The Gospel Of His Great Mercy

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• What brings joy to your life right now? I am not simply talking about having a smile on your face, or being happy baseball season is upon us, but what brings joy to your life.

• Sometimes life can be frustrating, draining, and difficult; nonetheless, in between all the difficulties that can beset us in life, we can find joy.

• We find joy in the people we love, the things we love to do, and for some they find a little joy in the stuff they possess.

• Today I want to share with you some reason as to why you can find true joy through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

• When this relationship is forged, your life will never be the same if you are willing to go all in with God.

• Over the past couple of weeks as we have been examining the subject of love, one of the main points I have been seeking to get across to everyone is that love is about priorities.

• When one properly aligns their priorities by putting God ahead of all else, or a Jesus put it, follow the greatest commandment; life will take on such a different perspective.

• The dull, dry faith one may be experiencing will turn into a true source of joy.

• As we look at 1 Peter 1:3-5 today, I want to share with you three reasons we can trust God enough to fully invest ourselves into Him.

• The three reasons we will explore together this morning will give us reason to have joy, as well as wanting to deepen our relationship with Jesus.

• Let’s begin with verse 3

• SLIDE #2

• 1 Peter 1:3 (HCSB) Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

According to His great mercy we receive…

I. A new birth into a living hope.

• As we have been examining the subject of love over the past couple of weeks, one of the things about love is the fact that love is a verb, love is not simply about words, it is about what we do.

• In verse 3 we see that ACCORDING TO HIS GREAT MERCY… God has given us something.

• There are a couple of different words for MERCY in the Greek.

• Both words include the issue of sympathy, fellow-feeling with hurting people, compassion; however, the first word denotes an inner feeling of compassion which abides in the heart, it includes the thought of pity.

• This would be like telling someone you feel sorry for them.

• The second word used for MERCY is the one used in this verse. It goes MUCH deeper.

• It denotes a sympathy that manifests itself in actions rather than words.

• So God’s MERCY causes Him to get involved in the lives of those who have given their lives to Him.

• He acts in harmony with His compassion and sympathy for our struggles.

• When you have a relationship with Jesus, He WILL be an active part of your life.

• Way too many Christians are not experiencing this joy. WE let the noise of life block out this joy.

• So one of the ways we see God’s love played out is in the fact that God, because of His GREAT MERCY, has GIVEN us a NEW BIRTH INTO A LIVING HOPE!

• Everyone has the opportunity for this new birth.

• This new birth is into a LIVING HOPE because this hope is built upon and is grounded in the promises of God, therefore the hope is not empty or without a foundation.

• It is living because it is guaranteed by the living Jesus!

• How many people are living lives without hope? Have you lived without hope? It is an empty feeling.

• How many people are living based on false hope? They have no credible evidence that their hope will ever happen.

• One of the many things we have on which we can base our hope is the empty tomb. The new birth is made possible because of the resurrection!

• Without the resurrection, none of us would be raised!

• SLIDE #4

• Ephesians 1:19–21 (HCSB) and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.