Micah McCormick: Peter, first Peter chapter one, you can turn there if you would for this evening.
Micah McCormick: We'll start with a reading from First Peter one.
Micah McCormick: I'm just gonna read the first two verses to start tonight.
Micah McCormick: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those chosen, living as exiles, dispersed abroad in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we are asking in your kindness you would multiply grace and peace to us.
Micah McCormick: And you tell us that the ones who read and listen to your word are blessed.
Micah McCormick: So bless us tonight indeed, we pray in Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: The Apostle Peter writes this letter.
Micah McCormick: We'll get to 2 Peter next week, but 1 Peter is all about living as exiles.
Micah McCormick: So the verses that I just read, notice how Peter starts.
Micah McCormick: To those chosen, living as, and then my transition here says, exiles yours might say strangers or pilgrims or sojourners, but living as exiles dispersed abroad.
Micah McCormick: Look down to verse 17 of chapter 1.
Micah McCormick: If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one's work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time, living as, and then mine says strangers in this particular verse here.
Micah McCormick: We've got exiles, we've got strangers.
Micah McCormick: Over to chapter 2, verse 11.
Micah McCormick: Peter says, Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires.
Micah McCormick: And then finally turn over to chapter 5, verse 13.
Micah McCormick: Very end of the letter.
Micah McCormick: Almost the last verse.
Micah McCormick: She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, as does Mark, my son.
Micah McCormick: Who is this person in Babylon?
Micah McCormick: Well, when Peter's writing this letter, the actual city of Babylon was kind of in shambles, and we're not really aware of a Christian presence in the geographic Babylon at this time.
Micah McCormick: But what about Babylon and the Old Testament?
Micah McCormick: Did God's people have to live in Babylon and they get instructions while they're living in Babylon?
Micah McCormick: Yeah.
Micah McCormick: And looking at some other sources and evidence, it seems like Peter might have been writing this letter from Rome.
Micah McCormick: What was the Babylon-like superpower of Peter's day?
Micah McCormick: Rome.
Micah McCormick: But he's even in using this language of the ones who are in Babylon, together, chosen by God with you, hey, we're we're living as exiles.
Micah McCormick: Yeah, we're living in Rome, and they're they're in control right now, but we belong to God's people.
Micah McCormick: So this letter of 1 Peter is all about living as exiles.
Micah McCormick: And before we get into how to do that, just to maybe clear the deck a little bit here, what does it not mean to live as an exile?
Micah McCormick: It doesn't mean we have to live like an Amish person who is sort of in every way sectioned off from life in the world.
Micah McCormick: So yes, we're exiles, there's a certain mentality there, uh, but it doesn't mean, you know, if everyone at Wall Street's wearing a suit, I'm gonna wear overalls.
Micah McCormick: If it's not it's not that kind of a separate culture.
Micah McCormick: It also doesn't mean, and and maybe our word sojourner kind of i has this connotation sometimes.
Micah McCormick: It doesn't mean that you're called to live a rustic lifestyle.
Micah McCormick: Like we've got to live off the grid.
Micah McCormick: You know, that's kind of homesteading or whatever is kind of popular these days.
Micah McCormick: If you want to give your kids duck liver for breakfast instead of Captain Crunch, go right ahead.
Micah McCormick: I mean, that that that may well be better for them, probably is.
Micah McCormick: That's just not what Peter's talking about here.
Micah McCormick: He he's not talking about a rustic lifestyle.
Micah McCormick: And then when he says live as exiles, he's also not saying that the the only way that we view ourselves in relation to the world is like we're we're gorilla troops.
Micah McCormick: This is gonna take a little more explaining.
Micah McCormick: Let me explain what I mean by that.
Micah McCormick: I don't wanna if if Kevin Cooney listens to this, I don't want him to just have a seizure.
Micah McCormick: Well, what do you mean we're not in warfare?
Micah McCormick: Of course we're in warfare.
Micah McCormick: We are, we are.
Micah McCormick: Okay, we are.
Micah McCormick: So here's what I here's what I mean by that.
Micah McCormick: You you see these movies where it's like there's a nuclear bomb and there's you know a few survivors, and you wake up and you're in you know the bunker and there's one other guy left, and you're like, Yeah, okay, we're left.
Speaker 01: Like, let's get them before they get us.
Micah McCormick: And you're like, yeah, and you nod, and then you just take off with the bayonet.
Micah McCormick: And it it's it's Peter's not calling us to live um as as antagonists violently in this world.
Micah McCormick: I'm gonna explain a little more as we go on, you'll see what I mean by that.
Micah McCormick: But there is a place in 1 Peter where he talks about waging war.
