Swimming Upstream Series

Swimming Upstream

Living-Hope (part 4)

Video – Be The Church

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

– Matthew 5:13-16

Why are you here?

Why are you in this room this morning?

Now I have a hunch that some of you are here because…

Prayer…

NOW - a few weeks back we began a message series on 1 Peter, A letter full of 2000 year old God-breathed words from Peter… called ‘Living-Hope’ (a sure anchor in troubled times).

You know the Galilean fisherman who hung out with God for three years when He wore flesh and walked the earth… to a bunch of Jesus-followers were finding it hard to hold onto their hope in the midst of some very difficult and challenging times.

AND – in this letter Peter (you know the Galilean fisherman who hung out with God for three years when He wore flesh and walked the earth…)

TELLS - a bunch of Jesus-followers were finding it hard to hold onto their hope in the midst of some very difficult and challenging times.

HOW…

• to have a living a hope…

• to live with great expectation

• to be the church and live like God’s people in a world that was not their home.

YOU SEE – in many ways 1 Peter is a ‘life manual’ on how to live a new life in the same old world.

NOW THIS MORNING…

We are going to tackle 16 verses of this letter (1 Peter 1:13-2:3) in a conversation that I am calling… ‘Swimming Upstream.’

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. – 1 Peter 1:13-2:3

NOW ANYONE - who has spent even a little time in the Scripture, will see rather quickly that God has always called His people to swim upstream… to be different… to be set a part from the world.

In Genesis 6-9; God calls a man named Noah to build an ark to save his family from a world-wide flood – WHY Noah?

Because Noah was different than the evil world he lived in…

In 2000 BC – God called Abraham to leave; his homeland and his gods and become the father of a new nation… A NATION – of people belonging to God. AND UNDERSTAND – everything about this new nation, was to be upstream in regards to the world…(diet, dress, worship, lifestyle..)

AND CHECKOUT – what Moses said to the people shortly before entering the promise land.