The Village Church
"What Do We Do Now?" - 1 Peter 1:1-16 - 2024/08/04 - Audio
You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You (soft music) (soft music) "Good morning." Please make your way inside and find a seat. (soft music) Welcome to the Village Church. (soft music) Our mission is to know Jesus, to enjoy Jesus, and to glorify Jesus. If you're a first-time guest, if you take a look at your pamphlet, there's a QR code. If you scan that with your phone, it'll take you to our link tree. From there, you can get to our social media, our website. You can also fill out the guest form on there, and it allows us to connect with you. Some announcements. There are a few days to sign up for providing freezer meals to support the Uganda Missions team. This is a, let's see, this recipe, the pan of Pioneer Woman Chicken Spaghetti. That sounds awesome. We'll feed four to six people, and is available without gluten. You can pick up at the church on August 11th after the service, or you can work with Tisch to arrange another time. The team's leaving in October to go to Kampala to work with 60 feet ministries to serve in prison and homeless children. You can sign up with a sign-up genius in your worship guide, so take a look at that if you're interested. You can also take a look at any regular events. And the sign-up link for the Uganda Missions fundraiser at the bottom of the worship guide. At the Village Church, we believe the giving of tithes and offerings is an act of worship. There are a few ways you can do that. You can go to our website and give online there. It's pretty convenient. You can also mail a check to our address, which you can also see on the brochure, or you can place an offering in the wooden box in the back. Thank you for being here today. These are our announcements. Please govern yourself accordingly. [music] Good morning, TVC. It's good to be back with y'all today. We've been shown while we're on vacation, so it's good to see your beautiful faces. I'm going to have a moment of silent preparation. This is the time for you to ask the Holy Spirit to prepare your hearts for worship. Please let us go to the Lord now in silent preparation. [music] Father, we live in a noisy world, so much noise from news, social media, things outside of us, the forces on the inside of us. Day in and day out where we forces are coming in. Sometimes it's hard to discern which force is from you, which force is from the Spirit. So I pray that during this hour or so together that Spirit you will quiet all those other voices, those other names, the idols, the things that burden us to do lists, the things that we need to get done. I pray that you will help us be able to receive what we need to receive from the worship service today. Not just from the preaching, but from the prayers, from the confession, from the songs. Every element that we do today, I pray that it will minister to us holistically. We cannot prepare our hearts for worship. We need you, Holy Spirit, to do it. So give us the humility that we need. It was teachable hearts and teachable minds to help us to draw near the throne of grace with confidence knowing that Jesus will help us in our time of need. This is his one-up for name I pray. Amen. If you are able, will you please stand for our call to worship? I will read the leaders part and if you can read the part that says people and we will read the section that says all together. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Let us stand with confidence, draw near the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find health in our time of need. Amen. Praise the Lord, TBC. Now let's somebody, praise the Lord family. This song just says freedom and I think that we can have freedom in Jesus' name, so I don't know what you guys are coming from. I don't know what struggles, what differences, what burdens that you guys have been dealing with all week, but in the name of Jesus I just want to put our hands together and give God praise in this place because God is greater. We have freedom in Jesus' name. I said we have freedom in Jesus' name, TBC. Hallelujah. We've done this song before, so the ball, knock your hands, the ball, put me in your voice, put me in your voice. I want to clap a little louder than before. I want to sing a little louder than before. I want to jump higher than before. I want to shout a little louder than before. I said build church, come on, say freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom. I want to clap a little louder than before. I want to sing a little louder than before. I want to shout louder than before. I want to jump a little higher than before. I want to sing freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom. No more struggles, no more chains, no more bondage. I am free. No more shackles, church, no more chains, no more bonds, no more signal. No more struggles, no more chains, no more bondage. I am free. I want to sing a little louder than before. I want to sing a little louder than before. I want to sing a little louder than before. I want to sing a little louder than before. No more bondage. I am free. No I'm free. No more boys. I am free. I am free. I am free. I want to sing a little louder than before. Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom. You've got a type of ham press. Hallelujah. This next song just says "Glorious Day, Glorious Day." How many of us know that on that great day? When God comes to take us home, it will be a glorious day, Church family. It will be a glorious day. I was very mean. I must sing. You could carry that kind of way. I know y'all know it. Come on, sing a little. There was my song. 'Til I met you. I was breathing, but I had a life when y'all spoke good. All my failures I tried to hide. There was my song. 'Til I met you. Come on, sing it out. You called my name. And I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. You called my name. And I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. How your mercy has saved my soul hungry. How your freedom is all that I know. 'Til I met you. Jesus, when I met you. Oh, sing it out, Church. You called my name. Come on. And I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. You called my name. And I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. 