We're going to begin a brand new series this morning called Identity Check. Really what this is all about is going back and touching base with who God says you and I are supposed to be. Who are we supposed to be? How are we supposed to be living? Where are we headed? Those kinds of things. An identity check. Going back, touching home plate again, so to speak.
So I'm excited about this brand new series, and I would encourage you to be prayerful about it as you come each week as long as it lasts. We're going to be going through the book of 1 Peter. So I would ask you to go ahead and begin to read the book of 1 Peter. Read it all the way through. It's a short book. You can do that. As we go through the book, my prayer is that God would cause that book to go through us. Can I get an amen? I believe he can.
If you have your Bible, I want you to open with me today to the book of Revelation, chapter 21. Go to Revelation, chapter 21. In verse 5 it reads, "And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'"
Now I don't know about you, but when I read that, I understand there is a newness that is going to come one day at the second coming of Christ. There is coming a day that God is going to at the second coming make all things new. The good news is he said that is trustworthy and it is true. Write it down. Count on it.
Here is the better news. We don't have to wait on the future somewhere way off because the future has been brought into your life and my life as Christ-followers because of the power of the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you and because of the resurrection of Jesus. Because of that resurrection of Jesus, the creation door, the new creation has swung open. The future of the kingdom is now leaking into your life and into my life. In other words, the future is secure there, and the future is on the inside.
I want you to understand that you and I have never been called to live a life that is out of sight and out of mind. The future is not out of sight, and it's certainly not out of mind because it's on the inside of us. The Bible said the kingdom of God is within us, that Jesus lives on the inside of us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The book of Acts tells us around chapter 2 that after they had received the Holy Spirit, after the ascension, Jesus received from the Father this Holy Spirit that he now poured out on the disciples. This part of the future poured into the now. If the world needs anything today, they need to see the children of God living like the children of God, rising up and having an identity check in our lives to make sure everything is in order, to make sure there is not anything you need to add to your life or anything you need to take away from your life.
Now it's been said that confession is good for the soul, so hold onto your hat. I have a confession today. Ready? My garage at home is a disaster. Now I don't think you understand. I don't think you understand that my garage is an absolute disaster. I'm in charge of the garage. My wife is in charge of the house. It's fine. But if you go into my garage and you get ready to open the door, you're going to have to bump the door a little hard to push some of the junk out of the way. You've never had a room like that, have you? My garage is absolutely, positively destroyed.
It wasn't always like that. In fact, it was a selling point when Amy and I first bought the home. When we first got there, the guy had built this two-car garage with the proverbial "man cave" (what I'm wanting to make it in the future) up top. He had already pulled all the permits. He had done all the wiring, the foundation. He had built it. Siding, paint, everything. Garage cleaned. Everything neat, swept out. Not now.
You think I'm kidding you. Confession is good for the soul, but I'm telling you, you can take a quarter and you can flip it, and if you hit concrete I'll give you some money. I'm telling you Hoarders needs to be calling me for a show. It's bad, man. It's just one of those things. I had it all clean and in order, and then one day I brought some stuff home and just kind of threw it in there. Have you ever done that? Then the next time you throw something else in there. You go, "Well, I'll get to it. It's just the garage. That's the way we treat it. It's not really our house. Nobody comes out here." Before long, it's just stuff everywhere.
Every time I go out there, I say to myself, "This was not intended to be like this, and I'm going to change it." I'll come up with good intentions and good plans and all of those things, and guess what? It's still a disaster. Now the good news is I'm confessing, so hopefully within a few weeks I'm going to get out there and make this thing happen.
There was a future. There was a foundation laid. There was something when they designed that, they wanted to design it to function like a garage, to function and be beautiful and do everything it was supposed to do. But because I have neglected some of the basic things, it is an absolute disaster.
