mental suffering, just longing to be back.

Is this worth it?

Is this going to do what we hope it does?

We see that Jesus at times may be questioned, but he never ever fell to the temptation of not staying faithful in righteous obedience to the mission.

It never distracted him from the mission.

It never caused him to pursue sin or the empty promises of this world.

Even though the devil set them before him of power and prominence, he saw those as empty promises of fleeting things that had no substance.

I love the way that uh uh uh Isaiah 50 puts this.

So when we look at the why or how Jesus did this, Isaiah 50, this is a prophet uh speaking hundreds of years before Jesus would actually come about Jesus' coming.

Isaiah 56 through 7 says this I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard.

I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting, but the Lord God helps me.

Therefore I have not been disgraced.

Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

You see, it was his confidence in his relationship with the Father that gave him the ability to come out on the other side of suffering in righteous obedience.

You see, he knew, even though we look at the the explanation of what this uh suffering servant would go through, he doesn't dismiss the reality of being spit on, his beard being plucked out, his cheek being uh struck, or the stripes he would bear on his back.

But he still makes this point.

Therefore, I have not been disgraced.

Now, if we would look at his natural circumstance, we would see that full of disgrace, the way that people treated him and the suffering that he went through.

However, he understood that his ultimate reality was not in his physical experience, his ultimate reality was in his relationship with his father, was in the completion of the mission, and he knew that this would not lead to disgrace, and so he was able to set his face like a flint.

I love that verse.

I love that verse about the determination of our Savior, of Jesus, to fulfill what he set forth to do.

Says then, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

Now, this can be a thing to kind of work through carefully and tread through with real realization of what Peter's trying to frame up for us.

You see, we must be strengthened by these same things: a confidence in our relationship with the Father, that He is truly our helper, that He is powerful enough to do something about our circumstance, that His arm is not too short to reach us in our state.

We have to be strengthened by these same things as we endorse suffering, working to get to the other side of it in righteousness.

You see, it's through suffering, it is through suffering that God brings about obedience and righteousness in us.

This is why suffering is such a critical theology to the Christian life, because suffering is the primary agent of putting the flesh to death.

You see, God uses suffering, he's not a bad God who allows bad things to happen to us.

He's a good God that allows suffering to come so that our flesh can be put to death and our true pleasure and joy can be deeply found in Him.

Because He's the source of it.

He's the source of eternal pleasure, the source of eternal joy of all of our longings of that we're searching this earth to try and find.

They're held within him, and suffering allows our flesh to be put to death in the refining fire of trials, so that we can see him more clearly.

Suffering assists us in living out the will of God, which has universal realities in the church, has obedience to his commands.

So, this is what I mean by that.

He talks about in verse 2, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

And this will of God thing in us as human beings, it's a difficult thing to navigate.

Because what we often do is we often search for the will of God and what has not yet been revealed to us.

What does God want me to do with my life?

What has he got for me?

What's out there in the future that I that he's gonna call me to?

What kind of mystery is held out there for me that he's not shown me yet?

And we get hung up on that.

We get hung up on that so much that we miss the universal reality that he has revealed his will to us.

He actually has revealed his will to us in obedience to his commands.

That's a universal reality for the church.

You want to know what the will of God is for your life, for my life?

Obey his word.

You don't have to guess, you don't have to speculate, you don't have to ponder anymore.

What is God's will for me?

It's obedience.

And as we're faithful and obedient to what he has revealed, he will surely guide us in the steps he has already ordained before our existence into the unknown yet revealed reality of his will for us.

You see, it's a trust issue.

We want to know before it's shown.

We want to know it's before it's time because ultimately we really just don't trust God.

But he's promised us that our steps are ordained.

He's promised that our footsteps have been ordered.

He's promised that he is the author and finisher of this faith that we have.

We've got to be faithful and obedient in the revealed will so that he can guide us faithfully into that yet which is not revealed.

Peter says, for the time that is past suffices.

He talks about, okay, now you've lived this life before.

You lived in the flesh, you lived according to the world.

Don't allow suffering in the Christian life to tempt you to go back.

That's what he's reminding them of.

Remember the ways that they live.

Remember the practices that you once participated in.

