Tag: A New Life

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Sermon: Hope Fully Set
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 28:58
Size: 13.2 MB

New Life In The Same Old Place
“Hope Fully Set”
1 Peter 1:13-21

The first word here, therefore, is a word that points us back.

God has caused them to be born again, through Christ. He had prepared a future inheritance for them in Christ.

I. A Cleared-Away and Clear Mind (1:13a)

You and I, are called to clear away whatever might mentally entangle us and to stay clear in regard to our focus on Christ.

II. In the Cross-hairs of Our Hope (1:13)

The preparing of our minds in light of God’s incomparable salvation should lead us first to hope.

The grace that God has already shown you is only an appetizer before the banquet.

Peter wants them to set their hope fully on the grace to be brought to us?

Peter is calling his readers and us to look forward to the certainty of God’s purposes and promises.

III. Hope and Holiness Go Together (1:14-16)

I think what we see here is that there is a connection between hope and holiness.

Holiness is not about being conformed to the world or lending in; it’s about being set apart, distinct from this broken and corrupt world.

When your hope is set fully on the grace that will be brought to us when Jesus is revealed, then your heart will be fully given to walking in His grace right now.

IV. Hope Through His Blood (1:17-21)

But even though holiness involves choices, hope and holiness are not simply the result of Christian willpower.

They were bought back, bought  out of slavery. Specifically, they were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from their forefathers.

Hope and holiness are not ultimately the result of our effort, because it is through him, through Christ, that we are believers in God.

Conclusion

As one who had suffered and would suffer for Jesus Christ, Peter knew the struggles his readers were experiencing.

Biblical hope begins with the ransom of Christ and finds its fullness in the revelation, the return of Christ.

Next Week
“New Love in the Same Old Place”
I Peter 1:22-25

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Sermon: Your Take On Time
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 32:36
Size: 14.9 MB

New Life In The Same Old Place
“Your Take On Time”
1 Peter 1:3-12

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
Albert Einstein

We are “elect exiles”, we have been chosen by God so that we might belong to Him through Jesus, we no longer belong to the world; because of that we are spiritual strangers, appointed aliens, hand-picked pilgrims, refugees, exiles.

1. Hope in Light of the Future (1:3-5)
   God’s choice of them was made real when they experienced a new birth.

   Jesus beat death. He didn’t cheat death; He beat it. He did die, but death could not hold Him. Jesus is alive.

   I think we worry about the future so often because we live in such an uncertain world that is changing all the time.

2. Joy in Light of the Present (1:6-9)
   He first acknowledges and encourages them in the fact that their future reward is in fact bringing them joy in the present.

   Their future might be all about their identity as a chosen child of the King, but their present is consumed by the difficulty of being a foreigner in a hostile land.

   When we struggle, we must always encourage one another to see our present circumstances as more than just painful; we need to see them as purposeful.

   When our perspective on our present is shaped by genuine faith, it is marked by an unquenchable, unabashed love for Jesus.

   Right now is your perspective shaped by the love and joy that can only come from new life?

3. Humility in Light of the Past (1:10-12)
   While all of us are shaped by what we’ve done and where we’ve been and what we’ve seen, for some of us, there are things in our past that cast a long shadow over our present.

   If you are truly a Christian is the moment you heard and believed the gospel, the most defining moment of your life.

   The past should fill us with a sense of humility in light of the privilege we have as heirs of such a salvation.

   Don’t let your family, or your circumstances, or your station in life, define you. Rather, let that new birth into God’s family shape your perspective on the past.

Time and Trust
If you’re trying to live out new life in this same old place, what’s your take on time?

If you were to tell someone else the story of your life, would it be absolutely clear that the hero of the story was Jesus Christ?

Faith allows you to see that your life is not merely a collection of decisions ultimately made pointless by chance and death.

You are saved from the penalty of sin, being saved from the power of sin, and one day, saved from the very presence of sin.

Next Week
“Hope Fully Set”
I Peter 1:13-21

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Sermon: Being An Exile Without Even Leaving Your House
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 24:49
Size: 11.3 MB

New Life In The Same Old Place
“Being An Exile Without Even Leaving Your House”
1 Peter 1:1-2

1. The Writer – Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ
   I think the emphasis here is not on Peter’s history, but rather, Peter’s authority.
   And in faith, we believe that they are in fact the very words of God.
2. The Readers
   Well there are two words in that phrase that we need to nail down. They are the words “exiles” and “dispersion“.
   As those verses make clear, the recipients of 1 Peter were not predominantly Jewish. They were predominantly not Jewish.
3. The Chosen
   You see there that Peter refers to them as “elect exiles”, or we could say “chosen exiles”.
   Verse 2 actually contains three phrases that all connect back to and qualify this very word, “elect”.
   1. Those Foreknown
      It is a clear and indisputable fact from Scripture that God knows everything and everyone that was, is, and will be.
   2. Those Sanctified
      Those who were once conformed, are now being transformed by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within them.
   3. Those Cleansed
      Through the power of the Spirit, the Spirit that sets us apart, we are called to obey Jesus and not the wisdom of this world.
      But even when we fail to obey, even when we stumble, we rest in the fact that we have been chosen for sprinkling with his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ.
      And so if you are Christian, you have been called, you have been chosen by God, to follow Jesus through the forgiveness of the cross.
4. Life as an Alien
   “Do you understand that, if you are a follower of Christ, you are an elect exile?
   How are we to live a new life in the same old place?
   First, elect exiles are called to live like home at the local level.
   You are no longer defined by your birth in this or that town or country. You are now defined by your birth from above.
   We must grow in and live out the customs of our kingdom, yes, at the local level.
   Second, elect exiles will constantly feel the “rub” of spiritual culture shock.
   Christian, the tension with this world will always be there because we are elect exiles.
   For those who are resident aliens in a new land, those who have not forgotten their home, there will be a friction that exists in this other place.
   Third, elect exiles must never forget why they are different.
   The reason we are different has less to do with where, and more to do with who.
   But our differences should come as a consequence of the goal of living for Jesus Christ, our true King.
   May we grow in that recognition of and experience of God’s favor as those who have been chosen by Him.

Next Week
“Your Take on Time”
I Peter 1:3-12