Dale Partridge - 1 Peter 1_22-25 - The Painful Work of Overcoming Church Hurt

00:00:00.000 Especially in this glorious and great book of 1st Peter, if you're not already there,

00:00:08.620 I'd encourage you to open your Bibles. What a great thing we get to say in the church,

00:00:14.360 open your Bibles. What wonderful times we live in where we have the Word of God accessible to

00:00:21.140 each of us. It seems to work out that every time I'm preaching, God seems to sovereignly bring

00:00:28.960 visitors. And so, I'm sure you came here to hear Pastor Dale, but sorry to disappoint you.

00:00:37.880 You'll be hearing me this Sunday. For those of you who have not been here with us, I want to

00:00:44.260 kind of lay the groundwork of where we've been as we're ending and rounding off the first chapter

00:00:50.740 of 1 Peter. In this great and glorious chapter, Peter has given us some wonderful truths,

00:00:57.660 some wonderful gospel truths he has told the church that we are born again to a living

00:01:04.080 hope this has been the theme of this chapter hope hope for the christian and we've hammered it

00:01:13.240 time and time again throughout this chapter that the christian life is one that's founded on hope

00:01:21.560 this great and glorious hope that's been given to us sovereignly by our God.

00:01:28.340 And this hope leads us to something.

00:01:31.800 It leads us to obedience in Jesus Christ.

00:01:35.560 It leads us to live a life of holiness that's separated from the world.

00:01:41.700 We've been called to be holy as our Heavenly Father is holy.

00:01:46.760 We've been told to bear the family image.

00:01:50.160 Because of the hope that we have, we are to look like our Savior, Jesus.

00:01:56.780 And now, Peter starts to give us some more glorious truth.

00:02:05.180 That all of this hope, all of this sovereign work of God has a purpose in your life.

00:02:13.060 It has a purpose in the life of the church.

00:02:15.960 i want to give you the sermon title from the front and it kind of lays my cards out on the table

00:02:22.780 the title of this sermon is that we've been born again to love the church

00:02:30.140 born again to love the church i want to tell you why this matters for you

00:02:38.560 you. Sinclair Ferguson once said of the book of 1 Peter that if you master this book and are

00:02:48.140 mastered by it, you will know almost everything you need to know to live the Christian life

00:02:55.580 fruitfully. Many modern New Testament scholars have suggested that this letter was originally

00:03:03.300 a sermon that was preached at someone's baptism. It'd be quite a long sermon.

00:03:12.000 But it's not hard for us to see why this would be the case. Just a cursory glance of the book

00:03:18.440 of 1 Peter reveals truths in this letter and reminds these Christians of hope in a very pagan

00:03:26.340 and worldly world. In their context, they saw persecution up front and personal. These people

00:03:35.740 would have been no strangers to hatred and malice against the church. Imagine walking out your door

00:03:44.820 and seeing Christians rounded up in front of you, the same Christians that you went to church with

00:03:51.560 on Sunday, being shipped off to the Colosseum.

00:03:57.340 Imagine seeing the friend that you took communion with side by side

00:04:00.940 just the day prior burning on a Roman candle outside your home.

00:04:09.840 Imagine wondering how your tiny little sect of Christianity 0.99

00:04:13.460 could possibly take over the world like Christ said it would. 1.00

00:04:17.420 Do you see why hope would be so necessary for them?

00:04:24.080 Why it would be hard for them to see in their time?

00:04:28.020 Why Peter needed to begin this letter with such glorious and great hope?

00:04:35.600 But this is the same hope that we need in our time.

00:04:40.480 Thank God we're not seeing Christians murdered in the streets.

00:04:44.240 That's a grace and mercy of the Lord.

00:04:47.420 Yet we, like these early Christians, can struggle to believe that Christianity will take over the world.

00:04:55.740 I myself struggle with this at times.

00:04:59.780 Our institutions increasingly look more and more secular. 0.81

00:05:05.380 The once great Protestant denominations of America have sold themselves for lies.

00:05:12.820 Did you know many of those pastors don't even believe in a literal resurrection of Jesus?