'Til I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. Come on Church. And I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. You called my name. And I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. Come on. You've got a hand. Stop a prayer. It's a prayer. Out of the darkness. It's who your glorious day. Come on. You've got a hand. Stop a prayer. It's a prayer. Out of the darkness. When he called our name. We ran out of the grave. Amen. When he called our name. We ran out of the grave. That is something that we should be excited about. That is something that we should praise Jesus for. Our shame taken away. Give taken away. All of our sin taken away past, present, and future. Even right now, he gives us new clothes to wear. Because some of you are still walking around your dead person's clothes. But he's giving you new clothes. And we call that sanctification. Let us go to the Lord now in the prayer praise. Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you did what our goodness could not do. You did what our performance and productivity could not do. You did what our obedience could not do. You did it all. You died for our sins. And for our justification, you rose again on three and three days. Your life and your death and your resurrection, your ascension. Your finished work is a reason why Christians around the world can gather and praise and worship. Because of what you have done. It's a glorious day. Because we don't have to get on the cross with you. It's a glorious day because when you say that it was finished, it's finished. It's a glorious day. Because all of our sin past, present and future have been nailed to that rugged cross and we bat them no more. We walk around as testimonies of your grace. Because without it, we will be doing for him. None of us can stand before the glory and holiness of the triune God if we're not covered in the blood of the Lamb. We were orphans before you called our name. We were enemies of the gospel before you called our name. We were living in darkness before you called our name. Forgive us of our pride. Because when we were Christians for a long time, we began to think God should be grateful to have us on his team. No, we should be grateful that he called us to be on his team. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, that as Christians and those of us who are Christians here, we are no longer in the grave. We are not dead men and women walking. We are saints alive, free to experience the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Praise you for that. That you are Emmanuel with us. That you walk with us to the valley of shadow of death. Your rod and your staff, they comfort us. That you are our good shepherd. Steal, you are with us in the good days and bad days and the joys and the pains and the sufferings and the persecutions. You are with us. This is not your first rodeo. You know how to sustain and provide for your people. You know how to uphold your creation and I pray that we will give you some credit for who you are and for what you are doing in our lives. None of us may have all we want to have, but if we are in Christ, we have what we need. We have what we need. And we are becoming something beautiful. That one day when we see Him face to face, we will be like Him. So Holy Spirit, help each of us as we continue through the service and even go out into next week. Help us to be mindful of the ways in which we can praise the Father for what He's done for us. Everything that we have that's come because of God's hand is over. Give us hearts of gratefulness. Give us hearts of humility. Give us hearts that are teachable. In Christ's name that I pray. Amen. Our confessional faith today is from the Heideberg Catechism. It's from question 21. I will ask a question and then we will read the answer in unison. The question says what is true faith? True faith is not only a shared knowledge by which I hold as all truth. All that God has revealed to us in Scripture. It is also a wholehearted trust which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel. That God has really granted not only to others but to me also for giving us a sin, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of shared grace and granted solely along with them. Amen. Notice here it says the Holy Spirit creates in us true faith. The Holy Spirit creates in us true faith. So my prayer now is that if you're not a Christian I'm praying that for you that the Holy Spirit will create in you true faith so that you can come to and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Let us continue to praise our God and King by saying what a beautiful name will you please stand. You are the word at the beginning, one with God the Lord most high. You hid in glory and creation. Now we've chosen you wise. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. Nothing compares to this. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. Nothing compares to this. What a wonderful name it is. Nothing compares to this. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. Silence the boss of sin and grace. The heavens are all the praise of your glory. For you are a true life again. You have no right. You have no equal. Now and forever God you raise. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the glory. Yours is the name above all day. What a powerful name it is. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ I mean. What a powerful name it is. Nothing can stand against. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ Christ. You have no right. You have no equal. Now and forever God you raise. Yours is the kingdom. Hallelujah. Yours is the glory. Yours is the name above all day. It was not a four-time church. You have no right. Come on sing it out. You have no equal. Now and forever God you raise. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the glory. Yours is the name above all days. What a powerful name it is. What a powerful name it is. Hallelujah Jesus. The name of Jesus Christ Christ is. What a powerful name it is. Nothing can stand against. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Bless your name, Father. Let me see you. Hey Chris. What a powerful name it is. What a powerful name it is. What a powerful name it is. What a powerful name it is. Do you believe? That's the question. Do you believe it? Not just here, but do you believe it in your heart? That's in your heart when it changes your life. We all got head knowledge. But do you believe his name is beautiful in your heart? Because what has your heart has your loyalty, your convictions, your resources, your time, and all your time? Do we believe? Amen thanks. Today we're going to have one of our friends join the church today, one of our brothers in the Lord. We'd like to invite Sam up to join us. Sam has went through our inner divillist class. Inner divillist class is our new members class. So if you're interested in learning more about TBC, even becoming a member of the church, please let Cynthia Nolan. Whenever we do the class again, we will definitely invite you to attend. So Sam, welcome. So we're going to ask you to find membership vowels that we went over in the end of this class. I'll read each one and then you can respond with this. Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure, and without hope in saving his sovereign mercy? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of Christ? Do you receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as offered in the gospel? Do you now resolve and promise and humble reliance upon the grace of Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as become a follower of Christ? Do you promise to support the church in its worship and work for the best of your ability? Do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study its peace and purity? Welcome, Father. After worship today, will you please give Sam the right hand of fellowship, amen. So now we're going to have a prayer supplication. Prayer supplication are times where you get to bring to Jesus the things that you need in your life. There's also a time where you get to enter seed on behalf of loved ones. And so this is what we're going to do now. So silently, will you please bring to the Lord prayer the intercession and prayer the supplication. And I will close our time. Please go to the Lord. Father, you know the needs within our congregation. We have Ms. Robbin has surgery coming up. We definitely want to pray for her and her healing and her recovery. So we pray for kids who will be starting school. Just have started school and starting college soon that you will be over with them. Give them safe travels for those who will be going to schools out of town. We pray that they will manage their time wisely because the parents are going to be there to wake them up. So help them be good stories. So I pray for the marriages within our congregation that you're blessed and watch over them. I pray also for those who are just struggling with faith and struggling with mental illnesses. But when I pray that you are minister to them, help them to know that there's no shame. There's no shame in going to sit there. I pray they'll reach out for help. I pray for those who are in need of a job, a new job, Lord, that you will provide what's needed. But that's the effort that they hit the pavement, putting in applications and following up and doing interviews, Father. I pray that you are blessed. I pray, Lord, that for each of us that we will believe, Lord, that you're good. I pray that you help us to keep short accounts with one another, assuming the best of one another, extending grace to one another. I pray that we will pursue one another, Lord, relationship, that we will not just be folks who attend church together once a week, but we will be a beloved community, a family, a family. And in the family, we get on each other's nerves, we send and get to each other, and I pray that we will pursue one another through reconciliation and repentance whenever those things happen. Lord, I pray also for growth here, Lord. I pray for spiritual vitality here, Lord, that we, all of us will recultivate a life, a spiritual life where we're spending time with you, reading your word, and in prayer, in descriptions, Lord. Not just going through life, Lord, but Lord living life, serving and worshiping you. I pray you help us to be able to discern the voice of the enemy, knowing when he's listening to us lives, Lord. Help us as we deal with the constant distractions, Lord of social media, technology, politics, all the things, Lord, that are coming at us. Help us to be able to know what is true and what is not true. Help us to be wise in the things that we decide to engage in. Every argument, every disagreement doesn't need our energy. If we don't have to let people live in our heads, rent free. Lord, help us to know that you're fighting this war. If you made a way to deal with the sentiment kind, you can deal with everything that is happening now. So I pray as you're here for us at TBC, you help us to be good stewards of what you have given us. Help us to be salt and light in the places where we live, work, and play. Help us to be the hands and feet of Jesus to one another, to our neighbors and to our co-workers, Lord. Help us to show them the true Jesus, the triune God, whose name is beautiful, who is willing to call their name so that they too may run out of the grave and into the marvelous Kingdom of Christ. It's in his name that I pray. Amen. If you are able, will you please stand for the reading of God's Word taken from 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 through 16. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are a late exiles in the dispersion in Pontus and Galatia and top of those who are Asia and Bethnia. According to the foreknowledge of God, the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, for the obedience of Jesus Christ, for sprinkling with his blood, may peace and grace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfaited, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith or salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this, you rejoice, though for an awful little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that erishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. According to the salvation, the prophets have prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ and them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the suffering of glory. It was revealed to them that they were not serving 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 since in heaven, things in which angels long to look. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, be sober minded, set your hope fully on a grace that was brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. And as he who call you as holy, you also be holy and all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Amen. Thank you brother Alex. Good morning church. For any of you whom I've not yet met again my name is Marcus Nobles. I'm the youth director here and the campus minister for our UF and album A&M. I think I say this every time that I get up here. I take this opportunity to give God's word to God's people so heavy and I treat it with a lot of weight and respect because it's a beautiful thing to be able to stand here in this place. And I appreciate you Alex for allowing me these opportunities to get some reps in brother. As always, I always love to start with a quick update of what's going on in the ministry of our UF and album A&M for months and months I've been talking about getting an intern to help do the work at album A&M. And y'all, prayers have been answered. Aiden is here. If you've not yet met Aiden, please take some time today to get acquainted. She is literally an answer to prayers. And I am excited to see not only what God has done in the past three years but what he will continue to do and how he continues to work for the good because that's who he is. And y'all, that's who's we are. And then we're going to talk about that a little bit today. That's enough of our UF update. Let's dig right into the word. So we've already read the scripture so I won't go back and read it again so give me a little extra time. And I picked a big chunk of scripture and it's a lot of stuff so I'm going to talk really fast which is easy for me. And if you can't keep up, I'm sorry but it's really good stuff. So I'm pretty sure that you'll be able to hang in there with me. This chunk of scripture is one of my favorites. It's one of my favorite things to preach to college students. And it's one of my favorite things to go back and reread as the semester begins. And I'm titled this sermon, What Do We Do Now? And that's one of the questions that I always have to ask myself when doing college ministry at the start of the semester is, man, what are we going to do? The semester is starting. There's a whole bunch of brand new students. We're encountering a lot of people. And in life, sometimes things get hard, right? Life is not always easy. We encounter challenges. And here in this book of 1 Peter, some call 1 Peter the Bible's handbook to suffering. And here Peter lays out some things that are just unequivocally true in these first 13 verses and then he tells us what to do. So when we meet struggles, we can think about these things that we know that are absolutely true, that we see in these first verses, and then we can do some things to help us deal with our struggling. Amen? So I love this chunk of scripture as Peter refers to his elect exiles. This chunk of scripture was originally written as a circular letter that would have traveled around to all of the churches in this particular time in history where the church was in dispersion, where Rome had come in and taken over and all the Christians were spread out everywhere. And it was a really tough time to be a Christian. It was a really tough time to be a believer. And folks couldn't meet and gather like we are right here on a Sunday morning. Churches were in people's homes and were spread out all over the place. So they were really struggling. And Peter wrote this letter to encourage them. And he calls them elect exiles, which I think is very relevant to right now today, especially for college students who are traveling far from home, who don't know where to go to church, who are in a new place with new people, and everything around them feels very hard. It feels very easy to identify as an elect exile as a college freshman, right? And here in verses one and two, again, in these first 13 verses, Peter lays out these things that are true and then in verse 13 he shifts to telling us what we should do. In verse one and two, Peter says this, "To those who elect exiles in this version of Pontius, Galatia, Capidonia, Asia, Valencia, according to the poor knowledge of God the Father, and the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with His blood may grace and peace be multiplied to you." Here Peter is reminding these people of something that is true, that they are God's elect exiles. Church, you are God's elect exile. What does that mean? You are hand chosen by God. Amen? He knows you. He loves you. He plucked you out of the crowd. You, you're his elect exile. Church, when things get hard, remember this thing that is absolutely true. You are God's elect exile. Amen? You have been elected by God, hand chosen by Him. John 15, 19 says it this way, "If you are of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." Church, sometimes you feel like an exile because the world may hate you. And even though that's true, this is even more true. You are God's. You are hand chosen by Him. And even if the world hates you, that's okay because God has chosen you out of the world. Amen? Church, I don't know about you, but that makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, right? To know that there's nothing that can happen in this world that God cannot choose me out of. At times you may feel like you're exiled, but remember that you're chosen in elect. Verse 3, "Church, we can start with praise to God because we are His chosen in elect. No matter what happens, we can always have praise." Amen? Why? Because God has given us a living hope, a living risen Savior in Jesus who's not dead but is alive, who's not finished but is still at work, who is not resting but is working always. Amen? We say this all the time, but do you believe it, that God is at work? Church, we can start with praise because we know that we are God's chosen people and because we have a living risen Savior. Church, whenever times get hard, remember these things that are true. Amen? And remember this, that the security of our hope is grounded in God's mercy and in the resurrection of Jesus. Never forget that the security of our hope isn't based on anything that we can do alone, but is based on this supernatural, wonderful power, this work, this finished work