City Life Church San Diego

1 Peter 1:22-25 When everything fades like desert flowers, only the gospel endures

• Dale Huntington

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What if the most enduring thing about your life can’t be posted, purchased, or preserved—only received? We turn to 1 Peter 1:22–25 and walk through a bracing, hope-filled vision: the grass withers, the flowers fall, and yet the word of the Lord endures forever. That living word isn’t just ink on a page; it’s Jesus—the Logos—who remakes imperfect people and forms them into a family that lasts. Along the way, we sit with Peter’s contradictions and find our own: brave and afraid, faithful and messy. His story becomes permission to come as we are and an invitation to grow beyond what we’ve settled for.

We name the noise that wears us down and pray for wisdom to turn off the endless feed so we can tend the wounds within reach. Then we ask harder questions about where we’re investing our souls: careers, legacies, and platforms bloom and burn like desert flowers, but the kingdom outlasts every empire. New birth reframes loss and failure; being born again of imperishable seed means our hope no longer rises and falls with our performance or the news cycle. That freedom shows up in small, stubborn practices—quick repentance, honest apologies, showing up on time, choosing reconciliation over clout.

Finally, we get practical about love. If we will be together forever, unity isn’t optional—it’s evidence. Sincere love looks like prayer before gossip, courage in correction, and generosity across political and cultural lines. Only God’s word is imperishable; our feeds are not. So we commit to a better way: loving people who don’t think like us, treating church as a people rather than a place, and building where moth and rust can’t win. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs durable hope, and leave a review telling us one habit you’ll change this week to love your church family better.

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SPEAKER_01:

The apostle Peter was born with his foot in his mouth. Rash and outspoken, he was ready to fight at a moment's notice. One time, he actually cut a dude's ear off. He was brave and he was a coward. Peter was a contradiction. He walked on water with Jesus, he healed the sick, and gave sermons to thousands. And after his worst moment, when he had abandoned Jesus, he was restored by his loving Savior. Jesus actually gave him the name Peter, which means rock. And Peter was stubborn like a rock. As he grew old, the stubborn Jesus follower gave wisdom. Wisdom which he shared with God's church in his letters. He was still imperfect, but God used him. Doesn't that give you hope too? To know this very flawed man with a foul mouth was used by God in powerful ways. Peter's words come from a man who soaked up the presence of Jesus. A man covered in the dust, kicked up by his teacher's sandals. His letters are challenging and must be wrestled with until we fully understand. Peter was a contradiction. Peter suffered, betrayed his best friend, embarrassed himself, and eventually grew into a wise teacher. If you are sometimes abrasive, sinful, or broken, you'll find hope and solace in Peter's words. They echo the heart of Jesus and they challenge us to suffer well, stand up for goodness, and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior Jesus. So open your Bibles, open your mind, and let's learn together as we continue in our series, Peter the Rock.

SPEAKER_00:

Amen. It's good to be with you guys this morning. I'm blessed to see you all this morning. And uh we're gonna be in 1 Peter 1.22 today in our Bibles. 1 Peter 1 22. If you don't have a good Bible, we would love to give you a good Bible. The reason why I love these is I know that studies have shown that we're more likely to believe what we see in print than on a screen. I'm not mad at you if you're on a screen, by the way. Um, and I don't get notifications on this thing, except for the ones directly from God. Um so uh we would love to give you a nice study Bible in uh several different languages English, Spanish, Tagalog, or Haitian crayon. Tenemos biblias bilingues disponibles al costado del salón. Bonjour, buen satim canta nueva bec buen isit la nue bib creo aisie, puno gratis, nu som son o crayol. Well, first off, I just want to say um the wife and I are gonna be going on a vacation Monday, and I'm really excited for it. And I just want to thank you uh for being uh the type of church that allows your pastor to go on vacation. Um I know many of you don't get to go on vacations, and so uh, you know, you could just be mad at me. But my goal is to be here for a long time, and my goal is to be a good dad and a good husband, and uh one of the ways that I know I need to do that is by taking time away. And uh, you know, I've tried to do that at my house, and people still show up at my house. So I'm not taking my phone. Um and there are many capable leaders here who you can call, um, but I will be with my wife, and it's the longest we've ever been away from our kids. Um, we're gonna be in Chile, all the way down at the bottom of South America, where there's penguins and glaciers. It's basically Antarctica. Um, and we're gonna drink a lot of coffee and tea and have blankets and um be cold, which I'm really excited for. I like being cold, guys. Um, you may notice I am right now actually soaked because we got to baptize Diego in between services. Um and uh so yeah, if you hugged me and you felt that like nasty, that was that was just water, don't worry. Um so I'm really excited to be here with you. I was really excited to celebrate Diego