00:05:17.420 our government has intentionally subverted our nation

00:05:24.560 and flooded it with people who hate our God and hate our land

00:05:29.480 many people

00:05:33.020 and myself included can be guilty of this

00:05:36.940 feel as though we're inching closer and closer

00:05:41.160 to defeat

00:05:42.420 but this is exactly the moment why first Peter was written

00:05:50.240 Peter begins by saying in verse 3 that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope

00:05:59.140 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that living hope was what those Christians needed 0.91

00:06:07.400 in their insane world. 0.97

00:06:10.420 And that same hope is what the church 0.93

00:06:13.100 in our insane world needs.

00:06:16.540 One of the greatest and most necessary places

00:06:19.440 for the church to experience this hope

00:06:22.140 is within the church itself.

00:06:27.380 It's within the body of Christ

00:06:29.460 that you will experience this hope.

00:06:32.600 And this is how Peter is ending this letter.

00:06:36.680 So let us look this morning at this epistle with eyes that are yearning for the hope that can be found in the church

00:06:44.020 and submit to the apostle so that we may experience it as the scriptures tell us to.

00:06:51.080 Look in your Bibles at verse 22.

00:06:57.100 Peter says,

00:06:59.080 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love,

00:07:05.740 Love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

00:07:11.100 I listened to a sermon from Sinclair Ferguson

00:07:14.420 as he preached this section of scripture.

00:07:18.140 And I tell you, his Scottish accent really helps.

00:07:22.180 He has that deep Scottish accent

00:07:25.680 that's able to say words in a way that I cannot.

00:07:29.760 And they highlight it in a particular way.

00:07:31.960 peter says that we have been purified that our souls have been purified by our obedience to

00:07:41.720 the truth this is often how the apostles spoke about the gospel do not get it confused peter's

00:07:50.440 not preaching some works-based gospel the apostles and the early church often spoke about the gospel

00:07:59.600 in terms of obedience.

00:08:02.460 To obey the truth, according to the scriptures,

00:08:05.620 is to have saving faith in Christ.

00:08:10.780 St. Basil the Great said once,

00:08:13.320 He who would obey the gospel must first be purged 0.87

00:08:18.500 of all defilement of the flesh and the spirit

00:08:22.080 so that he may be acceptable to God

00:08:24.960 in the good works of holiness.

00:08:29.600 this verse echoes verse 14 which we saw just a few almost a month ago where Peter calls us

00:08:39.480 obedient children Peter's not teaching that these obedient children have some work in and of

00:08:47.760 themselves that saves them it's the very next verse that clarifies this for us he says that

00:08:56.220 we have been born again. This is the past perfect tense. In other words, what Peter is saying is

00:09:05.960 that there's a dual reality going on in the Christian. The Christian must really and truly

00:09:12.500 obey the gospel and submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. You must do this. You must do that

00:09:19.600 work. And at the same time, he is saying that the whole work of salvation, the entirety of it,

00:09:30.000 beginning to end, is a sovereign act of God. Your obedience to the gospel was predetermined by God

00:09:40.240 and allowed by God. But apart from that obedience to the gospel, you are not saved.

00:09:49.600 when Peter says to obey, he's not confusing the issue.

00:09:55.060 He's calling us to what God effectually produces in those who he grants faith.

00:10:04.120 That's what's going on.

00:10:06.880 Now, what's the purpose of this obedient faith in the life of a Christian?

00:10:11.740 What does Peter say that this obedient faith does for you?

00:10:16.680 What are you supposed to do with it?

00:10:18.780 Well, he says, for a sincere brotherly love.

00:10:25.440 The word brotherly love in the Greek is just one word, and it's the word Philadelphia.

00:10:33.300 It's where the city in the United States gets its name.

00:10:37.640 That word means the city, the people of brotherly love.

