1 Peter: Blessed Assurance (A Living Hope)

1 Peter, chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

It was almost his fault, okay, but I'll take it for now.

1 Peter, chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

I am excited to jump into this series called Blessed Assurance and while you are doing that, if it's your first time joining us, welcome.

Can we put all of our hands together and welcome all of our first-time guests?

Thank you for being with us today and we are just so excited that you were here and if at some point during the service, if you don't mind, we'd love for you to fill out the Connect card and you can drop it off at the Welcome Center.

We have got a free gift for you, just an opportunity to connect with you, and around here we love giving away free Bibles, and so if you don't have a Bible, you don't have a Bible journal.

Just stop by the Welcome Center and say just you everything that you need so that you can engage with God's word together with us.

And as you are getting all that out, I see a few of you guys still turning.

That is awesome.

Please keep turning.

I got two things I want to tell you.

First of all, this week is Serve Week here at RLC, and so we are excited about that and we love just loving on our community, and if you don't know what that is, we have Serve Week this week, and there are many opportunities that we are serving our city together, and some of them have closed because there was a limited number of people that could be there.

And so, if you would, I want you to take just a moment and scan that QR code or stop by the Welcome Center and say I want to be part of Serve Week, because we try to have something available every day, especially the ones that are still open, and you also get a free t-shirt, and so that's what this is, and so, if nothing else, it's always good to get a free t-shirt right, and we have an opportunity just to show the love of Jesus to our city and be his hands and feet, and that is always such an awesome thing.

So make sure that you stop by the Welcome Center so we can get you connected.

Okay, and I have to say this because it's a pretty big deal for like, two of us in this building today, and that is that I have to celebrate that today is my wife and I's 24th wedding anniversary, yes, and so make sure you go to my wife and just tell her how happy you are that she has made it for 24 years, you know, and she has survived.

Yes, absolutely it is.

It is an honor to be married to my bride and she will probably hurt me later, but she's not here right now, so I can go ahead and celebrate that.

And so now we're going to get into God's word today and I feel like that God has really prepared our church just to really talk through some things that have been going on lately in our culture with his word.

And so I'm ready to jump into this.

But I want to kind of paint a word picture for us real quick.

I don't know if you've ever watched a hurricane as it was coming up on.

You know, like around Florida or maybe around the East Coast.

You kind of see a hurricane that's coming, and it's one thing.

When you see a hurricane and you see what's going on, it's another thing if you see a hurricane and you've got friends who live on the coast, like it just adds another layer.

You know, if you see somebody and you go, hey, my best friend's uncle's aunt's, sister's nephew lives right where the eye of the storm is, or whatever that is, and then imagine, while you are watching the news and you see the devastation and everything that's going on.

You get an email from someone who's right inside the storm and so you're literally watching on the news that the biggest storm like ever at least since you have been keeping up with it this is hitting the panhandle right there and right in the middle of the eye.

You get an email from someone right in the middle of the storm and what's amazing is is when you wanna know what they have to say.

Like what are you seeing?

Are you seeing like the movies show and like cows are going by?

You know, and is that the thing?

Or what exactly does it look like?

And what's amazing is is that's exactly what we get when we look at first Peter, because Peter is right in the middle of the greatest storm to hit the Christian church in the 30 years it's been in existence and he's writing a letter to people that are also experiencing that same storm, but not quite to the level that he is.

And it's amazing what he could have said but didn't and what he did say, and one of the number one things that he says out of this whole thing is he's like guys, I'm in the middle of the storm, I see so many things I don't want to see.

I've had so many things happen, but out of everything I'm experiencing right now, the number one thing that he would say to us is that we can stand strong because of our blessed assurance that if every single thing that he was experiencing all of the storms, all of the difficulties, all the stuff that we're gonna cover over the course of this series the one main message that he tells us is, in the thickest moment, the most difficult situation, he's looking back and he's going man, I've seen persecution, I've seen difficulty, I've seen discouragement, I've seen everything.

But at the same time, he's like but here's the thing I'm so encouraged, I'm so excited.

It's such an honor to be part of the kingdom of God and I want to write you an email to tell you exactly why we can stand strong.

So I want you to look at your neighbor.

I want you to tell them say, stand strong.

It's going to be one of those days.

Okay, all right, now look, look at someone you actually like.

Okay, look at somebody else and tell them now, stand strong.

And I noticed that no one talked to the same person.

Okay, so now we know Okay, yes.

And here's the thing.

Peter is writing to these churches all around and he's telling them an amazing message.

