Voyage to Eternity
Navigating a New Course
1 Peter 1:17-21
This is the third in our series on the Voyage to Eternity. We began with “From a Rock to a Good Place” on New Years Day as we discovered that the church is the vessel that transports us from one world – the rock – to a new world – a good place with God.
Last week Paul Kissling shared with us about he work that God has done in us to bring us into the kingdom of God – we are the valuable cargo!
This week we are going to look at what the purpose of the church is and how to set a course that accomplishes that purpose. Peter lays it out for us in 1 Peter 1:17.
Before we go there let’s remember who is writing this letter. Peter is the author. This is the same Peter who was called by Jesus to follow him, whose roof was opened to let down a crippled man that Jesus healed, who walked to Jesus on the water, who confessed him first as the Messiah, who refused to have his feet washed, slashed off an enemy soldiers ear and then later denied him as his friend in the courtyard outside the temple.
This is Peter – forceful and weak; firm yet unsure, excitable but misguided in his efforts. We see him throughout the first twelve chapters of the record of the Acts of the Apostles – a powerful preacher, a stubborn leader, and a growing servant of Jesus.
We would do well to listen to his counsel today. He teaches us in verses 17-21 something that is very important. Here is a lesson that Peter wants to impact our lives – individually and as the church of Jesus Christ.
I urge you this morning to hear and listen on both levels. Individually, every one of us would do well to imprint the message in our minds and carve it into our soul. Corporately, as a body, the lessons taught here should shape our mission, our vision, our work, and our destiny.
As separate and individual servants and as the body of Jesus known far and wide as Meridian Christian let us learn and put into practice what Peter teaches us today.
Live with Respect for God
You pray to God and call him Father, and he judges each person’s work equally. So while you are here on earth, you should live with respect for God.
I Peter 1:17 NCV
Did you catch it? It’s the last line in the 17th verse. So while you are here on this earth, you should live with respect for God.
Let me tell you about Henry from my years in St. Joseph, MI – this was about 1975.
Henry’s parents joined a commune called the House of David in Benton Harbor, MI so as he was growing up he learned a lot about religion and nothing about God.
He ran the House of David Greenhouse and was searching for meaning and purpose in his life when he began reading the book of Ecclesiastes. He called me late one evening – about 9:00 PM – and he said, “Is this true? (speaking about Ecclesiastes), because if it its, I might as well just kill myself and be done with it.”
I told him that, “yes it is true, Solomon had discovered the uselessness of striving after pleasure but that you need to see his final conclusion on the meaning and purpose of life.” And I asked him to read the last couple of verses in the book.
Here is what it says:
Live with Respect for God
13 Now, everything has been heard, so I give my final advice: Honor God and obey his commands, because this is all people must do.
14 God will judge everything, even what is done in secret, the good and the evil.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
Solomon said it first and Peter said it again, “Live with respect for God.
You don’t have to climb a mountain and search out a bearded prophet to find the answer to question of the meaning of life. The answer is right here. Honor and obey God. Live with respect for God and serve him.
The question is not, “What is the meaning of life?”
It all ultimately comes down to two simple – and complex – questions: “Why?” and, “How?”
Why You Should Live with Respect for God
Let’s look at the question “Why?” first. As we look again at the text we’ll see that Peter gives two succinct reasons.
Your position is privileged… we talk to God and call him “father”
This reason is huge. It is sufficient by its self. The Almighty God who created the universe by his word, this is my Father. That’s what I call being born into privilege! Talk about being part of the elite and being born with a silver spoon in your mouth!
We have His presence
We are created in his image as the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. We are sons and daughters of God though the spirit of God in us. His DNA is in our spiritual souls and we are now alive because of his presence in us.
We can talk to him. We can bring him our concerns, our cares, our worries, our needs and ask for his help.
We are God’s children and that brings great privilege – the greatest being intimate access to our father. We can talk to him. It’s called prayer but it is really just a conversation with our Father.
We have all the rights and privileges that any child has in any family. We can ask for guidance, encouragement, special blessings, personal favors, and preferential treatment and we’ll get it all – up to a point.
The point being what is best for us. You see, there is more to being a believer than simply receiving God’s blessings – there is much, much more.
It is a matter of understanding that you don’t belong to you any more and that your work will be judged.
We have an inheritance
We don’t have it now but it’s ours someday! It is an inheritance! Jesus has gone on ahead to get it ready and someday he’s coming back to bring us home.
All that belongs to God is ours – we just have not yet received it as our own.
Consider the words of ’Sunday Times’ journalist Matthew Parris – a man, who is by his own confession, not a Christian.
“The New Testament offers a picture of God, who does not sound at all vague.
