Are You In The Will? Series

INTRODUCTION

„X SLIDE 2

„X There are times when life is a real struggle. The health starts to go bad, bills start pouring in, and debt starts to accumulate. Problems start to happen in the marriage. Your children start to cause you a lot of trouble. You job is no longer as secure as you once thought it to be.

„X There are times when living out your faith is a real struggle. All of the above things can cause us to back down from our faith. The problems of life can cause us to want to abandon the faith we have in Jesus because we feel like there is no hope.

„X SLIDE # 3. The book of 1 Peter was written to Christians who were suffering various levels of persecution. The Christians were going through a lot of tough times and it was hard for some of them to keep the faith. Many of them felt as if God had left them or let them down.

„X How many of us have felt that way? How many times have we faced struggles of various types and as we were going through them, wondered where God was?

„X When you are facing what seems to be a hopeless situation, what is it that keeps you going?

„X For me the answer is the hope of better things, the hope that things will get better, the hope that it will all work out.

„X When things are not going well, we need to know that it will get better, that there is a pot of gold if you will at the end of the rainbow.

„X As the Christians were going through persecution, Peter wants to remind them of the great things we have in Christ and that these things are so good that we would not want to leave Jesus and miss out on them.

„X Today we are going to look at the great promise we have from Jesus concerning our future. This great promise should be something that can change the way we look at today with all of its problems and concerns.

„X Today we ask the question, Are You in The Will? This is a bit of a play on words. There are two things involved in this. The first issue is, ¡§Are you written into the God¡¦s will? Most people who receive and inheritance are included in someone¡¦s will. This will is a legal document that secures the inheritance. Secondly, if we want to be written into God¡¦s Will, we must be living within the will of God.

„X READ 1 Peter 1:1-5

„X SLIDE #4

SERMON

I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN INHERITANCE. 1

„X An inheritance is significant in part because of what it symbolizes. Having an inheritance usually means you are part of a family. It may mean you have something waiting for you, something that took a long time for someone to accumulate

„X For the Jews, they had the Promise Land. God had promised them a place where they could escape the slavery of Egypt. A place they could call home. When they lived in Egypt, they were aliens in a foreign land.

„X Peter is reminding the Christians who were suffering persecution that they were aliens in a strange land.

„X SLIDE # 5. An ¡§alien¡¨ was one who ¡§lives alongside of¡¨, ¡§temporary residents,¡¨ ¡§not permanent settlers in the land, who have a deep attachment and a higher allegiance in another sphere.¡¨

„X The word emphasizes both the alien nationality and the temporary residency of the Christian.

„X Christians are on a journey to a sacred or holy place; this journey we are on is an act of devotion on our part. Our alien status should positively influence how we live in our temporary home and how we handle to mistreatment and bad circumstances that sometimes follow.

„X Verse one tells us that we are chosen by God! God has chosen those who accept Jesus as part of His family. People in God¡¦s family are special and are set aside for special service for Him in this world. We have a challenge and responsibility from God! SLIDE #6

„X 1 Peter 2:9 says: But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God¡¦s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

„X The significance of your inheritance is that you are here to complete a mission for God. We have a higher calling than just living; we are called by God to reach more and more people for him!

„X The very fact that we have an inheritance awaiting us should help us to realize that God will be with us and that God wants us to succeed.