00:10:43.100 yet in our day that city has failed to live up to its name

00:10:49.180 if you think back just a few years ago to the george floyd riots

00:10:54.400 it didn't look so much like they had brotherly love did it

00:10:59.020 the type of love that's being called for in the scriptures is a radically

00:11:05.260 different type of love than what goes on in the world

00:11:08.940 the type of love that's being described here is a cherishing type of love

00:11:15.980 a love that cherishes the people in the church and Peter says that that type of cherishing

00:11:24.600 brotherly love is to be earnest ektenos it means to stretch to each other to grasp at each other

00:11:35.900 think of an athlete who's told to leave everything out on the field when i was in high school i played

00:11:44.240 as a defensive end in football and there wasn't a single game i could possibly remember where

00:11:51.580 our coaches didn't tell us leave it all out there men don't come back with any regrets

00:11:57.800 the great football coach Vince Lombardi once said

00:12:02.980 quote we shall play every game to the hilt

00:12:07.000 with every ounce of fiber we have

00:12:10.440 in our bodies end quote

00:12:13.220 that right there

00:12:16.740 is the kind of love the church is to have

00:12:21.580 for each other the kind of love

00:12:25.420 that leaves it all out on the field.

00:12:29.080 The stretching, eager to express itself

00:12:32.600 to other believers type of love.

00:12:35.740 The love that can't wait to show itself

00:12:38.580 to your brother or your sister.

00:12:42.900 The love that your brother or sister

00:12:44.960 desperately needs from you.

00:12:49.680 It's a love that searches for an outlet.

00:12:52.940 a love that is to be prevalent in the church.

00:12:59.380 And so here I want to give you a pastoral exhortation.

00:13:04.100 I'm about to give you three marks of what brotherly love looks like in the church.

00:13:10.160 But before we get there,

00:13:12.800 some of us in the church have been hurt by people in the church.

00:13:18.160 or at least people who bear the name of Christ.

00:13:25.400 Your wounds are real

00:13:27.300 and the Lord does not mock them.

00:13:34.000 They're true wounds.

00:13:36.160 They hurt deeply because the love that you had was real.

00:13:43.560 You were born again not merely to survive the church,

00:13:48.160 You were born again to love the brethren earnestly from a pure heart.

00:13:56.460 Being wounded in the church may make your reservations understandable.

00:14:04.360 We understand the fear, the pulling back,

00:14:10.960 the hardship that it is to expose yourself again, though you may be wounded.

00:14:18.160 But it does not make lovelessness faithful.

00:14:24.360 You cannot get to the place where you reserve your love.

00:14:32.040 You were saved for such a thing.

00:14:36.000 You were saved for a sincere, brotherly love.

00:14:42.280 A love that is made to express itself and to stretch towards one another.

00:14:48.160 Do not let the pain make you go inward.

00:14:53.180 Run to Christ and then express it outward to your brother or your sister.

00:15:02.960 And so how?

00:15:05.540 How are we to live in this brotherly love?

00:15:09.720 What are the things that you're going to do that make your brotherly love real?

00:15:14.360 the first is this brotherly love is hospitable brotherly love is hospitable if you look

00:15:28.060 at the first word love after the comma of brotherly love that word is agapeo

00:15:36.680 it's agape love

00:15:40.140 in recent years agape love has been adopted by the church it's become a buzzword for us

00:15:47.840 but it's often not well taught

00:15:50.180 agape love carries a lot more than what the church sees at first glance

00:15:56.920 agape love carries the idea of welcoming one another

00:16:02.460 of desiring to be together

00:16:06.260 of being content to be with one another brotherly love in this capacity shows itself

00:16:16.560 with open homes with open tables with open lives it says i'm not just going to be with you and

00:16:28.440 love you when i feel like it i'm going to be with you and love you and desire to be with you

00:16:33.920 even when it's inconvenient.

00:16:38.360 Brotherly love shows itself in hospitality.

00:16:42.600 That's the first.

00:16:44.960 The second marker of brotherly love

00:16:47.380 is that brotherly love is sacrificial.

00:16:50.900 It's a sacrificial type of love.

00:16:55.120 I grew up in a home

00:16:56.880 with one brother and three sisters for most of my life

00:17:01.000 until I was adopted later in my childhood.

00:17:06.080 And I regret to inform you that I was not a very good brother growing up,

00:17:11.900 particularly to my little brother.

00:17:15.200 We grew up in an abusive environment.

00:17:19.380 Drugs and need were constant in our home.

00:17:24.580 And there were days that I knew that my brother needed me.

