WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.820 We're going to spend some time looking at 1 Peter 00:00:01.820 --> 00:00:04.759 chapter 1, those words we heard read. And as 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:08.199 we come to this part of God's word, I wonder 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:11.140 if you could do something for me. Could you rate 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:16.859 your hope level right now? So look within, somewhere 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:20.800 on a scale 1 to 10, give yourself a number. How 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:25.940 would you rate your hope? I guess some of you, 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:28.829 it might be, actually it's quite high. Seven, 00:00:28.890 --> 00:00:31.949 eight, nine, the sun is shining at last. The 00:00:31.949 --> 00:00:34.329 summer is here. I know that over the last couple 00:00:34.329 --> 00:00:36.770 of days, it's been coming towards the end of 00:00:36.770 --> 00:00:39.710 time at college for some of you. Your heart is 00:00:39.710 --> 00:00:42.530 singing with the last year or two or three or 00:00:42.530 --> 00:00:45.950 maybe four years of theology and joy. All that 00:00:45.950 --> 00:00:47.810 you've learned here is causing your heart to 00:00:47.810 --> 00:00:50.869 sing. You can't wait to share it with those the 00:00:50.869 --> 00:00:53.109 Lord is going to put in your path in the coming 00:00:53.109 --> 00:00:57.000 months, coming years. But I wonder if there's 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.780 some in the room who'd put their number a little 00:00:59.780 --> 00:01:05.140 lower. It's more like two, three, four. Summer 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:07.219 is here and it just feels a bit blank. I remember 00:01:07.219 --> 00:01:09.760 that feeling at college. Like, what am I going 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:13.200 to do between now and September? And I'm not 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:15.680 really sure. And ministry is perhaps approaching 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:19.400 and you feel the weight of it. And you feel anxious. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:21.780 Or perhaps ministry is not approaching and you 00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:24.530 feel the weight of the uncertainty. Where's the 00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:29.849 Lord going to take you? Just not sure. It is 00:01:29.849 --> 00:01:35.269 an undeniable human need, hope. Psychologists, 00:01:35.549 --> 00:01:39.390 sociologists, theologians will say humans need 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:44.060 hope. We cannot function without it. Before I 00:01:44.060 --> 00:01:46.859 came to Oak Hill, I was a medical doctor. I worked 00:01:46.859 --> 00:01:48.640 in care of the elderly medicine. And I learned 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:52.260 pretty quickly, looking after people 75 or over, 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.579 that there are, generally speaking, two types 00:01:54.579 --> 00:01:57.480 of older person. There is the older person who 00:01:57.480 --> 00:01:59.359 somehow has managed to hold on to hope, and it 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:03.079 shines from within them. They are smiley. They 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:05.459 are a joy to be around. They will tell you wonderful 00:02:05.459 --> 00:02:08.439 stories of their life and their family and their 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:10.000 children and their grandchildren and all sorts 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.069 of other things. And then there's the older person 00:02:13.069 --> 00:02:18.050 who has lost hope. And they are cynical. They 00:02:18.050 --> 00:02:21.669 are bitter. I remember one woman, I will never 00:02:21.669 --> 00:02:25.349 forget her, looking after her, and she was venomous. 