of Jesus on the cross, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. This living risen hope that we have. Church, this is true. Amen? So no matter how hard things get, remember these things that are true, right? Verses 4 and 5. God has given us an inheritance that will go on forever and ever and it's kept up for us in heaven. My favorite song of the thing when I was a kid is that the world didn't give it and the world can't take it away. Amen? Church, here's another unequivocal truth that the world can't change. You, God's in left exile, whom he chose out of the world, whom he loves, whom he died for, has an inheritance that is stored up in heaven, that the world can't touch, because the world didn't give, so the world can't take it away. Church, aren't you glad that that's true? So we have security in this thing that is imperishable, that can't decay, that is undefiled, that is pure and can't be corrupted, that is unfading, that will never lose its value or its beauty, that is kept in heaven, that is secured and reserved for us, the believers who have faith in this living risen Savior. Amen? Our inheritance church is protected by God himself. I can't think of a better insurance policy. Amen? Verses six to nine. Even though we may suffer for a little while here on earth, it produces strong faith and allows us to always have joy and obtain salvation. In other words, in this way, even when a Christian is most distressed by various trials, what a mercy it is that he can know that he is still the elect of God. Any man who is assured that God has foreknown before the foundation of the world can very well say we rejoice greatly. We can rejoice in trials because our faith in Christ and the salvation that he brings provides an undercurrent of joy and great rejoicing that is always present. Church, you have access to joy that is inexpressible to the rest of the world. Aren't you glad that that's true? Aren't you glad that your God's elect exile whom he chose out of the world whom he adopted into his family, whom he loved so much that he chose to die for, that he could ensure your inheritance in heaven so that the world didn't give it in the world can't take it away so that you can have joy that's inexpressible to the rest of the world. Church, even in hard times, we have access to a wellspring of joy that the world can touch. Church, if you ever want to, if you ever start to wonder what do we do now, remember these things that are true. Amen? It's this faith that we have that is a sure mark of our eternal election, the genuineness of our faith. Church, if you have genuine faith, you have indefinitely more than he who has the whole world and yet is without faith. Church, you have something that is precious, that is tried like fire, that is tried by fire like gold and comes out precious. This beautiful faith in a living, risen savior. Even though you can't see it, even though you can't see him, he's working. Even though you might not feel him, he's working. Amen? But do you believe it? But do you believe it? Verse 10 through 12, church, this is one of my favorite ones to talk through with students, you have what the prophets proclaimed. Let me stop right there and say that again so that you really catch it. Church, you, you have something that the prophets in the Old Testament proclaimed. You have something that even angels look for. Did you know that you have something that is so precious that even angels in heaven who are by God's side long for this faith in this living, risen savior? Church, think about this for a second. Even the angels are fascinated by the gospel that you have. Even the angels are fascinated with God's plan for us, his elect exiles, whom he chose out of the world. Even the angels are fascinated by this faith that we have. Think about that for a second. Think about how big and how heavy that is. Think about how worthwhile that is to have this kind of faith that the prophets proclaimed and that even angels long for. Did you know that you have that? Church, you, you have genuine faith in a living, risen savior, the thing that the prophets proclaimed and that angels long for. And that's true. Amen. Now, we got to those first 12 verses. Now we can really get to the sermon. You ready? All of those things in those first 12 verses are unequivocally true. Now, what do we do with that? What do we do with all that beautiful, heavy, wonderful truth? How do we operate as Christians in a dark, trying, troubled times? Peter tells us this in verse 13. Change how you think? Because of these things that are true, now in verse 13, he tells us to change how we think. It starts with therefore, in seminary, Alex can corroborate this for me. They drill this into you that when you see it therefore, ask what it's there for. You remember hearing that? And here, in this case, Peter is preparing to state some ethical implications that come from the doctrinal teachings of these previous 12 verses. So because of all of these things that are unequivocally true, now do this. Verse 13 tells us to prepare our mind for action. The Greek word here means to gird up the loins of your mind. Anyone here know what it means to gird up loins? Think way back when Old Testament times when men would wear long flowing tunics. Before they would do work, they would have to gird the loins of their tunic and tie it up like shorts, right, so they could move their legs. This is an action word, right? Gird up the loins and prepare for action. My favorite verse in Job uses the same type of language where God himself shows up to Job and says, gird up your loins and prepare for action like a man. Those are fighting words, right? Yeah. To bring that to right now, stuck outside. Right? Those are fighting words. Those are action terms. Because of these things that are unequivocally true, now take action. Do this. Gird up the loins of your mind. Prepare your mind for action. Bring under control the free and loose flowing thoughts that will slow your spiritual progress. Gird up your loins. Because of these things that are true, not for no reason, but because of all of these things that we just talked about in those first two verses, now prepare for action. Gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober minded. The Greek word here for sober doesn't mean just not to be