showing uh the world that he belongs to Jesus right there on Market Street. Um so uh let me quickly remind you where we were in 1 Peter. If you haven't been with us, I'm just gonna do a quick recap, just very fast. Um, this is kind of what was said. Because we have been redeemed and adopted into God's family, he has called us to be strange kids who act differently than the rest of the world. We are called to be holy as God is holy, but when God continues to make us holy, something happens, and this is the something that is gonna happen when I read to you today. So if you're with me, let's read 1 Peter 1 22 through 25. Since you have been purified, since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere, brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart, love one another constantly. Because you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of an imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever, and this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you. Friends, would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for this moment. God, we uh we thank you for this moment where we can come and be real, or we don't have to leave our struggles at the door, but we bring them to your feet. We don't have to pretend like everything is okay, but instead we can say that that it's not okay and we're not okay, and we can take that to you and trust that you're good enough to handle it. God, we know this room is full of informed people. And God, maybe we're too informed sometimes. We know more about uh news that is happening across the world than any human was ever supposed to know. And it's only a taste of what you experience daily. While our phones and our internet have given us almost supernatural ability to know all that is going around us, we don't have shoulders that can carry those type of burdens. And we don't have the power to change things like you do. God, uh it's depressing, it's debilitating, and we don't want to be so paralyzed by the things of this world that we cannot bandage the wounds of the people in front of us. Father, we've seen shootings, beatings, starving people, and genocide on live TV. And I'm afraid our hearts are becoming numb to suffering, or our hearts are becoming destroyed by despair. God, even as we lament the shooting in front of Gomper school this week, we move on so quickly because there is always something new happening. Something terrible. Would you give us wisdom? Would you help us to turn off the news more often and embrace something better? God, help us to care for the hurting in front of us, give us follow-through when things are difficult. We need your spirit more than ever. We need your peace, we need your joy, we need your hope. Come, Lord Jesus. You took wicked people who treated you like an enemy and you made us family. You died and you rose again. Is there nothing you cannot overcome? We do take heart because we know you have overcome this world. And it is by your grace this morning that we ask that you overcome our weariness, our sorrow, our suffering, and that you would make us more than conquerors today. Teach us today by your word. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you. We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. So this letter was written by Peter to individuals so far. Up to this point, it was basically to each individual to do what they had to do. And he's trying to train them to be holy. Now we're moving into a new section about how to be a part of a community, not just an individual, but a community. Like we don't go to church. There are people who are leaders in our church that they know if they accidentally say come to church or they say something's in the back of the church, that they know they're gonna hear from me. Um and they know that I'm gonna say, You can't come to church. You you come to be with the church. Um, you are the church. You can't go to the back of the church. We are the church. And then I so lovingly get lots of emails and texts from them when I accidentally drop one of those. Uh, and so I feel like I almost need a swear jar when I use church incorrectly where I throw 10 bucks to help somebody out because sometimes I still say it wrong. But the whole world has trained us to think church is this building right here. And it's not. That's not what church is. We we are the church. You are the church, we are the church together. Um, when you get your definitions, we want to get them from the Bible. Um, but the world has told us that church is a building, and uh it's just not it. Um, I went too far. Okay, so uh let me say this. But about 95% of the time, when someone tells me they used to go to church, but they don't anymore, I rarely hear a variation in what they say. It's almost always the same thing. Why don't you go to church anymore? Which we don't go to church, but that's what they say. People, it's people, it's hypocrites, it's liars, it's abuse. That's why we don't go anymore. And I just say, City life church, we are packed with imperfect people. Am I right? Please let me hear an amen that we're imperfect. Let me hear an amen that your pastor is imperfect. Amen. Yeah, that was even louder. Okay. But also the devil has planted fakes all over to discourage you. Jesus calls them um sheep, uh, excuse me, uh wolves in sheep's clothing. Um, they are there to discourage you. They are plants, they are fake Christians, and they're in politics, they're on Instagram influencing you, there are some in your family. Probably the same ones who preach the gospel to you abused you. You see, if I were the devil, though, uh and I wanted you to be shut down in your faith, I would make sure the