Don't allow suffering to tempt you to go back.

Go back to what?

Now he mentions a lot of things.

He mentions drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, licentiousness.

But he summarizes them in lawless idolatry.

Ultimately, it's not that we're going back to those things specifically, it's that we're going back to a life of lawless idolatry.

Here's how I define that.

Lawless means without bounds.

You see, sin is unrestrainable in our own strength.

Without the grace of God, without the finished work of Christ applied to our life and the power of the Holy Spirit, sin is unrestrainable.

We don't know bounds or limitations to our sin.

Here's how I'll prove that.

Each and every one of us in this room has done something in your life you thought you never would have.

So you thought you had limitations to your morality.

You thought you had restraint to your conduct.

At some point in time, we've done something that we thought we never would.

An unrestrained and completely limp lawless nature of without boundary to our sin will lead us to the most heinous of crimes and injustices, debauchery that we can imagine.

We might want to try to pat ourselves in the back or soothe or even sedate our conscience by believing that we're not as bad as others, but the reality is we all have the potential without the Holy Spirit.

So it's lawless and then it's idolatry.

I love the way pastor and author John Piper quotes defines idolatry.

He says this it is the thing loved or the person loved more than God, wanted more than God, desired more than God, treasured more than God, enjoyed more than God.

You see, when we think of idols, especially in our Western culture, we think of idols as these graven images, these things of wood or metal that uh third world or indigenous tribal rural cultures worship.

We don't worship idols.

But the reality is, as we understand the scriptures, idolatry is not often seen in the manifestation of the physical world.

Idolatry that needs to be torn down are monuments established within our chest.

You see, our hearts long for something other than God.

Because we think that we're gonna find more pleasure, more joy, more satisfaction in this thing than what God has to offer or ultimately who God is.

And so we don't have to go searching and hunting down idols very far because they're not necessarily there.

They are expressed there at times, they're manifested in real things, but they're constructed in our hearts first and foremost.

You see, we're often convinced that our former lives, former idols, will satisfy us more than God.

So in the midst of suffering, we're tempted to turn back.

We're tempted to turn back to what we once had.

And again, this doesn't always happen in the complete abandonment of our faith.

It doesn't necessarily always look like we forsake the faith completely and we turn back to imbibing in the culture of this world.

That's not always what it seems.

Sometimes it just looks like going back to the vomit we puked up two days ago.

I mean, how many times have us in our sin done something?

And we feel sorrowful for it.

But we and we know that it's part of not what God has revealed for his will for us to live.

It's not a part of this new life that he's brought us into.

Right?

But we we we come to a place where it's day four of being unhappy with our marriage and our partner.

So we don't necessarily abandon our faith, but we go back to the pornography that we think will satisfy and help us.

We look at our bank account and we think, man, what's the point anymore?

I might as well keep spending it without boundary or discipline the way that I used to.

And so we buy something because we think it's gonna make us happy.

It might look in the way of our job of no matter how hard I try, it will never get me what I'm looking for, so I might as well just slack off.

It can look in all kinds of different ways.

It's not simply, though it can be shown in a complete abandonment of our faith.

Sometimes it's simply seen in returning to the vomit we puked up two days ago.

Peter says, with respect to this, they're very surprised.

So, Christians, we're called to endorse suffering, and on the outside of that, on the other side of suffering, we're called to uh continue in righteous obedience.

And that will dictate that we live our lives contradictory to the culture of which we came out of.

So, with respect to this, he says, they are surprised when you don't join with them back in the things you once did.

You see, there's a natural separation that must occur in this new life.

It's a natural reality.

There's a separation that must occur.

But however, let me say this our actions with that, our actions and lifestyle are to be distinctly different from the culture we find ourselves in.

It should be distinctly different in the way that we live our lives, the values that we hold, the worldviews that we have, the way that we uh uh uh raise our families, the way that we uh approach work, the way that we do anything in our life.

It should, the gospel should change and transform every aspect of our lives, and it should create a distinct and different lifestyle.

However, we're never called to be removed completely from the culture we were once in.

Oftentimes in the church, we can have a separatist mentality, and we see a fullness or an extreme separatist mentality in, say, the Amish culture, where they say we're gonna be so far different that we'll be out here.

