SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller. It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk. Now, here's Pastor Miller.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

That's a song to file away when you need that. There's gonna be some times when you're going through a storm and you need to remember that the Lord is there. 1 Peter chapter 1. We're gonna be in 18, verses 18 through 21 this morning. And when you found that, look back up here for just a minute because I want to lay a little bit of a foundation. Peter is, uh Peter has been over and over and over again in this first chapter. He has been going back to the solid foundation that we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our salvation is firmly anchored to the eternal purposes of God. All the way through chapter one, it has been over and over and over again. We are the elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Then he's gonna say, He's begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Over and over and over again in 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter keeps coming back to salvation and the new birth. And why is that? Because he is drilling it deep down in the hearts of these believers that they are redeemed, that they are born again, that they belong to God. Here's what he's telling them. You have value. You have worth. Now, everybody look at me for just a minute. If you were to have something that you wanted to have an estimate of what its value was, and you called somebody to come look at it, they would look at that thing and they would use a couple of criteria to determine value. First of all, they would look at something on its originality. Is it an original? There was a man years ago, his dad in England, his dad collected all kinds of junk and resold junk. And dad came home one time from a garage sale and he had a painting with him and he wanted to put it up in the house. And mom hated it. Said, You're not, you need to get rid of that. But the dad loved it, didn't want to part with it. So dad took it up in the attic and put it on a nail up there and just hung that little picture up there. And every so often, dad would go up and just sit in the attic and look at that painting. He loved that painting. Well, dad died. And the son was going through all of dad's stuff and getting rid of a lot of the belongings, found that old painting up there, and he thought, I don't know why dad liked this so much. I'm going to just go have this estimated to see what it's worth. Took it down to an art gallery in London. And it was an original Picasso. And what dad bought at a flea market, that son got six million dollars. And now, why was it? It was an original. They'll look at something, see if it's original. They'll also look to see if something's rare. Is it one of one? Is it is it the only one that there is of that kind? The most valuable, the most valuable signature that's ever been sold, the most valuable autograph ever sold, was an autograph of Christopher Columbus. Because we only know of one. There's only one of them. And so uh, is it rare? They'll also look at something, is it durable? Can does it does it last? You know, in our world today we have throwaway everything. So we buy cheap stuff. Um, we buy all this cheap stuff because uh it doesn't last. I remember when I was a kid, my mom used to take me to pay less shoes. You know why my mom paid less for those shoes? They didn't last. The soul would always come off, and uh they were junk, and they hurt my feet, and I found out later, if you want to if you want something to last, you gotta pay money for it. Now, look, something is valuable if it's original, something is valuable if it's rare, something is valuable if it lasts. Now I want you to think about your soul. Your soul's original. Made of God. God breathed life into you. Your soul is rare. You're the only one that's ever been, you're the only one that will ever be. It's a rare soul. And by the way, your soul is durable, it will never die. Your soul is going to live forever somewhere. Eternal. Now, you want to talk about something of value, that's it. But listen, those things may all be used by an estimator to determine the worth and value of something, but there's really only one thing that truly determines what something is worth. And that's what someone is willing to pay for it. You may have something that's invaluable to you, but unless someone's willing to pay for it, it's only valuable to you. But I want to show you what God paid for your soul today. I want to show you what you're worth. This is what Peter is reminding them of. Look at verse 18. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest, made known in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Look at that. He's talking about redemption here. Your redemption was not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Peter is reminding these people who are suffering. These people are persecuted, these people are being mocked and shamed for their Christian faith. They're being outcast from society, they are being called the off-scouring of the world. They are the rejected rejects. They're the ones that the world is pouring out their vengeance and their mockery upon these people. And Peter is writing to them over and over and over again saying, You better remember your value. You better remember what you're worth. What God was willing to pay for your redemption. Now, what does it mean to be redeemed? Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world? What does it mean that all of this stuff that the Lord did for us? What does it mean? Your redemption from the foundation of the world, all of this. We're going to look at it this morning, but to be redeemed is a slave trade term. In this day and age, Peter was writing in the time of Rome. There would have been hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people living in Rome that were part of bondage, debtors, prisons, debtors, slavery. They were called bondservants. And today we're all in debt. Everybody's got credit cards and they're in debt. In those days, if you got in debt, you went and had to work it off. And you would go into bond servanthood. Now, the only way that you could ever get out of that is if somebody could raise enough money to redeem you. To be redeemed means this: it means to be purchased out of bondage and set free by the payment of ransom. Did you see it there? Redeemed means purchased out of bondage and set free by the payment of a ransom. There was a little boy many years ago who worked diligently to make a little sailboat. He made it out of wood, glued it all together, put it together, set the little mast in there, got a little bit of material, made a little sail, put all the rigging on it. He got his dad's paintbrush and he painted that little sailboat red and white. White on the top, red on the bottom, tried to make a straight line in the middle. And he got that thing all together the way he wanted it, and even took a little paintbrush and put his name on the back of that boat. He got a string and he tied it to the front of that boat, took it out to a little stream by his house. That little boy began to float that boat in the stream and he'd let it get out there and flow a little bit. And pretty soon the wind began to catch that little sail, and it would kind of get away, and he'd pull it back in and it would get away. And he kept letting that string out a little further, a little further. Well, pretty soon that little boat got caught in the current and in the wind and it pulled that boat away from him. And that little boat went on down the current, and he began to run down the side of that riverbank and uh tried to catch up to his little boat and saw it go around the bend and it was gone, lost forever. That little boy was brokenhearted. He'd worked hard on that boat. He went window shopping with his mother a couple weeks later. They were in town and he looked in the little shop, and up on the shelf was his boat. Man, he couldn't believe his eyes. He bust in the door and he told the shopkeeper, he said, That's my boat, sir, that's my boat. Can I have my boat? I lost that boat, can I have my boat? And the shopkeeper said, Son, I bought this boat. Somebody brought this boat into me and I bought this. Now, if you want this boat, you're gonna have to pay for it. And he said, Well, how much is it? And he gave him the price. He went home, he smashed open his piggy bank, counted all of his pennies. He didn't have near enough. So he went to the garage, got a couple of tools from his dad's off his dad's shed, and he went out on the street and started asking people if he could wash some windows. And he began to wash windows, and he washed windows all day until his fingers were wrinkled and his arms were so tired. And he came home, counted up all of his nickels and dimes, and sure enough, he had enough. The next day he went in there and he put all those coins on the counter and he said, I want my sailboat. The man took the boat off and handed it to him, and that little boy took that little sailboat and looked at it and he said, You're mine again. I made you and I bought you back. Let me tell you something. When you got saved, God looked at you and said, You're mine again. I made you, but I have bought you back. I have redeemed you. And that God didn't redeem you with pennies and nickels and dimes. God redeemed you with the precious blood of Christ. Let's look at this number one today. Let's look at the price of our redemption. The price of our redemption. The Bible says, we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Now I want you to think about that. What Peter is doing here, he's using the word precious because he's contrasting, he's making a contrast between earthly riches, corruptible, and eternal riches, precious. And he's calling silver and gold corruptible. Now, why is silver and gold corruptible? Well, because men will corrupt themselves to get silver and gold. Men will do corruptible things when they get silver and gold. And silver and gold will only buy you things that are corruptible. It can only buy you temporary things. Men spend their whole lives accumulating things that will only be temporary. Can I tell you today money is corruptible? Why? Because money can buy you a house, but money cannot buy you a home. Money can buy you medicine, but money cannot buy you health. Money can buy you a bed, but money cannot buy you peace. Money can buy you a religion, but money cannot buy you redemption. Years ago, I got an elevator at Forest General Hospital with a guy named Father Tommy. Father Tommy was an Irish priest, and he was from uh he was from Ireland and he was there, he was the priest at Sacred Heart in Hattiesburg, and uh big growing Catholic church, had a big Catholic school, and I got on the elevator. I was making hospital visits, and Father Tommy and I got on the elevator together, and the door closed, and uh we started talking. Well, uh I asked him how things were going, and and he was telling me, oh, they're you know, uh corn and beef and cabbage or whatever they say. And um, and so we're uh we're just having a little conversation on the elevator. Well, uh Brett Favre, who was a quarterback in the NFL, played for the Green Bay Packers and won some MVPs and Super Bowls. Brett Favre went to school at Southern Mississippi, the University of Southern Mississippi, and he lived in Hattiesburg, and Brett Favre happened to attend uh Sacred Heart. And I knew that, and I asked Father Tommy, I said, Hey, how's Brett doing these days? Because Brett was in a lot of trouble. He had he had left the Green Bay Packers and gone to the Jets, got in some