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Scripture for this morning is first Peter 1 1 through 5. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the despair uh dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Capadacea, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

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The word hope, H-O-P-E, what is hope? You know, we often use this word in everyday conversation. I use it all the time. I'm sure you do too. Maybe some of you are golfers and you're thinking about golfing tomorrow, and rain is not such a good thing. And so you tell someone I'm gonna golf tomorrow, and they ask, Do you think it's gonna rain? And you say, I hope not. I hope it doesn't rain. Sometimes I receive uh emails from people and it says, I hope this message finds you well. Or perhaps you've been in a work environment and you've been preparing a sales pitch or a presentation, and someone asks you, How are you feeling? Are you ready? And you say, Well, I'm hoping for the best. A couple more, maybe your favorite sports team. Basketball, baseball season just started, football. Maybe your favorite sports team kind of digs themselves into a hole, but then they score a touchdown, or they score a run, or they score a basket, and then you turn to the other person on the couch in your living room and say, There's a glimmer of hope. There's a chance. But lastly, maybe on a more serious note, maybe you're sick or you're injured, or a loved one is sick or injured and you're not doing well. Then someone asks how you're doing, and you say, I'm just I'm just clinging to hope right now. We use the word hope all the time. I use it all the time. I'm not gonna stop using it all the time, but oftentimes the way we use the word hope, especially in some of those examples I just gave you, it gives us the wrong impression of biblical hope. It gives us the wrong impression of true hope. See, when you say, I hope so, or I hope not, or I hope this message finds you well, what you're really talking about is optimism and positivity. You're longing for circumstances in the future to be good, not bad, or to get better and not get worse. What you're really talking about is worldly optimism and worldly positive thinking. Now here's the thing: positivity and optimism are not inherently bad. I'm kind of a naturally optimistic guy, sometimes to a fault. I like to see the bright side in things. But the thing about optimism and positivity is those are accessible to everybody. Those are not uniquely Christian concepts. Anybody can be optimistic. Anybody can long for good circumstances in the future or long for better circumstances in the future. You don't have to be a Christian to do that. But you do have to be a Christian. You do have to have a relationship with Jesus to have true hope, to have biblical hope. It's different from optimism and positivity. Because here's the thing the title of our message this morning is How does God give us hope? I'll tell you how he doesn't do it. He doesn't give us tips and tricks for more effective optimism and better positivity. That's not what he does. The way God gives us hope is by giving us his son, Jesus. That's how he gives us hope. John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life. God gives us hope by giving us Jesus. You see, as Christians, the object of our hope is not future circumstances that we think might get better. The object of our hope is Jesus Christ, a person who will never change, who rose from the dead and is alive today. That's the object of our hope. And as Christians, we have access to true hope, to biblical hope. It's different from optimism and positivity. It's so different and it's so much better. So how does God give us hope? Well, he gives us hope by giving us his son, Jesus. And honestly, church, we could go home right now. We already answered the question in the title of our message. But I don't want you to take my word for it. I want you to take God's word for it. And that's the case every Sunday, but especially today. So if you haven't already, turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1. 1 Peter, chapter 1, and I'll meet you there in just a moment to discover and discuss how God gives us hope. Now, for quite a while, we were in a preaching series, a teaching series through the parables of Jesus. I thoroughly enjoyed that series, and I hope that you did as well. Last Sunday, it was Easter Sunday, it was an awesome day. We celebrated our one-year anniversary, our first birthday as a campus. We had a standalone message in John chapter 20 all about resurrected life. Today begins a new teaching series. We are working our way through the books of 1st and 2 Peter starting today. It's going to take us a few months. We will take a break in the summer to do songs of the summer, some psalms from the Old Testament. But we'll pick right back up in August in 1 and 2 Peter, wherever we leave off. This teaching series is gonna is gonna keep us going for the next few months. 