Kingdom Witness: Chosen

Now, you may have noticed just by the change of letters behind me that we are in our next series called Kingdom Witness.

And so we just finished up Kingdom Work, and now we're we're in this new series, and we're going to be walking through the letter of 1 Peter.

And 1 Peter asks a very important question.

He says, How do followers of Jesus live with hope, holiness, and courage in a world that does not always share our values?

Those things are very applicable to us today.

And Peter is writing to Christians who are trying to follow Jesus in a culture that they don't fully fit in anymore.

They are not always being hunted down and executed.

So I think a lot of times we think when the Christians were dispersed in the first century, it's because Nero was out to get them and kill them, and that did happen.

But not all Christians.

Some were dispersed, and what they were facing was being misunderstood, insulted, slandered, marginalized, treated with suspicion.

So they're learning what does it mean to belong to Jesus while feeling like an outsider in the world?

And Peter does not begin by saying, Hey, I'm going to give you the formula so you know how to win every argument.

Or here's how a to-do list to assimilate with the culture that you're going to end up in.

Or, hey, here's the recipe so everyone will like you.

Because that would have been amazing.

And we would have been like favorite book ever.

Because now I know how to get everyone to love me.

No, he begins somewhere different.

He begins with identity.

So before Peter tells them how to live, he tells them who they are.

Because if you forget who you are in Jesus, this world will gladly give you a name.

The heart of the message today is this Jesus defines who you are.

So don't let the world redefine you.

When you know who you are in Christ, circumstances may shake you, but they do not have the authority to determine your identity.

So imagine, if you will, you're going to some event.

Maybe it's a business event, a conference, or a reunion, and you show up, and what do these things all have in common when you get there?

They give you something.

They give you a name tag, right?

They're all there because they want to make sure that you are on the list and that when you're in, people know who you are.

And so you get this name tag.

So imagine you walk up to this table and someone just hands it to you so confidently, right?

Like here you go, and you take it and you put it on, you look down, and you realize that's not my name.

That's not my first name, that's not even my last name, or that is not the company I work for.

And so all of a sudden you're just like, hmm, now the thought goes into your mind, I could wear this, I could meander around as so-and-so, right?

Representing this company, or just representing this person, and you could do that, and you could probably have people treat you that way.

People could say, oh, hey, John, or hey, I don't know, another name just blanked.

So but eventually what's gonna happen is that event will end and the truth will be revealed.

That's not who I am.

This new name tag may describe a person or a company, but it cannot define who you are.

Now, some of us we are walking around with name tags that the world has given us.

Some of you are walking around with with the the title or feeling of being rejected, being an outsider, being a failure.

Some of you, it's being popular, well-liked, rich, powerful.

Now, some of these names they come from culture, some they come from family.

That title rejection didn't wasn't given to you by your friends, it was given to you by someone you love.

Some they come from failure.

You've made mistakes in this life, and they they have lived with you.

You've never been able to release them, they haunt you.

The littlest thing can remind you of it, and so you wear it.

Some of it comes from suffering.

Some of you have been through the most horrific things that you could think of in this world, and that has become a part of your identity.

Some of it comes from the quiet conclusions we've made about ourselves.

Some of us have just determined this is who I am.

But the problem is after a while we start answering to the wrong name.

Church, if we allow this world to define us and then we believe it for so long, it all of a sudden becomes our truth.

Now, Peter writes to Christians who knew what this felt like.

Their neighbors looked at them and said, You are strange.

Like you are an odd group of people.

You do not belong here.

Go back to where you came from.

I know there's some Idahoians in here who were just like, mmm.

Resonate a little bit.

But that's what happened to the Christians.

They were dispersed in all these places and they felt that.

So Peter begins his letter by giving them a better name.

Chosen.

And that is the first major identity word that we're gonna find in this letter.

Uh, because the world, they may call you an outsider, they may say you don't belong, but God calls you chosen.

And chosen to be held by God through this life with a hope of a future that suffering cannot touch.

So, our question that we're gonna see from the text today is simple but profound.

Who gets to tell you who you are?