But a lot of us functionally have lived just like them in that we have become so separatist in the way that we live our lives that we have zero impact on the culture we reside in.

You see, we're not, it's not how how how removed from the culture we're supposed to be called.

We're supposed to be in it, but not of it.

We're supposed to still engage with it so much so that it can, we have the ability to create transformation and change, but we should not be uh participators in their customs, in their values, in their worldviews.

We should be living in it distinctly different lives.

What Peter is exhorting us to stay away from is this rushing headlong into destruction.

So he says, they're surprised when you do not join them.

This join them language that Peter's using here is this headlong pursuit into destruction.

What it really refers to is this posture of unending pursuit of empty pleasure.

He's saying, don't join them.

Don't join them in this unending pursuit of empty pleasure.

Another place where this language is used within the scriptures is to try to help us understand and see the behavior of the younger brother in the parable of the prodigal son.

So if we look at the parable of the prodigal son, there were two brothers.

The younger brother went to the father and said, I want all of your stuff, and I don't want you.

And the father agreed, gave it to him.

He gave him his inheritance before his father was even dead and past.

And the son went out and spent it on parties, prostitutes, drinking, licentiousness.

And at the end of his life, at the end of his at the end of all of his stuff, he finds himself eating from a borrowed pig trough.

This is the join them that Peter's talking about.

This headlong pursuit into destruction.

Peter says they'll malign you when you do not participate.

The new life and behavior that we should live will cause people to slander you because you have simply pained their conscience.

Have you ever had a situation where somebody was inviting you in to participate in something that you didn't want anything with?

And you say, you know what, man, I think I'm gonna pass, or I think I'm gonna, what happens instantly?

Are you judging me?

Oh, you think I'm a bad person?

Oh, what?

Do you think blah blah blah?

You see, you've m you've you've pained their conscience.

You don't have to judge, you don't have to street corner preach to them, you don't have to necessarily do anything but choose not to participate in the very things that they do.

You'll pain their conscience so much because deep down it's inscribed on the heart of man that what they are participating in is wickedness.

They know that.

And so they'll malign you.

But Peter says, be confident of this.

They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

God's grace to us, listen to me here.

God's grace to us is this that we have been receivers of the gospel, judged in our dead flesh, but made alive by the Spirit.

You see, we received God's judgment in our flesh while still living, so that we could be made alive by the power of his spirit.

That's God's grace to us.

That's God's grace to us.

You see, God is ready for judgment.

The Bible constantly portrays God as judge, and Peter here is saying God is ready, ready and actively judging.

Why is he able to be ready and actively judging us?

Here's one reason because the gospel is a living testimony, it's a declaration of guilt, but it's also a declaration of freedom.

It's a living testimony that to those who do not accept it remain guilty.

Those who embrace it and trust it are given life eternal.

See, the gospel is a living testimony equipping God to judge properly.

It's only through belief in that testimony that we're able to come out the other side of judgment alive.

It's only through the gospel that we can endure the judgment of God the Father and come out alive on the other side.

Because Christ was our substitute and he suffered under that judgment to the fullest extreme, was buried in the ground, but raised victoriously the third day.

We should praise God continually that He has shown us mercy and that we will not face those who have trusted in the gospel, the death sentence judgment, those who Do not believe will.

If we look at the second half of this passage, verses 7 through 11, the way I try to summarize this is be active in the church like the Lord is coming back.

Be active in the church like the Lord is coming back.

Peter begins to close down this section of passage with a message of sober haste.

He says, the end of all things is at hand.

Now, many of us, especially two millennia later, can kind of get tired of this statement.

Right?

The end is near.

Every time, it's funny.

And I love y'all, but listen, throughout history, for the last 2,000 years, every time a pandemic, a virus, a plague, a war, a social unrest has hit the world, people wondered, is this it?

So for the last 2,000 years that's been happening, maybe this one's it, I don't know.

But everybody thought that every time throughout history.

So we got to understand, we joined the church universal, all believers for all time, in waiting for the truth of the last days are at hand.

And we can't be tired of that statement.

We really will do ourselves and the church and the world an injustice if we grow tired of that statement.

