1 Peter: Blessed Assurance (Live Unashamed)

Some of us, yeah, we we were doing good just to get here this morning, but we did.

We made it.

We absolutely made it to church today.

And I'm so glad that you are here.

We're gonna dive into God's word, but I do want to say a quick thank you to everybody.

If you don't know what happened to me this past Saturday, I came down with the flu, and it was the kind of flu where it was like, I don't want to pass this around to anybody, uh, but I did, I did have it, and uh, our team did such an amazing job stepping up, including uh Pastor Chris, who had less than a 24-hour notice.

So can we celebrate uh their willingness to do that?

Thank you so much.

Did a wonderful job, and I'm still gonna be snotting just a little bit.

Uh, but if you're if you come from the church I come from, I don't know if this is a snot rag or if this is a praise rag, but either way, we're gonna have fun with it today.

It's gonna be good.

If this is your first time joining us, thank you for being here with us.

And we would love for everybody to turn in their Bibles with us to 1 Peter chapter 3, as we are gonna be covering the message we were going to cover last week.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

And while you are doing that, if this is your first time joining us, we'd love for you to fill out your connect card.

You can turn it in at the end of the worship experience.

We have a free gift for you, and we would love to invite you to our next RLC Connect.

It's an opportunity where you can find out about how to get connected at RLC.

I want to tell you about two things before we jump in, and that is number one, you may have accidentally sat on something, so I want to let you know what that is, and that is we have got one of our favorite things we do all year long coming up in two weeks, called our At the Movie series.

And so we're excited about that.

Yes.

And here's the thing it is a lot of fun.

We're gonna have free popcorn, free soda, but we're gonna use modern day parables or movies uh to tell about what God is doing in our lives.

And so it's a wonderful opportunity to do that.

It's also a great opportunity to invite people, but in times past, we have had folks say, Listen, Pastor, you're killing me here because I had not seen that movie yet.

So here is the thing.

On the back of it, we have for you the three movies that we will be showing.

And so you have no excuse.

You cannot be like, I did not know.

If you don't know how Inside Out 2 ends, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

All right.

So make sure that you do that, but make sure you invite somebody, especially someone who doesn't know Jesus.

It's gonna be a wonderful, wonderful time.

And lastly, we didn't get a chance to do this last week, but I just have to take a moment and celebrate our Hope Cafe team.

Can we put our hands together and celebrate them?

So last week, I believe it was, was actually our 10-year anniversary of having our Hope Cafe.

And if you don't know what that is, that is this whole area right over here where you know, always making it smell good, smelled like the Holy Spirit and bacon this morning because that's where the Holy Spirit moves, it's through bacon.

And it was it was just a wonderful opportunity to say everything above cost that we receive from Hope Cafe goes to missions, local, national, and international.

And so we said, okay, well, over the past 10 years, how much money has actually come in for uh through Hope Cafe?

And we have had to date the best numbers that we can come up with, over$87,000 has come in.

Can we celebrate that?

Man.

And the opportunity to turn that around and above cost, put that into missions all over the place.

And we're gonna talk more about some of that that we did this year next week.

But I just wanted to say thank you for all of you who serve.

We have so many people who have served now, have served over the past 10 years.

And it's a wonderful deal.

Like we get to eat great food, and then we also get to send missions efforts all over the world.

I mean, that's a that's a good thing to get to do that.

And so make sure that you stop by Hope Cafe, especially if you're from the South, because by the time you got a church today, all the bread and milk is gonna be gone.

Because I don't know if you've heard, but we might see a snow flurry coming up tonight.

Maybe.

And so if you're from south of Tennessee, we're hoping that we've got some kind of bread, some kind of milk.

Kroger's not gonna have it.

Go ask Hope Cafe.

Maybe.

Maybe they have it, all right?

Well, if you've got your Bibles out and ready to go, we have been walking through First Peter.

And the idea behind getting our head around what First Peter looks like is we've we've kind of tried to put our mindset in this place of imagine, and it's hurricane season, so we've already seen some hurricanes come through, but imagine you're watching, you know, Ryan Hall, y'all, you know, or something else uh on the on the news, and all of a sudden he's talking about a storm gathering down in Florida, and and you see and you look, and it sure looks like the worst storm you've ever seen.

And then you remember, my best good buddy lives right in the center of where that storm is.

And so you're worried, you're concerned, you're nervous.

How are they doing?

And then right in the middle of all of your concern, you get contacted from inside the storm.

And imagine it's like an email.

And you're like, well, let's hurry up and open it.

And you just imagine what would that email have said?

What would that email have talked about about being in the middle of the worst storm ever?

And we've said that's not that dissimilar from what 1 Peter is all about, because Peter is right in the middle of what we're calling the storm of the 60s in Rome.

And it is the decade of the worst persecution the church had experienced up until that point.

And right in the middle of all of this, when people are being rounded up and slaughtered and all these horrible things are happening, Peter is in Rome, the epicenter of the greatest storm to hit the early church, and he is writing to all the other churches.