1 and 2 Peter, they are they are dense books. Today we're only talking about five verses. If you remember when we study the parables, sometimes we would bite off 23 verses at a time or 15 verses at a time. Today we're biting off five verses at a time. Peter is it's dense, but it's gonna be a blessing to your faith as we as we dig in. Hey, let's let's dive straight in to verse one. Context is always helpful whenever you study the Bible, especially when you start a new book of the Bible. But verse one of 1 Peter chapter 1 provides for us some of the context that we're looking for. The author and the audience. Who wrote the book of 1 Peter? To whom did he write it? In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1, if you look there in your Bibles, it says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, here's the thing: there is some debate about who wrote 1 and 2 Peter. There are some critics of the Bible that say Peter didn't write Peter. The problem is they're wrong, okay? I think Peter wrote 1 and 2 Peter, and you should too. Now, some people think that Peter didn't write it because later on in 1 Peter chapter 5, a guy by the name of Sylvanus is mentioned. That's long for Silas. Some people think Silas wrote the books of 1 and 2 Peter and then slapped Peter's name on it. Now, Silas probably was the scribe, he was the typewriter, maybe, but he didn't write the content. He just wrote down what Peter said to write. So we still think that Peter wrote the book. Other critics will say Peter could not have written these books. They're too eloquent. Peter was an uneducated, rough around the edges guy that didn't know Greek very well. And these two letters, first and second Peter, are too eloquent. They use Greek in too precise of a way. This couldn't have been Peter. How offensive is that? Could you imagine if someone came over to your house and you cooked a meal for them and they liked the meal so much, they were like, this is delicious. Where did you get it? Like, I got it from my kitchen. I cooked it. That's what they're doing to Peter here. They're saying this letter, these letters are too good. This couldn't have been Peter, but it was, it was Peter. Oxford campus. Here's why I think it was Peter. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1, it says that Peter wrote the book. And we have a reasonable faith. We have reasons to be aware of some criticism of the scriptures so that we can combat those criticisms, but it's sufficient when 1 Peter 1 1 says that Peter wrote the book. I have a mentor who loves to say the Bible only has to say something once in order for that one thing to be true. And the Bible here in 1 Peter 1 1 says Peter wrote the books. And so we believe Peter wrote these books. And that's important. We're spending a little bit of time talking about the author of these books because as you study these books, you'll see and you'll hear Peter in his letters. You know Peter. He was a close disciple of Christ. He was in many ways a spokesman for the disciples. He cut off someone's ear in the garden. He denied Christ three times. He preached a great message in Acts chapter 2. It's important that we know that Peter wrote these letters. Very important. Going on in verse 1, Peter addresses 1 Peter to five different locations, five different cities and towns and territories. Now these five locations are Gentile locations. This is another reason why some critics would say that Peter didn't write the book, because Peter primarily ministered to Jewish converts, not to Gentile converts. But the catch is that Peter is ministering to Jewish converts who have been exiled to Gentile territories. So even though we're in 1 Peter 1, verse 1, and he's addressing the letter to some Gentile territories, he's really writing to Jewish converts that have been exiled into these Gentile territories. That's why he says to the elect exiles in these five locations. Why are they exiled in these territories? Well, hundreds of years before Jesus, the Assyrians and the Babylonians and somewhat the Persians came and conquered the Holy Land and kicked out the Jews. And after some time, the Jews were allowed to come back, and many of them came back. If you remember Ezra and Nehemiah and rebuilding the wall. But even when the Jews were allowed to come back, many of them stayed in exile. And for centuries, for generations, planted roots in these Gentile territories. And here we are, just a couple decades after the resurrection of Christ, and Peter is writing to some of these Jewish converts who've been in these Gentile territories for generations, for centuries, to the elect exiles who are in these five Gentile locations. So Peter is writing 1 Peter to Jewish converts in Gentile territories. Very, very important. Peter goes on in verse 2. You thought we'd never make it to verse 2, right? Peter goes on in verse 2. And he says, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and the sprinkling of the Son's blood, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you. This is a very Trinitarian verse. By this, I simply mean that we as Christians, we believe in the Trinity. We do not believe in three gods. We believe in one God, in three persons God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. And we see each of these persons listed in verse 2 in some of their