00:02:25.719 --> 00:02:28.060 towards all the doctors, all the nurses who were 00:02:28.060 --> 00:02:30.240 seeking to look after her. She was very difficult 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.719 even to get past what was wrong with her and 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:34.800 understand what was happening. But there was 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.939 one moment when I was with her, when the curtain 00:02:37.939 --> 00:02:39.800 fell, there was just a little chink as to what 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:42.439 was going on, and she said, look, I haven't got 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:47.860 anything to live for, just put me down. That's 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:52.680 what happens when you lose hope. But we, Christians, 00:02:52.979 --> 00:02:57.530 we're people of hope. And you guys, many of you, 00:02:57.550 --> 00:03:00.090 are training to be already professional people 00:03:00.090 --> 00:03:03.090 of hope. Wanting to hold out the hope of Christ 00:03:03.090 --> 00:03:05.849 to those in a world where hope is so desperately 00:03:05.849 --> 00:03:08.370 needed. And I guess the question then is how 00:03:08.370 --> 00:03:13.090 can we be sure? How can we really know for certain 00:03:13.090 --> 00:03:18.930 that hope? When life is hard, when ministry is 00:03:18.930 --> 00:03:23.310 hard, and Jesus promises it will be, how can 00:03:23.310 --> 00:03:26.569 we be sure? that that hope has got a foundation. 00:03:27.909 --> 00:03:31.030 How will you be able to keep watch over the flock 00:03:31.030 --> 00:03:33.909 of God, as we heard in Acts, and hold out that 00:03:33.909 --> 00:03:38.569 hope towards them? Well, 1 Peter is a book of 00:03:38.569 --> 00:03:42.310 hope. It's a letter of hope written to a group 00:03:42.310 --> 00:03:44.469 of struggling Christians. Many of you know this. 00:03:45.750 --> 00:03:47.949 Ostracized, marginalized on the edges of society, 00:03:48.229 --> 00:03:52.219 under threat of increasing persecution. And yet 00:03:52.219 --> 00:03:56.979 Peter is unapologetically joyful, isn't he? Unapologetically 00:03:56.979 --> 00:04:01.280 joyful. And he invites us in as we open his letter 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:04.180 and hear the first words, come delight deeply 00:04:04.180 --> 00:04:07.099 with me in the hope of Christ. Delight deeply 00:04:07.099 --> 00:04:10.759 in the hope of Christ. And so I want to ask, 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:13.840 I wonder how do you usually picture the writers 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:16.620 of the Bible? Do you ever do that? Do you ever 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:18.819 picture them as they write their letters? How 00:04:18.819 --> 00:04:22.720 do you picture Peter writing 1 Peter? Who's in 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:25.660 your mind? Is it a fairly serious -minded guy? 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:29.839 Perhaps dressed darkly, thinking about high theology. 00:04:30.620 --> 00:04:34.180 Serious matters, weighty matters. Is that who 00:04:34.180 --> 00:04:35.879 you picture? I think sometimes maybe we're tempted 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:38.420 to picture the writers of the Bible like that. 00:04:38.459 --> 00:04:40.560 But whether it's Paul in Ephesians 1 or Peter 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:42.939 here, praise be to the God and Father, our Lord 00:04:42.939 --> 00:04:45.800 Jesus Christ. That is not the image that we get 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:48.779 from reading his words. Praise be to the God 00:04:48.779 --> 00:04:51.379 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is overflowing 00:04:51.379 --> 00:04:55.220 with joy. Verses 3 to 12 are one long sentence. 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:58.019 And I guess I once got a little glimpse of what 00:04:58.019 --> 00:05:00.100 it must have been like to be Peter's kind of 00:05:00.100 --> 00:05:03.779 amanuensis, writing out with Peter. When I was 00:05:03.779 --> 00:05:06.060 chatting to one of my daughters a number of years 00:05:06.060 --> 00:05:08.180 ago, I finished a long shift, I was halfway through 00:05:08.180 --> 00:05:11.019 a long shift on the wards. It was late, it was 00:05:11.019 --> 00:05:13.220 just about her bedtime, and I got a quick break, 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:15.100 so I rang her up. She must have been about three. 