most vocal Christians around you belong to my kingdom, my dark kingdom. I would make them loud about religion, and I would make them liars. I would make them selfish, I would make them arrogant, and I would make them talk about Jesus constantly. Even better if they would just talk about empty religion and rules. I would make them so vile that you would never want anything to do with them. I would make them say, church, church, church, church, church, church, church, like everything would have church in it. And Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus all the time, so that you might leave the church because of their poisonous hatred. That's what I would do. You'd hear things coming out of their mouths, you'd hear um gross things coming out of their mouths, and you'd hear Bible verses. If I were the devil, that is how I would keep you away. I'd have them misuse and misquote scripture. Um, they would use the Bible as a weapon, not as a soothing salve on wounds. Um, that's what the devil did with Jesus, didn't he? When the devil was talking to Jesus, he used Bible verses. He intentionally bent and misused Bible verses with Jesus. And his minions, his demons, his people should be no different. But then on top of that, sometimes we don't need the devil's help, do we? Can I get an amen? Anyone? Anyone? Uh sometimes uh part of the problem is we are humans and we're coming to faith in Jesus, or we've come to faith, but he's slowly changing us. This it's a progress, right? He has not yet fixed every part of our lives. Something has gotten better, but there are still nasty, stanky parts of our soul that he hasn't really even started working on yet because we're not ready to give it to him. There are people in here who still intimidate and abuse people, they still struggle with booze, or they still struggle with pornography, and I still believe they are Christians because they struggle. There are people in here who dishonor their boyfriend or girlfriend, they sleep with them outside of Christian marriage, but they're struggling with it. There are people in here who have hatred in their hearts, but Jesus is changing them or us. Guys, you are allowed to struggle against your own flesh, but don't let it win. Because, and listen closely here, your obedience will draw people to Jesus, and your lack of obedience with Christian words will draw people away from Jesus. Your actions matter. And I can say this in the mirror, friends. I'm not just staring at you, I'm staring at myself. Your actions matter, but even more, God cares about the state of your heart. And he is seeking to purify your heart, not just your actions. And so your children will want to see if you truly believe what you're preaching to them. Do I apologize to my kids and my spouse? Do I show patience? Um, your friends at work will want to see if Jesus really matters to you in the way you show up on time and treat everyone with kindness, the way you talk about your boss when he or she is not present. If you're sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend outside of marriage, but you can't seem to get them to come to church, it's because they're watching you and they don't believe that you believe, so why would they come? Your uncle is watching you, how you treat people on social media. He wants to see if it reflects your words or the it reflects the words of Jesus and how you talk to and about your enemies. When another Christian is acting stupid, do you respond with kindness? Do you contact them privately for the purpose of reconciliation? Or do you use it as an excuse to make yourself look big? The world is watching you, friends. See, the Christian life though is a reset life. We're being made new and being purified by Jesus to become a united, loving family that lasts forever. Above all, the world is watching how we treat each other. We see awful people who call themselves Christians, though, don't we? It's hard, it's difficult. The goal is to trick you into thinking that's Jesus and his church. That's Jesus and his bride, and they're all bad. That Jesus and his body, that he calls his body, they're all awful. But who is Jesus? Jesus is kind. Jesus is sacrificial, Jesus demands justice for the oppressed, Jesus is beauty, Jesus is meek, Jesus is merciful, and he wants to use his actual church to change the world. And it's why we are called to be his hands and his feet. We are called his body, and with his help we can rejoice in his presence together forever while the world watches. And so today I'm gonna talk to you, I'm gonna give you three points about forever. Three points about forever. My first point is this the gospel, the gospel is evergreen. The gospel is evergreen. I like to think about how all the trees lose their leaves, but those evergreen trees stay green. And they swell, they smell sweet. Now remember what the gospel means. It means good news. And we'll unpack a little bit more what this gospel is. We've talked about it maybe once or twice before every week. But no matter what you are facing right now, you can look forward with hope because of Jesus. Because Jesus died for his enemies. Jesus died to give us life. Now I'm gonna go backwards through the scripture today. Um, and uh we're gonna start on verse 24. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you. Now, Peter shows us something that everyone knows already. That everything expires. Grass in particular expires. In San Diego, we know this about grass, right? If you're from San Diego, you know this. Grass burns, right? It does not last. Unless we got some of that fake grass now everywhere that seems to hang around, but that's not real. If you're from San Diego, though, you also probably know about the desert blooms in San Diego, right? Most winters we get serious downpours in our deserts, and there's just a ton of rain all at once. Then in the spring, all of you guys drive out to a place with no porta potties to see the desert turn into yellow, orange, green, purple, pink, and blue flowers. Natural, local flowers blossoming, and it's beautiful, it's magnificent, I've been told according to your Instagrams. Because I'm not going. I'm not waiting in that line. I don't go, I'm not interested. Um, it uh the question becomes why do we rush to see this? Why do we rush to see it? Why do you wait in long lines with no bathrooms anywhere to see this? Well, part of it's because California is a little overpopulated. Um, part of it's because influencers need to get that on their Instagrams, but it's because flowers in the desert don't last. One of the reasons why they're beautiful is because we know that they won't be here tomorrow. You have to check it out while you can. It's the same thing with snow, right? Like we get a little dusting of snow in the mountains, all of a sudden, it's a long line to go see the snow and like and go touch a little bit of snow and take your picture in front of the snow and then go home and like it takes four hours to get home. But we go because it is something that doesn't last. We know that in the desert, sand lasts, cactus seem to last, but not usually tender flowers, do they? Now there's a scholar in Koine Greek, his name is Greg Forbes, and he says this he says this is a vivid Palestinian image of a temporary brilliance of spring flowers in the field that are quickly scorched by the rising sun and the relentless sirocal wind. It doesn't last. Friends, I ask you, what are you building? What are you pouring your soul into? Is it something eternal? Or is it like flowers in the desert? If it's not the kingdom, it's short term. Even a family legacy built on anything but the kingdom is short term. There has never been a kingdom outside of God's that hasn't ended once. There has never been a family line that stays strong forever. There has never been a fortune that stays for all generations. If it's your career, if it's your education, your reputation, your bank account, it will vanish quickly like flowers in the desert. All of it can be swept away in the heat of one moment. Even your family, you are one phone call away from losing the people you love. If your hope is in them and not God, you're aren't you're not gonna make it. Many of you come from poverty and you're working so hard to set up your kids. There's nothing wrong with that. With education, with sports, with a with a home, with money for the future. But how many times has a young person been set up for everything only to throw it all away on magic beans? Tell me you haven't seen it. Usually it's some kind of like weird plasma or VR, or maybe they buy stock and something weird, but eventually it disappears. It's blooms in the freaking desert. Yes, we want to set our children up for success, but they are their own people and they're gonna do what they want. And sometimes when you set them up for success, we make them into privileged people with no endurance, no resilience, and no humility. So listen me to what I say. Don't live through your lineage. Don't live through your lineage. Don't put all your eggs in that one basket because it will fail you. They may bloom brightly for a moment, but they may burn out just as quickly. The kingdom of God is the only thing that endures. And if you think that I'm just like using this as what we would call a proof text, or I'm just trying to give you one basic idea, I'm just stealing it, trying to make it say what I want it to say. Let me just give you a couple more Bible verses. Ecclesiastes 1 4. A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. James 4 14. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be, for you are like a vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Psalm 90, 12. So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart full of wisdom. Psalm 39, 4. Show me, Lord, my life's end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. Guys, this is why we celebrate Ash Wednesday every year, to be reminded of our mortality. So we don't live life as if we can take care of the important things tomorrow. Life is short and flowers fade. The kingdom of God, though, lasts forever. Friends, we will expire one day. No matter how strong you are, one day you will die or you will lose everyone around you that you love. How are you equipping yourself for that moment? You've got to attach yourself to someone who is eternal. Now, I'm not trying to be like a shark out here, trying to be like the guy. I'm one of those, you know what those remora are that like attach themselves to a shark? They're just like just like coast off of the shark strength. Nobody, they're not scared of anybody. That's who I want to be. I want to attach myself to God like one of those ugly sucker fish. Like, I don't need any anybody to look up to me. I'm just with God. This is I'm with him. Because God is the only one that endures. God is the eternal. God is the only one that has always existed, and only he can make us immortal. Jesus says, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. See, this is the beauty of the gospel that God did something to last forever. When things were tough, when things were hard, when we had to go make sacrifices, when we had to take care of this on our own, it was not gonna be enough. So Jesus came to this earth, lived a perfect life, sacrificed himself to make up the difference. But he also did it in a way that was