He has sent His Son to earth. He has distinct plans for each of us personally and can communicate directly with us.
We are capable of forming a direct relationship, individually with Him, and are commanded to try.
We are told that this can be done only through his son. And we are offered the prospect of eternal life – an afterlife in happy, blissful or glorious circumstances if we live this life in a certain manner.
Friends, if I believed that, or even a tenth of that, how could I care which version of the prayer book is used..."
SOURCE: Sermon Central.
This is the first reason but there is a second…
Why You Should Live with Respect for God
Your work will be judged… God will judge what you do with his life
One judgment was completed on the cross. We who have accepted Jesus and have taken his name were purchased, bought and redeemed. The price of sin has been paid. When Jesus hung on the cross one of his last words was, “It is finished”. Literally, “It is paid.” It’s done.
But there is a second judgment. There is still a day coming when we will give an account for what we have done with our new lives.
Somehow, many of us have missed this part of the good news. Yes, we are saved – but we are saved for a purpose.
Two significant ideas come out of this text – your work will be judged by God.
Maybe because we have been so focused on the other judgment and the forgiveness we have received for our sins – which is no small thing.
But, still, there is another judgment – of your work and life.
Why You Should Live with Respect for God
Work: The word used here is “ergon” and it is translated as “work” 152 times, “deed” 22 times, “doing” once, and “labor” once.
1 business, employment, that which any one is occupied. 1A that which one undertakes to do, enterprise, undertaking.
2 any product whatever, any thing accomplished by hand, art, industry, or mind.
3 an act, deed, thing done...
In other words… your life and what you do with it.
If I remember my physics from HS an “erg” is a measurement of work and work is defined as something being moved. In fact one horse power is defined as the energy it takes to lift one pound one foot.
So taking all this into account, God is going to judge my life and yours by what we have “moved” for him.
What have I done with my live that moves, creates, builds, expands, grows, or changes this world for him?
This is not big things but the little things of life:
Fred Craddock, who taught at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, once said: “To give my life for Christ appears glorious. To pour myself out for others ... to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom — I’ll do it. I’m ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory. We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table — ‘Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’
But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, ‘Get lost.’ Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home.
Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.”
That’s radical conversion. It is being faithful when no one cares and no one notices. It is spending our 25 cents doing the right thing when no one is watching — when we could have easily given into the wrong thing.
It is being faithful in the mundane and ordinariness of everyday life, when it may have been more exciting to do something else, or give in to laziness by doing nothing at all. It is being faithful to God when it doesn’t seem to matter. It is doing the right thing even in the small things. It is being a person of character when everyone else is simply pleasing themselves. It is being willing to stand out when everyone else conforms. This is the proof that we have encountered the living Christ. It is the proof that there has been a radical change in our lives and that we will never be the same again. It is the radical conversion that marks us as disciples of Jesus.
The second significant idea is that this judgment will be rendered equally and impartially.
Every one will be judged impartially: This judgment will be impartially applied to every one of us – this is explicitly in the text. No one is going to be let off the hook. Everyone will be fairly judged.
Why You Should Live with Respect for God
“The world asks, ‘What does a man own?’ Christ asks, ‘How does he use it?’ ”
Andrew Murray
We are left then with one final and critical question. How then do I live with respect for God?
Live with Respect for God – How?
The apostle Paul spoke very eloquently and powerfully when he addressed the Corinthian Church. Paul taught that we have been called to build the church of God. He describes it as a house we are building in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. Let’s review his teaching on how we are to live a life that is respectful of God.
Build Together Using God’s Gift
10 Using the gift God gave me, I laid the foundation of that house like an expert builder. Others are building on that foundation, but all people should be careful how they build on it.
1 Corinthians 3:10
This speaks of the “Gift” from God.
Paul speaks of the grace of God in him that led him to become the apostle to the gentiles.
But it also speaks of individual competence, of excellence, of unity, harmony, and of careful skill being used to build the house of God.
If we translate that into our own world by that same premise I have been led by God to this community and to this body to be used by God to do his work. I build on a foundation laid by Brian Kearns as do we all here.
Indeed, we have all been called here by God and gifted by him to build his church. By that same premise you have been led by God to this community, to this body, and this moment in time – to be used by God to do his work.
You being here today is no accident. It is not fate nor is it a coincidence of random circumstances.
You are here for a reason – God’s purpose.
Live with Respect for God – How?
Build Together Using God’s Gift
Build on Jesus Christ - alone
11 The foundation that has already been laid is Jesus Christ, and no one can lay down any other foundation.
1 Corinthians 3:11
The foundation is Jesus Christ and him crucified. No more and no less. More or less and we have a cult or a club. More or less and we have a religion or an institution. With Jesus alone we have his church – the people of God called out of the world into his body – of which he is the head and we are the parts.