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:19.040 to find out what kind of a day she'd had. And 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.699 it turned out she'd had a great day. She'd been 00:05:21.699 --> 00:05:23.680 to a toddler group at church. She'd had a gift 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:25.740 from her cousin in the post. She'd had some friends 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:28.279 over to play. And she'd had her favorite food, 00:05:28.300 --> 00:05:30.100 the tea. I mean, when you're three, days don't 00:05:30.100 --> 00:05:32.939 get much better than that. And as the phone was 00:05:32.939 --> 00:05:34.519 handed over to me, this is what I got from her. 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:36.889 She just went, Daddy! Daddy, there's a sticky 00:05:36.889 --> 00:05:38.730 bumblebee, Daddy. We went to Toddler's and my 00:05:38.730 --> 00:05:40.730 cousin Alex sent me a picture and the story was 00:05:40.730 --> 00:05:42.410 about Daniel and the Lions, which is my favourite, 00:05:42.490 --> 00:05:44.290 and Matthew and Ethan came to play and we went 00:05:44.290 --> 00:05:45.769 there on the train and there's a sticky flower 00:05:45.769 --> 00:05:47.689 on it as well and I showed Matthew my toys and 00:05:47.689 --> 00:05:50.149 it's so pretty, Daddy. And God rescued Daniel 00:05:50.149 --> 00:05:54.209 from the Lions and we had sausages for tea. It 00:05:54.209 --> 00:05:57.509 was just pure, unadulterated joy just tumbling 00:05:57.509 --> 00:05:59.149 out of her mouth, no stopping for breath, no 00:05:59.149 --> 00:06:03.629 stopping for punctuation, just sharing it. And 00:06:03.629 --> 00:06:06.490 perhaps with a bit more coherence. That's the 00:06:06.490 --> 00:06:10.329 mood we find Peter in here. Praise be to the 00:06:10.329 --> 00:06:13.329 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Come 00:06:13.329 --> 00:06:17.170 delight deeply with me in the hope of Christ. 00:06:18.550 --> 00:06:20.250 To which as we look around the world, and if 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:22.250 your hope level is down at two, three, four, 00:06:22.310 --> 00:06:27.589 you might go, why? Why, Peter? Why, praise be? 00:06:27.850 --> 00:06:31.970 Why delight with you in this hope? And I think 00:06:31.970 --> 00:06:34.790 Peter gives us four reasons why. First, this 00:06:34.790 --> 00:06:38.470 hope is rooted in God's character. In his great 00:06:38.470 --> 00:06:43.350 mercy, Peter says. Which the immediate question 00:06:43.350 --> 00:06:46.490 should be, well, how great? Just really, really 00:06:46.490 --> 00:06:50.129 great? Like, we've got the greatest mercy? Is 00:06:50.129 --> 00:06:52.970 that the sort of mercy? No, no, no, it's beyond 00:06:52.970 --> 00:06:57.850 that. This is infinite mercy. Unfathomable. mercy 00:06:57.850 --> 00:07:01.889 inexpressible inexhaustible mercy because this 00:07:01.889 --> 00:07:06.170 is not just mercy which God does it's not just 00:07:06.170 --> 00:07:09.870 that God acts mercifully is it it's that this 00:07:09.870 --> 00:07:14.490 is mercy that God is it is what God is he is 00:07:14.490 --> 00:07:20.170 mercy and love and grace and wisdom and justice 00:07:20.170 --> 00:07:24.149 and knowledge and power he is all that he is 00:07:24.149 --> 00:07:27.620 always at full volume all the time That is who 00:07:27.620 --> 00:07:31.759 God is. Everything he is at full volume all the 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.980 time. You cannot turn this God down. You cannot 00:07:35.980 --> 00:07:39.339 turn this God up because he is at maximum volume. 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:44.860 And that means he is unchanging. The unchanging 00:07:44.860 --> 00:07:47.819 merciful one. Have you ever stopped to really 00:07:47.819 --> 00:07:50.939 consider how significant that is? That God is 00:07:50.939 --> 00:07:54.160 the unchanging merciful God, the unchanging God 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:57.939 of all? Because you and me and the world, we're 00:07:57.939 --> 00:08:00.980 changing all the time, aren't we? As you sit 00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:02.779 where you are right now, your body is making 00:08:02.779 --> 00:08:07.060 25 million new cells per second. Your brain is 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:10.079 processing about 100 million new pieces of information 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:14.720 every second. Our location is moving at 66 ,000 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:18.600 miles per hour. Let alone the social and political 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:21.860 changes that affect our country all the time. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:27.879 Compare that with God. Here's what A .W. Tozer 00:08:27.879 --> 00:08:30.980 said about this. What peace it brings to the 00:08:30.980 --> 00:08:32.899 Christian's heart to realize that our heavenly 00:08:32.899 --> 00:08:36.159 father never differs from himself. Or in coming 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.000 to him at any time and not wondering whether 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.460 we find him in receptive mood. He is always receptive 00:08:41.460 --> 00:08:44.259 to misery and need as well as to love and faith. 00:08:44.620 --> 00:08:48.080 He will not fade. He does not keep office hours 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:50.159 nor set aside periods when he will see no one. 00:08:50.580 --> 00:08:52.860 Neither does he change his mind about anything. 00:08:53.870 --> 00:08:56.490 Today, he feels towards his creatures, the sick, 00:08:56.509 --> 00:08:59.690 the fallen, the sinful, exactly as he did when 00:08:59.690 --> 00:09:01.990 he sent his only begotten son into the world 00:09:01.990 --> 00:09:06.250 to die for mankind. That is the unchanging mercy 00:09:06.250 --> 00:09:09.769 of God, the great mercy of God. So Peter says, 00:09:09.889 --> 00:09:12.190 delight deeply in the hope of Christ because 00:09:12.190 --> 00:09:16.169 it's rooted in God's character. And it is also 00:09:16.169 --> 00:09:19.809 dependent on God's initiative. Verse 3 again, 00:09:20.029 --> 00:09:23.090 in his great mercy, he has given us new birth. 00:09:24.250 --> 00:09:26.669 That's a pretty deliberate image Peter is using 00:09:26.669 --> 00:09:30.750 there, new birth. New birth, you can't take credit 00:09:30.750 --> 00:09:32.809 for birth. I mean, it would be ridiculous to 00:09:32.809 --> 00:09:34.789 consider one baby saying to another on a maternity 00:09:34.789 --> 00:09:38.850 unit, see that? Smashed it. No, birth is something 00:09:38.850 --> 00:09:42.750 that happens to you. New birth is something that 00:09:42.750 --> 00:09:47.259 happens to us. And this new birth has two wonderful, 00:09:47.419 --> 00:09:50.779 wonderful directions. It is new birth into an 00:09:50.779 --> 00:09:53.799 inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or 00:09:53.799 --> 00:09:56.059 fade. Remember, Peter was talking to ostracized, 00:09:56.100 --> 00:09:59.440 marginalized Christians being disinherited in 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:03.080 their society. And he says, here is an inheritance 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:09.279 which is undying, undefiled, undimmed. So delight 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:13.519 deeply in the hope of Christ. And second, verse 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:16.139 4, into an inheritance that can never perish, 00:10:16.179 --> 00:10:19.500 spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:24.240 for you. There is no fading in this living hope 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:27.019 that Peter is describing. It's not the kind of 00:10:27.019 --> 00:10:29.100 hope that comes with supporting England at sport. 00:10:29.899 --> 00:10:35.730 No. Undying. Undefiled. Undimmed. So delight 00:10:35.730 --> 00:10:38.330 deeply in the hope of Christ with me, Peter says, 00:10:38.549 --> 00:10:41.269 because it is of supreme value more than anything 00:10:41.269 --> 00:10:45.110 you could possibly conceive of. Whether that's 00:10:45.110 --> 00:10:55.610 possessions, family, reputation, ministry, the 00:10:55.610 --> 00:11:00.509 success of ministry, whether that's the opinion 00:11:00.509 --> 00:11:06.730 of your fellow students. Or your faculty. The 00:11:06.730 --> 00:11:12.250 hope of Christ blows it out of the water. All 00:11:12.250 --> 00:11:14.889 because it is dependent on God's initiative. 00:11:15.029 --> 00:11:18.190 This is not an identity, this new birth, this 00:11:18.190 --> 00:11:21.409 living hope, this inheritance, is not an identity 00:11:21.409 --> 00:11:26.330 which is achieved. It's an identity which is 00:11:26.330 --> 00:11:33.240 received. Something God does for us. And that 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:37.419 runs against every single idea about human identity 00:11:37.419 --> 00:11:41.659 that we hear in our culture today. We are meant 00:11:41.659 --> 00:11:45.899 to be self -constructed individuals, self -actualizing. 