Even if you've seen it abused, even if you've seen it exploited, even if you've seen it whatever, that statement is true.

And if we allow ourselves to become apathetic or dismissive of its reality, man, a lot of people are gonna miss out on what they need.

We're gonna miss out on what we need.

Because for certain, we can say the end of all things is at hand.

Why can we say that?

Not because of a pandemic, not because of political unrest, not because of any other thing but this.

The end of all things is at hand because Christ has fully finished the work.

That's how we can know.

You see, we can't add anything to the work of Christ.

Now we act like we can, we make statements like we can, like the gospel's insufficient, like Jesus needs our help, but we can't work to add anything to the finished work of Christ.

Our responsibility is to take the finished work and see it applied and manifested in his creation.

That's our responsibility.

And what we have to do is strive to stay tightly connected to that reality.

We can't add anything.

So how can Peter say the end of all things that is is at hand?

It wasn't because of specific circumstance that he was facing in his lifetime, it's because he had full confidence that the finished work of Christ was accomplished.

That's how we can know.

You see, what he's trying to help us do is have an eternal perspective that creates a finite impact.

Think about that.

He wants us to have an eternal perspective that creates a finite impact.

Too often we focus on the now and allow the now to ultimately dictate our actions and behaviors.

If we're honest, even us as Christians, we walk around head down, blinders on.

We are so impacted by the now.

What's happening right in front of our face, what's stressing us out right now, what's applying pressure from the culture right now, what does my job need of me, my family need of me, my whatever need of me right now?

And if we're honest, a lot of our decisions, a lot of the way that we structure our time, our finances, our resources, our energy is around the now, not the eternal.

We need to be present in the now, but have the scope of eternity so that our actions and behaviors transform.

Think of how we would change things about our life if we had eternity in focus instead of now in focus.

You know how many times the now has pulled me away from my children unnecessarily?

How many times the now has pulled me away from my wife?

How many times the now has pulled me away from the broken?

How many times have you seen someone that you thought, maybe, and here's the funny thing the devil's never gonna tell you to go help someone, the devil's never gonna tell you to pray for someone, the devil's never gonna tell you to go check on that person to see if they're okay.

You know how many times I've said, I can't, I'm busy, gotta go.

I'm out, sorry, Lord, send somebody else to that brother.

No, he's look, the Holy Spirit's prompting you.

The Holy Spirit's telling you, and when we don't have an eternal mindset that whatever's rushing us can wait, because the now doesn't dictate our actions, we can say, you know what, that person's soul, what if God used you to proclaim the hope of Christ and cause the Holy Spirit to revive their heart and spirit and add to the kingdom that we're trying to see expressed and manifested on this earth?

Man, that's greater than picking up whatever I've got to from the grocery store so my wife can get dinner on the table.

Or whatever other thing that might have rushed me.

We have to be present in the now, but have the scope of eternity so that our actions and behaviors actually transform.

He then says that our prayers are affected by our behavior and mindset.

He says, self-control and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

Now, what we have to understand is that what he's not saying is that if you are self-controlled and sober-minded, your prayers will be more acceptable to God.

No, your behavior, your behavior isn't necessarily a factor in God hearing you.

We are his children.

He delights in hearing us pray.

He delights in it.

What Peter's trying to help us understand is not that they'll be more acceptable, but that they'll be more appropriate.

You see, this is talking about our prayers being transformed to be more appropriate for what we're experiencing in our life, that we would be self-controlled and sober-minded.

And then he gives us some things to consider about our behavior and actions if we began to live with this frame of mind.

And we have to understand this.

What Peter's talking about here is he's very much uniquely focusing this section about behavior within the church.

How do we act with one another?

How do we live with one another, those who are Christians?

Because our behavior with one another should impact the world around us.

But Peter isn't calling us to do this thing to the world, this list of things that he walks us through to the world.

He's calling us to do this and have this be a part of our integrated lives for the benefit of the church.

And as the church lives out the way that they're supposed to, in their proper conduct, they'll actually ignite jealousy in the world around them.

You see, proper living has missional implication.

Because when we do what we're supposed to, Jesus said, they will know you are mine by your love for one another.