So, if you're able this morning, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1, says Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

1 Peter 1:1

Blessed be God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Woo! See if I have breath to continue.

Now, fun fact uh that in Greek is one sentence.

Peter just went on and on.

It was lengthy too.

And so before we edited scripture and put in chapters and verses and things like that in the Greek, uh, that was just one long sentence because Peter wanted them to know this.

He wanted them to hear this, and he wanted them to absorb the importance of what he just said.

Uh so Peter begins with chosen.

Uh, let's look at verse one.

So we're gonna break this down verse by verse.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

Now, of that verse, two words sit together, elect and exiles.

Now, these two words don't feel like they belong together, right?

Uh, elect feels like wanted, known, loved.

There's a sense of belonging with the word elect.

Uh, exile, right, feels displaced, temporary, outcast.

Really, it's saying, This is not my home.

Yet Peter holds both words together because both are true for the church.

Now, these Christians are living in what is this massive region of Asia Minor, which today would be mostly modern-day Turkey.

And many of them were probably Gentile believers.

Uh, they had left behind the old patterns of pagan worship, uh, and they no longer join their neighbors in the same practices, value, and worship.

So you imagine you had lived your life worshiping all these deities and gods and sacrificing, and then all of a sudden, you hear the good news.

You hear this apostle who came into your city and began to preach, and all of a sudden you're like, who is this Jesus?

And you start listening, and it's like anything you've never heard before because it's truth.

It's not just another wise stoic or philosopher.

This is the truth of the living God being proclaimed, and so you receive it and it transforms who you are.

But now, now you're in this place where people are doing things you used to do, but it's not the life you live anymore.

And because they chose not to live that life, people treated them as strange and different.

Later in the letter, Peter says their neighbors are surprised when they don't join them uh in their practices.

And this is one of the many pressures that the Christian witness faces.

When you follow Jesus, it changes where you fit in.

And that's hard for some of us.

Obedience to Jesus will make you look strange to people who do not follow Jesus.

And any believer who's had that transformation knows the truth of this.

Now, maybe harder for those of you who maybe grew up in the church, so it's what you've always known.

But as someone who was on one track living for the world, and then all of a sudden had a radical encounter with Jesus and started living differently, I was like, everyone's gonna know.

And I was so worried that I wasn't gonna fit in because the truth is, the more I follow Jesus, the more I don't fit into the world.

And Peter knows that.

So he makes sure not to let their social location become their identity.

Peter doesn't want Christians going to these places and go, okay, great.

Now I'm a Philippian, now I'm a Corinthian, great, now I'm a Pontinian or whatever they they call the people from there.

He doesn't want that to be their identity.

Their culture, their culture may call them outsiders, but Peter calls them elect or chosen.

So the Greek word here for elect is eklektos, and that eklektos means selected or chosen, often chosen by God for belonging and purpose.

And Peter is gonna use this Greek word throughout his letter.

In chapter one, he uses it to identify believers who are chosen.

In chapter two, it's Jesus is the chosen and precious cornerstone, and later he's gonna say that the church is a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation.

This means that our identity as chosen is directly tied to Jesus.

Jesus is the chosen one.

So everyone is united in Jesus, will share in his story.

Peter continues in verse 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

So this word foreknowledge here in the Greek is prognosis, and prognosis means foreknowledge or planning in advanced.

So in Scripture, this word carries more than uh the idea that God is merely looking ahead and gathering information.

In Acts 2, 23, the same word is connected to God's definite plan in the death of Jesus.

So in 1 Peter, foreknowledge is not a prediction.

God's not like, hmm, let's see how the stars are aligning and oh, let me use these signs here, and then I'm gonna predict that this is gonna happen.

No, it's God's prior, purposeful knowing as connected to his divine sovereignty, meaning that if our God is all-knowing, it's one of the characteristics of God, it means that he already knows all things.

He is outside of time.

And so Peter is telling vulnerable Christians your life is not a surprise to God.

Your suffering is not a surprise to God, your situation is not a surprise to God.

Before the world could name you, God knew you.

Before your circumstances shook you, God claimed you.

Before people misunderstood you, God set his love on you in Jesus.