00:17:28.720 He needed me to be there for him.

00:17:31.000 to comfort him, to love him when the pain was real.

00:17:37.280 But I failed to do this in those moments.

00:17:42.840 I failed to be the type of brother that I should have been in those early years. 0.90

00:17:50.520 I thank God I wasn't a Christian at this time. 0.72

00:17:53.000 i share this with you this morning just to show you the opposite of what this type of sacrificial

00:18:03.080 brotherly love is to look like it's not to look like the way i loved my brother

00:18:08.480 it's to look like a love that's willing and able to be there at all times

00:18:14.240 brotherly love that marks the church is a sacrificial love it's not selfish

00:18:21.920 It's like the love of Christ.

00:18:25.600 Think about Christ's love and the way that he showed it to you.

00:18:30.560 Did Christ hold back when he went to the cross?

00:18:36.800 Did Christ say, I won't take the crown of thorns, but I'll take the nails?

00:18:43.440 Did he say, not the lashings, but the mocking?

00:18:47.500 not the spitting but the jeering

00:18:51.660 no

00:18:54.260 Christ gave it all

00:18:58.760 for you

00:19:00.560 and it's that type of love that should be prevalent in the church

00:19:07.080 neither should we hold back

00:19:11.040 when we love each other as Christ did

00:19:13.800 we should be there in the hardest moments for each other

00:19:18.220 and in the best

00:19:19.800 we should not shrink away

00:19:24.120 when things get difficult

00:19:26.220 we should lean in

00:19:27.900 fear of being hurt

00:19:31.720 and cautious distance

00:19:34.120 only produce one type of love

00:19:36.960 and it's superficial love

00:19:39.680 as the anglican bishop jc ryle once said quote is there not an unreal love

00:19:49.380 and charity beyond doubt there is there is a love which consists in words and tender expressions

00:20:00.100 and a great show of affection and calling other people dear brethren while the heart

00:20:07.100 does not love at all.

00:20:15.180 That is the idea we're driving at.

00:20:19.980 Real love.

00:20:23.100 Real brotherly love is sacrificial.

00:20:27.580 It does not insist on its own terms.

00:20:30.420 It willingly lends in.

00:20:32.900 It stretches towards each other.

00:20:37.100 and towards the body of Christ.

00:20:39.580 To pull away from this is not only sinful,

00:20:43.180 but it makes the love that we have in the church

00:20:45.920 superficial, unreal, fake love.

00:20:51.380 And is this not what people say

00:20:53.440 when they come into the church?

00:20:55.540 Is this not what they say that they feel

00:20:57.820 when they come into the body of Christ?

00:21:01.440 There's a fakeness amongst them.

00:21:03.240 there's an unreal type of love that i have not tasted

00:21:09.760 this is not the kind of love that jesus describes us having in john 13 35 he says

00:21:20.580 by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another

00:21:27.900 that is how people will know that we belong to Jesus

00:21:34.160 the way we love each other

00:21:37.700 Tertullian records this of the early church

00:21:43.160 he records the pagans saying this about the early church

00:21:48.440 he says quote

00:21:49.320 behold how these Christians love one another 1.00

00:21:52.700 and how they're ready to die 0.99

00:21:55.440 for one another

00:21:57.080 End quote.

00:22:02.180 That, my friends, is brotherly love.

00:22:07.880 That is the kind of brotherly love that has to mark the church.

00:22:14.260 That I and you are willing to lay down our lives for each other.

00:22:21.400 third brotherly love is constant brotherly love is constant

00:22:31.860 in the church our love has to be a consistent thing it's something that you're always striving

00:22:41.460 to do i'm thankful in our own church to see some of these things popping up

00:22:47.540 I'm seeing more and more of you desire to be together, opening up your homes, having

00:22:55.540 fellowship after the fellowship at church, desiring to sing and to pray and to eat and

00:23:03.740 to drink and to be together.

00:23:07.260 This is good and godly brotherly love and do not let it go by the wayside.

00:23:14.700 But what can happen when you're in this type of brotherly love is that you can grow weary

00:23:21.300 in it.

00:23:23.480 You can grow tired and complacent in how you love each other.