Not how much you love the world, not how much you love them, it's how much you love us, and they will peek in at moments and say, I want to be a part of that.

I want to be a part of that.

And then what do you have?

You have the invitation.

The hope of Christ, the gospel of the Son.

So here's what he says.

He says, First, love one another earnestly because it covers a multitude of sins.

What a paradigm shift in thinking.

When you think about approaching or confronting someone's sin, does the word love even come into our mindset most of the time?

Judgment, critique.

Those things might come into mind, but love, we don't often think of loving someone having an effect on their sin.

We think discipline, penalty, harshness.

But see, this verse can be radically seen more in the life of the church if we work to align ourselves with the attributes of what love really is.

Let's walk through them.

Now, listen, many of you have probably been to a wedding and you've seen this verse a hundred times.

You're thinking, okay, all right.

I've seen that verse even read by people who don't even believe in Jesus.

That's right.

They can't live this out properly.

It's sometimes in our culture just a nice little thing to have at a wedding.

But if we really work to see this as the revealed truth of God to his children, of his heart and how he loves, and we're supposed to model this, let that really sink in as we read through these attributes.

Number, let's put it up on the screen.

Love is patient and kind.

Man, I am incredibly impatient with sin.

I'm really patient with my own, just so you know.

But with yours, mm-mm.

Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and this one's the kicker, endures all things.

Man, in my life and probably yours, you're quick to just cut people off.

I don't like the way you do whatever.

You made me mad.

You hurt my feelings.

You said something about me that wasn't problem.

You did something that I didn't like.

Boom, cut off.

And the the the the the the the the insanity is that we do that to people in our own church.

What would it look like if love endured all things?

I tell people this all the time: if we are committed to Jesus and to one another, there is no sin that cannot be overcome.

But what happens?

We don't endure because we're not really committed to one another.

And it's easier to cut you off than to bear jointly with you the burden of your sin.

God forbid.

Show hospitality without grumbling, he goes on.

Here's what we have to do as the church.

We need to reorient our homes to be spaces of one anothering in the church.

We need to reorient our homes to be spaces of one anothering in the church.

Joyfully sharing your table with the people of the church.

This is a command from Peter for us of how we should live.

And listen, this is what I don't, I told the 9 a.m.

this.

I don't want you flooding my inbox with invitations to come have dinner at your house.

Please don't.

I got enough.

I got a lot of busyness, things I've got to deal with.

Here's what you should do: look for the people in this church who don't have a platform.

Look for the people in this church who sit alone every Sunday.

Look for the people in this church who aren't as sociable as other people.

Look for the people in this church who serve every single week without complaining or grumbling, but get no praise for it.

Look for those people, the single, the the isolated, those who are looking for relationship, those who are looking for camaraderie.

Look for those people and open your table to them.

Be reorient your home to a place of radical hospitality where one-anothering can be celebrated in your house.

He goes on to say, use our gifts to serve one another.

You see, the reality is, us as believers, if you've accepted the gospel, you've placed your trust in Jesus, you have a promise.

That promise is that you have been given a gift by the Spirit for the benefit of the church.

You have that promise.

Here's how I would define a spiritual gift.

A spiritual gift is any talent or ability empowered by the Holy Spirit and able to be used in ministering to the church.

Let me say that again.

A talent or ability empowered by the Holy Spirit and able to be used in ministering to the church.

That's a spiritual gift.

Sometimes we diminish what we have because it doesn't seem to be very supernatural.

We look at different gifts that's listed within the Bible.

Gifts like prophecy, speaking in tongues, healing.

But guess what?

Among those gifts?

Administration, hospitable.

These are equally as supernatural because it's the same spirit that gave it to you, and it's the same spirit that empowered it.

We are the ones that get caught up on which ones are more quote-unquote supernatural than others.

And then we diminish the reality that we have a gift to give to serve the body to become what it was supposed to be.

With this definition, the list of gifts is potentially limitless in ever shaping.

You know, the church back in uh Peter's day didn't have an A V team.

Surprise.

HDMI didn't exist back then.

But as we shape, as culture forms, do you think that the Spirit is so bound that he can't then distribute even new gifts to the church?

I like to think so.

I think our God's a lot bigger than space and time.