Now I want to be careful here because as Christians, our ears begin to tingle and burn a little bit when we hear the word elect.

Because then we start diving into the great debate of election versus free will and predestination.

And so we're like, ooh, what is Peter saying here?

Let's break it down.

Let's have a debate.

That's not what Peter's trying to do.

Here, Peter is trying to turn the opening of his letter into an encouragement for people, for Christians who are suffering, and they need that assurance of security.

And so he starts with the most important part, who they are.

He starts with their identity because he knows what they believe about themselves will dictate how they live and how they live for God.

But their identity begins in the Father's foreknowledge.

So Peter says that they are chosen, but he says, in the sanctification of the Spirit.

So that means the Holy Spirit has set them aside as God's people.

Set aside for what?

For obedience to Jesus Christ for the sprinkling with his blood.

Now that language there goes back to the covenant language of Exodus 24, where blood was sprinkled on people as they entered the covenant with God.

Praise Jesus, we don't have to do that anymore, right?

Laundry would get real hard.

Hey, welcome to church.

Oh, we didn't get blood in the back aisles.

Come on, ushers, get in here.

We don't have to do that anymore, but he's using that language and he's connecting the Old Testament here to Jesus.

And he's saying, you belong to God as covenant people that have been purchased and cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

So the Father knew you, the Holy Spirit has set you apart, and the Son has cleansed you.

So your identity is not in your circumstances or defined by your location.

No, your identity is held together by the triune God.

That means our circumstances can describe where you are, but they should never define who you are.

People may decide whether you belong in their circles, but they do not decide whether or not you belong to God.

Your address does not define you.

Your success does not define you.

Your failure does not define you.

Your acceptance does not define you.

Your suffering does not define you.

I say all that because even though you hear it, it's much harder to believe it.

You can hear someone tell you that you are not defined by your past experiences, and yet there's something in you that still holds on to it, that you chain yourself to this.

But even Peter is trying to say your past does not determine who you are.

Jesus does.

So Jesus, it doesn't, Peter's saying it doesn't matter that you were a pagan, it doesn't matter that you worshiped at the temple of Artemis, it doesn't matter that you used to offer sacrifices to false gods.

What matters is now you belong to Jesus.

He defines who you are.

And that is a powerful truth for us.

Who you are defined by who God says you are, nothing else.

So who you are is defined by who God says you are, nothing else.

Verse 3 begins with worship.

He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So Peter is writing to suffering people, but he begins with praise.

So imagine that you're writing this letter, and these people are experiencing all these different kinds of persecutions, and then he says, Man, blessed.

He starts with praise.

He does not try to explain away every painful circumstance that they find themselves in.

Because Peter could have just gone through the list, hey, I'm sorry so-and-so said this to you.

I'm sorry this happened.

I'm sorry this.

He doesn't do that.

He just starts with, Blessed be the God, our Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He relocates their attention to what remains true despite their circumstances.

And how amazing is that that as believers we can do that.

That no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in in this life, we can redirect ourselves to what's most important, which is praise and worship.

Notice what he says.

He says, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The source of this praise that transcends circumstance is his great mercy, not merit, not performance, his mercy.

Through his great mercy, God caused them to be born again.

Now, it's worth repeating every Sunday until we truly understand it, but Christianity is not about adopting a new philosophy on life.

If you're coming to church because you're like, oh, all right, if I start doing what the pastor says up there, then my life will get better and everything will be good.

I'll find my wife or I'll find my husband, I'll have family, kids, I'll just get blessed and everything will be good.

That's approaching it like a philosophy.

Oh, if I just learn the tricks, if I learn the right language, then I'll fit in and be a part of this great community.

That's not what Peter's saying.

He's saying that when we do this, we are born again.

We are new creations.

When we receive new life in Jesus, we have a new birth, a new family, a new future, and a new identity.

And this new birth is to a living hope.

A living hope.

Why living?

Because Jesus is living.

Peter says this hope comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So Christian hope is not positive thinking, it's not wishful optimism or pretending that life is not hard.

Christian hope is anchored in the very real historical event, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Now, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15, 17.