Micah McCormick: Anybody know where that is?
Micah McCormick: I was right on it earlier, but I didn't actually finish the verse.
Micah McCormick: Look over to chapter 2 again.
Micah McCormick: The verse I read there that I started to read.
Micah McCormick: Verse 11.
Micah McCormick: I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against your soul.
Micah McCormick: So the first and most violent conflict, if we're going to use that metaphor, is against our own sinful desires.
Micah McCormick: There's other kinds of ways to relate to the world, and we'll get into that as we go.
Micah McCormick: So, what does it mean to live as exiles?
Micah McCormick: I'm pulling out four ways to live as exiles from this book.
Micah McCormick: And first, exiles find strength in God's eternal purposes.
Micah McCormick: I already read verse one, where Peter says, to those who are chosen, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.
Micah McCormick: And then if you go over to chapter 5, verse 13, which we also looked at, she who was in Babylon chosen together with you.
Micah McCormick: So Peter frames this whole letter by reminding these believers, your chosen people.
Speaker 01: God's chosen you.
Speaker 01: At the end, God's chosen you.
Micah McCormick: So to say, well, you know, all this this sometimes this doctrinal language and God's election, just doesn't really interact with my everyday life.
Micah McCormick: But Peter is saying, if you really want to have a mindset as an exile, you need to be armed with this truth.
Micah McCormick: You need to know that if you're chosen by God, that that changes your whole outlook on life.
Micah McCormick: That changes the way that you can go out into the world and even encounter suffering that we'll get to.
Micah McCormick: So God's eternal purposes are right here.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 1, if you go back to chapter 1, looking down at verse 20, look at how Christ is brought into the center of this purpose of God.
Micah McCormick: So God chose us according to his own foreknowledge.
Micah McCormick: He set his loving gaze on us.
Micah McCormick: And then look what he says about Christ.
Micah McCormick: After just saying that we've been purchased with the blood of Christ, verse 20, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world.
Micah McCormick: So God had a purpose to bring Jesus in and redeem sinful people like us, even before there was sin in the world.
Micah McCormick: That's how wise and astounding and masterful his plan is that it would accompass the beginning and the end, and we'd be centered all on Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: The same mercy that brought Christ to the world and that saved us is still at work.
Micah McCormick: So if you go back to chapter 1, verse number 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great mercy, he's given us new birth.
Micah McCormick: He's creating a whole new people, and that mercy is gonna hold us.
Micah McCormick: So, verse number five of chapter one.
Micah McCormick: You're being guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Micah McCormick: So arm yourself.
Micah McCormick: I'm an exile, but God's got his grip on me.
Micah McCormick: And I'm gonna keep believing because he's got his hand on me to keep me believing.
Micah McCormick: And I can rest in that.
Micah McCormick: Scriptures.
Micah McCormick: I mean, we're having this whole study through the through the Bible because we have access to it because God is a speaking God.
Micah McCormick: And you see that, verse number 10, chapter 1, concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated.
Micah McCormick: Then he goes on to talk about their word of Christ's sufferings and the glory that would follow.
Micah McCormick: If you go down to verse 23 of chapter 1, you've been born again.
Micah McCormick: There it is again, God's purpose in us to redeem us.
Micah McCormick: Not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God.
Micah McCormick: So God's purposes that we can understand and know and enjoy are anchored in Scripture.
Micah McCormick: And part of that means that we have to have our gaze set not just on what's present, but in light of what God is doing across eternity, we've got to look forward towards the future.
Micah McCormick: And Peter does a lot of emphasis on looking towards the future.
Micah McCormick: Verse number seven of chapter one.
Micah McCormick: So that the proven character of your faith, more valuable than gold, may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: In other words, when Christ comes back the second time, there's going to be where the difference makes between suffering and humility now and glory then.
Micah McCormick: Or look down to verse number 13 of chapter 1.
Micah McCormick: Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded.
Micah McCormick: And then this is this is a mysterious thing still to me, and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you.
Micah McCormick: But we hope in what Christ has done for us, but here Peter is saying, launch into you're going to get even more grace when Jesus comes back.
Micah McCormick: But you need to think about that now.
Micah McCormick: Don't just sleep on it and wait for it.
Micah McCormick: Think about it right now, and that'll affect the way that you live as alert people.
Micah McCormick: And then chapter 4, verse 7, I'll give you one more example of that.
Micah McCormick: The end of all things is near.
Micah McCormick: Future.
Micah McCormick: Therefore, scan the newspapers and interpret every sentence in light of what you see.
Micah McCormick: No, that's not what he says.
Micah McCormick: Wrong.