And so you imagine what he could have said about how horrible it was, about how they were chasing the Christians and how they were having to hide in different places and how they were literally running for their lives, all the things he could have said.

And out of all of that, the main thing that he tells us in 1 Peter is that I got great news that no matter what storm we face, we can stand strong because of our blessed assurance.

And so, you know, we we talk about this idea like if you're in the middle of that storm, there's so many things that are going on.

I mean, there's so many things that he could have been talking about, but he wanted to make sure he, because he knew just like it was happening in Rome, it was headed their direction, and it did.

So before it even gets there, let me go ahead and tell you I've got great news that I've had to stand on that solid rock, and I've come to tell you that it doesn't move, that we really can stand strong because of that blessed assurance.

And he talks all about that.

And that's what chapter one was all about is about that blessed assurance, is the living hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

And then in chapter two, he says, okay, then from that foundation of who Jesus is, now we move into all the world, and now we are a living example of what it is to be a Christ follower.

And he starts to talk about very practically what it looks like to be a living example in the world around us.

And he talks about relationship to our government.

Praise the Lord.

We can maybe we all go and read that again, right?

You know, the government.

And then he talks about in our work life, and then he talks about in our daily lives, and then, you know, two weeks ago we talked about our church life.

And then as he's he's talking through that, he finally then starts to make a shift because he's been talking about our inward life in chapter three so far, but now he's gonna talk about what about those who aren't on Team Jesus?

What do we do?

How do we live as a living example to those on the outside of the church community?

How can we be God's gospel with skin on it?

How can we live and be that example out loud?

And that's what he's gonna talk about today.

And I got to go ahead and also tell you in the entire New Testament, the text we're gonna read today is probably one of the top three most controversial texts in the entire New Testament.

So here we go.

Here we go.

The Bible says, be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors.

And then he talked about the different ways we do that.

And he said, now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good?

But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you.

So don't worry or be afraid.

Look at somebody and say, Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid of their threats.

Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.

And if someone asks about the hope, about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.

But do so in a gentle and respectful way.

Keep your conscience clear.

Then, if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.

Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good if that is what God wants than to suffer for doing what is wrong.

Christ suffered for our sins once for all time.

He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God.

I love that.

He suffered physical death, but was raised to life in the spirit.

So he went and he preached to the spirits in prison, those who disobeyed God long ago, when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat.

Only eight people were saved from the from drowning in that terrible flood.

And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clear conscience.

It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now, Christ has gone to heaven.

He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority.

It's a chance to get my praise rag out.

Come on, Jesus.

Praise the Lord.

Where I come from, that's praise break time.

Come on, Jesus.

Yeah.

That we we absolutely now he is in heaven above all authorities, above all angels, above all spirit beings, and all of them except, all of them bow to his authority.

That is our King Jesus.

And so what Peter is saying is he's been talking all about living, uh being a living example to different areas, and he says, and now for those who see us in our struggles, now those who see us in our suffering see the bad things that are going on, the way we can be a living example is this, and that is that we are a living example of hope by how we live unashamed.

By how we live unashamed.

Look at somebody and say, unashamed.

Okay, good, good, good, good, good, good.

All right, look at somebody else and say unashamed.

It's no fun to do this without you, okay?

We're gonna do this together.

We're gonna talk about what it looks like to live unashamed in a world that tells us we should be ashamed.

We should be ashamed if we go through difficulties, if everything doesn't go right, of whatever, all this kind of stuff.

And said, No, no, no, no.

I'm not, I'm not like not ashamed because everything's going right.

I'm not ashamed because of God who is with me in the fight.

When everything else is going on.

It reminds me of this uh of this situation that happens.

I've been telling you guys about how, you know, kind of personal family storm stories.

And uh just the best way I can come up with this idea of living uh unashamed is that we have a dog.

And our dog is Maggie, and we kind of call her the church mascot because she thinks she is.

And Maggie is not a ferocious dog, okay?

And she does not love storms.

As a matter of fact, in our family, she has been most, she's been voted most likely to have a heart attack if a storm happens, right?

If she could, she would just live in a storm shelter.

That that's just here here she is, this ferocious Maggie, okay?

That's her.

Here's some alls, okay.

Yeah.

She she's Maggie, all right?

But here's here's the thing.

Maggie's the first one who wants to go to the storm shelter, and she would be the last one to leave.

However, whenever there is a storm, my girls can tell you that she will go right into where we have this uh kind of room set in a laundry room where we go if we if it really is coming.

And you know, and and my girls are in there, and she will start out in there.

But after a little while, she'll say, Dad, she's coming.

Because what happens when the storm gets really bad is she sees me as the pack leader.

And so when it gets really, really bad, she goes looking for me.

Well, the problem is, is I'm like, I think I'm a meteorologist, and so I'm at the window looking at the storm, you know.

Not smart.

I'm not recommending this, but for some reason I gotta make sure I can see it, right?

And so the one who actually would want to be in, you know, the shelter and is kind of shaking, she will come look for me and she will come stand beside me.

Hey, Max, what's up?