We're going to read this and just celebrate what God's Word is saying.

So this is what he says.

He says this letter is from Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and I am writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Bowling Green, scottsville, alvinton, franklin and everybody on Three Springs Road, right.

Obviously it's not what he's saying, but we don't know these other places.

But what he's saying is is he's saying Pontus, galatia, cappadocia, asia and Bithynia.

So Bowling Green, right?

God the Father knew you and chose you long ago and his spirit has made you holy.

As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

May God give you more and more grace and peace.

All praise to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now we live with great expectation and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay, and through your faith, god is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

So be truly glad.

There is a wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.

These trials will show that your faith is genuine.

It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.

So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor.

On the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world, you love him even though you have never seen him, and though you do not see him now, you trust him and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.

The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about.

When they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you, they wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory.

Afterward, they were told that their message was not for themselves but for you.

And now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

And it is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

Wow.

So think about for a moment right in the thick of the greatest storm that they had ever known as a church, right in the middle of disappointment, discouragement, persecution and all this, he sends them a letter, sends them an email and he said I'm so excited not because of what's going on Times are tough.

I'm just excited that my God is tougher and that he is greater and able to do exceedingly and abundantly above everything that I see.

And the more I see, the more excited I get, because I realized how much stronger my God is.

And if he were to tell us something today, the first thing he would tell us is that we can stand strong because we have a living hope.

That we can stand strong no matter what comes our way, no matter what we face, no matter what goes on all around us, that our faith is not fragile, that our hope is not fragile.

Our hope has nothing to do with this world.

It has something to do with what never changes and what is solid and is sure.

And Peter is writing in the middle of this storm and he's saying man, I'm not saying that I like all of this.

I just like the fact that my God is bigger than all of this and his whole letter, in the middle of this horrible storm, is all about hope.

So let me give you some background, because I know sometimes we think about, you know, people writing books nowadays.

I have this picture in my head Every time somebody writes a great novel, they're either sitting in like you know a study, or they're sitting at a coffee shop just kind of writing away.

Then, if we're not careful, we think that's what Peter is doing.

That's not what he's doing.

He is running, he's having to hide from Romans at a certain part and people are moving him from place to place because he is part of what we're going to call the great storm of the 60s in Rome.

And I don't mean 1960s.

Okay, I've heard stories about the 1960s.

Can't talk about those.

I can talk about the 60s.

Forget the one in the nine.

All right, like so.

What happened was is in 33 AD, jesus rose from the dead and the church was born, and after that it first started in Jerusalem and then it spread out over these, these different areas, and and and.

Peter goes and preaches the gospel and Paul is preaching the gospel and all of this.

And then, pretty quickly, after about halfway through the book of Acts, peter finds his way to Rome, which of course he does.

I mean, he wants to be right in the epicenter, you know, of where the greatest conflict is going to be, where the largest or best known city in the world is going to be.

Where else is Peter going to be Right?

But then, all of a sudden, when you get to about 60 to 67 AD, like the church goes through the greatest storm it had been through at that point, let me give you an example.

So in 61 AD, paul is imprisoned.

He finally makes it and he's in prison.

That's where he ends up writing like Ephesus and Colossians, philippians.

He's writing all of that while he's in prison.

And then, in 64 AD, rome burns and the Christians are blamed, which makes me so mad because we had nothing to do with it.

Right, pretty much we were the only ones that you could say we had nothing to do with it.

But Nero had to blame somebody.

And there we were.

Okay, we were already on the outside looking in because we didn't worship the emperor, and so we're easy target.

And now he says all these Christians are the ones who burned our city.

Go get them.

And so immediately what happens is we went from just being not invited to the party to where now we are openly being persecuted.

And in 65 AD, a year after this, that's when Peter writes this letter, as all of this heavy persecution has now come onto the church.

Less than a year later, he writes 2 Peter, which we'll get to at some point, because now not only are they being persecuted, but people are being slaughtered, taken into the Colosseum, lit on fire to light up the city streets of Rome at night.

Christians were human torches.

I mean, all these horrible things are happening.

And later that year, peter is crucified upside down.

A year after that, paul is beheaded.

It was a crazy time to be a Christian.

And right in the middle of that, peter is writing and he's saying man, I'm so excited about Jesus, I'm so thankful that I'm on the winning side.

Peter, look at what's going on in the world.

And Peter would say what's that got to do with Jesus?

Like, I'm not happy about any of that, but none of that takes my king off of his throne.

And so I'm still excited about what God is doing.