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:49.519 We live in the age of what Charles Taylor calls 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:54.179 optionality. The age in which belief in God is 00:11:54.179 --> 00:11:57.600 optional and assumed to be optional. It is possible 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:00.259 not to have a belief in God. That's the age we 00:12:00.259 --> 00:12:03.490 live in. But here's the thing that we perhaps 00:12:03.490 --> 00:12:07.830 missed. As that puts us into a space where we 00:12:07.830 --> 00:12:11.450 are taught, told, we have to choose belief, choose 00:12:11.450 --> 00:12:14.990 identity, become architects of ourselves. What 00:12:14.990 --> 00:12:16.850 is it that we're trapped in? The fact that we 00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:21.769 have to choose at all. The optionality is itself 00:12:21.769 --> 00:12:24.450 trapping. There is no option other than to be 00:12:24.450 --> 00:12:27.509 a chooser, as far as our world understands it. 00:12:29.230 --> 00:12:32.769 But we have the hope of Christ, the delightful 00:12:32.769 --> 00:12:37.289 hope of Christ that brings freedom to those trapped 00:12:37.289 --> 00:12:40.690 in choosing. We do not need to be sovereign selves. 00:12:40.850 --> 00:12:43.710 We can have the freedom of being the creatures 00:12:43.710 --> 00:12:48.549 of the creator who made and saved us. So delight 00:12:48.549 --> 00:12:51.700 deeply in the hope of Christ. Because this is 00:12:51.700 --> 00:12:54.919 going to be kept by God's power. Verse 4, this 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:57.200 inheritance is kept in heaven for you. Imagine 00:12:57.200 --> 00:12:59.519 the greatest, strongest possible trust fund. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:03.559 No financial crisis can touch it. Kept for you. 00:13:04.820 --> 00:13:10.500 But even more, you are kept for it. Verse 5, 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:13.659 who through faith are shielded by God's power 00:13:13.659 --> 00:13:16.159 until the coming of the salvation that is ready 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:20.159 to be revealed in the last time. What is it Jesus 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:23.360 said? I give them eternal life and they shall 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:25.919 never perish. No one will snatch them out of 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:30.019 my hands. So delight deeply in the hope of Christ, 00:13:30.220 --> 00:13:33.720 because as you trust in Jesus, it is kept for 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:39.820 you and you are kept for it just as much. Is 00:13:39.820 --> 00:13:43.659 it any wonder that Peter delights? Can you see 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:46.879 what God has done, he is saying? Can you understand? 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:51.039 Can you let it sink in? Let this fire your heart. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.600 All that God has done, no matter how dark the 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:57.779 sky might feel, there is always hope that the 00:13:57.779 --> 00:14:06.139 sun will rise. But Peter, it's so dark. And the 00:14:06.139 --> 00:14:10.960 time before the dawn is always the coldest. Peter 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:13.320 knows. Here's the fourth thing. It is refined 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:17.399 by God's plan. Verse 6, in all this you greatly 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:19.259 rejoice. Notice Peter takes that for granted. 00:14:19.559 --> 00:14:22.799 Of course you greatly rejoice. Though now for 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:24.840 a little while you may have had to suffer grief 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:30.259 in all kinds of trials. Christians don't have 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:32.700 to float six inches above the surface of the 00:14:32.700 --> 00:14:36.000 earth as though it doesn't touch us. Especially 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:39.100 Christian ministers. We don't have to do that. 