drunk, but it means to think clearly. So Peter tells us to prepare for action and then to think clearly, to have self-control, to be morally decisive, to take control of our subconscious. One commentary puts it this way. The proper response to the grace of God is a disciplined self-control. Church, what's feeding your mind? What's feeding your mind? When I say this to my students, I say this way. It's TikTok feeding your mind. Is social media feeding your mind? For my parents, I say, is it the news media that's feeding your mind? Is it whichever channel you're locked into? Is that what's feeding your mind? Or is it all of these things that we know that are true in these first 13 verses? Church, what's feeding your mind? Proverbs says it this way. As a man thinks, so he is. What's feeding your mind? Church. And then lastly in this verse, Peter tells us to think hopefully, to set our hope fully on the grace that is being brought to us by Jesus Christ and by Jesus Christ alone. Amen? Church, there is something coming that is greater than all of this. There is something coming that is greater than the challenges that we face. Church, there is someone coming who is greater. Set your hope fully on Jesus. Church, we as Christians should be able to set our hope fully on Jesus Christ. What's your hope set on? Church? What's feeding your mind? Set it on the grace that is being brought to you. Trust without reserve that the grace of God that is even now being revealed day by day for us, his elect exiles. Trust that Jesus Christ is coming. Amen? Not for just any random person, but for you. His elect exiles, whom he chose, whom all of those 13 verses are true for. Jesus is coming for you Church. Amen? If we're to survive and live in this dark world, we must prepare to run our race well and be so reminded and to set our hope on Jesus. That's a lot for one verse. That was all verse 13. I'm writing my exegesis paper on this chunk of Scripture. Can you tell? Verse 14 through 16. Then he tells us, verse 13, to change what we think. Now in verses 14 through 16, he tells us to change what we do. Amen? To be holy. Verse 14 through 16 says, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your form or ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy." Here obedience and holiness are two sides of the same coin. Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. Has this similarity to the writing of Peter here is unmistakable to the writing of Paul in this verse. Where Paul tells his readers, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." That's Romans 12. And this Church is an invitation to be better than the old you, to be better than when you didn't know any better. It's an invitation to change the aspects of your form or ignorance that tempt you into conformity and into being worldly. And the beautiful thing about this obedience that he's speaking about here is that it isn't contractual. Do or don't do things so that you don't get punished. It's more of an image of our covenant with God. Do or don't do things because of who you are. One thing that I tell to my album A&M students all the time is, live your life in such a way that shows not just who you are, but who you are. Right? I know all of my TBC youth have heard me say that before, right? That we should live our lives in such a way that shows who we are, that we are his elect exiles, that he has chosen us out of the world, that he has adopted us into his family, that he has died for us to impute righteousness onto us, not so that we, not because we earned it or that we deserved it because he loves us so much, that he chooses to give salvation to us, his children, that we can be redeemed and bought at a price. So church, we shouldn't take all of that lightly, we should live our lives in such a way that shows not just who we are, but who we are. That's the obedience that he's talking about here, not contractual, but covenantal. Obedience here is a picture of the goal of God's covenant to his people. Think about this church all the way back to Moses leading the people out of Egypt in Exodus 19. We see God provides salvation to the Israelites long before he ever gives them law. Amen. Long before he gives rules and tells them what to do and what not to do, he's already poured salvation out onto them. Amen. That's who he is. So likewise, we should act like who's we are. Amen. Obedience here is a picture of the goal of God's covenant to his people. God gives a beautiful prologue of redemption and a reassurance of his promises all the way back at the very beginning. So we church should be holy, not because we are holy, but because of who's we are. Amen. When people look at your life, when they look at your words, when they look at your actions, when they look at you, they should see who's you are. Amen. How you live should show who's you are. How you think should show who's you are. Folks should say somehow that was different. There's something about them, the way they treat people is different, the way they talk is different, because we and God's children should be just that. We should show who's we are. John Owen puts it this way. Holiness is nothing but implanting, writing, and realizing the gospel in our souls. Storytime. I live just like my dad. Some of you have met my father and I look just like him, spitting image. It's funny I have three beautiful daughters and a wonderful son now. All of them, just like me. They really do, don't they? Like when you see their face, you're like, there's a nugget of markets right there. Right? And what's amazing, when I first came to Alabama A&M now three years ago, both of my parents graduated from Alabama A&M. When I came here to start campus ministry here, I was kind of coming home, right? And it's funny, there are some people on campus who are still here from when my parents were students. And some of those people, the first day that I walked on campus, they had no idea what RUF was. They had no idea who I am or what I was there for. But you know, they knew exactly who I was. They won, they looked me in the face and said, nobles? Is that you? And I said, you must be thinking about my dad, Marvin Nobles. Like, yeah, you got to be his son. You look just like him. Right? And there's nothing that I can do to change how much I look like my father. For good or