And so he writes this right in the middle of it, and his message is to remind the church that they have a hope that transcends trials, bad news, any form of suffering.

And so he's saying, while everything looks like it's going downhill, god has never been better, god has never been doing more, because the hope we have in Jesus is more solid than anything else.

And so let's define what hope is, because for some of us, hope has many different definitions, and so, like in the world, standard hope is like wishful thinking, right, you know?

Like when you wish on a star.

I wish I may, I wish I might have this wish.

I wish tonight never has worked for me.

Okay, but we still do it because we just are like, ah, it's a wish, it's a hope, you know.

But that's not what a biblical definition of hope is.

According to the Bible, the word hope is a dynamic, living confidence in what God has promised.

It's a living confidence that what God has promised will happen, because the hope is based on the one who made the promise.

And so if somebody else makes you a promise, then you're not sure if they can do it or not, but when God makes a promise, you know, you can count on it, you can stand on it.

And Peter is saying, in the middle of all of this difficulty, he's saying put me in, coach, I want to go make a difference.

Why don't you see what's going on?

He said, exactly because I see what's going on, that I want to get put into the game, because I know that my hope can handle any of those difficulties.

And so here's the question of the day, and that is, with all the craziness in our world, where does this confident, living hope come from?

How can we, as Christians, live in this world with all these different things that's going on right now?

How can we have this?

I'll give you a hint as Christians, our hope has nothing to do with the world.

Our hope has everything to do with our King, and it's when we found our life on this that, while everything else is falling apart, we're standing strong and we're reaching out to those around us.

Even before we get into this, let's go ahead and call it for what it is.

There's any number of tragedies that occurred this past week, like pick one.

There's all this terrible stuff that's going on, and even then, when it's happening, there's all of this panic between folks can't even mourn together because they have to fight together over it, that we can't just all agree that tragedy is terrible, but the great thing about that is is that even in the middle of tragedy, god's hope does not fade, but rather we're the ones that can look and say in the middle of this, I still have a hope that is stronger than anything, and so I encourage myself in the Lord and then I reach out to the hurting.

I still think it's the greatest time to be alive as a Christian, because our hope has not faded one little bit.

And I want to share with you how Peter, in the middle of this storm, sends an email back to everybody else and he's saying yes, I'm in the middle of it.

I feel like I'm gonna get washed away any second, but I'm still excited to be a part of the kingdom of God.

And he shares with us four ways that that hope is able to stand strong.

Here's the first one, that is, that he says it's because God anchors our hope in Jesus Christ.

The reason why we have this hope, this living hope, this confidence, comes from the fact that God anchors our hope in someone who is solid.

As a matter of fact, in a little while.

We do this on occasion.

We're gonna receive communion at the end of our service today, just as a reminder of where this hope comes from, and that is anchored in Jesus Christ.

Look at somebody and say so stand strong, try again.

Look at somebody else and say, stand strong, that was a good one, that was a good one.

That was a really good one.

I'm excited now, okay, here it goes.

He says this letter is from Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

I love this.

He says God, the father knew you and chose you long ago.

His spirit has made you holy and, as a result, you obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

It is by his great mercy that you have been born again and because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now we live with a great expectation.

Somebody say expectation Like I'm excited.

I have a living hope, a hope that can expand and contract, and it gets bigger when I need it to be bigger, and then it gets smaller and fits right inside my heart when I need it to, because my hope is anchored in something more solid than me, and I love how he actually uses to show that the entire Trinity is involved in this.

And so you have God the father willed it, the Holy spirit draws us and Jesus made the way.

And so we have God the father willed it, the Holy Spirit draws us and Jesus made the way.

And so we have a three threaded cord wrapped around that anchors our soul so that, when the bad seasons come, god fully has caused us to be anchored in that salvation.

And that salvation is what gives us the stability when everything else goes crazy.

And let me is what gives us the stability when everything else goes crazy.

And let me give you kind of an example.

Now, I want you to not be distracted by the amazing artwork I did here.

Okay, this was literally the best I could come up with.

But have you ever been like so I don't know if everyone's like this, but for me, have you ever been in a situation when you're not really paying attention and someone kind of bumps you and it wasn't really a big bump, but you weren't ready for it, you know, and you, just you go from just getting bumped to like falling in the floor over there, and I don't know if you do this, but immediately I look to see who saw me fall.

Okay, that's the first thing I cause I'm embarrassed.

When I was we just moved here about a year, about a year after we moved here, we were actually talking to someone and trying to talk to them about our church, and I was trying to act like I was big and important and all that, and I wasn't really paying attention and one of my sweet daughters, who was a toddler at the time, comes up and bumps me and she didn't bump me hard, but I wasn't paying attention.

