PRAISE GOD FOR YOUR LIVING HOPE (Outline)
March 22, 2020 - Lent 4 - 1 PETER 1:3-9
INTRO: Every day is another day that believers can praise God for his goodness. Yes, any day, every day no matter what we are facing. No matter what our worrisome world is promoting. We will want to praise God for his love. "May the peoples praise you, O God. May the peoples praise you—all of them. May the countries be glad and sing for joy, because you rule the peoples with fairness, and you guide the countries of the earth” (PSALM 67:2, 3). The Lord God controls all things. He rules all the people with fairness. “May the countries be glad and sing for joy”. PRAISE GOD FOR YOUR LIVING HOPE. God’s gift of living hope IS: I. Christ centered. II. Comfort filled. III. Completed goal.
I. OUR LIVING HOPE IS CHRIST CENTERED.
A. Verse 3. Believers were to bless the name of God: the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. God’s loving mercy gave them a new birth. They were born again into a living hope.
2. Living hope came through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Jesus lives = living hope.
B. Verse 4. Living hope focused believers’ attention on their future. Inheritance was yet to come.
1. Not a normal inheritance. It was “undying, undefiled, and unfading”. Eternal. Perfect.
2. The inheritance was centered on Christ alone. Guaranteed: “kept in heaven for you.”
C. Living hope can only be based on that which is alive. The Christians’ living hope is exactly that. Our living hope focuses squarely on our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus lived. Died. Was buried. Rose again. Our living Hope is Christ. We might hope for different thing in our life. We hope the weather is nice. We hope that we do not get sick. But we may have some doubt when we hope for such things. We hope, but… Our living hope is unlike any other earthly hope we might have. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul. It is sure and firm, and it goes behind the inner curtain, where Jesus entered ahead of us on our behalf…" (HEBREWS 6:19, 20a). Our living hope is God’s anchor for our soul. The key: Christ cares for our soul. Jesus’ blood paid the price. Temple curtain removed.
D. How do we come to know God’s free gift of living hope? We learn to appreciate our living hope in the words of the Bible. We begin to understand a little bit better God’s great love for us as we search the Scriptures. "Indeed, whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that, through patient endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we would have hope" (ROMANS 15:4).
PRAISE GOD FOR YOUR LIVING HOPE. It is Christ centered.
II. OUR LIVING HOPE IS COMFORT FILLED.
A. Verse 6. Peter encouraged the believers to rejoice in the midst of their trials. In midst of grief.
1. The early church faced great persecution. Lost homes, property, and even lives.
2. Rejoice?!? Yes. By faith they would, could, did focus on Christ: living Hope, Comfort.
B. Verse 7. Their faith was a faith of proven character. Their faith was far more valuable than gold.
1. Unlike gold their tested faith would endure. Trusted their living Hope. Found Comfort.
2. Once tested their faith resulted in “praise, glory, and honor”. Faith would not fail.
3. They would fully understand Christ’s gracious comfort at his appearing on the Last Day.
C. Rejoicing in trials not always easily done. We may even what question why the Lord says such a thing. When we focus on our living Hope we find the comfort that only our loving, heavenly Father can provide. Does provide. Whatever we face in this life we are not alone. Even or especially in our weakness the Lord God of Armies is our strength. Our Comfort. “Surely God is my salvation. I will trust him and will not be afraid, because Yahweh, the LORD, is my strength and song, and he has be-come my salvation" (ISAIAH 12:1). Our living Hope fills us with comfort. Strength. Salvation.
D. The longer we live in this world the more we understand that our world offers us little, in any, comfort at all. Knowing this drives us to the only real Comfort, our living Hope. Christ. Scripture teaches the same truths for our comfort in different places of the Bible. Here is the Apostle Paul sounding much like Peter. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our trouble, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 CORINTHIANS 1:3, 4). All of us have been comforted at one time or another in our lives. Our loving, heavenly Father comforts us with living hope. Being comforted we now can comfort others. Point them to Christ. Living Hope.
PRAISE GOD FOR YOUR LIVING HOPE. Centered on Christ we are filled with comfort.
III. OUR LIVING HOPE IS A COMPLETED GOAL.
A. Verse 8. They did not see the Lord. Still loved him. Unseen but they believed in the Lord.
1. Once again the believers would be filled with joy. Filled with God’s glory. Even in trials.
2. Their living hope focused on Christ. Focus on Christ provided comfort, joy, and glory.
B. Verse 9. Believers had joy because they were “receiving the goal of your faith, salvation of your souls.”
1. Verse 10. Peter pointed ahead. Wanted them to look beyond present trials.
2. Already had goal of faith: soul’s salvation. Would fully understand on the Last Day.
C. Our living hope is not really based on anything earthly. From time to time we are delivered from various, seemingly hopeless situations. We face trials and difficulties. We are saved from them by the love of our heavenly Father. The kindness of another Christian. The helpfulness of a neighbor. Or friend. Situations in life change. Deliverances change. Our eternal salvation does not change. Our living hope based on Christ comforts us here on earth. We are receiving the goal of our faith, “the salvation of our souls.” Our loving, heavenly Father is concerned about our well-being. Earthly. Especially our eternal welfare. "The LORD your God is with you as a hero who will save you. He takes great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing” (ZEPHANIAH 3:17). The Lord God is with us…saves us…quiets us with his love. Praise God.
D. There is a lot of anxiety in our society today. People are very concerned about the spread of the virus. The fear of getting this virus is causing hysteria. Even panic. What is really scaring our society? The virus is. Death is. Today’s world is not comfortable at all with death. For all too many death is frightening. It is the end. Darkness. Dear Christian death does not frighten us. We place our confidence in our living Hope. Christ lives. So do we. And so shall we. "Amen, Amen, I tell you: Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He is not going to come into judgment but has crossed over from death to life” (JOHN 5:24). We all face death. There is no escape. We do know that our inheritance is kept safely in heaven for each one of us. Our goal is guaranteed.
CONC.: We praise God every day for the living hope given to us. As we look around at our life and in this world we may wonder where is all the hope? There seems to be much more hype than hope. You have been given a living hope. This living hope is Christ centered. Comfort filled. Our completed goal. “The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” (PSALM 27:1). Nothing can separate us from God’s love. May the Lord strengthen us to remind those without hope that there is hope. It is Living Hope. It is Christ. PRAISE GOD FOR YOUR LIVING HOPE. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
LENT 4 readings.: HOSEA 5:15-6:3; 3:1-7; ROMANS 8:1-10;
MATTHEW 20:17-28; (PSALMS 42, 43)
SERVICES: 8:00am @ McCook (SUN) / 10:30am @ Redeemer (SUN)
BIBLE STUDIES: follow worship services redeemernorton.org & trinitymccook.com
/ Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:00am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM and on Facebook