for better or for worse. Right? Likewise, church, we should look just like our Heavenly Father. People should look at us and see Jesus. People should look at the way that we treat people and see our Father. They should look and see who we are without even knowing us, without even knowing what we're there for. They should see our face and know our Father. Church, that's what he's talking about here. This obedience that he's talking about is looking like your Heavenly Father. Amen? We should all look just like Christ. God should be able to look down from heaven on us and say, that's my boy, look at him. He looks just like me. God should be able to look at how you treat people and say, that's my girl, look at her. I am too much just like me. Just like we look at our children with this pride that just overwhelms us. God should be able to look at us with that same type of pride. They say, look at him. Look at how they treat people. Look at how they act. Look at how they walk. They talk. They act just like me. That's the obedience that he's talking about here. Holiness, therefore, church is like wholeness. If we can pursue God and strive to be holy, we will at the same time become more whole. Church, what if we stopped looking out to fill our empty spaces and started looking up? What if we started to look like our Father? Not only look like him, but look to him. When we're lost, when we're confused, when we struggle, when times get hard. What if instead of looking out, we started looking up? I think that would make this obedience a whole lot easier. Amen? Church, that's hard, right? That's hard to do. I'm only 34 and in my 34 years of living, I haven't gotten it right yet. Amen? It's hard, but I'm glad for God's grace. Amen? Holiness here is the result of God's grace, not its cause. Let me say that again, so it really sticks. Holiness is the result of God's grace, not its cause. You can be more holy because of the grace that God gives you. You can be more holy because God gives you grace first. Amen? Verse 15, we're almost done in all of your conduct. This is the part that trips my students up. The church that trips me up to. Verse 15 says, in all of your conduct, in everything that you do, be more like Christ. In all of your conduct. Let me tell you one more story and then we'll get out of here. When I first moved up here, we came from Mobile and it was just a 30-minute trip to the beach. Right? And man, we love the beach. My wife and I got married at the beach. Our first date was at the beach. Right? And for years and years, we lived down there for more than a decade. We had this one spot on the beach that was our spot. Right? Every time we went to the beach, we would always go to the same spot. We would pull up and park in the same space. Right? We would get our picnic basket and our blanket and ten out and go to the same spot on the beach. It was ours. Right? And no one could tell us different. It's our spot. We went there for years. Right? We even got married there like it was our spot. I can't emphasize that enough. And then one day, we went to our spot and then put up a toll booth. So now you have to pay the park at this particular beach. And this is my spot. Right? I've been coming to this spot for a decade. It's mine. Even though it's not really mine. It's mine. Right? So imagine how I went through all of the stages. Right? First, I'm afraid. What have they done? And then I'm depressed. Why would they do this to me? And then I'm angry. I'm going to tear it down. This is my spot. They can't do this to me. Right? You had to pay a toll unless you live in the county where the beach is. You have this little resident pass. And I found this out because someone else pulled up as I was going through the stages of grief and depression. Someone else pulls up and just blitzes right through. I think to myself, "How come they can park at my spot?" Right? Someone found out they have a decal and that decal gets scanned and the gate opens and they come right in. So if you're a resident, you don't have to pay the park there. Right? But if you're me, a little old tourist, you drove 30 minutes to my spot. Now I have to pay to park at the beach. So if you're a resident, you get right in. If you're a tourist, you have to pay the park. In the church, don't make Jesus a tourist at the beach of your soul. Have you put up a toll booth for Jesus? Are you forcing him to pay the park in your spot? Do you live your life in such a way that your conduct does not show who you are? Or have you given him a resident pass? And did you let him park on the beach of your soul whenever he so chooses? Church in all of your conduct. In everything that you do, let Jesus in. Amen? Don't make him a tourist. Make him a resident. Give him an all access pass in all of your conduct. Amen? In every department of your life, let Jesus into everything that you do. As Christians, church, God should not be a tourist in our life but a resident. He should get access to everything. So as I close, church, remember this. What do we do in hard times? What do we do now? We remember these things. We remember who God is. We remember to whom we belong. That we have a living hope in a risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen? And that we remember that our inheritance is in heaven. And that even if we suffer for a little while here on earth, it gives us faith in Christ. That gives us access to joy that's inexpressible to the world. Amen? And then we think about these things. We prepare our minds. We gird up our loins. We be sober minded in our thinking and we set our hope on Jesus and on Jesus Christ alone. Amen? And then we do these things. We be obedient. We don't be conformed to the world. We be holy and we look like our Father. Amen? And then church and all of our conduct, we let God in to everything. That's how we survive. That's what we do now. That's how we walk as Christians in a dark world. Church, no one handles darkness better than the creator of light. Amen? Let God do what God does because He's good at it. His track record is perfect. He ain't missed yet. Amen? Let's pray. Father God, we come to you humbly once again to say thank you for being our God and to thank you for choosing us to be your people. Father, remind us of not just who we are but of who we are and help us, O