And when I tell you that it was one of those things where it took me like a good 10 seconds to fall, you know, because I'm grabbing everything I can grab until I finally fall down.

And then when I get up, this person was like oh well, have a good day.

You know, because now I totally embarrassed myself and it was because I wasn't ready, I wasn't planted, and so I learned a lesson that day, and that is when you have small kids, always plant your feet, because you have no idea when they're just going to appear and bump into you, you know.

And the thing is is whenever you are ready and you're planted, you're anchored.

Things can hit you and it may make you sway side to side, but it won't knock you over because you're planted.

And that's the thing what they would do with ships is, when a captain knew that rough seas were on the way didn't know how rough they were going to be, but they were going to be rough they would let out the anchor so that when the sea started moving them side to side, they would get moved but they wouldn't sink, they wouldn't drift completely off course, because their anchor was settled.

The great news is is that we have been born again and that now we live with great expectation and when we go through difficult times, we can lower that anchor and go.

You know what?

I don't know what's going on over here.

I don't know what's going on over there, but, man, I am not destroyed because my anchor is not built on what somebody else is doing.

I'm built on the anchor of Jesus Christ and he holds me firm and he gives me that living hope, that confidence that doesn't go away.

We know that Peter realizes this because he actually experienced this, and what we're going to call a backbone of hope, like in the story of Peter, was, is that when Jesus was arrested, he is outside of kind of the house where they're interrogating Jesus and over the course of three times he's asked if he was a follower of Jesus.

One time a little girl comes up to him.

Little bitty girl comes up and she just says, like this sweet voice, I guess were you one of his followers.

You know that sounds more like an evil witch, but you get the point.

Because that was a horrible one.

All right, but you get the point.

Okay, imagine that was sweet.

Okay, right, so were you one of his followers.

And he's terrified.

This grown man is terrified.

He's like no, I don't know who he is, and he runs away.

So one little girl caused this man to go, run away and cry.

That's how afraid he was.

Fast forward three days and Jesus rises from the dead.

Fast forward 40 more days and the Holy Spirit descends upon the people and he now knows who his king is.

And he looks and he gets up in front of all the people.

There's up to 3,000 people there.

Many of them were the ones who were crying crucify him when he was, when Jesus was being crucified.

He gets up in front of all those people and he says God knew what would happen and that he prearranged a plan and it was carried out by Jesus' betrayal.

And then he looks at them and he says and all of you jokers are the ones who nailed him to a cross and killed him, but God raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grips.

He literally looks at the ones who killed him and he said it's your fault.

That takes a lot of courage, because how does he not know that he's next?

But he's like I don't care, you did it.

And guess what?

The one that you killed is alive and he still loves you.

That's amazing.

And 30 years later, he's writing in the middle of a storm and he's saying 30 years have passed, but the message doesn't change, even if the situation does.

And the good news is is that we can stand strong because our hope is alive.

So look at somebody and say stand strong.

Now's not a time to sit down.

It's time to stand up because our hope is alive.

We've got the greatest king in all of the universe and his name is Jesus, and when we plant our faith in him, he's an anchor in any situation that we go through.

But that's not all.

There's is Jesus, and when we plant our faith in him, he's an anchor in any situation that we go through.

But that's not all.

There's another one, and that is the second one, is he guards our hope of an inheritance.

We can stand strong because our blessed assurance is a living hope.

That guards us because he is our inheritance, that he anchors us in Jesus Christ, and then he guards what he has deposited in all of us.

He says it like this he says we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure, undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay, and through your faith, god is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

So in other words, he's saying that that that God is doing in you it's priceless.

I used to think that priceless meant it wasn't worth anything because you couldn't put a price on it, only to realize that it's the exact opposite, that you can't pay for it because there's literally no price that will go on it.

If salvation could be paid for, you couldn't afford it.

Neither could I.

It's priceless, but that inheritance, that salvation that God has for us, he is saying it's not just wishful thinking, but God himself is protecting it.

That word protecting the Greek word for that is actually a military phrase which means completely enclosed in protection.

The picture is like there would be an outpost and there would be guards stationed all around it, looking outward, looking 180 degrees, everywhere they can, constantly looking and focused.

Completely safe, completely protected that's the word that Peter uses when he says your faith in God, the salvation that he has given you, is absolutely certain.

You can count on it.

It's not going anywhere and it stands ready.

It never gets stale, it never gets old.

You know what that means.