And I'm going back to looking, and I will watch a transformation come over this dog.

She will start off just kind of shaking, but then after a little while, you'll see her start to kind of straighten up a little bit.

And I think in her mind, she thinks she looks like that.

Now, how you can transform yourself into a big cat, I don't know.

But she, I think that she starts to, because she'll start off just, you can just see her just shaking.

And after a little while, she starts looking out that window.

And and reality is, if she sounds like, yo, dad, are we okay?

But she thinks she's like, let's take a look and see how this is going.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, she thinks she's awesome.

She thinks this is what's happening, okay?

That is not what's happening.

Actually, I'm holding her while she is just kind of looking over my shoulder out the window, but at the same time, that's where she's gonna be.

And the thing is, is she is not getting strength because of who she is, she's getting strength because of who she's standing beside.

And it's because that she is now standing beside the person that she thinks can actually control the storm that everything's okay.

As long as I stay close to daddy, I'm all right.

And that's exactly what Peter is talking about here.

Is he saying that when we are in the middle of a storm, and everyone would expect us to go running off somewhere, but we stand in the middle of that storm that they would say like we do, and that is, look, you're just a dog, but you're standing like a lion.

How is it possible that you can be a little guy but standing unashamed?

And we say it's not because of me, it's because of who I'm standing beside.

Or as for Christians, we would say it's not me, it's who Christ is in me.

That's why I stand unashamed, not because I have the answers, not because I want to struggle, not because any of that is good.

It's because of who I'm beside.

And as long as I stay close to him, I know everything's gonna be okay.

That's what hope is.

The Bible teaches us that biblical hope is a dynamic, living confidence in the promises of God.

That's what the hope that we have is is not that we have hope that nothing bad will happen.

Hope doesn't kick in until something bad does happen.

And then it's when something bad does happen and people still see us standing ten toes down on the promises of God, if they go, you're just a little guy, but you're standing there like a lion.

You must have something to say to me.

And that's what it is to live unashamed, is I'm not ashamed of the storm I'm going through because I know that God is in here with me.

And so I'm gonna keep on going.

And so we're gonna talk about what it looks like to live unashamed.

And so let me give you one disclaimer before we do this, and that is that this does not mean that we celebrate or deny storms.

We simply are celebrating the opportunity to watch God do something through every storm.

So I want to make sure you hear me say, I'm not saying that we're celebrating, yay, I'm going, I lost my job.

Praise the Lord.

None of that.

We're also not denying that it happened.

We're just saying that two things can be true at the same time.

I can be going through the worst storm of my life, and I can still be so thankful for Jesus, and I can still love him.

And so the question of the day is what does it mean to stand like a lion while facing the storms of life?

What does it mean to live unashamed?

When people would look at us and say, Well, you're just a little guy, but you're standing like a lion.

Well, it's because of Christ in me.

It's and that's what makes us unashamed.

Look at somebody and say, Stay unashamed.

Stay unashamed.

Okay, well, what does that look like?

Here's three things that Peter said.

First of all, we stand unashamed when we are willing to explain the message of hope to others.

Living unashamed is to be standing while the storm is going on.

And then when people say, How can you stand like a lion?

Because I'm unashamed.

Unashamed of what?

That's a good question.

And he says, that's your opportunity to talk about who God is.

He says it like this He says, to live properly among unbelieving neighbors.

And then he said, once you do that, now who's gonna want to harm you if you are eager to do good?

But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it.

So in other words, he's saying we don't go looking for trouble, but sometimes trouble comes looking for us.

And so when we do, we just know that God is still bigger than all of those things.

And then he said, and don't worry or be afraid of the threats of trouble.

Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.

And if someone asks you about the hope you have as a believer, always be ready to explain it.

Now the Greek word for explain right there is the word apologia, which doesn't mean to say you're sorry.

It means to explain, to defend, to have a rational explanation for why you believe what you believe.

And so what Peter is saying is, is he is saying, when the storms happen, make sure that you are standing on Christ and nothing else.

And when we are standing on Christ, then be ready to explain what it is that we are standing on.

And I love how he is actually telling them, he's quoting from the Old Testament, and he's reminding them, this is not the first time this has happened.

Can I tell you in the culture we live in today, where we're having to decide who are we going to follow?

That it's not the first time we've had to decide to say, I'm gonna follow Jesus above everything else.

He talks about, he's actually quoting from the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah, when there was a moment when Israel and Judah as nations were not following after God.

They were actually trying to figure out how they could align themselves with other corrupt nations because the Babylonians and the Assyrians were coming and they didn't know what to do, but they weren't turning to God.

They were turning to everything else and they were wondering why it wasn't working.

And while all that is happening, God sends a message through Isaiah and he says this He says, The Lord gave me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does, because they were all thinking, what nation is going to save us?

And instead, he said, Don't call everything a conspiracy like they do, and don't live in dread of what frightens them.

Make the Lord of heaven's armies holy in your life.

He is the one you should fear, he is the one who should make you tremble, he will keep you safe.

And so then he says, and so what do you do to make him holy?

