Wednesday night we talked about what it looks like to faithfully chase after Jesus and away from the passion's of our old lives. As God's children we have been given an identity which calls us to a sober and holy obedience! What a joy it is to be set apart and made holy by the righteousness of God!
First Peter. If you don't have a Bible, we got Bibles in the front,
we got Bibles in the back. We want you in God's word tonight.
(...)
First Peter chapter one.
(...)
As you are turning to First Peter chapter one, you probably don't
know this about me, but I am now officially a T-ball dad.(...) Yeah.
Noble and Briggs are playing T-ball. Noble is on the Braves and
Briggs is on the Juice Box Heroes. And we're having a thrilling start
to this season.
(...)
Got to brag, my boy Noble last night hit three balls all the way to
third base, which is a big deal on T-ball for five-year-olds. And
there was a bouncing ground ball to him and the boy snagged it up in
his glove. And I was just so proud of that. That was great.
(...)
But I'm teaching them some things about T-ball,(...) some rules.
Number one, when you're on the baseball field, when you're on the
diamond, you don't walk, right? You're on the field, you run. He is
the Braves. So all the people in the Navy jersey with the Braves logo
on it, that is your team. So when the Braves are out in the field,
you go out in the field and you go to the position that coach has
told you to. You don't go to the other teams dugout when they're
batting because that's just simply not your team. You're not running
the bases with the other team. You are in the field with your team.
And when your team is up to bat, you're either up to the plate,
you're on base, or you're in the dugout. You're not in the field with
the other team. Why is that? Simply because of this. You're on the
Braves, you're not on the other team. So that dictates what you do on
the field. When the Braves are in the field, you're in the field. The
Braves are up to bat, you're up to bat. Your actions align with your
team.
(...)
In the same way the Christian life, the Christian faith is the
same.(...) We are designed to be on God's team because he's created
us, he has created us to be in a relationship with him. Therefore,
our lives should look like we're on God's team. Our lives should
align with God's standards and measure up to what he has called us to
be. In the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about our
identity in Jesus. And last week in verses 3 through 12, we talked
about being born again to a living hope. And that's because what
Christ has done. He has made us a new creation through his death and
resurrection that has given us a new identity. And what I want to
speak from, from 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 13 through 21 tonight, is
that because you have been born again to a living hope, your response
is to chase Jesus. Because you have been born again to a living hope,
chase Jesus. And I want to walk through three different ways of how
we can chase Jesus practically through the scriptures tonight. So let
me pray as we open God's word. God I pray right now, you give us
wisdom and discernment as we open your word and that we would look
like we belong to you. And we would do that by chasing after you. God
encourage us tonight and move in us tonight. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. So because we've been born again to a living hope, we chase
after Jesus. So the first way we do that is we prepare your mind. We
prepare our minds. Look at verse 13 of the text. Chapter 1 of 1
Peter.
(...)
God's word says this,(...) "Therefore, preparing your mind for action
and being so reminded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be
brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Prepare your
minds. I said it Sunday and I said all the time, we approach it in
the text. Verse 13 starts off with, "Therefore." So we've got to ask
the question, why is it therefore? And I've already given that to you
a little bit. He is referencing verses 3 through 12, really 1 through
12 here. He's talking about your identity in Jesus that you have been
born again because of the death and resurrection of Jesus that he has
offered you a new life. He's offered you a new hope that you don't
have to live in your old, sinful, broken ways anymore. But he gives
you a new identity. He gives you a new way of life.(...) Because of
all of that, he is now going to proceed in the text with that
understanding that we can have new life because of the death and
resurrection of Jesus, because we have a new identity. It says,
"Therefore,(...) preparing your minds for action and being so
reminded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to
you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Because you have been born
again to this living hope, you need to prepare your mind. Now prepare
your minds. You guys are back into school rhythm. Some of y'all are
still tripping through getting out of summer vacation, but I know
y'all got quizzes and tests and essays and all of those things. And
you've got to have a sharp mind for that. If you've got a test the
next day, you don't want to stay up till 3 a.m. playing Minecraft.
That's just not a good idea.
(...)
But remember, Peter is talking to these believers that are scattered.