That means that God is not going to change his mind about you.

God is not going to look up one day and go ah, you know, change your plans.

He's not going to do that.

Which can I just take a quick moment to say?

Those of you who changed plans at the last moment, praise the Lord for you.

Okay, I don't want to see a show of hands, but for some of you who don't mind changing plans there's some of us who don't like that and I'm just thankful for you.

Okay, you know, because God uses you to help all of us, all right.

And if you've ever done that, if you've ever been really excited about something and then at the last minute, they go oh, changing plans.

God doesn't do that.

God's never gonna change his mind about you.

And it's always fresh.

That salvation, the joy that we have, is always fresh.

It's always available.

It reminds me of you ever went to a restaurant and it was so good but you couldn't finish it and so you got some that you had as leftovers.

You took it home and you couldn't wait until later, because at the moment you think you can never eat again.

You know your stuff, but you know eventually you're going to get hungry again and you're so excited and then you forget about it and you go back in two weeks later hoping hoping against hope that maybe, maybe, and no, just like everything else, something now is growing on it and something else is enjoying your meal right, and it's like, oh, it was so good, now it's stale.

The thing is, is that it's not the goodness and the grace of God that gets stale?

It's our view of him that gets stale.

He stays faithful, he stays good, and so sometimes it's important to remember the wonders of God and to remember the goodness of God.

That's one of the reasons why I love the apostle Paul.

He's writing first and second Timothy and he's in prison.

He's bound, but he's free because of his hope.

And he writes second Timothy about the same time during the sixties, about the same time that first Peter was written.

Only this time, by the time he writes second Peter, not only are there people being martyred, there are people being put to death all over the place.

At this point, when you write second Timothy, peter has been crucified upside down.

All these horrible things are happening and he's starting to hear whispers that he's next, he's going to be martyred soon.

And instead of talking about how bad things are, instead he's talking to Timothy and he's saying man, I'm so excited that I stayed faithful and I fought the good fight.

I finished my race, I've remained faithful, and now the prize that I started this race after it's still there.

It's a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on the day of his return.

And that prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

He's saying after 30 years of following Jesus, after 30 years of seeing beautiful things and seeing difficult things, seeing people come to Jesus, seeing people martyred, I've still got the same hope I had a long time ago that, no matter what happens, god is still faithful.

And can I tell you, church, 2,000 years later, he's writing us a letter from the middle of a storm that we can't even comprehend.

And he's saying I know it looks bad, I know there's difficulty going on, but that's when you got to focus on Jesus the most, because he is our living hope.

And when we look at him we realize that our hope is anchored in him and that he guards the anchor.

And what he would say is you can stand strong because our hope is secure.

There's nothing that's going to dislodge Jesus.

He has many enemies, but no rivals going to dislodge Jesus.

He has many enemies but no rivals that no one can stand up to the power of Jesus.

And then we can run to him and we can be safe.

And so maybe this week you've seen some things that you wondered am I safe in the arms of God?

Am I secure in who he is?

And what Peter would say to you is stand strong.

You've never been more secure in him than you are right now.

If you have Jesus, so testify to your neighbor and say so stand strong, no matter what happens.

You gotta stand strong because our anchor is Jesus, because he guards our inheritance.

Here's another one, and that is he develops our hope through trials, praise the Lord.

He develops our hope through happiness and goodness and winning the lottery.

No, he develops our hope by showing us what our hope can handle, by showing us that he is faithful.

Look, he says it like this.

He says so, be truly glad, there is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure.

Somebody say must endure, must endure many trials for a little while.

He's talking about while we live on this planet.

For a little while, because it's just a little while based on eternity right.

For a little while.

These trials will show that your faith is genuine.

It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.

So, when he's not saying, if he's saying, when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor, on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world, the reward for trusting in him will be the salvation of your souls.

In other words, he's saying that these trials, god is so big and he's so awesome and he's so amazing that God can use even our trials to do what he needs to do in our life.

Another place in the Bible says, for God calls all things to work together for good Not that they were good, but they'll work for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Can I tell you something that may be an uncomfortable truth, but the reality is that some of the best news you'll hear today.

In this life you will face trouble, but the great news is Jesus has already overcome every trouble we will face, and that's why we will sometimes go through difficulties, because a hope that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted, like why wouldn't God show us and there's one thing to know about it Another thing to do it.

I'll give you an example.

I remember when someone told me one time it would be super easy to go surfing, no problem, just get on the board and just we just go for it.

And if you know me, for longer than five seconds I will not go do anything until I watch at least one YouTube tutorial about it.