Preserve the teaching of God, wait for the Lord, and put your hope in him.

And Peter is quoting that when he's saying, and now that we're in the greatest storm we've ever been in, remember who is supposed to be our foundation.

And it is not our governments, it is not the different conspiracy theories that are out there.

Instead, this is a time for us to remove all of the other things and say, I want to make sure that Christ is holy in my life.

I want to make sure.

And the truth is, is the more the storms of life spiral out of control, the more we must stand on the foundation that doesn't move.

And that is our living hope, Jesus Christ.

The more we see our government going crazy and all the different things, and the more we see the wars and rumors of wars all around the world, and the more we hear of this, and the more culture does all this, that should be our sign to say, let me make sure that I'm ready to explain the hope I have so that when I don't move, while everything else does, because my hope is in Jesus, and they go, How is it that you're standing like a lion?

We're ready to explain what that is.

And the way we do that is that we read God's word daily and rehearse God's story often so we are ready to explain our hope.

How do we explain it?

Is that we read God's word every day.

Because as we read God's word every day, we're getting to know God more, a little bit more every single day.

A little bit more, one day at a time, getting to know God more.

But then also we rehearse his story.

What do I mean by that?

Our salvation story.

We we remember how Christ saved us.

Remember how He set us free and He washed away all of our sins.

We remember that so that we are ready to explain our hope.

I love how Paul said it like this.

He says, Live wisely among those who are not believers and make the most of every opportunity.

Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

And he said, make sure that you have the right response.

And so sometimes people need to hear from God's word and your personal testimony story.

Sometimes they need to start with your personal testimony and God's word, but you're ready at all times to explain why I'm able to stand on this hope, because of who God is.

Because when they see you living unashamed, at some point they go, I don't have what you have.

And you say, But I didn't have it either until Jesus gave it to me.

And you start talking to him about it.

It reminds me of one of my favorite, uh, my favorite uh Christian apologists.

His name is Dr.

John Lennox, and he tells this story of uh he lives in London, and one day he was he was riding one of the trains and he said that he had gotten out his Bible and he was reading his Bible.

And he was saying, I read my Bible on purpose, the paper Bible, because it gets attention and starts conversations.

To which some of us would be, that's why I don't read my paper Bible.

You know, but he's saying I'm doing it the other way around.

And he said, as he was reading his Bible, you ever notice how someone's looking at you, but they don't want you to know they're looking at you?

He said, That was happening.

Someone was like, just like creeping on me a little bit.

And he said, So finally he just kind of looked at the guy and he's like, Okay, listen, I just gotta ask.

You don't really believe what you're reading.

Well, this guy happens to be one of the foremost like defenders of Christianity in the world.

So he just put his Bible, he's like, Absolutely, yes, sir, I do.

Let's have a conversation about it.

And the guy starts really just talking about all these different reasons why he didn't believe in God.

And finally, Dr.

John Lennox asked this one question, and if you don't remember anything else today, this is the greatest question to start a healthy conversation, and that is, what hope have you got?

Like, just ask the question of all the different things you just told me, what hope have you got?

And he said, the guy just bowed his, kind of lowered his head, and he said, I don't really, I don't really have any hope.

And uh Professor Lennox said, Well, I don't have all the answers.

He said, But let me tell you my story.

And he started telling about his salvation story and about how God had moved in his life.

And he's like, you know, I I live in this world of academia and all these different things, but as I read this book, it tells me that Jesus came on a rescue mission to save us.

And he said, I've learned that there's A, B, and C, that if I will accept that I'm a sinner, if I believe Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins, and if I will confess that I need salvation, repent, and declare Jesus as Lord, I can have hope that never quits.

I can have hope that never ever dies.

And he said that he was able to lead this man to Jesus, not because he shouted him down, but because he asked him about where his hope was.

And the reality of it is, is we live in a world where people need hope.

And our hope is what they actually need because we needed it once upon a time.

And that hope, when we stand on it, in the middle of suffering, it says, You're just a little guy.

Why are you standing like a lion?

Not because of me, but because of who lives in me.

And so this is my hope for you.

My action step hope for you is that we will share our story with others.

That we'll share, that we'll live unashamed to share our story with others.

That's what a wonderful opportunity with our at the movies cards is when you you tell them, hey, our church is doing something silly, very weird, kind of different, but there's free popcorn and coke.

Then it's Coca-Cola.

Make sure we yeah that there's free Coca-Cola for everybody.

I'm not gonna say whether or not I saw somebody go, hey, you know, so no, no, no.

And and tell them.

Tell them.

That's why we're all here.

We're all growing in freedom in Jesus' name.

Yep.

But we're gonna tell them about it and then say, come on, come join me.

We're gonna share our story with others.

Look at somebody and say, live unashamed, including all the other stuff, all right?

Yeah, we're gonna live unashamed, we're gonna explain that hope.

But then here's the other one, and that is we're gonna live it out.

Somebody say amen.

We're gonna live out the effects of hope for others.

Live out the effects of hope for others.

