"majestic!" Series Introduction Series

“Majestic” Series

Series Introduction, 1-1-2023

1st Peter 2:9

Introduction:

New Year’s Day. January 1st, 2023. It’s not often that the first day of the year lands on a Sunday, but I can’t think of a better day for it than a Sunday.

Not that it’s sacred to God or anything, or that the turning of the year on our Gregorian calendar has any particular Biblical meaning…it doesn’t. But it does have meaning to us…significance to us. To us, it speaks of fresh starts…of new opportunities.

To us, it’s a time to lay aside bad old habits, and start good new ones. It’s time to make promises to ourselves…resolutions, we call them. And we make those promises, I think, because we realize that there are things about ourselves that need to change. And the turning of the year seems a good time to start all that.

That’s true for our Christian walk, as well. Though the date on the calendar has no particular significance assigned to it by God, to us it has meaning because it seems the perfect time to realign our life’s priorities.

It seems an opportune time to make promises to ourselves to be more given to prayer and the study of God’s Word than we may have been. It’s a great time to promise God and ourselves that we’ll be more conscious of Kingdom citizenship and Kingdom values.

It seems a good time to determine that we’ll take local church responsibilities more seriously…that we’ll be more faithful in attendance, in financial support, and make ourselves more available for ministry. It seems a good time to begin to ask the Lord more prayerfully & thoughtfully, “Lord, what would you have me do?”

The things that we consider at this time of year, the promises we make, are usually about important things. And the weight of those things can bring a sense of solemnity, a sense of sacredness, to this day; to January 1st, 2023.

I know that I feel it. I stand in this pulpit today feeling the weight, the sobriety, of the hour. And I want to enter this year in the fear of the Lord, focused on His path, with my heart attentive to His voice.

2023 is our centennial year. Our congregation was founded in 1923, and 2023 will mark our 100th anniversary as a continuously operating, continuously worshiping, Oneness Pentecostal congregation. And for us, that’s a big deal.

The awareness of the need to honor our heritage and be faithful to it, while at the same time not being bound by it…well, that’s quite a tightrope to walk. So, I’m especially aware of the need to be sensitive to the Lord’s direction.

I feel that direction about this series we’re starting today…that…by God’s grace…I’ll be bringing to you each Sunday.

It’s a series that will be centered around the calling, the commitment, the consecration, and the completeness, of the life God has brought you into via the New Birth. The series will be called “Majestic”…based on 1st Peter 2:9…and by God’s grace, it’ll help you understand more fully what you are saved to be.

Why don’t you stand with me, and let’s read that text aloud together now.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Let’s pray together now…not just that our hearts will be open to what we’re going to hear in the next few minutes, but that we’ll be attentive and receptive to the Word of the Lord in the rest of this series.

I. 1st Peter: Focus on Christian Conduct

The suggested reading for this service was 1st Peter 2, and I hope you were able to make the time to read over that chapter. But if you read through the entire letter, there’s something you may notice. Though, since I’m pointing it out, you’ll probably notice it for sure. 😊

And it’s that in 1st Peter, theology always flows into behavior…into Christian conduct. There’s not any real distinction made between orthodoxy and orthopraxy, between right belief and right practice. They go hand in hand, and you can’t have one without the other.

In fact, that characteristic isn’t isolated to 1st Peter; it’s a trait of all the letters written to the churches, whoever wrote them. It’s as true for Paul’s letters as it is for Peter’s. And it’s as true for James & Jude as it is for the letters written by John.

It’s a core aspect of how Christianity worked in the Early Church. If you had faith in Jesus, you obeyed Jesus. If you believed that God was holy, you lived as if God was holy…so on and so forth. Faith & belief weren’t separated from obedience and conduct. Faith flowed into obedience, and right belief flowed into right behavior.