Right?

So I knew all about it and I was certain that I'd figured it out.

I'd watched a YouTube video on it, I had studied it, I could teach somebody else how to go do it, but I'd never done it myself.

And so if someone asked me if I could surf, I would say kind of In my mind, I'm great at it, you know, but I'd never actually done it.

And then when I actually got on a surfboard for the first time, I was like you know, it turns out this is harder, this is a lot harder than I thought it was, you know.

But the reality was, is actually everything I had been learning worked?

As long as I was patient, as long as I took it slow, I actually could kind of wee a little bit.

Right, I wasn't a pro, but I was okay.

Can I tell you, sometimes I think we treat our faith a little bit like that.

We watch a YouTube video, we listen to the Bible breakdown and someone says, hey, do you know a lot about God?

Kind of.

But you know, when you really get to know him is when you go through a storm with him and you realize that the Bible really does say that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid, because I have learned that he walks close beside me.

The thing is is you can't learn that from somebody else's testimony.

You'll learn that when you walk with him through difficulties and you see just how solid and how strong that faith actually is.

That's why James says.

He says when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

Like James, what kind of problems you going through?

I don't think so, but he said.

But the reason why is for you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

In other words, you get to see God in a fresh, new way.

So I say, let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

And one of the things I've learned in my life is that it's when we get to the end of our strength that we discover his.

You want to experience God.

Most of the time.

God is most visible in storms.

If you want to see Jesus walk on water, you got to get in the middle of a storm, in the middle of a lake, and you got to be bailing water and not so sure if you're going to make it.

And then, when you seems like everything is lost and everything is done and everything is about to sink, it's then you see Jesus coming over the horizon and he's saying hey, guys, it's going to be okay.

I'm telling you.

I'm not saying God causes any of the storms, but I'm saying that he uses every single one of those storms to show just how strong our faith in him is.

And so what we are getting from Peter is he's telling us man, you got to stay strong because our hope is stronger than any storm we face.

But sometimes the only way you know that is to get in the middle of one and watch that you don't sink, watch that he's actually is with you.

He actually is moving in your life.

And when you see other people that don't know Jesus and you see them falling apart and you think, okay, I should be falling apart and I'm really upset and I'm really concerned, but there's something there that's kind of keeping me from sinking, that's when you go, wow, that's the power of God, that's the hope I have in Jesus.

It really is solid, it really will stand with me.

That's why it's a living hope is it is fresh and constantly available in our life.

And that's why he's telling these people from the middle of this storm he's saying listen, I see Jesus more clearly than I ever have.

It took a storm for me to see him this way, but now I see him and we can stand strong because we have a blessed assurance and we have a living hope.

That is, a confidence in our soul.

And we find that, because we are anchored in Jesus, that not only are we anchored in him, but we also have the ability to be developed by every trial that we go through, that we are protected by him, that he's never gonna change his mind about us.

And then one more, and that is this that then he also is going to reveal our hope through his word.

One of the greatest things we have is that he continually reveals himself to us through his word, and that was so interesting that the Holy Spirit inspired Peter that, after talking about all of this, he said oh, by the way, one of the things I love about God is that we have the honor of seeing what happens at the end of the book.

Look at what he says.

He says this salvation was something that even the prophets wanted to know more about.

When they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you, they wondered what time or situation the spirit of Christ within them was talking about when they told, when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and great glory.

Afterward, it was all so wonderful that even the angels are present, tense are eagerly watching these things happen.

So in other words, he's saying that all throughout history God has been telling us what he was going to do.

He wasn't hiding it.

He was telling them that one day something's gonna happen and one day I'm gonna set everything right and you can trust me and you can hold onto it.

And as these prophets were inspired by God, they didn't know what it was, they just knew God was going to be faithful.

In second Peter he says above all, you must realize that no prophecy in scripture ever came from the prophets on understanding or from human initiative.

No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit when they spoke from God.

That's one reason why we love reading God's word at RLC is because this isn't just a normal book, that the Holy Spirit inspired these people to write these words.

And even though it was over a thousand years, on different continents and different languages, with different types of people, it all goes together to tell the story of what Jesus came to do.

And he's saying it's beautiful to see how God continues to reveal his faithfulness, one piece at a time.

And he was saying what a privileged and special position we are all in that we get to see what that looked like, because he said every one of the ones in the Old Testament they just got a piece of it.

He said like, for instance, like Moses got a piece and Daniel got a piece, and Isaiah got a piece, and Ezekiel got a piece and David got one, and then Jeremiah got one, but then Jesus came and now we can see all of it put together and we get to see the glory of God.

