We’re going to be in 1 Peter 1:10-21 today.

Let’s Pray.

Father in heaven, We thank you for your faithfulness this past year and we pray that we will see even more of the fruit of your power and spirit in this fiscal year. Increase and cause us to abound in love for holiness sake. Lord, pour your overwhelming generosity unto us and help us receive it. Nudge us toward the work you are doing in our lives so we can witness and proclaim your goodness. Lord, let your kingdom come and your will be done amongst us as it is in heaven. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Introduction

I am so thankful that God blessed us with such opportunities to witness him working through the local church this past year. It’s absolutely humbling and such a great honor that he would invite us into his work. I am even more excited that God is leading us into a direction where he could unveil more of his power, love, and mercy for his people at Cedarbrook.

On behalf of the elder team, our diaconate, the Board of Directors, and staff, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for joining us on the adventure of faith God has set us on. And if you’re not all-in yet, get on board. Join us. It’s so fulfilling. I promise you, you won’t regret your decision.

Church, I want to ask you to pray and think about the initiatives that Lindsay shared with us. My hope and prayer is that as you pray, the Holy Spirit would move you into action.

[put up the “Looking toward the Future” slide from the board presentation deck]

• Tithing our budget toward local and international partnerships to further multiply the reach of the gospel into places and for people we cannot personally reach.
  • Our vision is to be a disciple-making, missional church committed to planting new churches in the in the DMV and beyond with the goal of reaching unreached people with the love of Christ.
  • This year, we’re laying the foundation so we can strategically move toward the vision God gives us in Revelation 7:9 – a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb
• Going back to Kenya on Short Term Mission and visiting with the 283 children that are being sponsored and are part of our family, but also developing new relationships and making some improvements to the church we support that reaches out to the destitute, orphan, and widow.
  • If you sponsor a Compassion child, you are their mother or father or brother or sister. If you want to see them thrive, then love on them by visiting them.
  • If you never been on a short term mission trip; this is a trip you want to go on and be a part of. You can find out more about this on the events page on our website.
• Retooling ministry discipleship and communication systems. The world has changed. So how we communicate and equip you for ministry also must change.
  • Our computer systems update is part of this retooling so we can communicate with you better and more effectively.
  • The same goes for our ministries. Nothing is going to replace the in-person Sunday worship gatherings. But we know that for many people, you’re watching online 2 or 3 weeks a month. You’re catching up during the week. We have people taking pictures and video on the weekend, so you remember how much you missed us. But really, doing that we can engage with you in between Sunday services and give you encouragement when you need and where you need.  
• Building a culture of radically following Jesus on mission. We have so many people who are already radically following Jesus with their lives, but all of us need to be radically following Jesus every day, in our homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods if we want to leave our next generation a legacy of faith.
  • There’s a buffet of options for you to get connected, and start living in faith with us. Take advantage of opportunities! Learn more about at our Next Steps classes starting 10/13.
  • Go serve in the church and through the church. Go help out at the Clarksburg Closet. At the Clarksburg CAN. Join us on a homeless outreach in DC. Take a vacation day you’ll otherwise lose to serve at VBS. Work will always be there, but the kids won’t.
  • Get in a Life Group to be part of a family living on mission.

I’m sharing these initiatives with you because everything on this list requires all of us to live in faith. It’s not the pastors alone, or the elders alone, or the deacons and deaconesses alone. It’s all of us, the entire church family living in faith, and in unity of faith.

So how do we do that?

In order to live in faith together,

Big Idea: We must be prepared to model Christ in our thinking and actions

Let’s go to 1 Peter 1:10.

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹ inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10-12 ESV)

The “salvation” Peter is referring to is what God did for us to make us holy before him so that when the time comes, we can enter into his kingdom in eternity.

“Salvation” is the act in which the Father decides to save his people and sends his one and only Son, Jesus Christ to pay the penalty of our sins by his death on the cross and then to be resurrected back to life as a guarantee for us, whom the Holy Spirit leads and convicts and gives faith can receive eternal life.

The reason God needed to save us and give us salvation is because of our sins.

I know the idea that we are “sinful” offends us more than being F-bomb or cursed at with other expletives. But I want us to have a clear understanding of what sin is. Sin is anything that goes against the will of God and the law of God. The will of God and the law of God is that we love the lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbor as ourself.

The Bible says all people have failed to do just that and therefore sinned against God. We are “sinful” but not without hope.

The good news is that God redeems us from our sins. That’s the overarching story of the Bible. And because our sinfulness is no longer counted against us, we can enter the kingdom of God and live in eternity as we were created for. The work of “salvation” is completed by God, but the consummation of salvation, which Peter is talking about only happens as we enter into heaven for eternity.

Why am I pointing the mechanics of salvation out and how does it relate to modeling Christ in our thinking and actions? Because I want us to experience the magnitude at which God loved us and continues to love us.

Now, who are the “the prophets who prophesied…”  

Peter is talking about the Old Testament prophets and also the prophets who were part of the early church.

• The title “prophet,” in the Bible, is given to people who speak the truth of God to the people of God about a certain situation or circumstance.
  • “Prophets” are not fortune tellers who tell the future.
  • In the Old Testament, a lot of prophesying that the prophets did also happen to predict the future, but the main purpose of their prophesy was to speak the truth of God in order to show the people of God, his love, grace, and mercy.