You ever heard the phrase that your actions are speaking so loud I can't hear anything you're saying?

How many of us as Christ followers need to remember that?

That we that we are the ones who put the gospel on and walk into our world with it.

He said it like this He says, always be ready to explain it, but do this in a gentle and respectful way.

Keep your conscience clear.

Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.

And remember, it is better for you it is better to suffer for doing good, if that's what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong.

Notice how he said, be ready to explain it, but also to do it with gentleness and respect.

Remember, gentleness is controlled strength.

Gentleness is not weakness.

The Bible calls Jesus gentle.

He wasn't weak, he had the power and the authority of all creation in his ability to do, and he controlled it and he tempered it.

That's controlled strength.

That's the definition of gentleness.

But then also respect, treating someone with dignity.

I heard this interview not long ago of the famous actor uh Johnny Depp, which, depending on what generation you're from, Pirates the Caribbean, you know, Jack Sparrow, that that guy, you know, the you know that guy.

Um uh he said that when he was a teenager, uh he he had someone invite him to church.

And he said he went to church and he said he loved it.

He loved the message, he loved everything about it.

He's like, man, this is the way to go.

He said, but then he watched that same guy live during the week.

And he realized in that moment, this must not be real.

Because if it's real, why doesn't he live that way?

And that was uh an interview from the past couple years.

All this time, he believed it wasn't real because those who said it was real didn't live like it was real.

What an amazing opportunity that we have to live the gospel in front of others.

That's what Paul said is he said the purpose of the this instruction is that believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart and a clear conscience and a genuine faith.

But some people have missed the whole point.

And so he's talking about the importance of making sure that when we go after God and we read his word and we know it, that it should change all of us.

And then understanding the balance, because the truth of it is that truth without love misses God's heart.

Love without truth misses God's word, but truth plus love shows God to others.

And as we are living unashamed, we are walking constantly with the balance of doing both, of realizing that God's word does say, do this, don't do that, because there's death and life there.

But also, God is Himself the definition of pure love.

And so one without the other doesn't work, but we put both together, there's freedom there.

And then when we have to stand on that, we realize that living unashamed doesn't mean that everything doesn't go wrong, that sometimes things just don't make sense.

It's just to realize that even when everything goes wrong, I still trust in the Lord.

I still know that he is moving.

Because here's the truth, and that is that when we explain the truth, but then when we live it out loud, I heard someone say once that people will be impressed by your successes, but they'll connect with you in your weaknesses.

When you struggle in front of people and say, hey, listen, I don't have it all figured out, but I know a guy, and his name is Jesus, and he is the one I'm holding on to.

We see this in an in an Old Testament uh scripture that we'll call Daniel uh shows faith by enduring trouble.

We told this story before, but I can't think of a worse case scenario than this hardly.

And so we're gonna tell it again.

And the story is that Daniel and a bunch of his uh Jewish uh brothers were taken to Babylon when the nation of Judah was overthrown.

They were taken to Babylon and they're trying to now worship God in a pagan nation.

And there's there's no there's no easy way to do it.

And over time, Daniel starts to move up the ranks in the local government, but he's still worshiping God.

And his enemies realize that we really can't do anything with Daniel when it comes to his character, his integrity.

That's awesome.

The only thing Daniel does differently is that he worships his God and lives according to the way his God says to live.

That's the only thing that we can do.

And so they go to the king who also loved Daniel and watched Daniel's life, and they said, Hey King, we think that you should only, that people should only worship the way you say they ought to worship.

So I want you to sign a decree that says if anybody worships anything other than what you say, they should be thrown into a den of lions.

Well, the king thought that was pretty good because they you know they ought to worship him.

And so they they sign the decree.

Daniel hears the decree, he knows it's gonna cost him, but instead he goes home, he opens the windows, and he begins to pray to God.

Well, now they've got him.

And so they go back to the king and say, King, you said that if anybody worships anything other than who you say, they're gonna be thrown to a den of lions.

Didn't you say that?

Yes, sir, I did.

All right, so Daniel, your favorite over here, Mr.

Character, he is now violated.

Oh no.

Because the king loved Daniel, and he tried to find his way out of it, but he couldn't do it.

This is now Daniel is in trouble.

It would seem as though his life is on a bad path.

It seems like maybe something's gone wrong, or has it?

But the Bible says this it says, at last the king gave Daniel uh orders for Daniel to be arrested and thrown into the den of lions.

And the king said to him, May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you.

And a stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den.

And the king sealed the stone with his own royal seal and the seals of his nobles, so that no one could rescue Daniel.

And so, because he was serving God, now he is suffering.

Because he was serving God.

And I can't think of a worse way to suffer.

I mean, can you imagine having to spend an entire night around a bunch of cats?

Yes, I did all of that for a cat joke.

Okay, absolutely.

But but can you imagine that these are these are not just any cats, these are mean cats, okay?

These are well, that's all cats, but they're they're really there's a horrible, horrible night, and he is thrown in there, and so but here's The amazing thing is, it wasn't just a long night for Daniel or the cats, it was also a long night for the king.