functions, some of their roles described here in verse 2. God the Father exercises foreknowledge. God the Son, his blood is sprinkled. God the Spirit, he sanctifies us. It's a Trinitarian verse. Let's begin with the function of God the Father, his foreknowledge. These exiles were elect because of God's foreknowledge. That's a big word in the Bible, foreknowledge. There are a couple different ways of understanding this word and thinking about this word. The first way, which I'll go ahead and tell you is not my favorite, but one way some people understand the word foreknowledge is they think that God looked ahead, looked down the corridor of time, so to speak, and gathered for himself information about the decisions humans would make in the future, and then used that future information to set in motion the universe that we enjoy today. Now, that's one way of understanding foreknowledge. It's not my favorite because it's kind of a weak understanding of God's foreknowledge and God's sovereignty. The understanding of God's foreknowledge that I prefer is a more intentional, more relational understanding of the word forenowledge. Oftentimes in the scriptures, the word no, K-N-O-W, it means so much more than a head knowledge. It's a relational term. Think about in Genesis chapter 4, verse 1, where Moses tells us that Adam, he knew Eve, K-N-E-W, he knew Eve, and Eve bore children. Now, I'm not going to give you a biology lesson, okay? But all of us understand that it wasn't Adam's simple head knowledge of Eve that impregnated her. They had relations. It was a relational term. Maybe a better reference is Matthew chapter 7, where Jesus says that one day many will stand before him and say, Lord, Lord. And to some of those people, Jesus will say, Depart from me, I never knew you. K-N-E-W. Now on that day, Jesus will not be saying, I had never heard your name. Of course, he knows everybody, he knows our names, he knows our stories, but on that day he will say, Depart from me, I never knew you. I never had a relationship with you. Oftentimes, the concept of knowing or knowledge, when that word is used in the Bible, it's less about head knowledge and it's more about intentional relationality, and that's what's going on in verse 2. God ahead of time intentionally decided those of us with whom he would have a relationship one day, and those of us with whom he would not. That's what foreknowledge means. It's more than just looking ahead down the corridor of time and gathering information. No, God is sovereign and he exercised his sovereignty in his foreknowledge. We go on to learn that the Son sprinkled his blood for us. Now, this is kind of an odd way to talk about the blood of Christ. Usually, when we talk about the blood of Christ, we say that it was poured out for us or it was shed for us. Now, as Baptists, we try to avoid the word sprinkling as much as we can, you know. But I really think that we shouldn't talk about Christ's blood being sprinkled, because it kind of makes light of what he did on the cross. He didn't get a paper cut on the cross and his blood was sprinkled for us. No, he was in agony and pain on the cross. His blood was poured out and shed for us. But what Peter's not doing in verse 2 is he's not making light of the crucifixion. He would never do that. Remember, his audience is an audience of Jewish converts, and the Jewish converts would recognize this phrase, sprinkling of blood, and their minds would immediately remember Leviticus chapter 16. In Leviticus chapter 16, Moses describes the Day of Atonement. It's an annual day of atonement when the high priests would take some blood from a sacrificed animal and go into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat. And Peter here is saying, that day of atonement, the last one was on the first Good Friday. We don't need days of atonement anymore. Christ's blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat once for all for us. The first Good Friday was the last day of atonement. His sacrifice is final and conclusive and sufficient for us. Lastly, we see the Spirit sanctifying us. Basically, to say the Spirit is making us more and more like Jesus every single day. And praise God for that work in my life. Peter goes on to say, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you. I love that word multiplied. Church, we have to be a community, a campus, a church of multiplication, and not a church of addition. Here's what I mean. This works on an individual level, this works on a church level. As an individual Christian, if you make zero disciples, the kingdom of God is losing ground. As an individual Christian, if you make one disciple over your lifetime, the kingdom of God is treading water. But as an individual Christian, if you make two or more disciples over your lifetime, now we're talking. Now the kingdom of God is multiplying, and the kingdom of God is taking ground for Jesus. This works on a church level too. As a church, if we plant zero churches, the kingdom of God is losing ground. But as a church, if we plant one church, the kingdom of God is treading water. But as a church, if we plant two or more churches, now the kingdom of God is