They're not in a place where there's tons and tons of believers, so
he's challenging them. He's calling them, "Hey, if you're going to
live scattered in this world as exiles,(...) you need to prepare your
mind." So what ways is he calling them to prepare their minds? What
does it mean to prepare your mind? It gives an illustration, this
imagery that guys wore long robes back in biblical times. They didn't
have jeans, they didn't have the shorts, they didn't have the Lulu's,
they didn't have all that stuff. They had robes. And when it's
talking about preparing your mind, it's this idea of girding up your
loins, which means this. You would pick up your robe and you would
tuck it into the belt in order for you to be able to run.(...) So in
order to run, I don't know what they'd be maybe running after a sheep
or a goat or something or maybe chasing after their kids or their
friends, they would have to pull up their robe and tuck it in so they
wouldn't trip over it. But they had to do something in order to be
ready for something. They needed to tuck the robe in order to run.
And if we want to live this new identity in Jesus, we've got to
prepare our minds. We've got to make sure we are ready. It goes on to
say you need to be sober minded. So the question is,(...) what does
it mean to be sober minded?(...) Now sober minded is something that
we think of 21 and older, those that are legal to drink, but to be
sober is to not be drunk. To be sober is to not be under the
influence of alcohol. It's to have clarity of mind. It's to abstain
from drinking. It's to restrain.(...) So Peter is telling them, hey,
you need to be clear of mind as you follow Jesus in this new life. As
you have this new identity, you need to prepare your mind and be
sober minded. So how do we do this? This is the practical nuts and
bolts. Well, how do we prepare our minds? How do we be sober minded,
living as exiles on this earth as new believers, as those who profess
faith in Christ? I think we do this by guarding our minds with truth.
It's steeping our minds in truth. How do we prepare our minds? We
feed it truth. Psalm 119 11 says, hide your word in your heart that
you might not sin against God.
(...)
You want to prepare your minds. You want your mind to be focused on
Jesus. You need to feed it God's word that we know is living and
active. 2 Timothy 3 16 17 says this, God's word is it's God breathe.
It's profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, for training
and righteousness so that the man of God may be equipped for every
good work. We are called to be men and women of the word because it's
profitable for us for every aspect of our life. And especially when
we are not in heaven, we are still exiles in this earth, but we are
followers of Jesus. We need to make sure that we know God's word. We
know how to handle it because this is going to guide us to the wisdom
from the one who created everything.
(...)
Philippians 4 7 says the peace of God will guard your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. You want to prepare your minds. You got to get
that peace. You got to run to the peace that surpasses all
understanding. It guards your hearts and your minds. Remember, we
talked about peace the very first week. We talked about how really at
the root of it, it's freedom. It's freedom from anxiousness. It's
freedom from the anxiety and what's bearing down upon you is that
peace that surpasses all understanding. Well, how do you access that
peace? You spend time with Jesus. You read his word and you read of
his great love for you and that nothing in this world, as it says in
Romans, can separate you from the love of God. There is no
condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because of his death and
resurrection. You want to get that peace that surpasses all
understanding. You need to root yourself in Jesus. You need to flex
that muscle, not for just memory codes of cheat codes on your video
games or for your test and your quizzes or your playbook. But we need
to flex the mind to know the things of God that we would know God's
word inside out so that we might not sin against him and we might
live for him in a profitable way because we are being guided by his
word. We are doing that with our mind.
(...)
The second thing we see from the text tonight on how to chase after
Jesus is not just prepare your minds. It's to place your hope fully
on Jesus. Place your hope fully on Jesus. Look, let's look at verse
13 still. The second half,(...) because we've been born again to a
living hope, it says in the middle of verse 13, set your hope fully
on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Set your hope fully(...) on the hope that great on the grace
that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Hope
is something strong. It's something we believe in. We put it in our
football teams. We put it in OU and OSU and Georgia and Kentucky and
all the schools represented in here.(...) But as I talked about on
Sunday, you can't bet on that. Like you can't take that to the bank.
No one understood that Tulsa was going to happen.(...) No one
understood last year that Oklahoma was going to lose in the play off
to Alabama. If our hope is fully set on that, then we're going to be
disappointed.
(...)
And Peter is telling the believers scattered across Asia Minor, he's
telling them your hope needs to be fully on Jesus, not your
circumstances, not that you might be isolated, not that things might
not be going your way. Because there's some bad dudes in this in this
time against Christians, guys like Nero, who would set Christians on
fire to light his dinner party. I mean, dudes that were very against
followers of Jesus.(...) And he's telling them you need to fully set
it on the grace that is found in Jesus.
(...)
But that fully is a crucial word for us. If you underline or circle
in your Bible, I encourage you to do that with the word fully.