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:44.990 Peter is realistic. And he presents to us a life 00:14:44.990 --> 00:14:51.029 and a world of multicolored trials. Pink, purple, 00:14:51.269 --> 00:14:58.909 yellow, like a bruise. Ostracized, threatened, 00:14:59.129 --> 00:15:02.629 facing life in a fallen world, fighting with 00:15:02.629 --> 00:15:06.169 sin, but most of all suffering for their faith, 00:15:06.429 --> 00:15:10.470 for being Christians. Which means, notice, the 00:15:10.470 --> 00:15:13.470 reason for the trials Peter is describing and 00:15:13.470 --> 00:15:16.289 the reason for the hope Peter is describing are 00:15:16.289 --> 00:15:19.830 the same. Does that not make the hope somewhat 00:15:19.830 --> 00:15:26.529 naive? Is Peter naive? No. Two reasons. First, 00:15:26.690 --> 00:15:29.210 these are passing trials, just for a little while. 00:15:29.429 --> 00:15:32.110 One day we will look back together and we will 00:15:32.110 --> 00:15:34.750 look on even the greatest of trials that we have 00:15:34.750 --> 00:15:37.580 walked through, whatever they may be. And we 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:41.740 will see them as old tales as we stand before 00:15:41.740 --> 00:15:46.159 the throne of the king. And second, they have 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:49.879 a purpose. These have come, verse 7, so that 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:52.179 the proven genuineness of your faith of greater 00:15:52.179 --> 00:15:55.220 worth than gold, which perishes even though refined 00:15:55.220 --> 00:15:58.100 by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:02.080 when Jesus is revealed. You ever seen a picture 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:04.200 or even held gold that's just been dug up out 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:08.759 of the ground? It's beautiful. It glitters. It's 00:16:08.759 --> 00:16:11.220 also kind of ugly. It's kind of just sort of 00:16:11.220 --> 00:16:15.539 lumpy. Put that into fire and you can make something 00:16:15.539 --> 00:16:20.059 stunning. And so it is with the new Christian. 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:23.840 There is a great beauty in what God has done 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:28.679 in giving them new birth. But he will spend the 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:32.519 rest of that Christian's life. beautifying that 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:36.000 Christian, until they glitter with love for Christ, 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:40.600 until their gaze is captivated, utterly captivated, 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:46.519 with nothing else but the hope of Christ. Ten 00:16:46.519 --> 00:16:49.419 years from now, as you sit here, I'm about nine 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:53.659 years out from sitting there. So cast your mind 00:16:53.659 --> 00:16:57.159 ten years from now, sitting here at Oak Hill. 00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:03.039 What do you hope for? To see amazing things in 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:06.680 your ministry. To see the Lord transforming people. 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.000 That they might grow in their faith. That they 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:11.880 might come to faith. Maybe even seeing a revival 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:16.220 that's actually there and not even quiet. Seeing 00:17:16.220 --> 00:17:21.039 amazing things. Do you know what would be a tragedy? 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:26.220 If you saw all of that and your love for Christ 00:17:26.220 --> 00:17:29.660 had not deepened. Your love for Christ had not 00:17:29.660 --> 00:17:33.750 grown. But here's the problem we fight with. 00:17:33.809 --> 00:17:36.670 We want comfort more than we want holiness. We 00:17:36.670 --> 00:17:38.730 want ease more than we want hardship. We want 00:17:38.730 --> 00:17:41.630 success more than we want sacrifice. And so we 00:17:41.630 --> 00:17:44.170 sting when we hear writers like Paul Tripp say, 00:17:44.269 --> 00:17:47.170 God will take you where you don't want to go 00:17:47.170 --> 00:17:49.849 in order to produce in you what you could not 00:17:49.849 --> 00:17:54.890 achieve on your own. I wonder, do we really believe 00:17:54.890 --> 00:18:02.000 it? Some of the hardest days in ministry. have 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:04.960 