eternal, that would last forever. So he sacrificed himself on the cross, but then he rose again, showing he was bigger than our death, bigger than our differences, bigger than our hatred, bigger than our hurts, bigger than the abuse we have received and the trauma. Jesus and his kingdom are bigger. Jesus calls himself living water, living water that lasts. See, we drink this living water and we never thirst again. You get to be a part of a house of God that never expires. I've read enough history to know that the wonders of the world will all one day become dust. The hanging gardens of Babylon were destroyed by an earthquake. The great statue of Zeus at Olympia was destroyed in a fire. The lighthouse of Alexandria, gosh, I would have loved to see Alexandria in that great library, all destroyed. It's rubble. The temple of Artemis in Ephesus was destroyed three times. The Great Pyramid of Giza stands tall still, one of the last of the ancient wonders of the world. But it stands tall for now. One day, dust, disease, or war will destroy it. Some insecure general of an army will launch a missile to show off, and it will be gone one day. It'll be there one day and then gone. But the stones that we build in the kingdom of God, the stones we stack of God, neither no rust nor moth, nor thief, nor decay, they will last forever, and you'll hear more about this next week. But nothing lasts forever in this life but God and his kingdom. So where I ask, are you putting your hope? Where are you putting your trust? Nothing lasts forever in this life but God and his kingdom. The very building, this very building dedicated to God, this one that you sit in right now, glorifying God. Friends, one day it will be an Arby's or a Wendy's or some like hip bar for hipsters. But the question is, if this is the church, then that's a problem. But if we continue to sow into the kingdom of God forever, it won't matter if this is an Arby's. We could do our Bible studies in the Arby's for all I care. It might not be us, it might be our grandkids or our great-grandkids, but one day everything is lost but the kingdom of God. And you'll be forgotten, no matter how amazing you are. But the kingdom of God continues. See, the Christian life is a reset life. We're being made new and being purified by Jesus to become a united family that lasts forever. We're made of mortal stuff that dies. That's not a problem. The moment you are born, the countdown begins to your death, but it's okay because in Jesus we can be reborn. And that's our second point. God's children never die. Verse 23 You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. The word of God. That's interesting, right? How can a word be living? How can a word endure? See, the when the word is logos or logos, however you want to say it, this is a reference to the word being Jesus. You've probably heard it used before in John 1. Maybe you've heard this. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. See, it continues to say that the Word became flesh. That's Jesus. When the Word became flesh, that was Jesus, fully God, fully man, the Lagos. Jesus was always there. He was there before time began, and he will always be there. So yes, all mist dissipates, all grass eventually dies, flowers burn in the summer heat. But Jesus has always existed and always will exist. And when we belong to Jesus, when we are adopted into the family, we now have an imperishable seed, a seed that will not die. See, Jesus grew up in a farming society. So you know he's gonna tell stories about farming, right? It was agrarian, so he used terms that people would understand. If he's talking to a bunch of farmers, well, guess what he's gonna talk about? Farming. But the body is called a seed all over the Bible. If if you hear 1 Corinthians 15, 35, 1 Corinthians 15, 35, it says, But some will ask, how are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come? You fool. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you are not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps a wheat and another grain. See, this whole seed idea goes a long way in the Bible. Um, Jesus was also born of an imperishable seed. Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to go deeper into what that kind of seed is. We'll let you talk to your kids about it. Now, all this is because God would be fully man and fully God. It's the perfect sacrifice on our behalf. And John 12, 24, Jesus says, Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. You see, the Christian life is a reset life. We are being made new and being purified by Jesus to become a united family that lasts forever. Now, many Jewish people today are much like the Jewish Sadducees of Jesus that day. They believed that when you died, you were dirt. That was it. You started as dirt, you ended as dirt, and that was the end. But Jesus openly refuted this idea, like the Pharisitic Jews. He brought hope to a weary world that there was life beyond what was here. A life that continues in Jesus. Not only continues, but thrives in Jesus. We can thrive through Christ, through the living and enduring word of God. That word, Logos, through Jesus. When you give your life to Christ, something dies in you. You die. But even though you die, you live again. We just had a baptism in between services. Um and what we say every single time is buried with Christ in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life. We're quoting the Bible there. Now, um, sometimes things have to die. You know, I have a basil plant that I loved, and I planted it outside my window, and uh I love basil, I like putting basil in just about everything. I especially like it in when I'm making Italian