Micah McCormick: Be alert and sober-minded for prayer.
Micah McCormick: As exiles, we get to enjoy and even be part of God's eternal purposes.
Micah McCormick: The second way that we live as exiles is by expecting suffering.
Micah McCormick: I didn't say go around looking for suffering, but not to be surprised by suffering.
Micah McCormick: Back to chapter 1, verse number 6.
Micah McCormick: You rejoice in this, you rejoice in God's work, even if now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials.
Micah McCormick: And one of the things that does is prove the character of our faith.
Micah McCormick: And we're suffering, but notice we're not focused on our suffering.
Micah McCormick: Verse number 8 of chapter 1.
Micah McCormick: Though you have not seen him, we haven't seen the Lord Jesus with our physical eyes.
Micah McCormick: You love him.
Micah McCormick: And though not seeing him now, you believe in him and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy.
Micah McCormick: The suffering around us doesn't keep us from the Savior that we love and who's transformed us and changed us.
Micah McCormick: But suffering we must take on.
Micah McCormick: It's a silly example, I know.
Micah McCormick: But you know in the Princess Bride, when Wesley's on the rack, and it's like he's getting stretched out, but for his love, he's gotta just stick in there and do it.
Micah McCormick: Christ should be so meaningful to us that it allows us to endure anything because we care about him.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 3, verse 13, another example here.
Micah McCormick: Who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good?
Micah McCormick: Aha! I'll just devote myself to good and no suffering.
Micah McCormick: But look at verse 14.
Micah McCormick: But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you're blessed.
Micah McCormick: Don't fear them or be intimidated.
Micah McCormick: Look down to chapter 4, starting at verse number 12.
Micah McCormick: And he said, if necessary, a couple times in his life.
Micah McCormick: If necessary, you'll suffer.
Micah McCormick: And now he just goes ahead and says it right out in chapter 4, verse 12.
Micah McCormick: Dear friends, don't be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you.
Micah McCormick: So he's preparing them and preparing them, and just to so they get the realization, don't be surprised because it's coming.
Micah McCormick: Fiery ordeals have been there for Christians in the past, fiery ordeals will be for Christians in the future, fiery ordeals will be for us at times in our lives.
Micah McCormick: And it's gonna be different amounts of different people.
Micah McCormick: And that's a mystery of God's providence.
Micah McCormick: I I why did Job have to go through this much and others have to go through this much?
Micah McCormick: Um, why for some people is there such turmoil within their own heart and soul and and body, and others seem to have such equilibrium?
Micah McCormick: Why, with some people does it seem like everyone in their family attacks them in their faith, and for others, their family embraces Christianity?
Micah McCormick: Why for some, when they go out into the park or the or the or the streets, people seem eager to get into an argument, and others it seems like they want to hear the gospel more.
Micah McCormick: I I I don't know.
Micah McCormick: I don't.
Micah McCormick: But the Lord does say to some extent, and he uses categories here, social categories, it's not just about losing our life or being physically persecuted.
Micah McCormick: There's mocking that we all face on some level as Christians, and we can expect that.
Micah McCormick: As we suffer, we can look to Christ who suffered.
Micah McCormick: Now, we're quick to say Christ is not merely an example.
Micah McCormick: He's a redeemer.
Micah McCormick: But he is an example, according to Peter.
Micah McCormick: So he's not merely an example, and and he's not mainly an example in that sense, that he came to redeem, but he did come to give us an example.
Micah McCormick: So look again at chapter four.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse number fourteen.
Micah McCormick: If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
Micah McCormick: Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a meddler.
Micah McCormick: But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God.
Micah McCormick: Why is it that we can suffer so as Christians?
Micah McCormick: Look back to chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: Peter's already given us the why of the suffering because we're doing it as a Christian in that name.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 2, verse 21.
Micah McCormick: You were called to this because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.
Micah McCormick: Not that we could follow his steps and vicariously suffer as a substitute for someone else's sins, but seeing his example of suffering, that should inspire us that that's my Lord, and I'll do whatever it takes to be to be with him.
Micah McCormick: So when he was insulted, verse 23, he didn't insult in return.
Micah McCormick: He didn't launch out at the enemy with personal kind of attacks.
Micah McCormick: He entrusted himself to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Exiles find strength in God's eternal purposes.
Micah McCormick: Exiles can expect suffering.
Micah McCormick: Exiles should live lives devoted to God.
Micah McCormick: Why do I say that?
Micah McCormick: Go back to chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: Peter gives us this beautiful image.
Micah McCormick: Verse 4 of chapter 2 As you come to Him, the Lord, a living stone, rejected by people, but chosen by God, chosen and honored by God, you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built up to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices.