And because we get to see all of it put together, we go well, if God took all of these different shattered pieces and did something beautiful, then that's what he's going to do now, that nothing has ever changed and that we have the honor of seeing.

That, which reminds me of tomorrow.

We're actually going to finish up the book of Mark, and if you've been reading God's word with us, we have been reading one chapter at a time and we've been going through the gospel of Mark and if you want to join us, you can text RLCBIBLE to 94000 or scan that QR code and, as of tomorrow, we will have finished going through the entire New Testament.

It took us two years, but we made it in Jesus' name, right, it was almost as long as it took us to go through Matthew.

Right, we went through the whole thing and then we're going to start over again as we go back and forth.

And what I love about Mark is we realized that Mark was Peter's translator and that he was writing down the stories that Peter was telling in Rome.

He's writing these down, and what I love about this is that Peter is understanding the idea that the gospel continues.

The gospel didn't finish when revelation was done, that the inspired scripture was closed, but the gospel message continues to move, which is why I love how he ends his gospels.

As a matter of fact, it says that the angel spoke to Mark, or spoke to the ladies, and said go now and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you, selah, and that's it.

That's it.

And tomorrow you'll see how there's different endings to the book of Mark, but according to the best sources, this is the end, and so, actually, mark ends this on purpose.

He ends it with man.

When you hear about the good news of Jesus, some people they're excited, but some people they don't know what to do with it.

They're trembling and they're afraid.

I wonder what happened.

But now we know because we have God's word.

We know, according to the book of Acts, that what these ladies did is they overcame their fear, they overcame their worry and they went and told somebody, and that person went and told somebody, and that person told somebody, and that person told somebody, until one of those people told you and they told me.

And now we are still part of the story of what God is doing, and so we go into God's word.

We get to see that we are part of this amazing story of hope, and the Bible said that angels look at the church and they go.

Man, what a masterpiece God has made, that he has orchestrated all of this throughout time, and that's why we stay encouraged.

It's not because there's anything in the world that's encouraging Absolutely not.

But our encouragement doesn't come from the world.

Our encouragement comes because of who Jesus is.

And then we have the promise of God's word, and the promise is is that, because of who he is, we can hold tightly, without wavering, to the hope that we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promises.

That's the promise that we have.

And so Peter, in this moment, in this time when he's experiencing the greatest storm that the early church had experienced like ever.

While they're experiencing this storm, he's writing back to the people in these other provinces, and he said hey, I know it's bad here, there's rain everywhere, there's discouragement, there's destruction.

Some of my friends have died, there's difficulties everywhere, but I've never been more excited to be a Christ follower.

Peter, how can you say that?

Don't you see what's going on around you?

He said absolutely, but my faith has nothing to do with what I see around me.

It has everything to do with Christ in me, and I'm here to tell you that, in the middle of the worst storm imaginable, he's still Lord, he's still King, he is still in charge, and so he says we can stand strong, no matter how strong the storm is, because we have a blessed assurance, we have a living hope, and that hope doesn't come from hoping a politician does the right thing.

That hope doesn't come from hoping that somebody else does something over here, something over there.

We hope all those things happen.

My hope doesn't come from that, though.

My hope comes from the fact that I'm anchored in Jesus.

It comes from the fact that I'm also protected.

My eternity is secure in Jesus.

I realized that God has the amazing ability to take the worst storms ever and to use them to bring me closer to him.

And then, when I go to his word every single day, I'm reminded all over again that he's still in control and that he's still a living hope.

And so that's why I wanna receive communion together in just a moment is because, for some of us, let's just get really real and honest.

We go to real life church.

Let's get real honest.

For some of us and this is not a knock at all we, we, we read one chapter out of the Bible a day and spend 10 hours on social media, youtube, and hearing everybody's latest take on everything that went wrong.

And if that's you, don't worry, that's the rest of us.

But if we're not careful, the loudest voices are the ones we listen to.

And there's a whole lot of loud voices trying to make sure and tell us how afraid we should be, how devastated we should be and how hopeless everything is.

And can I tell you I agree with all but one of those.

It is absolutely okay to be a Christian and be sad.

It is okay to be disappointed.

It's not okay to let the world or the enemy cause us to be discouraged because our hope was never in the world.

To begin with, our hope was in Jesus, so I'm so glad you're here today, because it gave us all of us an opportunity to be reminded where our hope comes from.

Now I hope that all the things that's been going on will cause the right people in the right places to make the right decisions.