scandal and got in some trouble, and uh, and I knew that uh some sin had been exposed in his life, and he was not in and said, Hey, how's how's Brett Favre doing? And he said, Oh, he he will be fine, I suppose. And I said, How's that? He said, He gave a sizable donation to our building fund. I think he'll be okay. And as we were getting off the elevator, I said, uh, Father Tommy, you need to read Psalm 49, 6 through 8. He said, What does it say? I said, Look it up. Well, let me tell you what it says. Psalm 49, 6, and 8 says, They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their soul is precious. You cannot buy your way into heaven. There is nothing that you have that will make God see that you are worthy. You see, your soul required a currency that the world cannot produce. They can't print the kind of money, they can't mint the kind of money that is required to save your soul. It required the precious blood of Jesus. Now, Peter loved the word precious. In chapter 1, verse 7, he said, the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it'll be trial of fire. In chapter 2, and um and verse number 5, he's gonna say that Christ himself is precious. In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 4, he's gonna say that you have received great and precious promises. But here in this passage of scripture, he's gonna say, Let me tell you why your faith is precious. Let me tell you why Christ is precious, let me tell you why his promises are precious, because his blood is precious. Why is his blood precious? Because of whose blood it is. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 said that you belong to the church of God, which he hath purchased, God has purchased with his own blood. Do you understand today that the value of your soul required the purchase of your soul by the blood of God? It is God's blood. Now your salvation may have been free, but it wasn't cheap. Your salvation may have been easy when you prayed and received Christ by faith and you got saved. God made it simple for you, but it was expensive for him. No wonder the songwriter wrote, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. When I was a kid, we used to sing a chorus. I owed a debt I could not pay. Jesus paid a debt he did not owe. The price was the blood of Christ. Number two, let me give this to you today. We saw the price of our redemption, but Peter points out the plan of our redemption. Don't miss this. He says that he was as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Did everybody see that there? And verse number 19, a precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now what is Peter doing? Peter's reaching back into the Old Testament and he's borrowing Old Testament language. Because since the fall of man, since man fell in the garden, it required a substitutionary sacrifice. God himself came into the garden and slew an animal, shed its blood, and clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of that blood, so that they could be accepted back and redeemed back by the blood of a substitute. The wages of sin was death. And so instead of requiring death for Adam, God let death pass upon a substitute so that God could redeem Adam and redeem Eve. And then he promised, the plan of God was promised that there would come a redeemer. The seed of the woman whose heel would be bruised would bruise the serpent's head. It was a promised substitutionary death. The plan was a promise of God. But in Genesis chapter 22, we find what really happened with that plan. Abraham and Isaac are walking up the mountain, and Isaac says to Abraham, Father, we have the wood and we have the fire. But where is the lamb? That was the question to the ages of the Old Testament. Where is the lamb? Where is the lamb? And Abraham said in Genesis 22, God will provide himself a lamb. When they came to Exodus chapter 12, and God instituted Passover, they thought maybe this is the lamb. And so the Bible says, you would take a lamb without spot and without blemish, and you would sacrifice that lamb and put its blood on the doorpost. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. But there were many that were sacrificed, many lambs, many bullocks, many turtle doves, many sacrifices were offered, but none of them could ever atone for the sin of man. And the question remained all through the Old Testament: where is the lamb? Isaiah prophesied him when Isaiah said that he would be brought to us as a lamb to the slaughter. But the question rang out, where is the lamb? And then one day out in the deserts of Judea, there was a voice crying out, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And I want to tell you, Peter just said it this way: He said, The precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Here is the very Lamb of God who came and shed his blood for you. You know what the whole Bible is? The whole Bible is a finger pointing to the Lamb of God. It's all pointing. Where is the Lamb? Here is the Lamb. Where is the Lamb? Here is the Lamb. Who is the Lamb? He is the Lamb. And when we get to heaven, we're going to sing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. It all points to Jesus. That was the plan. It was promised, but I want to tell you the plan required a perfect lamb. He had to be spotless. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 15 that Jesus was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21, for he, God, made him, Jesus, sin to be made sin for us, that we may be made the righteousness of God, who knew no sin. Peter's gonna say it this way in chapter 2. He's gonna say that he knew no sin. Neither was Guile found in his mouth. He was a perfect lamb. The plan was a lamb that had to be provided. God said, I will provide, God will provide himself a lamb, which means a substitute would be provided. Isaiah said it this way in Isaiah 53 and verse 5, he was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities. He was the substitute. He took our place. The innocent for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous, the holy for the unholy, the clean for the unclean. He was a substitute. And that was the plan of God. Notice what the Bible said when we read it a moment ago in verse 20, that he was uh in uh in verse in verse number 20, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. See, this was the plan of God. This goes all the way back before Bethlehem, it goes all the way back before Adam, it goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. And listen, when God said those words, when you read the very first words of the Bible, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Let me tell you something. Redemption was already in his heart. Calvary was not God's reaction to something that he didn't anticipate. Christ was already the Lamb before the foundation of the world. Now, what does this mean? Don't miss this. This means that before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. Before there was ever a curse, there was a cross. Before there was ever guilt, there was grace. And before there was ever a first Adam, there was a last Adam. Calvary was not an accident, it was an appointment. God had foreordained it before the foundation of the world. This is what Peter is doing. He is affixing them to the eternal plan of God that your soul was valued by God before he ever made you. That's why Galatians 4:4 says, But in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law. Peter declared at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, him speaking of Jesus being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God that ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Listen, man did the crucifying, but God had already foreordained the crucifixion of Christ to pay for our pardon. It was the plan of God. And God, who is a spirit, took on flesh. And God became man. He who was rest became weary. He who was the bread of life became hungry. He who had the water of life became thirsty. Jesus, who was life, took on death. Think about this. I'm talking about your redemption. God would give himself for you. No wonder the Bible says in the book of the book of Revelation at the Laodicean church that God hates lukewarmness. Friends, I want to tell you something. One of the things, the most tragic thing in all the world is that you can hear of the redemption of God and it just passes over you like water off a duck's back, and you can yawn in the face of God. That's what lukewarmness is seeing all the grandeur and glory of what God has done for you. And then it's just, hmm. Peter had said it this way in chapter 1, verse 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice. If God becoming flesh and dying for you cannot cause you to rejoice, something's wrong with your rejoicer. But the plan was also personal. Don't miss this. Everybody look at this in verse 20. Watch this. Who verily was forordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times. Look at these last two words. For you. Now don't just pass over that. Mark that. I put my name by that. For you. It was a personal plan of God. God did this plan for you. God gave this plan of salvation and redeemed you. God did it all for you. Now I want to tell you this. When I was a little boy, I could believe in my heart that God loved the world. I believe that God loved the world and sent his only begotten son to die for it. I believe that. I even read over there in Ephesians chapter 5 that the Bible says that Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church. I believe that. I looked around the church and I saw all these dear people in the church. And I thought, yes, I believe that God loved the whole world. And I believe that God loved the church. But I would go home as a little boy and I would look in the mirror, and late at night I would lay in my own bed and I would say, but I don't know that God loves me. I can understand that he loves the world. I understand that he loves the church, but I don't know that he loves me. And one day I read in Galatians 2 and verse 20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Let me tell you something. God did this plan of redemption for you. He did it for you. It's personal. You know, the church says Christ died. But the Christian says, Christ died for me. Christ died, but Christ died for me. And this plan was not only personal, but it was powerful. Notice what he says here. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory? I'm so glad that Peter doesn't just stop with a slain lamb on a cross. Peter goes to the empty tomb and shows us the risen Savior. But Peter said, look at this. He died, but God raised him up. What is resurrection? Resurrection is the declaration that God has accepted the work of Christ. On the cross, Jesus said, finished, paid in full. Resurrection is the receipt. On the cross, it was Jesus giving himself for me. Resurrection was him giving himself to me so that he could live his life through me. It was the fulfillment of God's plan that God raised him from the dead and gave him glory. You're talking about a powerful redemption. This plan had power in it. It had resurrection from death. It had glory in it. Jesus went into that tomb in humiliation. He came out in exaltation. He went in rejected by men. He came out received by the Father. He went in crowned with thorns. He came out crowned with glory. He was given glory. No wonder Peter said, or Paul said in Philippians chapter 2, that God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. You listen to me. In this world, his name is a cuss word. In this world, he is mocked and reviled and shamed and rejected. He is the off-scouring of society. He is mocked in the halls of academia. They mock his name at CSU. But I want to tell you, in heaven, God has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name. Jesus is exalted. There's power in this plan. I'm going to close with this. There's a purpose in your redemption. We saw the price of your redemption, the precious blood of Christ. We saw the plan of redemption that he was foreordained before the foundation of the world. A sinless, spotless Savior raised by God and given glory. But what is the purpose of all of it? I mean, what's the purpose of all of this? Why this plan of redemption? Look at it. Chapter 1 and verse number 21. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Here's the purpose of our redemption. This is the conclusion that Peter wants these readers to draw from the value of their soul. I want you to see the price of your redemption, not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ in the foreordained plan of God. Back in eternity past, God had already ordained to send a Savior into this world so that he could buy your pardon with his own very blood and be resurrected and given glory so you could live with him. What is the purpose of all of this? Why the blood? Why the spotless lamb? Why the resurrection? Why glorification? It was so scattered, suffering, rejected, persecuted believers living in an unstable world, would know their worth and have stronger dependence and deeper confidence in God. Let me tell you something, church. If you're going to ever have a rock solid faith, you better get it deep down in your soul that you have been redeemed. And you have been redeemed not with cheap, disposable things. You have been purchased by the very blood of God. You've been purchased by a man who tasted death and went into the tomb and came out alive and sits at the right hand of God. You've been redeemed by him. Why? So you'll believe him. So you have confidence in him. So you walk in him. See, he says faith and hope. This is an important distinction. Faith is what looks back at what God has done. Hope looks forward to what God will do. Faith says, Christ died for me. Hope says, but he lives and he's coming back for me. Faith rests in the finished work of God. Hope anticipates the continued work of God. Let me tell you something. I just believe with all my heart. We have a lot of believers today who have been redeemed, and we have we have we have entrusted our never dying soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. If I were to ask people today, hey, do you know you're going to heaven? Mm-hmm. Are you saved? Yeah, I'm saved. Well, how do you know that? Jesus died for me. I mean, I've been saved, I received Christ. Well, what are you worried about? Man, I've got cancer. I got some financial problems. I'm going through this difficulty. And I'm telling you, like people who have just so casually said that they have trusted God with their eternal soul cannot trust God with a temporary illness. People who have given eternity to God and then just say, Yeah, I'm saved. You've given eternity to God. You are trusting Him alone with everything. But you're freaking out about your finances. We've trusted God with an eternal soul. Do you understand something today? If it's not true that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, I'm in trouble. Because I got no second option. I have nothing else to go on. If I get, if I, when I die, and that's not all it was, I'm in trouble. Because when I stand before the Lord, the only thing I can say is I believe that Jesus died on that cross, shed his blood, was buried, and you raised him from the dead, and he said that if I would come to him, I would never perish. I would have everlasting life, and that's what I've done. The only thing I have to claim is him. And I am so casual about, yeah, I'm saved. But then I'm so worried about what I'm going through in this life. We're afraid to live for Christ. Peter's reminding these believers if you have been redeemed with something that precious, know your value. Look around this world, and when the winds blow, and when the storms come and the persecution happens and you're tossed to and fro, stand firm in your faith and hope in God. Have strong confidence in God. It's amazing to me what Peter is doing. This is all identity, is what he's doing here. He's making sure that we understand that our faith and our hope and everything that we have is in Christ. Look, I believe today, I believe there are so many Christians that, yeah, I'm saved, but our identity has become our cancer. Our identity has become our problem. Our identity has become the issues that we go through. We we take on these things and we're consumed with these things and we're we're we're fearful. And I understand the reality of all of it. I know the human experience of having to walk through dark valleys, but I want to tell you something. These are light afflictions compared to the eternal weight of glory. This is a temporary body. This body is gonna decay and die. But listen, this soul has been redeemed, and I'm gonna live. When I'm absent from this body, I'm present with the Lord, I have an eternal redemption. And it's that that gives me strength and faith and confidence in God that He, God, who is willing to pay that price for my soul, can walk me through this problem. He can bring me through. Listen, your widowhood doesn't define you. Your cancer doesn't define you. You are a widow who's been redeemed by Christ. You have cancer, but you've been redeemed by Christ. Listen to me. Listen, listen. This is our Paul said, I look at my, I look at the light afflictions. And then I look over here. They're not worthy to be compared to the eternal weight of glory. When I write down all my temporary troubles and I look at my eternal worth, no comparison, man. Silver and gold to precious blood. It is incalculable wealth that I have. So