been for me, will be for you, some of the best 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:10.900 days in the classroom of grace. And you see the 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:17.119 result? It's seen. It's visible. Because what 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:20.240 we behold is what we become. What we delight 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:23.339 in is what we display. These things result in 00:18:23.339 --> 00:18:25.799 praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:28.259 revealed. To which the obvious question is, whose 00:18:28.259 --> 00:18:32.089 praise, glory and honour? And we all go, wow, 00:18:32.210 --> 00:18:34.230 Jesus is, right? And Peter goes, did I say that? 00:18:36.390 --> 00:18:41.710 Did I say Jesus is? So do we owe ours? Can't 00:18:41.710 --> 00:18:48.130 be right. Why not both? I wonder if you've ever 00:18:48.130 --> 00:18:51.569 climbed a mountain just before dawn. My wife 00:18:51.569 --> 00:18:54.150 climbed Kilimanjaro during her gap year. Got 00:18:54.150 --> 00:18:57.369 up there just at sunrise. Treading up through 00:18:57.369 --> 00:19:01.869 the snow, the bitter cold. absolutely awful, 00:19:02.150 --> 00:19:06.230 hard steps, and then the sun burst through the 00:19:06.230 --> 00:19:10.130 horizon. And it wasn't just that the sun was 00:19:10.130 --> 00:19:14.309 glorious. The whole world glittered with glory. 00:19:15.829 --> 00:19:18.670 Because when Jesus is revealed and the sun rises 00:19:18.670 --> 00:19:22.250 for the final time, the point is we will reflect 00:19:22.250 --> 00:19:26.509 his glory. Because what we behold, we become. 00:19:26.670 --> 00:19:33.509 What we delight in, we display. And the point 00:19:33.509 --> 00:19:36.589 for us now is that the sun hasn't yet broken 00:19:36.589 --> 00:19:42.569 the horizon, but it is colouring the sky. Pink, 00:19:42.789 --> 00:19:51.349 purple, yellow. Not a bruise, but the coming 00:19:51.349 --> 00:19:57.190 of dawn. And so Peter writes, though you have 00:19:57.190 --> 00:20:00.009 not seen him, you love him. And even though you 00:20:00.009 --> 00:20:02.130 do not see him now, you believe in him and are 00:20:02.130 --> 00:20:05.049 filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. 00:20:05.509 --> 00:20:08.769 For you are receiving the end result of your 00:20:08.769 --> 00:20:15.950 faith, the salvation of your souls. See what 00:20:15.950 --> 00:20:18.750 happens when a Christian keeps on going through 00:20:18.750 --> 00:20:21.869 the trials of life. When Christians in ministry 00:20:21.869 --> 00:20:23.869 keep on going through the trials of ministry, 00:20:24.109 --> 00:20:30.059 is Jesus is shown to be worthy. As we delight 00:20:30.059 --> 00:20:32.799 deeply in the hope of Christ, the hope of Christ 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:39.039 is seen to be worthy of our delight. He is more 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:41.000 precious than anything we could possibly imagine. 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:44.240 Possessions, family, reputation, ministry, success, 00:20:44.539 --> 00:20:47.220 even the opinion of those sitting around you 00:20:47.220 --> 00:20:51.759 right now. And so from 1 Peter, Jesus has this 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:57.400 question for us. Will we delight deeply in him? 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:04.920 Will we delight deeply in him? Will we delight 00:21:04.920 --> 00:21:07.640 so deeply that it will bring the certainty in 00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:11.180 all uncertainty, the determination in hardship, 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:16.980 and the unshakable, unmistakable worth of Christ 00:21:16.980 --> 00:21:22.339 put on display as we delight deeply in our hope 00:21:22.339 --> 00:21:29.990 in him? Let me pray for us. Our Father in heaven, 00:21:30.049 --> 00:21:33.509 we praise you and we worship before you, the 00:21:33.509 --> 00:21:39.390 Lord, the giver of all things, the Father of 00:21:39.390 --> 00:21:42.670 our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We praise 00:21:42.670 --> 00:21:45.250 you for him and we ask that we would delight 00:21:45.250 --> 00:21:49.769 deeply in the hope that you have given us, that 00:21:49.769 --> 00:21:52.849 that might issue in praise and glory when Jesus 00:21:52.849 --> 00:21:55.910 Christ is revealed. Amen.