The king was hoping that he would struggle well.

The king was hoping that he could see what living unashamed looked like, and that it ended with something good.

And so the Bible said that very early the next morning the king got up and hurried out to the lion's den, and he got there, he called out in anguish, Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God, whom you serve so faithfully, able to rescue you from the lions?

And Daniel answered, Get me out of here.

No, it's not what he said.

All right.

He said, Long live the king.

My God sent his angel to shut up the lion's mouths so that they would not hurt me.

For I have not, for I have been found innocent in your sight.

I have not wronged you, your majesty.

And the king was overjoyed and ordered that Daniel be lifted from the den.

And not a scratch was found on him, for he had trusted in his God.

And just a few verses later, the king sends out a decree over the entire nation to say there's only one God, and it is the God of Daniel.

And it wasn't because of how Daniel stayed out of trouble, stayed out of suffering.

It was the way Daniel stayed faithful during the suffering that made the biggest deal.

And you want to talk about a miracle.

Only God can make a bunch of cats behave for a whole night.

But he did.

And here's the amazing thing is that when we struggle, when we go through the storms, but we still live unashamed, people ask the question, but you're just a little guy.

You're just you've got as many problems as we've got, but yet you're acting like a lion.

How could you possibly be like that?

It says, not me.

It is Christ who lives in me.

And my hope for all of us is that we will show God's grace to others.

That we will show people not how God blesses us and we never have a problem.

It is actually that it is the strength of God that is seen when we go through those problems.

And we say only God could do this miracle.

Everybody wants a testimony, but not everybody wants a test.

But it is through those times, those difficult times, those are where the miracle stories come from.

It's like I'll go through any storm as long as Jesus is also in the boat.

And when we live like that, Peter is saying that's when people see the hope that is in you.

Look at somebody one more time and say, live unashamed.

Live unashamed.

And we do that by explaining our hope to others, by living it in front of others, and then also by standing in awe.

By standing in awe of the plan of hope with others.

By just standing, just what actually what Peter did is he told us to explain it, he told us to live it, and then afterward, he says, and this is why we do it.

So the fuel behind why we do this, he actually said last, because he said, I just want to pull back the curtain just a little bit, and I want to share with you just how powerful and how big our God is.

And so when you see the storm, sometimes it gets so big that we forget that God's even bigger than that.

And so he pulls back that curtain and he's saying, I want to show you just a little glimpse at how big God is.

And he says this, he says, Christ also suffered for our sins once for all time.

He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God.

Praise the Lord.

He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in or by the Spirit.

So he went and preached to the spirits in prison, those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building the boat.

It took him about 100, 120 years to build the ark.

Only eight people were saved from drowning in the terrible flood.

And that water is a or that that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience.

It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now Christ has gone to heaven.

He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority.

And so what he is actually saying, the big principle, and this is what you should always do, and there's a text that you're kind of going, okay, what exactly does that mean?

Always remember the overall principle.

The overall principle was Jesus suffered and then rose again and now is seated in heaven.

And if he can do that through his suffering, guess what he can do through all of us?

Exceedingly and abundantly above everything we could ask or think.

He is more powerful than we can imagine.

And so we don't go anything through anything that God can't redeem and God can't restore.

That's what Peter is saying.

And he's saying that's why we explain and that's why we live, it's because of what Christ can do.

But he said, let's take it a little bit deeper.

Now, there are four main ways that people interpret this scripture.

And I'm not going to have time to go with the one that I actually uh kind of align myself with that I believe.

But if you want to know the other three, you can scan the QR code on the back of uh your message notes and you can see where I blogged about all four of them.

But the the primary belief that is held by uh most early church fathers and most um scholars today, and for what it's worth, me too, is what happened, what he's talking about, is what happened right after something we just read in our soap Bible study this past week.

So if you've been reading God's word with us, we've been going through the book of John, we started a new book today, and if you'd like to read through God's word, you can text RLC Bible to 94,000 or scan that QR code, and we're continuing in his, I believe it's Micah starting uh today and then going on from there.

But there was a moment this past week, Jesus is exactly what Peter said.

He's suffering, he's dying on the cross.

And over the course of the four gospels, he utters seven different phrases, and finally the last phrase the Bible said, we read this this past week, he said, It is finished, and then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

I love how it even says that.

It said, No one killed Jesus.

Jesus said, Okay, I'm done.

And then he died.

He's just he's just the king all the time.

And so it's the idea of what happened after he said it is finished.

First of all, what was it?

The plan of salvation, the rescue mission.

But then what happened between the cross and the resurrection?

You ever wondered that?

He's three days in the tomb.

Is he playing cards?

Catching up on Fortnite, checking, checking YouTube.

No, no.

What is he doing for three days and three nights?

What is he doing?

Well, Peter is saying, he's giving a window into what possibly happened during that time.

And in order to understand what he was doing during that time and why he's saying, This is the king that we serve, and just standing in awe at a little bit more of the power of God, he said, You got to go all the way back to creation.