He says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Church, this is what separates us from every other religion in this world.

That we, our faith, our relationship with God is built upon this truth that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died and rose again.

You see, Muhammad, he lived and he died, but he did not rise again.

The great Buddha, right?

The great philosophers of these other ideologies and religions, they lived and they died.

Only one has risen from the grave, and that is Jesus.

Paul goes on to say a few verses later in 1520, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, and that changes everything.

Our hope is alive because Jesus is alive.

Do we live like that?

Do you live like that?

Are you?

Like not except Jesus is alive.

And I think sometimes we're just like, but he's in heaven.

So it's like he's alive, but he's in heaven.

No, he's alive.

And he's given us a helper, his spirit.

Our hope is alive because Jesus is alive.

The world can affect many things in this life, but the one thing this world cannot do is put Jesus back in the grave.

Amen.

As much as this world would like to, and it does, it wants to make sure that Jesus is back in that tomb.

They cannot, because the resurrection has already happened.

He has risen.

And because Jesus is alive, Peter says this in verse 4 that to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Now these words are more than encouraging.

The more you reflect on them, look at imperishable cannot decay.

Undefiled cannot be corrupted.

Unfading cannot lose its essence.

This is your inheritance.

This is what God is going to give you.

Something that cannot decay, cannot be corrupted, and cannot lose its essence.

Imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

This world will try to entice you with all these things, but they are all fading.

They are all temporary.

But what the Lord offers goes beyond the earthly inheritance that will disappear.

We know this.

Property can be lost.

One fire can wipe out entire sections of homes, of property, families can be separated.

Markets can crash.

But Peter says this inheritance is kept by God.

And then in verse 5, he says, Not only is the inheritance kept for you, but you are being guarded for it.

So verse 5 says, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So God secures both sides of the promise.

Amen to that.

Your inheritance is kept, and then he guards the believer.

This does not mean, however, that Christians will never suffer as much as we would like it to be.

Peter actually says the opposite.

But it does not mean that suffering does not have ultimate authority over your future.

So Peter's saying, listen, Christians, you will suffer.

It's going to happen.

But that suffering doesn't dictate what your future hope is going to be because God has that protected.

What God has promised you is beyond the reach of any forces currently threatening you.

That is why our identity in Jesus matters so much.

If my identity is rooted in my circumstances, that means when my circumstances change, then all that I am falls with my circumstances.

If my identity is rooted in the approval of others, the moment people turn on me and reject me, I'll collapse.

If my identity is rooted in success, then when I fail, then I'll lose.

But if my identity is rooted in the risen Jesus, circumstances may shake my life, but they will not define it.

Church, I need you to hear this, I need you to believe this and trust this.

Jesus defines who you are.

If nothing else this morning, if you walk out of here and you're like, He said a lot of words really fast, but you remember this truth, Jesus defines who I am, then you will be good.

And Jesus, he gives a hope that no one can take away.

Verse 6 in this you rejoice, though now for a little while.

If necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.

I may not like the fact that Peter puts this in there, but I appreciate how honest he is.

Peter doesn't say, hey, if you really trust God, then suffering will not hurt.

That would have been a great promise.

I would have loved that.

What?

I follow Jesus, and now even if I suffer, it's not going to be painful, it's not going to hurt.

Sign me up.

But no, he says, rejoice when you grieve over trials.

We can do both at the same time.

What a gift to Christians this is.

We can do this because Christian joy is not determined by circumstance.

Meaning that there's a deeper reality that Christians can express even alongside sorrow.

Hebrews 12 2 says this: looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Joy and grief can exist together when hope is anchored to Jesus.

And Peter says, these trials last for a little while.

Now, easy to read those words, easy to say those words, but anyone who is suffering in a trial, little is not the word you would use to describe it.

You're like, but this trial has been going on for decades.

How is that little?

Because Peter is comparing it to eternity.

You think 10 years is long?

You think 30 years is you think 80 years is long?

You know how long 80 years is?

It's faster than that compared to eternity.

So Peter is saying, compared to the hope that's coming for you, Christian, this is little.

And that's hard because it does not feel little.