multiplying. Peter doesn't say grace and peace be added unto you. He says, Grace and peace be multiplied to you. We've got to be a church of multiplication and not a church of addition. Hey, brothers and sisters, we should probably take some notes this morning. What do you say? Hey, number one on your notes this morning is this. Number one, he reigns over our past and our present. What we see in verses one and two that we just talked about for a few minutes is that the first way God gives us hope is by reigning over our past and our present. He's not reacting to our past and our present. He's not responding to our past and our present. He's sovereign over it. We see that in verses one and two. You know, I think about it this way. Just a few weeks ago, uh, my my friend and our worship pastor, Pastor Jackson, had a birthday, okay? And uh we uh his wife Jamie and my wife Hannah and some others planned a surprise birthday party for Pastor Jackson. And a couple weeks ago there was a spring concert at our downtown campus. And so during the concert in the fellowship hall at our downtown campus, we had uh some pizza and some balloons and some cupcakes. And the story, as I understand it, is the way that Jamie got Jackson to the fellowship hall is went to the sanctuary and said, Jackson, I need to get something from Pastor Riley, and he has it for us in the fellowship hall. Can we go to the fellowship hall real quick? And Jackson is like, What do we need from Riley? Why is Riley in the fellowship hall? Why can't he just come up here? What is going on? But he complied, went to the fellowship hall, and found a surprise birthday party waiting for him with pizza and cupcakes and balloons. Now, what does that have to do with God reigning over your past and your present? Here's what it has to do. If the surprise birthday party is God accomplishing something in your life or through your life, we should respond in the right way. Don't walk into the surprise birthday party with pride and arrogance and say, oh, it's about time you guys celebrated me. I've accomplished so much in the past year. In fact, this pizza and these cupcakes, that's not even enough. It's about time. No, no, when God accomplishes something in your life and through your life, don't be prideful and arrogant about it, thinking you deserve it or that you deserve more. God's not responding or reacting to your past or your present. He's reigning over it, he's sovereign over it. Don't be prideful and arrogant. There's another way I think that many of us might walk into the surprise birthday party. We might walk in realizing that there's some people trying to celebrate us, and we might walk in and say, oh no, you guys, let's shut down the party, take the pizza home. Like you, there is, I am not worth celebrating this year. If you knew all the things I've done this year, the people I've hurt, the mistakes I've made, shut down the party. No, no, no, no. You walk into the party with shame and guilt. And maybe God is accomplishing something in your life or through your life, and you're responding with shame and guilt because of your past. Well, the good news, brothers and sisters, God is not responding or reacting to your past or your present. He's reigning over it. He's sovereign over it. And he's not done with you yet. And when you recognize the sovereignty of God, it combats pride and arrogance, it combats shame and guilt. God is reigning over your past and your present. And when you recognize that reality, it gives you hope right now. Amen. Hey, brothers and sisters, number two on your notes is this. Number two, he provides abundant reasons to praise him. The second way in which God gives us hope, he provides abundant reasons to praise him. Look with me in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3. In 1 Peter 1 3, Peter says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he caused us to be born again because of the resurrection of his Son Jesus, and we've been born again unto God. To a living hope. The key word in verse 3, brothers and sisters, is that first word, blessed, blessed. Peter is responding to the sovereignty of God in verses 1 and 2. He's responding in verse 3. The only right way to respond, he's responding in worship. Sometimes when we learn about the sovereignty of God and his comprehensive, his exhaustive control over all things, we might respond in disbelief or denial or disdain. But not Peter. In verse 3, Peter responds in worship. And he says, bless God. And when you learn about the sovereignty of God and how God is reigning over all things, including your past and your present, you should respond in worship. You should respond by blessing God. And in verse 3, Peter gives us several reasons why we should bless God. Bless God because He's our Father in heaven. This is the second time that Peter has referred to God as our Father already in this book, which is somewhat of a foreign concept to Jewish converts, but God is our Father in heaven. Jesus Christ is our Lord. Praise God. God has great mercy. He has abundant mercy. Praise God. Mercy is different from grace. Grace is when we get that which we don't deserve. Mercy is when we don't get