I ask you today…What about you? What about your soul? What about the garage of your soul? What about your life this morning? What about the garage of your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength? We do that sometimes. We have Christianity, kind of the garage of the soul. We have it all worked out, and we think we have all the t's crossed and all the i's dotted.
But really what would happen if I would open the door of your soul? If the Holy Spirit would open the door of the garage of your soul, what would he find? Do you really have the true identity of Christ? Do you really understand who God says you are, who God has destined you to be, who God has destined me to be? Because God has a word for that.
If you have your Bible, I want you to open with me to the book of 1 Peter. Go to 1 Peter with me. What does the Bible say? Well the Bible really gives us a purpose, and that purpose is we should be living as new world people, this new world of this age that is to come, this kingdom of God, right?
This world that when Jesus sets everything right, when justice has now come to the world, the universe, when God's presence floods the entire universe, when there is no more heartache, when there is no more pain, when there is no more chaos, when there is no more war, when there is no more sickness, when there is no more sin, this is a sure future that is on the inside of us that we can begin to live out now in our own lives and our own community because God by the power of the resurrection has brought that future forward in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.
We live in that time. We live in that age, but most of the people in Christianity are asleep to that. But what does God really say? In the book of 1 Peter, in chapter 1 and verse 1, it says, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ…" I want to stop right there because the Bible says over in the book of John, chapter 1, that Andrew brought Peter to the Lord. His name was Simon. God ends up changing his name to mean a rock. There is a name change. In other words, don't skip over that.
Underline that word Peter right there in your Scripture. Realize that the Bible talks about you and me. We have the proverbial name change ourselves, our identity check. The Bible talks about in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that we are new creations. Old things have what? Passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We are new creatures in Christ, new creations in Christ. Simon's name is changed to Peter.
When you go over to the book of Matthew around chapter 16, it's pretty interesting what is really going on there because the Bible says the disciples and Jesus were going through Caesarea Philippi. As they're going through Caesarea Philippi, Jesus turns to his disciples and he asks them, "Who do men say I, the Son of Man, am?" Peter and the guys basically speak up and say, "Some say you're Elijah. Some say you're John the Baptist. Some, Jeremiah. Some say you're just one of the prophets."
Jesus looks and says, "But who do you say that I am?" Do you see how Jesus begins to take it back to identity? Check your identity. "Fellas, everybody has an opinion of me, but who do you say that I am? Because whoever you claim I am you must become like, because I am your Master."
Peter goes, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." What does Jesus say? Jesus turns and says, "For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. [Upon this confession of faith] I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. …whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
That is the confession of faith… That you and I are new creations in Christ. All the old is gone; the new has come. You have a new name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I'm wondering, "Are we living like it?" You didn't know you were going to get all that from, "Peter, an apostle…" did you? You're called.
The Bible says, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion…" To the elect. In other words, to the chosen. Do you realize you have been chosen? God comes, and he has chosen you. He picked you. Let me ask you something. Would you have picked yourself? You probably wouldn't have, because you know who you really are. You know who you are in the dark. You know who you are when you aren't around other church folk. You know what you did last night. You know what dirt and filth you dragged into this sanctuary this morning.
Yet God still chose dirty ol' you. Isn't that amazing? I know it full well because he chose dirty ol' me. He has changed my name. He has changed your name. He has given me an identity that I need to go back and check and some things I need to straighten up. In my proverbial garage of my soul, some things need to be cleaned up. I need to remind myself of who owns me and who has bought me with a price, because if I've been chosen, that means I've been bought and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
I am not owned by the world. I am not owned by my wife. I am not owned by you. I am not owned by this church. I don't follow the voice of man. I'm not owned by a politician. Do you hear me? I am owned by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I am owned by the Way and the Truth and the Life. I am owned by the Rose of Sharon and the Door and the Way. I am owned by the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Do you hear me this morning? My name has been changed. I have been chosen. I have been bought. That is my identity.