I love the fact that we are non-denominational. We have nothing to “denominate” us from other kinds of Christians. We aren’t a “kind”, or a “species”, a “sect”, or a “brotherhood” of Christians. We are just plain, ordinary, Jesus followers – period.
What better foundation can you have than this!
We have no “denominational” structures, organizations, or institutions we are subordinate to – just Jesus. And friends, that is sufficient.
There’s an old story about St Augustine. Early on in his Christian life, he was intensely absorbed in the writings of Cicero. And around this time, he had a dream that he had died. And now he was standing at the pearly gates. And the keeper of the gate said, "Who are you?"
And he said, "I’m Augustine."
Then the keeper said, "What are you?"
Augustine said, "I’m a Christian."
The gatekeeper said, "No, you’re not a Christian. You’re a Ciceronian!"
Augustine said, "What are you talking about? I’m a Christian!"
And the gatekeeper said this: "All souls on earth are judged by what dominated their interests. In you, Augustine, it was not the Christ of the gospel. It was the Cicero of Roman literature. You are not a Christian. You cannot enter here!"
Augustine was so startled that when he woke up, he resolved then and there to be fully committed to Jesus Christ for the rest of his life. And to live for Him.
Live with Respect for God – How?
Build Together Using God’s Gift
Build on Jesus Christ - alone
Build with fireproof materials
12 But if people build on that foundation, using gold, silver, jewels, wood, grass, or straw, 13 their work will be clearly seen, because the Day of Judgment a will make it visible. That Day will appear with fire, and the fire will test everyone’s work to show what sort of work it was.
14 If the building that has been put on the foundation still stands, the builder will get a reward. 15 But if the building is burned up, the builder will suffer loss. The builder will be saved, but it will be as one who escaped from a fire.
1 Corinthians 3:14-15
We build on that foundation and some day what we build here and now will be tested by the fire of judgment. What ever burns will be gone and what ever does not burn will survive.
Folks - Gold, silver, jewels, wood, grass, or straw all burns. You just have to get it hot enough.
Only Saved People are Fireproof
You know that in the past you were living in a worthless way, a way passed down from the people who lived before you. But you were saved from that useless life. You were bought, not with something that ruins like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb.
1 Peter 1:18-19
What does not burn will last and there is only fireproof material in the universe. People who have been covered by the blood of Jesus will live for eternity. All else will be someday – gone.
God has called us to work for that which will last. Our first and most important work is helping people find the way home. People are the only investment that will survive the test of fire – and then only with clothed with the precious blood of Jesus.
We are not a club. We are not a social institution. We are not playing games here. This is for all the marbles. This counts forever.
We are on a Voyage to Eternity and our work is to fill the boat!
Live with Respect for God
As the Meridian Christian Church…
Decisions about Budget and Staff
Decisions about Ministry Programs
Decisions about Worship and Ministry Center
We are in the process of making strategic decisions for the future work of Meridian Christian Church.
There are some critically important issues being prayed about and considered quite carefully. That’s why we asked the Timothy Group to help us conduct the survey we are collecting today.
We have some decisions to make about our general budget and the need to adequately take care of those who serve the church in ministry.
We have some decisions to make about our future ministry center and how to fund the construction and a mortgage.
We have some decisions to make about how we organize and administrate the ministry and our work.
All of these decision must be made from one perspective and only one – We need to position ourselves to do one task and to do it very, very well – help the people in our world to accept Jesus and serve him. Our work is to find them, tell them, collect them into the church, teach them to serve, and to take them home with us!
Live with Respect for God
As a follower of Jesus Christ each week…
Give 1 hour in worship
Give 1 hour in ministry
Give 1 hour in a small group
Give 1/10 of your increase to honor God and build his church
If you will give an hour in worship and a little ministry here and there we will have a normal “average”, “run of the mill” church.
If you will give an hour in worship and an hour in ministry then we’ll be above average and the church will be stable.
If you will commit an hour in worship, an hour in ministry, and participate in a Home Group then we’ll have a good strong “inward facing” church,
but…
If you will commit to all four of these standards of respect to God then the Meridian Christian Church will be one of the most powerful and exciting “outward facing” churches in Lansing, Michigan, the United States and the world – no exaggeration!
God has never called us to mediocrity.
A young medical student had graduated with the highest marks and accolades. Fellow students asked him about his future plans. When he told them his ambition was to be a medical missionary in a deprived area, they retorted by saying, "That’s no way to get on in the world." His reply to them was, "Which world?"
Let’s pray for God’s strength to do his will.