So, these prophets Peter is referring to, searched for the truth of God regarding the work of Jesus, for the purposes of telling those who need to live by faith that the only encouragement they need to live in faith is knowing and being reminded that the father sent Jesus to die for us so we could be saved for eternity in the faith the Holy Spirit gives to us.

The truth of God the prophets were sharing is the application of the gospel in every circumstance of our lives so we would have every opportunity to live in faith until our salvation is fully realized when we get to heaven. The gospel is the source of our faith and the power of our faith. Nothing else is as important or even compares to the encouragement we have in hearing the gospel, to be reminded over and over again. If you’re feeling bummed out, discouraged, powerless, and faithless in life, then remember the gospel.

This is the very reason here at Cedarbrook we share the gospel every single week. You don’t come to church to hear a few good stories and hear a good live band. You come to church to be reminded of the gospel so that you do not forget the gospel as you live life out in a world without hope. So

Point 1. Christ is prophesized and proclaimed for our benefit

Here’s what is so amazing in verse 12: If you live by faith, the gospel is a special encouragement that even angels long for. So consider how blessed you are when you hear the application of the gospel in its simplicity and its complexity every single week you come to worship God with your church family. Family, we get a privilege that the angels in heaven long for.

Verse 13.

¹³ Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” ¹⁷ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile… (1 Peter 1:13-17 ESV)

Here’s what Peter is saying here: live with the end in mind.

Peter is like seventy years old when he’s writing this and I’m sure he is looking at all the missed opportunities and bad decisions he made knowing that Christ was showing him the way and yet he failed to follow his Lord in his thinking and actions. Church, we know the end, it’s salvation in eternity, Christ is the only way to that end.  

I was watching one of the Moana music videos with my daughters. The one about charting the course using the stars and the sun and being a wayfinder. But realized something the 10^th consecutive time I watched that video with them in a single sitting: they were looking for something they weren’t even sure was out there. And they used the stars and sun to guide them to make sure they weren’t sailing in circles, but they had no end in mind, they had no direction to guide them.

Sometimes, we live without an end in mind or we live like we have no compass to get us there. But we have Christ! Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is our compass for living in faith to get to the end. We shouldn’t have to live like we’re blindly trying to figure out which direction we’re headed in.

What does that look like to have Jesus as our compass to get to the end?

Verse 15 “…but as Jesus who called us is holy, we also are to be holy in all our conduct…” Peter is saying Jesus is the epitome of holiness and modeling Jesus in his holiness is the way to the end.

Being holy, means we are preparing and being prepared for taking the necessary actions and thinking for the work God already planned for us. Let me make that more practical: Holiness is the plan God wants his people to employ so when we get to the end, our salvation would be fully realized because we would have arrived as perfect, just as we were made perfect in Jesus when he died for us.

If we understand this plan as our strategy for living a life of faith, then the number one factor in evaluating our every decision, and our every action to the end we want is simply: does this act and decision cause us to become more holy or less holy? If not, heed this warning from Peter, “do not be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance…”

So while the decision you must make is which job to take, or which person to date and marry; the real question you’re trying to answer and act on is: will job “A” help you be holy in your actions and thinking to get to the end or will job “B”? Likewise, will person “A” cause you to become holy in your actions or thinking so you can get to the end or will person “B”? Apply this in every decision and every action you make or take.

We can tell if we’re living our lives with the end in mind or if you’re living for only what’s here, by how our decisions and actions lead us to holiness or fail to lead us to holiness. And if you think in an election cycle like this one, or the work or school environment like the one you’re in, or even the friends you have hinder you from living holy as Jesus is holy, then know

Point 2. Christ is the reason we can live holy

Christ is the reason we have to choose to live holy. Especially in a time and place like we live now.

Verse 18.

…¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰ He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you ²¹ who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:18-21 ESV)

I love what Peter is doing here. He is prophesying the gospel application to us who live in a time and culture that is futile, broken, and so hopeless.   

1. We were all sinners and fell short of the holiness of God, and so we offended God in his righteousness.
2. But Jesus, who is God, humbled himself into human form, to walk with us and live without sin before God, proving his righteousness.
3. And he chose to die for our sake. The very blood of God becoming the Passover sign over the doorposts of our hearts and minds, that says death is no longer the end for us.
4. It is in his resurrection, because Jesus is alive, that we have faith and hope to be holy because God gave us our faith, and he reminds us of that faith and we trust in God to do the work that we could not do and cannot do.

So, devote yourselves to think and act, not for your own benefit, but with thoughts and actions focused with the end in mind: eternity in the paradise of God’s presence, as his beloved son and daughter.

As you look toward the future, this fiscal year, this school year, both in your private practice of faith, and your corporate practice of faith: to take advantage of the opportunities God is availing in your life to follow Christ, to be his radical disciple in holiness in a futile, hopeless, and broken culture.

• With that mindset, let’s go places we dared not go.
• Let’s minister to people we never imagined ministering to.
• And let’s be reminded that our father is faithful and directs our steps for his glory.   

Let’s pray.

Father, you love us and so you give us this wonderful free gift of grace and mercy which is faith in your one and only son, Jesus Christ. I ask that you put people, things, experiences, and your word in our lives so that we cannot escape the encouragement you are providing to us for our benefit in faith. If we are running low on faith or if we’re questioning our faith, I ask that you would prophesy to our hearts so that we would know that you are God and that your will not be stopped. Lord, help us live in faith. Help us experience the beautiful and wonderful things you designed for us. Bless us as we seek to live sober-mindedly in faith in our thinking and our actions. In Jesus name. Amen.