I'm going to live like it in 2013. That's my identity. That's your identity. The future purpose of living the kingdom now. The world is desperate. They are hungry. The world has holes deep inside of them. They look around, and do you know what they do? They see evil everywhere. Evil is, but maybe if we would start living like Jesus and loving like Jesus and witnessing like Jesus did, maybe just maybe they would see the very light in the middle of all of that darkness.
Look what happens next. "…exiles of the Dispersion…" Look what it says. It says, "…in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia…" In other words, he is writing to the saints who have been scattered in the middle of persecution. It's like God has taken the salt shaker full of Christ-followers, and he has sprinkled them throughout the world.
Where has God sprinkled you? Has your salt lost its savor? Does anybody want to live another 365 days of this coming year with just a little bit of Jesus on Sunday? Or do we truly want to give him rightful lordship? The American church has sold a weak Jesus. "Come and hang out with me," we say. You were not called to "hang out" with Jesus; you were called to follow. That's your identity check. That's my identity check. So they've been scattered abroad. Where have you been scattered?
Verse 2: "…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ…" You've been set apart, and you have been sprinkled. The word sanctification means you have been chosen out, and you have been set apart to whom? To Jesus Christ. You have been set apart for him. He is your Lord. He is your Master. He is the voice you need to be in tune with and following and listening to as we march through this world. This is what God has called us to do.
To what? Look at that next word. "…obedience…" You have been set apart to obedience. How is your spiritual garage on obedience? Is obedience just lying on the floor out of place? Is obedience something you see needs to be put in its proper place, but you just kind of step over it? Because you have been set apart for obedience. I've been set apart for obedience.
Every one of us knows what God has been speaking into our lives that we need to do more of and what we need to change and what we need to let go of. Do you know what? We keep doing what we always do. We go, "Tomorrow…" Don't do it tomorrow; do it today.
You've heard me preach and you've heard me teach this many times before, and it's the truth, because when you look through Scripture, it bears it out. Nature always obeys God. Demons always obey God. Jesus did not step to the front of the boat when the sea was ranging and go, "Peace! Be still!" and it went, "Eh, I don't know about that. I'll obey you tomorrow, but right now we're going to get our wave on." It didn't do that. The Bible says Jesus said, "Peace," and it went still. Nature. Demons, same thing. They were told to be quiet, and they did what? They were quiet.
But when he speaks to us, we debate it. "How do I know if God is speaking?" Identity check. This is what 1 Peter is going to do, because in the opening of this series, we've already seen that we have a name change. We've been chosen. We've been sprinkled out. We've been set apart "…for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood."
Then look at the last part of that verse where it says, "May grace and peace be multiplied to you." That is the fruit of being set apart and obeying God. How many of you said, "Man, I want peace and grace in my life multiplied. I want grace in my life. I want peace in my life"? Then be set apart and obey God, and it becomes the fruit of it.
Anytime you don't feel that grace of God in your life, anytime you don't feel that joy and that peace in your life, you can guarantee your spiritual garage is out of order. You're trying to live for God without living the way God wants you to live. That's what Peter comes along to remind us. Look at verse 3: "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…" Not just hope, but a living hope.
Now you've heard me tell this story before, but it bears repeating. There was a homeless guy when I was in San Francisco one time who got on the train system, the BART system. Under the bill of his hat, he had a word written. I kept looking, and I finally asked him, "Excuse me, sir, what is under the bill of your hat?" He kind of lifted it up, and it had the word hope on it. I went, "Wow, what is that word on there for?" He said, "Well anytime I'm feeling bad, man, I just look up and I see hope."
For years I thought about that. In fact, at my church in San Francisco, I had a sign ordered that hung out over the church sidewalk that had the word hope on it. It was lit up 24/7 so when people would walk through the darkness of the Tenderloin, in drug-infested neighborhoods, they could always see that sign that was lit up that said, "Hope." That's where I got it from.