Then he says, speak as if we're God speaking himself.

Become intimate with the language of God so that our words reflect his words.

We need to become so intimate with the Bible, the language that God has revealed to us as his language, that our language begins to reflect it itself.

We should speak as if God was speaking itself.

This also means to not let our words be vain.

The emphasis that Peter's trying to say here is when you get up to talk, when you get up to open your mouth, consider your posture as in place of God speaking himself.

Not that what you say is authoritative, but the sobriety and responsibility of the words that are about to come out.

Serve beyond your own ability.

We should serve in such a way that it demands strength to keep God's strength to keep going.

I understand capacity levels.

I have a high capacity level.

Some of you barely have a capacity level to get out of bed.

I understand that.

That's okay.

We have different capacities.

But oftentimes we judge the things that we do in this life based on our own capacities, and we come back to the church, which is usually the last one, right?

After we've filled our lives with all of these other things: softball teams, soccer teams, kids' gymnastics, whatever, what it.

We filled it with all these things, and then we come to the church.

Ah, look, I can't do this anymore.

Well, what's going on?

I'm burnt out.

I don't have time.

I don't have resources.

Well, what's going on in your life?

I'm doing all this other.

Okay, well, one, maybe we should have a better filter for how we make decisions.

But number two, are we serving in such a way that demands God's strength to keep going in the church?

Have you ever served so much?

And has your heart ever been so stirred to continue on that the only way you were able to was to beg and plead for God to strengthen you to do it?

Now, what if we approach serving in the church that way?

God, I can't do it on my own, but I know people need my help.

I know this church needs my gifts.

I know that I need to keep going.

And I'm not trying to talk some type of uh antithetical to rest theology.

Rest should be a very integral part of our theology in the way that we do life.

Holy rest, righteous rest, but servitude that demands God's strength to keep going.

At the end of this, Paul Peter, one of the peas, says this in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, Peter ends with this doxological phrase.

What does that mean?

Doxology, this worship.

It just kind of funnels or flows out of him like a fountain.

This phrase of worship expression.

And what he does is this he brings us into focus at the very end of this passage that at the end of us is the glory of Christ.

At the end of us is the glory of Christ.

The purpose of our ministry and workings in the church are ultimately for his glory.

All of our life is his, and all of our life should reflect that reality.

All of our life is his, and all of our life should reflect that reality.

You see, when we come into relationship with Jesus, we often get this misconstrued that we come into relationship with Jesus for what he can give to us.

And we expect, though Christ did come to serve and not be served, in his death, burial, and resurrection, that was the work of Christ.

But when we come to Christ ultimately, it's so that we can serve our true master.

It's in subjective obedience to him as Lord.

Why?

Because to him belongs all glory, power, dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Our main idea this morning is this: as we try to summarize everything, I would say the world has nothing to offer.

In joy, let us work toward the coming of the new one.

The world has nothing to offer.

In joy, let us work toward the coming of the new one.

If we step back and look at the big picture of this passage, we see a stark juxtaposition.

Our former lives before Christ, which may tempt us but offer no true joy, and our current ones in Christ, which may have suffering but bring joy everlasting.

The world, our former life in the flesh, only brought the wrath-filled judgment of God and gave us no hope.

But the new world, which we get to taste in our new life in the spirit, brings us true hope.

And so this world has nothing for us.

So enjoy, let us work toward the coming of the new one.

But here's where we get stuck.

We work to sustain the old world.

We work to sustain the old world.

We work as if this world is all that there is.

How much of your life reflects that?

The way we try to pad our bank accounts, the way that we try to build security blankets into our life, the way that we try to make sure that everything's gonna be okay and fine, because oftentimes we work as if this world is all there is.

This life means something.

We have to realize that.

It means something, but it doesn't mean everything.

It means something, but it doesn't mean everything.

We seek empty pleasure from it.

Anything this world has to offer us will in the end leave us hollow.

The pleasures of this world are a cruel master who demands your life and shows up empty-handed at the end of it.

Charles Spurgeon was quoted an 1800s pastor in London.

He was quoted saying this: six feet of dirt make all men equal.

You see, the reality is the world will promise you everything.

And at the end of your life, it shows up to check out empty-handed.