Then he moves on in verse 7.

And he says, So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As was in the ancient world, gold was refined with fire.

Now the fire did not create the gold, the fire revealed and refined what was already there.

So Peter says faith that is more precious than gold, because gold will eventually perish.

He says, faith endures to reach eternity.

This does not mean that suffering automatically makes us better, by the way, because some Christians sometimes seek to suffer so they could be better.

But suffering can harden people, it can make people bitter.

Suffering can lead people to despair, and we've seen all those things happen.

But when faith clings to Jesus in the middle of suffering, that faith is refined.

The fire does not decide that you're chosen, it reveals what your chosen identity has taught you to trust.

So when you go through those moments and it's hard and it's a grind, and you've been praying and you've been crying and you feel desperate and you feel empty and you feel like there's nothing left, those moments you can still connect to a joy that doesn't come from yourself.

It was given to you from our Lord, and then something happens as a believer.

You can allow it to refine you, meaning that you can choose joy in the midst of that.

You can allow it to shape you so that when you're more mature in your faith and walk, and someone else begins to suffer the way that you have, you can speak life and truth and love and grace and point them to the hope that is eternal in a way that no one else can.

Some of you have suffered in ways that are unimaginable, meaning that if you were to stand up here and tell your honest story, this place would be silent and in tears.

And you think, why God did I go through that?

I don't have the answer for the why, but I can tell you today that that moment, that thing that happened to you, that you experienced, does not have to be the thing that defines you.

Rather, it can be the thing that God uses to reach someone no one else in this world could reach.

Because their suffering is so deep, so hard, they're so calloused to the love and truth in this world.

But you have an opportunity to say, I've been there.

Hear my story and hear how God has delivered me through this.

You'll never forget it.

Friends, that's the thing about trauma, that's the thing about hurt, is sometimes it sticks in our minds.

And in a moment, we could be right back in that moment, and it's crushing.

But if we're not careful, that that moment could then become to create an identity with us that's false.

So we have to come back to the Lord and remind ourselves that that was a refinement to make us into something greater, that we've been chosen again for what?

For praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Suffer now, glory later.

And and this is a pattern that we see.

Uh Peter says in verses 10 and 11, concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about that grace was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

So we see the same pattern in the Gospels.

Jesus suffered and he ascended into glory.

And those who belong to Jesus should not be shocked when their lives reflect his story.

And Peter will say later in chapter two, uh, verse 21 for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

Chosen people follow the chosen one, and the chosen one's road runs through suffering toward glory.

Peter continues in verses eight and nine.

He says, Though you have not seen him, you love him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

So Peter, he walked with Jesus, he heard his teachings, he saw his miracles, he witnessed the empty tomb.

But these believers had not seen him, and yet they chose to love him anyway.

They trusted him, they rejoiced in him.

They saw how amazing Jesus was without having to actually see him.

And this is powerful because it means that their hope is no longer in their social comforts, their hope is in the risen Christ.

And then Peter pulls the camera back even further in verse 12.

He says, It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Think about this.

These Christians have felt small in the eyes of their neighbors.

But Peter says they are standing in the fulfillment of the story of the prophets who long to see and what angels marvel at.

I don't know where all of you are at, or how you resonate with all of this today, or how you feel in the eyes of the world.

But I'm here to share the truth of God's word with you this morning that says you belong to Jesus and you are standing inside the story of God's salvation.

That means this world does not get the final word over you.

Your suffering does not get the final word.

Your critics don't get the final word.

Your fear, your depression, they don't get the final word.

The risen Son of God, Jesus the Christ, he's the one who gets the final word.

So here's the question of the passage before us.

Who's telling you who you are?

Peter's readers were living between two competing verdicts.

Their culture labeled them strange, but God said, chosen.

Their neighbors said, You're outsiders, but God said, You're mine.

Their circumstances said, This is uncertain, but God said, be assured.

Their suffering said, maybe God has abandoned you, but the resurrection of Jesus said, God has already defeated death.

And that is the word for us today.

Jesus defines who you are.

So don't let the world redefine you.