I got to thinking about that this week, and I thought to myself… Let me show you this. "…born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…" I don't need the top of a bill of a hat to see hope because my hope is a living hope because of the resurrection of Jesus. I have a hope because of the resurrection. You have a hope because of the resurrection. Identity check. Are you living that strong hope?
That's why the apostle Paul would scream and echo, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection…" Because it's a living hope. It's alive. It's sure. It's counted on. It says, "…through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…" It can't be touched. It's kept. It's waiting.
You are experiencing the rescuing and the salvation of your soul now, but one day the fullness of your salvation will come flooding into your life and will take your breath completely away. I can't wait on that day. I love it. We're anticipating it. There is a salvation now and a salvation to come, the end of our salvation, the fullness of our salvation at the second coming of Christ. Look what it says. It says, "…kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." You are kept, ready to be revealed.
In the book of 2 Kings, there is a story of Elisha. Elisha is out there, and the enemy is pressing in upon Elisha. He has his servant with him. The servant becomes afraid. The servant shuts down and says, "I'm afraid." Elisha prays a prayer to God and says, "God, open the eyes of my servant, that he may see that there are more with us than there are with them." The Bible basically draws a picture of the curtain being pushed back. This servant had his eyes opened, and he saw what was always there.
Now you take that and you lay it onto our salvation. I'm not worried about my future because I know it's just behind the curtain. I know that curtain is really thin. I know if God would (and he could), he would just open it up. I would go, "You have to be kidding me. You mean my life is surrounded by that?" His echo would be, "Yes." Then I would be depressed, because I would say, "I've been living like a pauper when I could be living in the glory of this wonderful, wonderful salvation that is already mine but not fully yet."
Your identity. Identity check. You're a people of God. New name. Elected, chosen, sanctified, set apart by the blood through the power of the resurrection for obedience to Jesus Christ so the fruit of that would be that mercy and that grace. The finality of your salvation… Isn't it amazing?
Verse 6: "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…" Peter is writing to a group of people who are being persecuted. He goes, "All this stuff I just said you are, your true identity in Christ, all of this has been given to you in the middle of chaos, in the middle of evil, in the middle of trials. Don't rejoice when the second coming takes place; start rejoicing about it right now." In other words, he calls them into active rejoicing in the middle of chaos.
We are a people who know how to live in an evil time. We are people who see God when nobody else sees God. Again, a few weeks ago when we had the shooting, do you remember? I mentioned, "What is the question of the world?" Where is God? Where was he when the shooting took place? Do you remember what I told you? I said it was the young girl who looked at the man getting ready to shoot.
He asked, "Where are the kids?" "Oh, they're in the gym" He took her life, but the kids were spared. That was God right there in the middle of evil. "I don't understand evil." We're not supposed to understand evil. You were designed for order. In the garden when God said, "It is good," he basically said, "It is good. Adam, name the animals. Adam, have dominion over the planet. Adam, take control of this. Adam, do good right here."
Here's the deal. Evil can't be understood. Evil has to be destroyed, and it's already been destroyed by Christ…now, but not fully yet, because there is coming a day, my friend, that death, hell, and the grave shall be cast into the lake of fire. There is coming a sure day. I want to walk like that, talk like that, sing like that, and live like that before it ever takes place so when it does take place, it's just a natural progression and a step to the next order of things.
If there is somebody hungry in this world and I know they're never going to be hungry in the future kingdom, I want to try and feed them. If I know they're not going to be thirsty in the kingdom of God when it fully comes, I want to give them water in the now. I want to give them a taste of what it will one day fully be. I can't do that if my identity is out of check. I can't do that if my spiritual garage is out of order. That's what this series is all about. This series is about going through, taking these words, placing these words upon your flesh, letting them sink down into your spirit, and reminding yourself of who you are.
This passage right here ends, and it 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." He is going, "One day. One day. Keep rejoicing now because one day glory will be shown right in front of Jesus."
Verse 8: "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."