The pleasure of intimately knowing God and living under his rule has pleasures without end.

The question is: do we believe that?

Do we believe that?

Or do we just believe that this world is all that we get?

And so we've got to make the best of it.

While we have time, we've got to get everything that we can.

Another thing that we do is we perpetuate its systems.

We perpetuate its systems.

Instead of living counter-culturally, we come to the back and push the culture forward.

What would it look like if we stopped behaving and acting like the world does?

It might possibly cause people to desire to belong with us.

You see, here's what's happened culture has looked at the church fundamentally over the last century and come to an in conclusion today.

You've got nothing for us.

And the church has realized that that's the Conclusion and the church has groveled at culture's feet to get behind them so that they'll like us again.

So they'll think we have something to offer.

So they think that we have something of worth that they would want and desire.

The problem is we're perpetuating their systems forward and we're leaving the gospel and the dust behind us.

Anything that this world would want, whether it come through revolution, whether it come through systemic change, whether it come through policy and legislation, on the other side of that utopian uh dysphoria are sinners.

And they're sinners going to hell.

And there's nothing that we can change about this world that changes that without the gospel, without the hope of Christ.

Another part of us is this that we apathetically wait for the new world to come.

So some of us work to sustain the old world, others of us apathetically wait for the new world to come.

We moan and grumble at the current state of this world instead of charge hell with the hope of Christ.

And I'm done with it.

Church, oh, I can't believe what's on the news.

I can't believe what's in social media.

Is this world ever gonna get any better?

Newsflash, it ain't.

I remember uh having children and family members saying, Justin, I can't believe you're bringing another child into this world in the state that it's in.

I've got a bigger picture than that.

I've got a bigger hope than that.

I've got a bigger belief in that.

You see, we apathetically wait for the new world to come.

We just sit back and grumble and complain.

And what's happening is that in our culture are people dying and going to hell.

I don't care what injustice that the world suffers from, you want to put forth from in the headlines.

The one that will infinitely, eternally, and always trump that injustice is the fact that our sin has cursed us.

It has ultimately oppressed us, and it is causing us to be eternally separated from the Father in all of his love and pleasure and joy that he wants to completely lavish upon us, but will not.

He will refuse to, and he will judge us in our sin, and we will face his wrath instead of his joy.

That's the headline.

That's the injustice, that's the oppressor.

And I'm not saying that we shouldn't engage this world, I'm not saying that we shouldn't engage this culture, I'm saying we cannot do it and leave the gospel in the dust.

What good is it if you feed a hungry tummy and you starve his soul?

Wicked man.

Wicked man are we that we would point to hope in finite fleeting things.

Let's do both.

Let's storm hell with confession and compassion.

You see, I love the way Peter works this up.

Because we're gonna have to work so hard in the church as a triage and refuge as we charge hell with the gospel.

Love, he goes through this list.

Love, meals, service, gifts, words to strengthen and build up the church so we can charge back out with the gospel.

You see, we should come in here suffering.

We should come in here beaten and bruised up.

We should come in here maligned and slandered, not because, not, not, not this fake junk that we think, oh, we're suffering uh because of what NPR said this weekend.

Oh, we're we're suffering because of uh people doing portraits downtown that we don't agree with.

Oh, we're suffering for no no no no no no no that's not suffering the way that the Bible's calling us to suffer.

We are supposed to be beaten, bruised, maligned, slandered because we are living such a countercultural life and with it proclaiming the gospel, the hope of Jesus in compassionate and tender ways to a lost and dying world.

And they should hate us for it.

They should hate us for it.

That's what Jesus said.

You think they hate you, they're gonna hate you even more because they hated me first.

And then what do we do?

We come back in the church as a triage and place of refuge where love, hospitality, service, gifts, words are used to strengthen and build us up so we can charge back out with the gospel.

This is my gospel of conviction this morning.

Jesus righteously persevered through suffering to attain for us a new world.

Jesus righteously persevered through suffering to attain for us a new world.

Jesus died for this world, but he attained for us a coming new one.

And this should shape the way that we live.

Let's break this down.

Jesus did die for this world.

This earth matters.

This existence, creation, it means something.