(...)
Fully is completely all of it. It's not partial, but it's everything.
And what he's saying is I need all of your hope in Jesus.
(...)
I don't need it divided. Right. You see the some of you all have the
car plates on front of your car. Any of you all have divided homes?
OU and OSU.
(...)
Any OU Texas? I know we got the Himes. Pray for y'all.
(...)
You got divided allegiances in the house, right? The OU is fighting
with the OSU or the OSU is fighting with the OU and all the different
teams.
(...)
The Bible does not say our hope and our devotion to Jesus can be
divided.(...) It needs to be all in complete surrender to him. A
complete surrender and full expectation of the hope that is in Jesus,
not in our abilities. In Jesus, not your giftings. In Jesus, not your
grades. In Jesus, not in your friends or family. Your hope is fully
set in the name of Jesus.(...) But why do we do that? Why does he
call us to give everything to not have divided allegiances? Because
it's the grace that is available for you and me. The grace that is
available because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Again,
grace is unmerited favor. We did nothing to earn it, but it is simply
given to us as a gift. Therefore, we give everything for him because
he gave everything for us because of this new identity. This identity
informs everything about us. So we do not need to divide our chasing
in this world. We do not need to be, okay, well, I'm going to I'm
going to chase Jesus at midweek and I'm going to chase girls on the
weekend.
(...)
I'm going to chase Jesus on Sunday morning, but I'm going to chase a
good time on the weekends. I'm going to chase Jesus when I'm meeting
with my connect group, but I'm going to chase drama and gossip and
cussing throughout the week.(...) Jesus says, I need all of you. No
division(...) fully on him. And we do that because of our identity in
Jesus. We're we're team Jesus. Just like noble is with the Braves and
everything is all in on Braves. We need to be everything all in on
Jesus. No divided allegiances so that we might look different from
this world. We're going to get that(...) to that here in a second,
but our allegiance is to Jesus and Jesus alone. Our focus is on his
grace because when we disappoint our friends, when we disappoint our
family, or when we disappoint ourselves, we don't have to sit in that
because our faith, our hope does not rest in your efforts or your
works, but it rests in the works of Jesus Christ. That's good news
for you and me.
(...)
So we need to set our hope fully on Jesus. You want to chase after
him? Set your hope fully on him.
(...)
And the last thing we see from the text tonight(...) is to pursue
Jesus.
(...)
Pursue Jesus. Let's look at verses 14 through 21 of the text.
(...)
God's Word says this as obedient children do not be conformed to the
passions of your former 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. And if you call on him as father who judges
impartially, according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with
fear throughout your time. Of exile, knowing that you are ransomed
from futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable
things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ,
like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before
the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times
for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised
him up from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope
are in God. What's the third and final practical solution of what it
means to chase after Jesus? It's to pursue him. It's to seek him out.
Look at verse 14.(...) It says as obedient children.
(...)
He's giving the believers this description of being children. This is
not to insult their intelligence, but it's to show them where they
are in their faith. And it's to understand we are children of the
creator. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are
a daughter of the one true King, or you are a son of the one true
King. You have a new heavenly father(...) who loves you, who knitted
you in your mother's womb, who created you. He foreknew you. He
caused you to be born again to a living hope. He's given this
understanding of this relationship that God is, he is God the father
and you are the child, which means you are receiving(...) your
commands, your way of life, your hope. Everything about your life is
you are as a child receiving it from the parent, that God is our good
Heavenly Father. And he's going to show that we are ones that need to
be grown, that we are not finished products as 12 through 18 year
olds. As long as we might think we are, or even as adults in the
room, we might think we're finished products. God gives us
understanding that we are children that need to be grown in his
image, in his word.
(...)
But don't forget the description there. It doesn't just say as
children, it says as obedient children.
(...)
That with your new identity in Jesus, it is expected that you live
obedient to God's commands. That the Bible is not simply a book of
suggestion, but it's a book of the way to live your life.
(...)
He's reminding them no matter if you are dispersed and you're by
yourself, this is your guide to your life. That you are obeying the
commands of the Lord, obeying the way that God has called you to
live. So that then tells us in 2026 that we are called to obey
Scripture. But it's not simply you need to do this. It's you get to
do this because we flourish when we spend time with Jesus. We
flourish when we pursue him. So even in just three words, we can
learn so much as obedient children that we with our new identity as
children of the one true King, we're called to live according to
God's commands and you only can obey them if you know them. So we
need to pursue his word. Look at verse 15(...) or continue on in
verse 14. Do not be conformed to the passions of your former
ignorance. So he's commanding them. He's giving them some tips.