food and when I'm making Thai food. And we had this basil plant that I planted when we first moved to our house 10 plus years ago, and um somebody uh mistakes were made, and it died. I don't know who who did it, but it was me. And uh it just turned brown and just fell to the fell to the ground, and that was it. It was done. The basil plant was done. And then uh somebody bought me like a little Christmas tree. And if you know me or if you've seen my backyard, I got like trees that I've been planting over the last 10 years, trying to make it like a little sanctuary and oasis where I can pray and be with God while I listen to the airplanes, the dogs, and the trolley. Um, but uh I put that Christmas tree next to the old basil plant that was dead, and I just started watering the Christmas tree. And since I love you know trees, I just watered it faithfully, and then one day this basil plant started growing and growing. It turned green and it started like reaching to the sky. And at some point, you know, that that basil plant lasted almost seven years, and we called it a basil tree in our family. And we gave people basil all the time, and actually, I was kind of like it's kind of funny. One time I brought a big bag of basil to one of my neighbors, it looked like an exchange, it was really funny. But we love that basil plant, but it was dead, but then it was it took water, it took water to bring it back to life, and it's a beautiful thing that Jesus calls himself the living water. In John 3, Jesus once told a Jewish uh teacher named Nicodemus that he had to that Nicodemus had to be born again to inherit the kingdom of God. But Nicodemus asked, How how can anyone be born that's you know already been born? When he is old, can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born? Jesus answered, Uh, truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, whatever is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit, that idea of a faith in the things that we don't even see as we're born again. See, we're born again of an imperishable seed. We have been adopted into the family of God and received an inheritance that is unfading and unspoiled. So even when we screw up, friends, and uh, you will screw up, friends, we can know that we have a lasting kingdom that we belong to. We can live forever with our God and his church. And when you mess up, apologize. It's okay. Godly people apologize. Even when we screw up, we know that we belong to God oftentimes by the way we apologize, by the way that we show humility, by the way that we are meek, strength under control, power under control. We know that we have a lasting kingdom that we belong to and that we. We can live forever with our God, and it's not necessarily dependent if we're getting it right all the time. And while we wait for that day, we can live out our faith the best we can by the power of the Spirit. Not only in the way we treat the people outside church, but the way we treat other believers. And this is our third point. God's children love their forever family. God's children love their forever family. Guys, let's love each other well because we are going to be together for eternity. Eternity. Verse 22 says, Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other from a pure heart, love one another constantly. Now, um when I study this, I read multiple translations, many translations, and I read Greek scholars. I'm not a Greek scholar, I read Greek scholars, I'm gonna be honest. Um, but uh I found that I feel like the King James version here is the most helpful. Um I don't tend to like get into the King James very often, but this time I was like, this is this is a good one. Okay, yeah, we know I know I got a couple of you King James people. King James is the best here, I'm not gonna lie. And the reason is because the King James scholars looked at all of what it said in 1 Peter and they added a word. They added the word Numa to this. That word pneuma makes all the difference. That means spirit. Let me read to you the King James translation, and I'm really gonna try hard not to do an English accent. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Mmm. See, that's important. What they did is they looked at the rest of the text and they said, You cannot do this alone without God's help, without his spirit. And the text was leading up to that and speaking to it. So they chose to put that in there because that gives us the true context. It's almost like they knew that we were going to take every Bible verse out of context and put a pretty picture on it. Um so the Spirit is doing work on our behalf, helping us to do things that we could never have done without his help. Verse 22 says, Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, I'm adding, through the Spirit. So we've been purified, but this doesn't mean perfect, does it? This means holy in standing, okay? So this means God looks at you and chooses to see you as holy, not that you've figured it all out, chooses to see you as set apart for something better. While we still make mistakes, the Father looks upon us and sees the holiness of his son, Jesus. That makes me so hopeful because I've been so stupid at times. He sees the holiness, the righteousness, the perfection of Jesus, and he accepts us as pure. How good is that church? Yes. Now, Pastor Juan Sanchez, he says the word purified can mean cleansing or washing. But the context of 1 Peter, with its old covenant comparisons, we should think of purification in the sense of having been set apart for or having been dedicated to God. See, remember, God called us to be holy, meaning set apart from all the sins that he listed earlier in 1 Peter. But