00:23:30.300 It's easy to do this.

00:23:33.020 You ever heard too much of a good thing?

00:23:37.360 This isn't true for brotherly love, but we feel it in that way.

00:23:43.160 love of the brethren has to be a constant love. It's something that sustains and continues.

00:23:50.840 It's something that increases over time, not diminishes. It's something that identifies

00:23:58.200 a church. Brotherly love is constant. So the next question, how can such love be possible?

00:24:10.560 How is it possible to have this type of love?

00:24:16.700 Peter says in verse 23,

00:24:20.280 Since you have been born again,

00:24:23.460 not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,

00:24:27.280 through the living and abiding word of God.

00:24:33.380 We are to love one another since we have been born again.

00:24:37.500 we love because we have been saved by the gospel

00:24:43.380 peter adds not of perishable seed but of imperishable seed through the living and abiding

00:24:52.080 word this is the second time in this chapter that peter uses the phrase perishable and imperishable

00:25:01.640 The first was about your Christian inheritance, that you have an inheritance that's imperishable, unfading, undefiled, kept in heaven for you.

00:25:16.400 But now, Peter is comparing two different things.

00:25:22.520 He's comparing human procreation to the life-giving power of the Word of God.

00:25:31.640 In Luke 8, after the parable of the sower, Jesus' disciples come to him and they ask,

00:25:40.500 Master, what does this mean? We can't understand this. Speak plainly.

00:25:46.780 And Jesus explains that the seed, in his analogy, is the word of God.

00:25:55.200 Think of it this way. You were born first by earthly parents.

00:26:01.640 And since your parents were fallen and they passed down to you a fallen sinful nature, 0.99

00:26:07.980 they die and you will die.

00:26:12.340 That is the perishable seed in the literal sense of the word.

00:26:19.780 But in your new birth, it's different.

00:26:24.240 You've been born again by a seed that never perishes.

00:26:27.620 By a seed that though you die, you will live.

00:26:33.600 You will not perish.

00:26:36.120 You will continue on and on and on.

00:26:40.800 That seed is the word of God.

00:26:44.640 Matthew Henry says of this word,

00:26:47.300 quote,

00:26:48.500 This word is a living word or a lively word.

00:26:54.660 It's a means of spiritual life to begin it and preserve it, animating and exciting us in our duty

00:27:02.720 till it brings us to eternal life. And it is abiding. It remains eternally true and abides

00:27:10.720 in the hearts of the regenerate forever. End quote. This living and abiding word has made us

00:27:20.520 born again and unites us as brothers and sisters in the church. Just as your first birth united

00:27:29.160 you to your earthly brothers and sisters, so too does your spiritual birth unite you to your

00:27:35.000 spiritual family, your spiritual brothers and sisters. Now your family never perishes.

00:27:44.080 this ought to give us comfort as we live together since god the father is our great parent

00:27:53.020 you are my brother and sister

00:27:56.500 we have one parentage and therefore we are one family

00:28:03.740 my earthly siblings might tragically god forbid someday renounce the faith and not go to heaven

00:28:12.480 with me we could be separated for eternity but in the church we have no such worry

00:28:24.960 for those who have been truly born again we live as a family today right now and this family

00:28:34.080 continues on and on and on into eternity with more brothers and sisters aunts and uncles

00:28:43.280 grandparents fathers in the faith this will continue perpetually until the return of christ

00:28:55.280 we have a big family in the church god is a lover of big families

00:29:04.080 And we can have hope and joy in the church today knowing that the love that you will show amongst each other will not have an expiration date.

00:29:13.160 You're going to do it in eternity.

00:29:16.380 So you better figure out how to like each other.

00:29:22.120 We have a big family in the church.

00:29:25.640 We ought to act like it.

00:29:28.560 Verse 24.

00:29:29.600 Peter quotes Isaiah chapter 40 verses 6 and 8 he says all fret flesh is like grass and all its

00:29:43.100 glory like the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower falls but the word of the Lord

00:29:49.940 remains forever I almost wish that he would have included verse 7 because he skipped right over it

00:29:58.120 Verse 7 says,

00:30:01.260 The grass withers and the flower fades, but the breath of the Lord blows upon it. 0.86

00:30:09.000 Surely the people are grass. 0.86

00:30:13.240 His point is clear.