So the Bible says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was what was formless and void, a darkness was over the face of the deep, but the Spirit of God began to hover over the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light.

And all of creation began.

And we still live in the echo of those words as everything began to happen as stars and the earth was started to form up and seas and waves and all the different things.

And finally, he created Adam and Eve and put them in the garden.

But in Genesis chapter 3, mankind fail.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit as they were tempted by the devil, and they fell into sin.

And now they have to leave the garden and figure out their way.

At some point there, the Bible tells us that Lucifer and some angels fell from heaven as well.

And so now you have fallen humanity and you have some of the fallen spirit beings.

And then you get to Genesis chapter six.

And Genesis chapter six says that there was a time when the sons of man, or the son, the sons of God saw the daughters of men, and they cohabitated.

Now, sons of man or sons of God, some believe to be fallen angels.

And at that point in Genesis chapter six, you all of a sudden have this problem where you have angels who have now come down and they have commingled with humans, and chaos ensues.

Chaos ensues, and it's horrible, and the human race starts spiraling out of control, out of control, because now it's been corrupted, and throughout the whole time that all things are going horrible.

And the Bible said that God looked at the chaos and he was like bitterly sorry that he'd even done all of this because of what had happened.

But God found favor with Noah.

And so for 120 years, while the human race is getting worse and worse and worse because of all the sin and all these things, for 120 years God waited while Noah made the ark.

And then he and a total of eight of his family get in the ark and they are saved while God destroys everything with the flood.

And according to Jewish legend, once again, Jewish legend, he took the fallen angels and he put them into a spiritual dungeon called Tartarus for what they had done.

And what was amazing though is according to the scripture, what most scholars believe to happen is that during the three days, Jesus wasn't playing rumming in the tomb.

But actually, he went down to where the spirits had been imprisoned and he preached, he proclaimed victory over them.

And he said, way back when you thought you destroyed the human race, you thought that you were gonna stop my creation from be able to come to me.

You thought you had done it, and to where will there was only one family that made it through it.

You thought you won.

But guess what?

I just won.

I came, I made everything right.

And now, because of me, my people can come to me again.

You thought you destroyed them, but I just won the victory.

So you stay here, I'm gonna go take my victory all out.

That's what they think this actually means.

And so therefore, every time we put someone through baptism, we are celebrating all over again that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords won that victory, and it was through that water that we once again remind even the devil that he still lost, that the king actually won.

That's amazing when you realize that God's got so much more power than we can even come close to imagine.

That he just went and told all the enemies, you thought you won, you had no idea what you were doing.

So I'm just gonna go ahead and I'm gonna go rise from the dead, I'm gonna go start the early church, it's gonna be awesome, but you stay here.

It's amazing what our king can do.

So why?

Why do we stand unashamed?

Because nothing bad ever happens?

Absolutely not.

Do we stand unashamed because we don't always know what to do?

Absolutely not.

We stand unashamed because when we look at our king and we realize just a glimpse of who he is, we go, well, I just want to be beside him.

Why do you're just a little guy?

Why are you standing like a lion?

Have you heard what Jesus did?

And if he did that, he can stand with me right now.

And that's why in the book of Hebrews, after the book of Hebrews, the chapter 11 talks about the hall of faith and all the great things that God has done, he said, then then what you need to understand is when you think about the goodness of God, and then when you are struggling, make sure you remember this, and that is to fix your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished the race we're in.

And then he says this study how he did it.

Take a moment and think about how powerful it was for the king to do all of that because he never lost sight of where he was headed, that exhilarating finish in and with God.

He could put up with anything along the way, the cross, the shame, whatever.

And now he's there at the place of honor, right alongside the Father.

When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over the story again, item by item.

That long litany of hostility that he plowed through, man, that'll shoot some adrenaline into your soul.

That's the reason we stand in the middle of trouble.

It's not because we have it all figured out, not because in Christianity happens you're never gonna have a problem, is that you never go through any problem alone.

And that sometimes the struggles and the things and the storms of life get so big that we forget how much bigger God is.

And that's what Peter was doing is he said, Let me pull back this curtain just a little bit, just to remind you that Jesus was no mere man, he was God in human form.

And he said, When you find the storm getting bigger, go over the story again.

Remember where your hope comes from, remember that it is bigger and greater than you can ever possibly imagine, and go over it again and again and again.

And whatever you do, keep your eyes on Jesus.

Excuse me, and that's what I want to remind all of us in here today, because if we get really real about it for a moment, we say this all the time: everyone's got a private battle that nobody else knows about, but we also say that everybody in this room is in one of three places in our life.

We're either coming out of a storm, we're in the middle of a storm, or we're just now veering into one.

And I don't know where you are, but if the phrase I got 99 problems, but Jesus ain't one has ever been true, I believe that's true right now.

We got 99 problems, but Jesus ain't one.

I got no idea why our government's doing what it's doing, but Jesus ain't one.

I got no idea why people would want to slaughter one another in other countries like Nigeria, but I'm so thankful Jesus isn't one of my problems.