Micah McCormick: Verse 6, for it stands in Scripture, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.
Micah McCormick: Peter borrows so much language from the Old Testament, so many themes and images.
Micah McCormick: And he borrows this language of a temple.
Micah McCormick: And he says, but you're living stones.
Micah McCormick: What is that?
Micah McCormick: Well, you're you're a temple, but you're not just rocks.
Micah McCormick: You're you're people who have uh ideas and emotions and actions, but you're meant to be a holy priesthood in an even greater way than that Old Testament temple and priesthood.
Micah McCormick: That holy temple was devoted to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: That's what holiness is, to be consecrated, set apart, devoted for a particular purpose.
Micah McCormick: And Peter is telling his readers, you're exiles, but you're to live as devoted people.
Micah McCormick: You're to live as this beautiful new temple.
Micah McCormick: Paul says something very similar in Corinthians, his letter there.
Micah McCormick: Don't you know that you're the temple of God and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
Micah McCormick: Well, then shouldn't you want to live a devoted, holy life to the Lord?
Micah McCormick: Yes, you'd you'd want that.
Micah McCormick: So what does that look like?
Micah McCormick: Verse number 12 of chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: Right after painting this beautiful portrait, he goes on to say, conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.
Micah McCormick: So living a devoted life is, at least in part, living a life of good works before a watching world.
Micah McCormick: Well, what does that look like?
Micah McCormick: Great question.
Micah McCormick: Peter gives some specific examples.
Micah McCormick: Submit and love.
Micah McCormick: Those are two of the main categories that Peter uses.
Micah McCormick: So now we're kind of getting into why I said in 1 Peter, the main lens is not that I am in a battle with the people that are out there, because he doesn't say to battle them, battle the sin that's that's there, and the sin that is out there, but most importantly in you.
Micah McCormick: But he says, submit in love.
Micah McCormick: Those are his two main exhortations here.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 13 of 1 Peter chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors, and he goes on to talk about governors.
Micah McCormick: And then look at verse number 18 of chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: Household slaves, submit to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to the cruel.
Micah McCormick: And he goes on to talk about those relationships.
Micah McCormick: Look at chapter 3, verse number 1.
Micah McCormick: In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, so that even if some disobey the word, they may be won over without a word by the way their wives live.
Micah McCormick: So you hear that repeated refrain there.
Micah McCormick: Submit, submit, submit.
Micah McCormick: Micah, you're saying that all those relationships are the same.
Micah McCormick: No, they're different relationships, but there's this common thread of submission.
Micah McCormick: Micah, you're saying there's never any exception to that?
Micah McCormick: No, I'm not saying that.
Micah McCormick: But our basic default mode is submit.
Micah McCormick: That's what Peter says to do right here.
Micah McCormick: But he also goes on to talk about the wonderful priority of love.
Micah McCormick: So look at what he says, starting up in verse number seven.
Micah McCormick: And he he starts now not with wives, but switches to husbands.
Micah McCormick: Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way as with the weaker partner, showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
Micah McCormick: And there's a lot of serious stuff here.
Micah McCormick: Wives live in this way so that your husbands might be won over by the word.
Micah McCormick: That sounds powerful.
Micah McCormick: Husbands, if you don't love your wives in an understanding way, God won't listen to your prayers.
Micah McCormick: That sounds pretty serious, right?
Micah McCormick: And then he goes on in chapter three to highlight verse number eight.
Micah McCormick: All of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another.
Micah McCormick: Verse number nine.
Micah McCormick: Not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult.
Micah McCormick: Verse number 11, now he's quoting from the Old Testament, let him turn away from evil and do what is good.
Micah McCormick: Let him seek peace and pursue it.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes we think of living as exiles as some kind of like exciting mission impossible sort of adventure where we're like, you know, you know, like submit to authorities, love other people, that sounds kind of boring.
Micah McCormick: It's not boring for the people of God.
Micah McCormick: And it's not easy either.
Micah McCormick: That takes supernatural power and grace to be able to live that way.
Micah McCormick: It's a lot harder to do those things than to fill in the blank whatever you think this this glorious thing God might call you to do.
Micah McCormick: Even just living that life of quiet godliness, Peter says that's so honorable in the Lord's eyes.
Micah McCormick: Last thing to highlight for tonight how do we live as exiles?
Micah McCormick: Well, exiles worship as an ordered family.
Micah McCormick: Why do I say that?
Micah McCormick: You're here in chapter 4, verse number eight.
Micah McCormick: Above all, maintain constant love.
Micah McCormick: So there's the theme we just hit.
Micah McCormick: And Peter himself says, I'm highlighting this above everything else.