Giving them some wisdom as you are obeying as you are following this
new identity that you have. He says do not be conformed to the
passions of your former ignorance. Being conformed means to be like
clay where you are being molded. You are being shaped. You are
forming oneself. Now, I don't know if any of you all were a part of
the craze at seven brew the other day. Apparently they had some like
knockoff needle that people were like going crazy over like imagine.
(...)
We got need to like a couple years ago. I was like, this is great. I
broke it within a week. I guess I was being a little aggressive with
the needle.
(...)
But just as you're(...) forming the needle.
(...)
We can be formed into different things and we can allow other things
to form us.(...) Jesus is making it clear to the believers. He's
saying hey, you're going to either be formed by the world and your
former ignorance or you're going to be formed by Jesus and he's
making it clear(...) as those who have been born again to this living
hope as you chase him. You don't chase your your passions of your
former ignorance and passions is this idea of this desire this
longing(...) the passions of your what your former ignorance. I have
really important distinction. I know it's warm in here right now, but
listen in with me.
(...)
Your former ignorance is your life before Jesus your appetite before
Jesus(...) because Jesus changes that appetite. He changes your life
with his new identity,(...) but it's important for us to understand
and identify what was our former appetite. What was our former
passion? Was it anger?(...) Was it lust? Was it(...) gossip? What was
the thing that you long for and lived according to because the
understanding is when you give your life to Jesus that changes your
passions change and it does over time because the Holy Spirit living
inside of you.(...) But the Bible makes clear if you are a follower
of Jesus and you want to chase after him. You've got to stop chasing
your former passions.
(...)
If you are 18 your life should look different than when you were
14(...) in Jesus. Yes, you're going to grow taller. Yes, some of the
fellas are going to start growing some baby facial hair, right? Maybe
you guys are going to start getting that crustache. You're getting
that little mustache in there,(...) right? You're going to look
different like that.
(...)
Can I be honest with you? There are people that have grown up in this
church that look no different than 10 years ago.
(...)
There are people that have lived the Christian life because they've
come to church and they got the church clothes, but their fruits of
the Spirit, they are not bearing.
(...)
They look different.(...) They don't because they are constantly
chasing the ignorance of their flesh and the Bible makes clear. We
are not conformed. We are not(...) formed by those former ignorance
because that's the past. I tell it to you all the time. I was a very
angry individual,(...) but Jesus changed my appetite for my flesh and
he changed my appetite for my ego to be right in everything. It's
still a work in progress(...) to be super competitive because it
didn't honor Jesus the way I acted.(...) Now, I'm controlled by
something different and it's the Spirit of God rather than my flesh.
So the Bible makes clear do not be conformed to the former ignorance,
those passions, but in verse 15,(...) 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. This is a massive text for us in this
chapter. This idea of being holy. It's this idea of being dedicated
of being set apart. Y'all's parents got that fine China that they put
out for guests that you're not allowed to eat on
(...)
those rooms that you're not allowed to be in because that's where
guests will be right. You all got those things that are dedicated for
a special purpose. Like I know y'all got this. You're like, this is
my yeah, this is my outfit when I'm trying to impress like first day
like this outfit like I'm not wearing it before. I'm wearing it on
the first day of school because it's dedicated for me to look good
in.(...) Y'all got those things.(...) Here's the deal. This idea of
holiness is that we are called to be set apart. We are called to be
dedicated for the use of the Lord not for ourselves.
(...)
So if our identity is rooted in Jesus, we should be dedicated for the
Lord and not for the things of this world. So therefore we should
stand out.
(...)
If you got friends that are going partying every weekend, you should
not fit in with them. Your lives look should look different that they
might be like, well, I don't like talking about this around this
person because man, they don't walk like that. They walk differently.
(...)
It's so important because it's so easy to want to be fitting in in
middle school and high school and Peter's talking to these people
that are scattered. They look different than everybody else. And
there's a fear that comes with that because we don't want to stand
out because when we stand out, there's more chance to be isolated and
that we would be bullied and separated.
(...)
I mean, these people are going through the same thing.
(...)
But Jesus does not call us to conform to this world. He doesn't call
us to look like everybody else. Jesus has given you a new identity
that you might stand out for him.