we're not holy just to be holy. We're not holy just to be holy. We're holy for something, right? Not for sitting around and thinking about how holy we are, God, thank you that I'm not like other people. Thank you that I'm so holy, which is like just an asking for it. Um, no, we're holy for something, to something. We're called to love our siblings in Jesus. Remember, we have become siblings with Jesus, co-heirs with Jesus. But if I'm a sibling with Jesus and you're a sibling with Jesus, what does that make us with each other? Siblings, right? Family. Now, it's not always easy to be a sibling, right? Like, especially not with me. I'm gonna be real. If you asked Angie, Danny, or Melody, my siblings, if it was easy to be my sibling, uh, I know exactly how they would answer you. Absolutely not. They would actually probably tell you that that that kid had a demon with ADHD, is what they would say about me. I was infamous. I threw, I'm still infamous for having thrown a large battery at my older sister when I was a little kid, hit her in the eye, gave her a black eye. But today, today we are still siblings and we still care for each other, even though we disagree on things. We call each other, we check in, we disagree on lots of things, but I love, love, love my siblings. You are a sibling in Jesus, and the church is your family. We are being made new and being purified by Jesus to become a united family that lasts forever. But we often fight in the church, right? Like we fight. We make demands in the church, we talk about people who aren't in the room. Uh, we badmouth Christians and pastors online as if God has no care about it. And while some things need to be corrected, they do, I think we often see ourselves as the only judge and jury. Guys, if you think other Christians are doing church wrong, um, I encourage you, just keep doing church right. If you think I'm pastoring wrong, and let me tell you, this is a hard job. Most of you won't know half of the things I deal with, the violence, the abuse, the hatred. But maybe before you say anything, before you gossip, pray for that person. Pray for me. I'm a part of your family, I'm your pastor. I'm just doing my best with what little talent and smarts I have. Your Christian mom who gets it wrong all the time, she's trying. Your Democrat Christian friends, they're trying their best. Your Republican Christians, they're trying. And they're your family, and they are God's bride. Be careful how you talk about God's wife. I'm just telling you, be really careful the way you talk about God's wife because love forgives and love believes the best in each other. That is so important to say. Now, Pastor Francis Chan, he says this in God's list of things he hates, he places greatest emphasis on one who sows discord among brothers. We worship a God who desires unity with his children and between his children. See, there are people in here, I'm gonna say this. I love, I love just riling y'all up and then going on vacation and not taking my phone. There are people in here who disagree with you on Charlie Kirk. I don't know what you believe about Charlie Kirk, but I promise you, somebody in here disagrees with you. Somebody does. Um, it does not mean they're going to hell. It does not. There are uh there are people in here who disagree with you on Donald Trump, on vaccines, on masks, on racism, and uh on Gaza and George Floyd. They disagree with you. Whatever you think, they disagree with you. Are these things important? Yes, some of them are important, yes, they are important. No, I I get what he's saying. I get what he's saying. Are they important? They they are important, but are they always ultimate? Not always. The church is supposed to stand for justice and mercy, we know that. We are, but right now the people sitting next to you are reading different news sources than you. And I'm gonna let you both in on a little bit of a secret. None of you is fully reading truth. When you're reading any news source, only, only, only the word of God is imperishable. The newspapers, the bloggers, the Snapchatters, the Instagrammers you read, they're easily defiled. I know I said Instagrammers and Snapchatters. They're easily defiled, and they're easily influenced themselves, you guys. You may not believe this, um, but you are not getting the perfect truth. And you may not believe this. You know, you will believe this. Your pastor is not getting the perfect truth. He's getting it wrong. And the truth that you have might not be as true as you think. Now, of course, um they're gonna believe something different than you because they have different information than you. Now, here's what rapper KB says. Oh, I love this. Here's what rapper KB says. They made me repeat it twice at the last service. So you listen up. If you say you love your neighbor, but only love the people who look like you, live like you, and think like you, it's not your neighbor you're loving, it's yourself. I'm gonna say it again. If you say you love your neighbor, but only love the people who look like you, live like you, and think like you, it's not your neighbor you're loving, it's yourself. Let me I'm so grateful for people that say things better than me. I am. Let me say this to you now, because I'm ready. I'm ready for the emails that I'll see in two weeks. A racist cannot be hated into the kingdom of God. A racist cannot be hated into the kingdom of God. He cannot be canceled into the kingdom of God, he can only be loved into the kingdom of God. What is undefiled truth? God's word. What is imperishable, God's word. And when we continue to seek truth in God's word and live it out, then the world will take notice. Now, over 