Christ died for it, and we should work in it.

Again, we don't add to the work of Christ, but we endeavor to see his finished work expressed within our culture.

And that doesn't mean just street corner preaching.

I'm okay if you want to do that, that's fine.

It doesn't mean just proclaiming the gospel, but it means cultivating creation to its ultimate flourishing, of which God has called us to.

What it means for us is to try and gain back Eden.

And we know we're not gonna see the fullness of it in this life.

We're not gonna have it here and now.

Will we have tastes of it?

Absolutely.

Will we have moments of it?

You bet it.

We should cry out with a loud, desperate voice Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, and rejoice like crazy when we just get a simple morsel of it shown to us.

Jesus died for this one.

But he attained a new one.

This will be burnt up, this will be destroyed.

What we see tangibly in front of us, it'll be wiped away, and a new heavens and a new earth will come.

Do we believe that?

Do we really believe God is good?

Do we really believe that his promises are true?

Do we really believe the Bible for what it says?

Do we really believe in these things, or do we as Christians, as human beings, wonder?

Man, this is hard.

I wonder if God really is as good as he says that he is.

Man, what I'm going through is troubling.

Is God really loving like the Bible says that it is?

Man, what I'm seeing in this culture, it is weary to my very being.

Is God promises true?

Are we just waiting?

Is that giant sign the world is uh the end is near?

Am I as much of a joker for believing it as I think this guy is for walking around with it in the street?

If we're honest, we think those things in some measure, some form, some way.

You see, Christ attained for us a new one.

When we face suffering, let us look to Jesus.

Let us look to Jesus who persevered for what was to come rather than gave in for what was fleeting.

He is our provision of grace for when we're weak.

Now, how would we live this out?

Gospel vision.

First thing is this in the face of suffering, look forward, not back.

In the face of suffering, look forward, not back.

Look ahead to what's to come.

The world is going to come and try and give you promises.

They're empty.

There's no substance to them.

They have no reality to what they offer.

We have to look forward.

And as we look forward, we're looking to what God has promised us through his word, what God has promised us through the finished work of Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection.

We're looking forward to what's to come.

And that should be our source of hope, determination, resilience.

That should give us the ability to set our face like a flint in the way that Christ set his.

To get on the other side of suffering, not in condemnation because we gave up and turned back, but to come out on the other side of suffering in righteousness because we obediently submitted ourselves to him.

Number two, live with an eternal mindset.

Look, everything is shouting at you for your attention.

Everything.

Social media, shouting for your attention, job, shouting for your attention.

I know when I come home, I have five human beings that shout for my attention all simultaneously.

And I just get, sometimes I just have to say, stop, let dad sit on this couch for like three minutes, and then I'll address you one by one.

Because like, hey dad, look at this, look at this, look at this.

And then sometimes even my wife is like, hey, look at this, and then she does a trick, and I'm like, look, I can't look at all these tricks at one time.

I just need to focus on right.

Everybody's vying for your attention.

Everything is vying for your attention.

If you allow that to dictate you, you will always make decisions.

You will build a worldview and a belief structure that is determined by the now rather than the eternal.

You will.

We have to work to live with an eternal mindset.

And the decisions that we make with our resources, our time, our money, our relationships, our work, they're informed and transformed by that mindset rather than the now.

Just think about with your money.

How many times, if you had a more eternal mindset with your money, knowing that it that it won't go with you, knowing that that we should use this for the advancing of the kingdom, how many like dumb things would you have not have bought because you got stuck in the now, right?

You were on you were on uh QVC at like one in the morning, and you're like, I've got to have that thing that that makes my food and cuts my hair.

I gotta have that right now.

You just boom, made a decision.

Live with an eternal mindset.

Number three, work with urgency.

Church, don't let your heart grow dull or numb to this statement.

The end is the end of all things is at hand.

Don't grow numb to that.

Don't allow yourself to do it.

And when you ponder that, when you think about it, let it compel you to work with urgency toward the new world that is to come.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for the hope of the gospel.

I pray we make much of Jesus.

I pray that we lift him up as our only hope.

I pray, Father, that you give us strength beyond ourselves to see your kingdom manifested and expressed in all of creation for your glory and our good.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.