00:30:16.240 Apart from the word of God, people die.

00:30:20.560 And they die forever.

00:30:22.960 Human life is a fleeting, fragile thing.

00:30:28.120 and it's temporary but what this scripture is pointing us to is the breath of god in the hebrew

00:30:36.520 it's the word ruach you almost have to get a little guttural in the back of your throat ruach

00:30:43.320 it means wind or breath when we think about the word of god we must remember that we all in the

00:30:51.880 church are upheld, strengthened, and sustained by his everlasting word. Genesis 2, 7 says,

00:31:01.800 The Lord formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the

00:31:07.460 breath of life, and the man became a living being. It is through that life-giving breath

00:31:16.780 of God and the word that he speaks that mankind was given life in the first place and it is through

00:31:24.660 his final word spoken in Jesus Christ that man is guaranteed eternal life by the almighty power

00:31:35.280 of God's word of his breath if you want to know what life is in the church and what will sustain

00:31:43.160 you in it, look to Christ, the word of God, and there you will find the breath of life.

00:31:54.340 Look to Christ.

00:31:57.120 Verse 25.

00:31:59.800 Pastor Dale skipped over this one.

00:32:04.500 It says, and this word is the good news which was preached to you.

00:32:13.160 Peter is rounding off this chapter with some glorious truth.

00:32:17.720 He's reminding them that that first truth, the evangelical gospel that was proclaimed to them, spoken and heralded, that is the word that's sustaining them.

00:32:32.220 That is the word that makes them able to love each other.

00:32:36.500 That is the word that makes them continue on.

00:32:40.040 This is why we here at Kingsway are so concerned about you becoming gospel-fluent people.

00:32:48.720 We want you to be able to live and breathe and speak the gospel no matter where you are.

00:32:56.480 You must be able to preach the gospel at all times.

00:33:02.180 You must be able to tell the world of the hope that you have found in Christ.

00:33:08.420 you must know that the gospel is not only a message

00:33:12.920 it's a way of being

00:33:14.800 we often hear that you do not need to preach the gospel

00:33:19.820 you only need to live according to the teachings of Jesus

00:33:23.680 to just show some love and everything will be okay

00:33:27.200 they'll come to faith, you don't have to say a word

00:33:30.400 there is a partial truth here

00:33:33.960 yes, if you live in the world and love

00:33:39.160 especially within the church,

00:33:41.140 the world will notice, according to Jesus.

00:33:45.300 The world will notice the love that you have for each other

00:33:49.080 without saying a word.

00:33:50.380 That's true.

00:33:51.980 But noticing is not enough for heaven.

00:33:57.740 Noticing is not enough for heaven.

00:34:00.880 They must notice so that we can tell them the good news.

00:34:08.380 We must tell them of the life-giving power of the Savior,

00:34:12.400 of his fulfillment of the law,

00:34:15.100 of his atoning death on the cross for sin,

00:34:18.380 of the new life that's given in his resurrection,

00:34:21.700 of the glorious truth that he is seated in the heavenly places

00:34:25.160 with all power and dominion and glory forever and ever and ever,

00:34:30.500 and that he is pleased to give this to you, the church.

00:34:38.380 We must tell them this truth.

00:34:42.480 We must share the gospel.

00:34:49.380 And so by conclusion, as we land this plane,

00:34:55.020 if you've not taken any notes up to this point,

00:34:57.700 write these things down.

00:35:00.140 Get out your notes on your phone, piece of paper,

00:35:03.500 whatever you've got to do.

00:35:05.300 Write these questions down,

00:35:06.680 because these will be important for you

00:35:08.720 to measure your life against.

00:35:11.340 The first question I have for you.

00:35:15.120 How well are you doing in loving the church?

00:35:20.680 How well are you loving the church?

00:35:24.040 Are you reluctant?

00:35:26.460 Are you hesitating?

00:35:28.860 Are you withholding something that you should be giving?

00:35:33.560 If you are, I must tell you.