60 years ago, Dr. King said that 11 a.m. on Sunday was the most segregated segregated hour of the week. He is still correct. He's still correct. What does that tell our world about our God? That he's not big enough for our differences. And it's still true some ways. Now, I said it last week though, people are more likely to marry someone outside their religion than outside their politics. People are more likely to marry someone outside their religion than their politics. That should grieve us. That should grieve us. But what do you see in here, friends? I see something beautiful. Look past color. We're not only a multiracial church, we have multiple cultures, we have multiple political views, we have multiple socioeconomic stati, we speak multiple languages, English, Spanish, Haitian, Crayol. Our God is bigger than our differences. There are people in here who have different views than me on trunk or tree. And yet we stay unified in Jesus because it tells the world that Jesus is bigger. Because the Christian life is a reset life, and we are being made new and being purified by Jesus to become a united family that lasts forever. Now I know our church isn't perfect to all of you. You might do something different than us. You might not say things the way I would say it. There are people who talk, act, sing, and eat different than you. Guys, no lie. Some of you would hate my preferences so much. Like I listen to movie soundtracks all day when I write my sermons. Poor Isaiah is in the same office as me. And like, like I'm always like, hey man, you want me to put on headphones? And he's like, No, I'm good, man. I'm good. And I'm like, are you though? Um, I just listen to movie soundtracks all day long as I write sermons because they go up and down, but they don't have words. They help me think. Um, and then here's the thing uh when I get uh uh really distracted or tired, and I bet you didn't know that I get distracted. Um wow, who laughed? When I when I get distracted or tired, I listen to death metal, Christian death metal, by the way. And it's like screaming, and I can't understand a word they're saying, so it keeps me awake, um, but I can still type. Um that there are things you wouldn't like about me. It's okay. You wouldn't like some of my preferences. Um, you guys, uh I think sometimes that plain potatoes are too spicy. I I painted my house neon. Um, sometimes I drive like it's a race. I love to read historical micro narratives and talk to the talk to the people around me about how awesome they are, like about who invented the wireless telegraph. Googlyer Mo Marconi. I love reading all about his life. These are the things we have different preferences, right? No matter how hard I try, no matter how, and I have tried, I cannot dance. I could, I just I just like get around my wife and she just dances around me, and I just try to, you know, whatever. Um, no matter how hard I try, I say stupid or offensive things to you. No matter how hard I try to say the right thing, I I hurt your feelings. Just like Peter, though, in the in the Bible. And I'm so cluttery, my house can be kind of nasty if my wife doesn't speak up. And guys, I'll just say this right here. The church is growing so fast, but there are times when I feel like I'm failing you, I'm protecting my leaders from burnout. I keep trying, but I'm not always sure how to fix things. I'm going to fail you. And I'm sorry. And so the question becomes, though, what do we agree on? Can we agree on the big things? Is Jesus really enough? And the answer is yes, Jesus is enough. Jesus is actually enough. In Philippians 2, 3, Paul admonishes the church to do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. Guys, do we do that? Do we truly in humble hearts see other people as more important than us? Jesus also said in John 17, 21, may they all be one as you, Father, are in me and I'm in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. John 13, 35, I have it up in our parking lot. It says, By this everyone will know you are my disciples. If you love one another, you guys are parking further away than you have ever parked to show love to the guests in our church and to the people in our church who cannot walk very easily. You have made spaces for them. There are people who limp that need to be able to park in our lot, and you've moved because if you don't limp, you've made a space for them so they can be here. Guys, that is love. That is treating someone as more important than yourself. Many of you have stepped up, you make coffee, you care for people's children, you're part of the safety team, you clean toilets. Many of you call or text people when they miss on Sunday or a city group. This is a true, healthy family. This is true love, and I'm so proud of you. And you're gonna get it wrong, you're gonna mess it up. But I want to encourage you to continue to fight for unity, to continue to give the benefit of the doubt to fellow believers, to continue to encourage when others choose gossip. When you feast on the Bible every day and you embrace God's Holy Spirit, you can speak life into each other and you can forgive. Now, Karen Job, she points out that relationship with God is never an individual matter. She says, to be chosen by God and set apart for the purpose of participating in the covenant in Christ means necessarily coming into relationship with others who are also chosen. And I will add, no matter how messy they are, and so I close with this City Life, Church, and Guests. The Christian life is a reset life, a new life, a reborn life, and we are being purified by Jesus to become a loving and united family that lasts forever. Would you pray with me, church?