(...)
Because I guarantee there might be people in the room or there might
be people in your friend group that are desperately wanting someone
else to stand out and step out of the group so that they could do so
too.(...) What if we might be the encouragement for someone to step
out of the sin that they are walking in(...) and stepping in? We are
called to look different. But how do we become holy? How do we become
dedicated to the Lord? How do we come set apart? Is it in our own
works? Is this idea why I got to make sure I read my Bible once a day
so I can check that off or I go to midweek every week or I go to
connect groups and Sunday morning worship. Is it I've got to make
sure I do these things in order to be holy? No, here's the beautiful
thing. Jesus is the one that makes you holy. It's not your works.
It's not your efforts. It's simply chasing after him. When you spend
time in his presence, he will begin to change you.(...) He is the one
that has set you apart from the very beginning because he caused you
to be born again to a living hope. He is the one that radically
changed your life. He is the one that has purified you of your sins
of your former passions. He is the one that does that not you. So
just like you can't save yourself,(...) you can't set yourself apart.
It's because of Jesus that you're set apart. So what do we do in
light of that? We do that.
(...)
By pursuing him, the more we spend time with him, the more we're
going to look like him and the less we're going to look like the
world. When we spend time with him and when we engage with him,
because there's some people that spend time in the walls of the
church, but they look they look the exact same as they did when they
came in.(...) We've got to engage with Jesus. We have to engage with
his word and he will set us apart. He will give us the confidence and
the wisdom and the discernment and the boldness to look different
than everybody else. It's not in your works, but it's in Jesus.
(...)
Verse 17 through 21. This is really just good news for us.(...) Like
this is really good news for us. Let's start reading some of it. It
says, "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."(...) Here's the deal we need to
know about Jesus.
(...)
He comes to judge.
(...)
Because one time he's going to come back and he's going to bring this
world and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that
Jesus is Lord, but there will be some that are doing it while they're
trembling.
(...)
But here's the good news for us. He's an impartial judge that he has
given us the way out of being judged at eternity for us to go be sent
to hell. He did it through Jesus that he doesn't look at our deeds,
but he looks at what Christ has done for us because his blood covers
us. His blood makes us new, new creation so that when he looks at us,
he looks at the righteousness of Jesus. He looks at the sacrifice of
Jesus. That's good news for you and me that we could surrender our
lives to the judge of all and he would make us new.
(...)
But he also gives us a command in verse 17, "Conduct yourselves with
fear throughout the time(...) of exile." And our time of exile is our
entire life. It's important for us to understand we are not at home.
Our home is in heaven with him.(...) So for the rest of your life in
this new identity, it says conduct yourselves with fear. It doesn't
mean to tremble. It doesn't mean that you live anxious like this. God
loved me today. No, God loves you. But as children to their father,
there's this reverence. There's this reverence of he is the one that
has created all things. Therefore, our lives fall in line with him.
Our lives should not be lived that we are in charge that we are the
king of the castle.
(...)
But that Jesus is.
(...)
Look at verse 18, "Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile,
God saved you from your ugly, futile, broken, sinful ways." Praise
God for that.
(...)
It says in verse 19, "But with the precious blood of Christ like that
of a lamb without blemish or spot, that we were covered with that."
We don't have known ignorance and sin, but we were covered with
Christ's blood that saved us. And look at verse 20. "He was foreknown
before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last
times for the sake of you, 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, here's the deal.
(...)
God knows your mess ups. He knows the sin that you've walked in and
continue to walk in. But he knew from the very beginning he had a
rescue plan for you and me. That's good news. That he knew that he
was going to save us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The
rescue plan was there from the beginning. So no matter where you find
yourself, if you feel isolated, if you feel by yourself, you have an
identity in Jesus that gives you a peace that surpasses all
understanding. He guards you. He can guard your mind. Your heart(...)
through a peace that surpasses all understanding. He is walking with
you daily in this new identity. You don't have to do this alone, but
you get to do it with the presence of God, with the Father that loves
you so much that he gave his only son for you and for me. That if we
might respond in faith, confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in our heart, he will save you and me.(...) Do you have that
living hope? Do you have that new identity? My prayer is that you do
tonight and that we as a student ministry would walk away from this
place understanding. We've been born again to this living hope(...)
and in because of that in light of that we chase after Jesus by
guarding our hearts by setting our hope fully on him and we pray this in his name. Amen.