00:35:35.620 your reluctance is sinful

00:35:38.520 it cannot continue

00:35:42.260 we cannot continue

00:35:46.060 in holding back from each other

00:35:47.620 but the good news is that

00:35:51.180 you all have a shared faith

00:35:53.320 a shared grace given to you by God

00:35:56.440 and so loving one another

00:35:59.120 though it may be difficult

00:36:00.720 though it will try you

00:36:03.860 most certainly at times.

00:36:08.660 You will be able to love again.

00:36:13.960 Do not hesitate to show love to one another.

00:36:18.160 Because the good news of the gospel

00:36:20.320 has led you to love one another earnestly.

00:36:25.720 Number two.

00:36:28.300 What hope have you found in the word of God?

00:36:31.620 what hope have you found in the word of god in my own story it was the word the plain old simple

00:36:40.360 word that saved me i was alone in my room reading the bible actually in the old testament which is

00:36:48.740 why i tell people don't just give people a new testament when you preach the gospel

00:36:51.840 give them the old testament for my sake please it was the old testament that brought me to

00:36:57.540 saving faith in Jesus Christ. And when I was reading this word, this holy and good word,

00:37:04.560 I was undone. I was completely undone. It had exposed me for who I was

00:37:12.980 and broken me down. And then it put me back together.

00:37:20.340 This needs to be true of you as well. The hope and the goodness that you find in the word of God

00:37:27.280 must be shared. You must bring it to the church. You must herald it to the world. It's not just

00:37:35.240 for you and you alone. The Word of God is given to you for others, for others' sake.

00:37:45.080 What hope can you share in the Word of God? And lastly, the last question I want you to

00:37:52.420 examine yourself with, is how well are you doing in sharing the gospel?

00:37:58.820 How well are you doing in sharing the gospel?

00:38:03.660 Be careful, because we live in modern-day America, which loves to prize the evangelist and the pastor

00:38:10.780 and those sorts of things, and tell you that you have to quit your normal nine-to-five jobs

00:38:14.980 and go be a full-time evangelist. That's not what we're saying here.

00:38:19.520 That's not what the scriptures are calling you to.

00:38:23.220 The question I want you to ask is, where in your life do you see the Lord sovereignly opening up opportunities for you to share the gospel?

00:38:33.400 In your everyday, ordinary life, where is the Lord opening up those opportunities?

00:38:40.020 And have you taken them?

00:38:44.140 Have you taken those opportunities?

00:38:46.840 Have you preached the word?

00:38:48.760 Have you told someone the hope that you have?

00:38:52.420 Have you allowed this whole chapter of 1 Peter to permeate your soul and give you hope that's worth sharing to the world?

00:39:03.940 How well are you doing in sharing the gospel?

00:39:09.540 Ask yourself these questions and measure your life against them, for they are helpful in understanding how to live your Christian life fruitfully.

00:39:18.860 these things are vital for us so vital that peter ended this glorious chapter

00:39:26.560 by reminding the church that we have been redeemed to love each other by the abiding

00:39:33.460 power of the word and to preach the gospel obey these scriptures submit yourselves to them

00:39:40.840 love christ love the brethren preach the word amen

00:39:47.620 Join me, if you would, in praying that God would help us as we seek to obey his word.

00:39:55.320 Let's pray.

00:39:58.500 Heavenly Father, Lord of the Word, King of the World,

00:40:09.040 Lord, we come to you this morning seeing these wonderful truths found in your glorious and holy word.

00:40:17.620 And Lord, I ask this morning that each of us would measure our lives against this word,

00:40:26.780 that you would prick our consciences where they need to be, and help us to be awakened

00:40:33.240 again to our first love, which is Christ.

00:40:40.000 And that because of the love that he displayed for us, that we should show and share that

00:40:45.400 love with one another and the world.

00:40:50.580 Help us to be good in this calling, obedient to these truths.

00:40:56.220 May your sovereignty reign over us as we seek to obey you and be pleasing to you.

00:41:04.560 Grant us your grace, that we may love you all our days.

00:41:10.420 In Jesus' name, amen.

Dale Partridge - May 07, 2026

1 Peter 1_22-25 - The Painful Work of Overcoming Church Hurt

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