God, to remember these things, who you are and who we are. And remind us of the living reason hope that we have in a loving Savior who chose to die for us is elect exiles. And Father, help us to think light, to be sober minded, to gird up our loins and to set our hope on you. And Father, help us to be obedient, loving children who look like our Father. And Father, help us to let you in to everything. It's this and all things we pray in your Son Jesus name. Amen. Amen. TBC Saints, we've just heard about biblical truth as Brother Marcus Outline for us. Biblical truth. We've also heard how we should think, how we should live. So my question for you now is what do we now do? What do we now do when we hear biblical truth when we've been challenged to live and think of certain ways? What do we now do? Repent. Repentance is the first step of obedience. Because when you come face to face with God's truth and His calling to live like Jesus, we realize we don't do that. And so repentance is your first step for giving Him that path, a residential path in your soul. And so what we're going to do now is before we go to the Lord's table, is have a moment where you and myself can go to the Lord and confess. The ways in which we have fallen short, ask Him to forgive us of the ways in which we have failed to live as Christians. So there's been a few moments now in silent, in fashion and silent repentance. Let us go to the Lord now. [Music] [Music] [Music] This table that we are about to receive is a spiritual meal. This table does not belong to the church, it doesn't belong to the church in America. This table belongs to Jesus Christ. And instituted this meal for his people or Christians, for those who have saving faith in Him. And so if you are a believer today, then He invites you to take over this meal. Now, but there's a warning. Now, if you know someone has a grievance against you or someone, you're not in a good relationship with a brother's sister. The word warns us, "Go be reconciled to your brother's sister and then come back to the Lord's table." And so if that is you, then let the elements pass you by. And so what the Spirit does with this meal, He gives a spiritual nourishment. So if you need nourishment for your mental, for your thought life, if you need spiritual nourishment to give you courage to live faithfully, then I believe the Spirit can give you the nourishment that you need. And so as the elements come, ask the Holy Spirit to nourish and trust that He will give you what you need to go back out and engage in the world one more week. Our faith is highly supernatural. We can only capture so much about God and books. Our faith is highly supernatural. And what takes place in this meal is supernatural. The Holy Spirit takes His juice in His bread and really gives nourishment to Christians. Do you believe? I just hear. If you don't believe it, guess what? You can ask Him to help your unbelief. And He'll do that. Now if you are not friends and neighbors, if you're not a Christian, thank you so much for being here. I'm glad you're here with us. And if you have questions about what it means to be a Christian, you can see me, one of the officers, or even Susan, we can share with you the good news of the gospel. Parents will ask that the kids will be abstaining from the element until they have been invited to the table by the church that you are a member of. Now all TBC kids, you'll pass the alets your attention. No, we're going to, we're going to, I think I'm going to want to have some of the younger kids coming here next time so they can hear this too. This meal is a reminder that Jesus loves you. It's a reminder that He lives a life that you could not live. A perfect life. Some of you are young. You have dreams. You have plans for your life. But none of those dreams and none of those plans can do for you what Christ has already done. He died for all your sins. And it's my prayer as your pastor is that each of you will come to save and save and be able to partake of this meal with your family and with your church family. And if you're getting, if you have questions about communion, questions about the sermon, questions about anything, talk to your parents, you can have them call me. I can take you to Dairy Queen, get your ice cream and we can sit down and talk because I'm your pastor too, not just to pass the other goals. So please take me up on that. Then let's go to the Lord now and prayer. Holy Spirit, will you please use these common elements to give nourishment to God's people? You know our thought life, emotional life. You know the struggles that we have. We can't fix ourselves. But Lord, Holy Spirit, you are working and thank the fine in changing us. And so I pray that you will use these elements to give us the nourishment that we need in the places of our life where we're hurting and where we're struggling, where we need the goodness of the Lord to land. Where you do that, for our good and our benefit and for the glory of our Lord and Savior. In His name that I pray, amen. The Lord Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread and having given things He broke and He gave it to His disciples and saying, "Take and eat." This is my body which is for you to do this in remembrance of me. We also have pre-packaged elements, so if you want one of those, make the servers know. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] This is Christ's body broken for you. Get up with all of you. [Music] In the same manner, Jesus also took the cup, having given things. He gave us two disciples saying, "This cup is new covenant in my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Beloved sons and daughters of a good father, this is Christ's blood, shed for all your sins, past, present and future, strength from the all of you. Amen. Saints, will you please stand as we close our service? For our last time, we're singing marching to Zion, not together, marching to Zion. Amen. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Amen. In church for our benediction from 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 10, "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you to him, be the dominion forever and ever." Amen. Go in peace.
Welcome to The Village Church, where broken people come together to embrace and extend Christ's love.