But if they don't, my hope is still in Jesus, and this is what we have to do, as the body of Christ is.

First of all, we talk about this phrase all the time here at RLC, because it's such a great example.

We talk about how, if you've ever been on an airplane and you go to get on an airplane, the flight attendants are telling you all this stuff about being buckled up and all that.

And at some point they say if there's an emergency, oxygen masks will come down from heaven.

They'll come down and your job is to put one over your face first and then help your neighbor.

And I say it's important, because you can't help your neighbor if you have passed out.

You have got to be able to breathe and then you can help your neighbor.

And you know, what I think we need to be reminded is that there were two pieces of instruction in that, first of all, we have to make sure we find our hope.

First we got to put on our oxygen mask, remember where our hope comes from.

But then the great ministry that we have is that, once our oxygen mask is in place, we get to turn to our left and help our neighbor.

We get to remind our neighbor where the life is, that it's in Jesus.

I still think it's the greatest time to be alive and it's the greatest time to be a Christian, because the world needs Jesus and we have the message of the gospel.

But what we need to remember first is that it is a message of hope and that it is a message that works and that it is a living hope.

And so we drink deeply from the hope ourself, and then we walk into our world with tears in our eyes and say, hey, listen, I don't know how you make it without Jesus.

All this stuff that's going on is so disappointing.

If I didn't have Jesus, I wouldn't know what to do.

I need Jesus just to make it to Walmart every day.

And if you don't amen, and if you don't have him, today's the day.

And so we're going to take a moment today and we're going to remember how great Jesus is by receiving communion together, because what communion is is, it's a moment to remind us that, though we all come from different places, different walks of life, different cultures, different backgrounds, some of us from different parts of the world, there's one thing that unites us, and that is the blood of Jesus, and that is that the blood of Jesus is just as powerful for me as it is for you, as it is for your neighbor, as it is the person on the street right now for everybody, everybody yelling and fussing online.

The blood of Jesus works for them too.

But we got to remember it's for us first, and so we're going to receive communion today, and then my challenge for you is is then to take him with you this week, and so, in just a moment, the band is going to lead us in a song of worship and we're going to receive communion.

But I want to say to you, if you're in here and you don't know Jesus, maybe you're here because you've lost your hope and you didn't know where else to turn.

I'm so glad you turned to Jesus and I tell you he loves you more than you can imagine, and your way of taking communion today is to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

And so in just a moment, after I pray, I'm gonna ask everyone to stand and we're gonna begin the process of worship and receive communion, and your next best act of worship is to receive Jesus.

Can I tell you that God's not mad at you, he's not offended at you.

I don't care how far you've run, I don't care where you've gone.

He's been him that's been drawing you back this whole time.

He loves you more than you can imagine, but salvation is coming on home to him and giving him everything that you have.

Say God, I give you everything.

That's what salvation is.

And the plan of salvation and the prayer asking God for salvation is on the back of your connect card.

This is what I want you to do and our prayer team has already been instructed with this that in just a moment, when I pray and we stand to receive communion, I want you to stand as well, but I want you to step out of your seat and I want you to go worship God by receiving salvation today, and then it will be our honor to serve you communion in the kingdom of God.

Let's pray together right now, god.

Thank you so much for today.

Thank you, god, that you see us and that you know us in this place.

I'm so thankful, god, that you're not ashamed of us, you're not embarrassed by us, but everybody in here today you are with us and that you are for us.

God, I know that there's been so many things that's been going on this past week and so many ways the enemy has tried to discourage your people and stop us from sharing the gospel.

Stop living the gospel, stop running to you.

But I'm so thankful, god, that he didn't win, that you're still here and you're still faithful and you're still drawing.

There's never been a better time to know Jesus, and I'm thankful for that.

Today, god, in just a moment, as we get ready to receive communion, I pray that you will steal every heart and every mind.

You'll help us, lord, to focus our attention on you.

Lord, for those who need salvation, lord, let today be the day for them.

Give them the courage to take that next step so they can receive you today.

In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen.

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

The band is going to lead us in a song of worship just to prepare our hearts and, if you would like to receive communion with us in just a moment, and if you're on the right-hand side of your row, you are the designated line leader and we'd love for you to get the communion elements and pass them by.

You don't have to receive communion if you don't feel comfortable, but if you would like to go ahead and prepare your hearts with us, they're going to sing a song of worship.

If you'd like to receive salvation today, our prayer table is open.

We'd love to receive you.

Let's just kind of worship the Lord for a moment and prepare our hearts for communion.

Go ahead.