If you belong to Christ, you are chosen by the Father, set apart by the Holy Spirit, and cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

Born again into a living hope, guarded by God's power and headed toward the inheritance that suffering can never touch.

That does not mean life will be easy.

Peter, along with the rest of Scripture, never promises that.

Chosen does not mean spared from suffering.

Chosen means held by God through suffering.

So when life is hard, remember who has called you.

When people misunderstand you, remember who knows you.

When culture pressures you, remember who chose you.

When trials grieve you, remember where you are headed.

The world may call you an extremist for living for Jesus, but God calls you chosen.

Now, all of this today it's only possible because of Jesus.

Peter will later say in 1 Peter 2, 4, that Jesus was rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious.

And that is the pattern.

Rejected by people, but chosen by God.

At the cross, the world would give its verdict on Jesus, rejected, condemned, and crucified.

But the resurrection morning revealed the Father's verdict.

Chosen, vindicated, Lord.

Jesus is the chosen one who suffered for sinners and rose to glory.

And if you're united with Jesus by faith, his story becomes your story.

You may experience rejection, but rejection again does not define you.

You may suffer, but again, suffering is not the end.

You may feel shaken, but your identity is held in Christ.

So if you don't know Jesus here today, you've never made him Lord of your life, the invitation is clear.

Come to him.

You do not have to build an identity that's strong enough to save yourself.

You do not have to prove yourself worthy to God.

You do not, you don't have to let go of your past.

God will take all that as you are, because he died for your sins and he rose from the dead.

And now he offers you forgiveness.

He offers you new birth, a living hope, and a place in the family of God.

Romans 10:9 says this if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9

Come to Jesus, receive his mercy.

Let him give you a new name, a new life for the rest of you who already belong to Jesus.

Church, I want to encourage you to live from the identity he's given you.

Stop letting your past define you.

Stop letting the titles that you've taken upon yourself define you.

Know who you are, know whose you are.

Know that you are a beloved child of God and live from that.

Oh church, if we spend the rest of our days just doing that, we will get to heaven as good and faithful servants.

Because it won't be, well, I I built this or did that.

It'll be I lived out who I was, who I really was, who I was created to be, as a son and daughter of a king.

Not as the world said I was, but as who my creator called me to be, made me to be.

And I shared that with everyone who came into contact with me.

And I I I gave the hope that was given to me to others.

Church does be that.

Oh, if we get this right, the enemy's gonna hate us.

He's gonna hate us and we'll probably suffer.

I'm sorry for the encouragement.

Things will happen here that are gonna make people mad, or something's gonna be different, and you're just gonna be like, ah! And then you can be like, wait, wait, wait.

Hey! Pastor Ryan said this would happen.

We must be living right for Jesus.

Amen to that.

Church, I look out and I'm encouraged by so many stories of faithful living for Christ.

And it's a beautiful thing we've done here.

We've gathered people who are living this life well.

But we're not finished.

We're not on the last leg of our journey.

No, we are at a time for such as this to live out our identities boldly, courageously, fearlessly, so that others who are in places of darkness, hopelessness, and struggle can hear our testimony and hear the good news about a savior who loves them and be called home into the family of God.

Let us pray.

Jesus, thank you.

Thank you for seeing a lost 16-year-old boy who is living for himself, stuck in the world of hopelessness, and calling him into a relationship with you, transforming his life into something he could never imagine it could be.

Jesus, I don't know every story of every person who's watching online or sitting here in this place, but God, you do, you do know them.

You knitted them together while they were in their mother's womb.

Lord, you know them so intimately and so deeply, every hurt, every joy, every success and every failure.

And Lord, you long for them to not be defined by any of it except for what you say about them, which is that they are your beloved.

So, Jesus, today, may we leave this place not just on the high of praising you, Lord, but by receiving the truth and blessing of your word that we are sons and daughters of a king, that this world is temporary, that Lord, we are headed towards eternity with you forever.

May we not forget it all the days of our lives with every breath that we have, so that in the end, Lord, when we're with you in glory, we can look back and say, We did it.

We lived out our lives for you, Jesus, and all because of you.

And we pray this in your mighty and powerful name.

Amen.