Micah McCormick: Gotta maintain that love.
Micah McCormick: He says, for one another.
Micah McCormick: Verse 9, be hospitable to one another.
Micah McCormick: Who's the one another that he's talking about?
Micah McCormick: Certainly, we should maintain a love towards our unbelieving friends and neighbors.
Micah McCormick: Certainly, we want to maintain love towards all Christians everywhere as much as we can.
Micah McCormick: But these letters were read aloud in churches, in assemblies.
Micah McCormick: So the most immediate application here is love the people in your church.
Micah McCormick: Love the people that you assemble with and worship with.
Micah McCormick: Love and care for them.
Micah McCormick: And I think we can see that even more confirmed by the next verses, verse number 10 Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others as good stewards of the very grace of God.
Micah McCormick: Now we're in the language of gifts and body life.
Micah McCormick: And doesn't God give gifts to build up churches?
Micah McCormick: Yes, he does.
Micah McCormick: If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.
Micah McCormick: If anyone serves in the strength that God supplies.
Micah McCormick: So we're living as exiles, but we're not guerrilla renegades like Elijah.
Micah McCormick: I'm the only one left, Lord.
Micah McCormick: No, God's given us these outposts of heaven on earth in our churches that we can love and adore and worship.
Micah McCormick: And yes, that's the way that we shine as exiles in the world, not by so withdrawing that we never talk to the world, but our churches want to be such a city on a hill, such a light, that people would say, What's going on over there?
Micah McCormick: I need to hear more about this exile life and more about this crucified Christ.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 5.
Micah McCormick: He gets even more specific here with this kind of ordered life of the family of God.
Micah McCormick: I exhort the elders among you.
Micah McCormick: Not the elders of all time everywhere, the elders among you.
Micah McCormick: There's a specific group of people here that have specific elders.
Micah McCormick: Shepherd, this is verse 2 of chapter 5.
Micah McCormick: Shepherd God's flock among you, not overseen out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not out of greed for money, but eagerly, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Micah McCormick: So elders, shepherds, overseers, it's all language of the same office and type.
Micah McCormick: But these are men who are supposed to model what it means to love, what it means to live as an exile, what it means to speak God's word, not in a harsh way or as it says here, lording over, but in a way that's serving up the word for others.
Micah McCormick: So pray for us as elders that we would do that, just as we pray for each other and pray for all of you.
Micah McCormick: I'm going right to chapter 5 right now, so I'm glad that chimed in perfectly.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 5.
Micah McCormick: Look, look, just the last two verses to bring out tonight.
Micah McCormick: This hope that Peter has that though we're exiles, God's grace is behind our activities, and Christ's glory is ahead of us.
Micah McCormick: Verse number 11 to him be dominion forever and ever.
Micah McCormick: Amidst this letter of very tangible calls of suffering and what that could look like with insults and life in the home, and what that looks like with husbands and wives, and relating to emperors and kings, all those very earthly types of concerns that are legitimate, he's able to still set in the place that God's reigning in all of this.
Micah McCormick: And he reigns, verse number 10 of chapter 5, as a God of all grace, God's not looking to judge his exiles, he's looking to strengthen them and build them up and say, keep going.
Micah McCormick: As we say to one another, keep going as exiles.
Micah McCormick: A little while.
Micah McCormick: Eternal glory and dominion.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we we so find ourselves acclimated to comfort and ease that when we have just a little bit of suffering, we are quicker to gripe than to pray.
Micah McCormick: We don't want to be surprised, Lord.
Micah McCormick: We we want to have in mind that the work you're doing from beginning to end, we want to live devoted lives that we're so in love with Christ, some insulte.
Micah McCormick: Some suffering there, what is that compared to eternal glory?
Micah McCormick: What is that compared with knowing Jesus Christ the Son?
Micah McCormick: So, God, we call on you that by your grace you would equip us for every good work.
Micah McCormick: The good works in our places of work, the good works in our public sphere as citizens, the good works in our homes, that in every way you give us holiness and holy lives.
Micah McCormick: Lord, that you would, by your grace, more and more bind us to your people, bind us to an intense and sincere love for one another, and that you would yet help us to set our fully on, help set our set our hope fully on grace that's still coming.
Micah McCormick: A grace that'll come to us tomorrow and this week and this month and keep our faith.
Micah McCormick: But even the grace that comes when Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven, when we receive an internal inheritance that can't fade or spoil in any way, Lord, give us that heart that recognizes we're just strangers here.
Micah McCormick: We are exiles, we we are citizens of another place, and we're looking forward to that heavenly country.
Speaker 01: In Jesus' name, amen.