what's the whole point? The whole point here is this. Peter's writing to these believers, and he said, Look, you are you are mocked by this world. You are shamed by this world. Hey, if you ever want to be feel ashamed, speak up for Jesus Christ. I get off the plane not long ago in uh in Orlando, Florida, and a man in front of me was wearing a shirt that said Jesus, big bold letters, Jesus, King of Kings. And I said, Hey, I like that shirt. He said, Thank you. And he had an Australian accent. And I said, Hey, are you from are you in Aussie? He goes, Yeah. And uh I told him where I was from, and he's a pastor in Australia, and he was up for speaking at a conference uh in Florida. And so we kind of walked down the jet bridge and we're just standing in the in the terminal. It's 11:30 at night, and all these people that have just flown in this plane are walking by us, and he's got this Jesus shirt on. And we had people walk by and like laugh, point. And we're just having a conversation about Christ, we're having a conversation, and he's listen, this guy was loud. And he's talking about he's uh he's gonna be speaking at a conference um about the uh the the things of with Islam and the and the plan of Islam to overtake the culture here in America, and and man, we're just having this loud conversation and people can hear us. And a couple of people made it known that they could hear us and said some very uh terrible things when they walked by. If you live for Christ, you're gonna feel some shame. Here's what Peter's saying to these believers I want you to value your redemption. I want you to know the value that you have in Christ. Some time ago, we Pastor Brent sang, it's been several years ago, Pastor Brent introduced a song. He sang a special in church, and the whole special was basically what Jesus went through and everything that he paid. And the chorus of the song was he thought that I was worth it. And it's a song that just kind of stands in maze, like in amazement, like, why did he do all that for me? He thought that I was worth it. And a man came to me and said, I didn't like that song. I said, What do you mean you didn't like that song? He said, I mean, to say that we are worth it. I said, I think you missed the message of that song. You probably should go back and re-listen to that song because the whole song just said, I can't believe that he thought that I was worth it. But did he die for you? Did Jesus do all of that for you? Yes or no? Then what's the value of your redemption? Peter wanted them to draw the conclusion to value their redemption, but number two, to live like you've been redeemed. To live like you've been redeemed. How many of us have been redeemed? We've been purchased and set free by the paying of a ransom, and yet we're still enslaved to our sin. Paul said, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Why are we living in bondage when we can be walking in the liberty of Christ? We've been set free. He that knows the Son has is set free. If you have the Son, you are free indeed. A little boy one time had caught a bunch of birds and put a bunch of birds in a cage. And he was poking those birds with a stick and just kind of tormenting those birds. And they were fluttering all over that cage and they were fearful. And a man walked by and said, Son, what are you gonna do with those birds? He said, I don't know. I caught them, I'm gonna probably kill them. And the man said, Son, could I buy those birds? He said, If you have enough money. And this little smart mouth boy was out there making a deal with this businessman. The businessman opened up his wallet, took out a little stack of cash, and said, Would this be enough? And that little boy's eyes got that big. He said, But I want the cage too. He said, Okay, you can have it. He handed that man the cage, he handed him the cash. And that man put that cage on the ground. And that businessman reached down and took the door of that cage and opened it up. And he shewed those birds out and set them free. There was a time Satan had you in the bondage of your sin. Torturing, poking, prodding. What are you gonna do with them? I'm gonna destroy them. And Jesus said, Can I purchase them? But I went to the cage. And with his red, rich royal blood, Jesus paid for you. And then he opened the door and said, I set you free. And that's redemption. Now live like you're redeemed. Live like you've been set free. Live like you've been set apart from this world. And then Peter's saying here, anchor your life in Christ. Anchor your life in Christ. Faith and hope in God. When life blows, when the storms come, anchor yourself to Christ. Listen, a ship that is anchored in the sea, its position will never change. The conditions will change, but the position never changes. Michelle and I were with our kids on a boat many years ago, and I threw an anchor down and we anchored up and we were having a great time. We were swimming and fishing and all kinds of stuff. And all of a sudden, a storm, one of those old southern storms, man, that thing kicked up. I'm talking gully washer, that's what we call them. And this storm kicked up, and I mean it got blowing and thunder and crashing, and we that boat was straining against that cable, and the waves were everywhere. And I want to tell you, I got afraid. But pretty soon that boat, that thing blew over, sun came back out, and I'm going to tell you something. We were in the same spot we were when we started. Our position never changed. The conditions changed. Listen, you better anchor yourself to Christ because one day the winds are coming, the waves are gonna blow over your bow. And the conditions may change, but your position in Christ never changes. Anchor to that. Faith and hope. Live in the fact that the eternal plan of God became the personal love of God. And rest in that. Rest in it. Lord Jesus.