I I don't know why culture is going as crazy as it is.

I'm just thankful that Jesus is not one of them.

And then we've got people in our church who are dealing with sickness, dealing with death, dealing with all these things, but Jesus isn't one of them.

And so what happens when governments go crazy?

What happens when when culture goes sideways?

What happens when you pray for someone to be healed and God gives them the ultimate healing?

But that wasn't the one we were asking for, Jesus.

I know they're happy, but ah, what do you do?

You know what you want to do, what I want to do.

It's just like my my dog Maggie, what I what I want to do is I want to go get over and isolate myself and get all by myself over here, just I just just get away, just run, run, run.

But also, what I what I need to do, what what we need to do, is we actually need to go find the leader.

Go find Jesus and go stand as close to him as possible.

But the reality is, as I was telling you, is most of the time with Maggie, she's not standing beside me, I'm holding her.

But as soon as I hold her, I can feel her start to, you know, she she stops shaking, and after a while she's looking around, going, What's the problem?

Can I tell you that's that's my hope for us?

Is that when all the world is going crazy, it's us that's standing.

And people saying, You're just a little guy, just you got to get the meeting problems as I do.

Why are you standing like a lion?

Not because of who I am, but Christ in me, because of who Jesus is.

Where does that hope come from?

And then to explain it to the world.

Then what does that look like?

Well, I'm gonna live in front of you.

I'm not gonna get it right, but I'm gonna show you what God's grace looks like and how he forgives me and how he walks with me.

Why would you do that?

Because I stand in awe of who my king is.

I want to ask you this question as we get ready to pray.

What hope have you got?

What hope have you got?

Maybe you're in here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus.

Are you like me?

And if you notice that there's no hope in this world that really stands the test of trouble, thank goodness for Jesus.

Maybe the whole reason why you're here today is so you can hear that there really is a hope that can outlast all these things, and it's an eternal hope that because of what Jesus did, that He walks with us every single day.

And if you feel right now in your heart and you know that you're not where you need to be with God, but you know you need Jesus on the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation.

And in just a moment, the band's gonna lead us to the final song of worship.

I'm gonna be challenged to take a step of faith.

And your next step of faith, your act of worship is to step out of where you are, to walk back to the prayer table, take this with you and say, I want the hope that that guy talked about.

I want to have that kind of hope.

And it's only in Jesus.

If you'll accept that you're a sinner, believe that Christ died for you, confess your sins and declare him as Lord, you can experience that hope today.

It'll be our honor to welcome you into the family of God.

But maybe you're in here, and if we're honest, you love Jesus, but the mountain has gotten so big that you've forgotten that God's bigger than that mountain.

Because sometimes when it gets so big, it tends to get in the way.

And so I want to ask you this question: Do you remember where your hope comes from?

Do you remember?

Peter is right in the middle of the biggest storm the Christian church has ever faced, and he's saying, I'm so thankful that I can stand strong because of Jesus.

Maybe your prayer needs to be, God, help me remember where my hope comes from.

Remember that my salvation comes from you.

I remember what it was before I knew you.

I'd take today over that day, any day of the week.

I'm so thankful for you.

And just to stand in awe that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords would love us the way that He does.

So just take a moment and just say, God, you fill me up.

You open my eyes to see your hope again.

What next step do you need to take today?

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that your hope is eternal for us, that it never fades, that it's always there, and that you are always willing and able to do above and beyond all we can ask, think, or imagine.

God, I pray for maybe somebody in here that, Holy Spirit, you're speaking to them right now, and you're you're telling them that hope is just around the corner and that you've not given up on them and you really can do a miracle in their life.

And well, there's the voice of the enemy that's telling them it's not gonna work.

God would never love you, God would never forgive you.

I pray, Holy Spirit, you will silence the voice of the enemy and let your voice be the only thing they hear right now that says, I still love you, I'm still for you, I can forgive anything, even that.

You know, draw them to yourself, give them the courage to take that step of faith in just a moment.

God, I pray for everybody else under the sound of my voice, Lord, that you will do such a work in our life that when someone asks us, Why are you standing like a lion?

It will be because of the hope we have found in you.

I pray you will fill up our hope.

Open our eyes to see that you're always doing more than we realize.

Open our eyes to see your faithfulness in a new and a fresh way.

Help us, Lord, to see you.

And because of that, Lord, we stand and we live unashamed.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is gonna lead us in a final song of worship, and I don't know what next step you need to take.

Maybe as soon as they begin to sing, you need to step out of your seat, go back to the prayer table.

Maybe it's not about salvation, but we'd love to pray with you about anything right now that is trying to steal your hope.

Maybe you want to find a quiet place up here just between you and the Lord.

In the Old Testament, people would visit the house of God and they would they would bring something to dedicate to the Lord.

Maybe you just want to dedicate all your worries and fears.

Like, God, I give it all to you.

Maybe right where you are, you just want to lift your hands and just say, God, open my eyes to see that you're bigger than any storm I face.

But whatever you need, let's take the next few moments.

Let's worship the Lord together.