that which we do deserve. God in his great mercy cast his wrath onto Jesus on the cross. And if we believe in Jesus, we don't get what we do deserve, the cross. God has great mercy. Praise him for that. He caused us to be born again. He didn't just cause us to be saved, he caused us to be born again. He adopted us into his family. Praise God. We have a living hope. Remember, our hope is not in future circumstances that might be good or better. Our hope is Jesus. And our hope is living because our hope is a person and Jesus is alive today. It says that in verse 3, he's resurrected from the dead. Praise God, praise God, praise God. Verse 3 is just full of abundant reasons to praise the Lord. And if you wake up every day in a posture of praise, choosing to praise the Lord, then you won't spiral into despair. But your heart and your mind will be filled with hope. One of the ways God gives you hope is by giving you abundant reasons to praise Him. Think about it this way. Just a couple weeks ago, um, I had the opportunity to officiate a wedding for Hannah's sister. So Hannah has one sibling, older sister, and I had the chance to uh officiate that wedding. They were actually here in this building last weekend for Easter Sunday. They live in Tampa. The wedding was in Tampa. Now, I I have a preference to officiate weddings in church buildings, okay? I don't have a conviction about it, just a preference. I do have a conviction about marriage itself. I think it's a sacred covenant between two people, but I think the location of it just kind of signals the sacred nature of the relationship. Anyways, this matters because the wedding I officiated a couple weeks ago was uh it was in an industrial co-working space that gets converted to an event center in the evenings. Okay, so I was admittedly a little nervous about it. At the rehearsal dinner, uh you've got offices for lease and for rent and conference rooms and all kinds of stuff that's being moved around to make it into a wedding venue. And I was like, looking around, this is different from doing a wedding in a church, this is different, this could go wrong, this could go wrong. I was seeing everything through negative lenses until I talked to the DJ. I talked to the DJ for this wedding, and he walks up and he's like, Man, isn't this place awesome? And I was like, It's alright. He's like, Are you excited? I'm like, Oh, you're making me a little excited. Tell me more. And he's like, Well, man, I barely have to bring any tech. They've got great speakers and mics, and like the way the acoustics and the buildings arranged, all the people in the audience can hear you so great when you're talking, and then the the DJ stand is here and the dance floor's here, and it just flows so good. I was like, Have you done weddings here before? He's like, I've done several, and every one of them goes great. And I was like, All right, I'm excited now. And it went great, it was awesome. But here's the thing: same venue, two totally different mindsets, two totally different lenses on the venue. And we should look at life, not like how I was looking at that venue, but how the DJ was looking at the venue. Brothers and sisters, you can wake up in the morning and you can find something to be negative about. Ah, my back hurts, the price of gas has gone way up, this person won't call me back, I gotta go to another doctor's appointment, my kids or my grandkids, this and that, you can find something to be negative about. I'm I guarantee you. But a better option is to wake up and choose to praise the Lord. If you wake up and choose to praise the Lord because he's your father, Jesus is your Lord, God our Father is great in mercy. We've been born again, we have a living hope because our hope is Jesus and He's alive. If you wake up and you choose instead to praise the Lord, your heart will not spiral into despair, but your heart will be filled with hope. Now, this is different from what we discussed at the beginning of our Bible study optimism and positive thinking. This is praising the Lord. This is praising the Lord with certainty, with substance. He will never change. No matter what's happening to you, in you, around you, for you, against you, it does not matter. There will always be abundant reasons to praise the Lord. And when you choose to praise the Lord, that's one of the ways God gives you hope. Hey, brothers and sisters, the last thing on your notes is this, number four. Sorry, number three. He secures your future. Number three, on your notes, the third way God gives us hope is by securing our future. Look with me in verses four and five of 1 Peter chapter 1. In verse 4, Peter tells us that for those of us who have been born again, God is going to give us an inheritance. An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading. And then in verse 5, he tells us there's a salvation awaiting us at the last time. Verse 4, and elsewhere in the scriptures where it talks about our inheritance of the kingdom of God, is always, it's always shocking to me. It is too much. It is too kind that God would promise us an inheritance. See, he didn't have to do that. Well, first of all, he didn't have to save us, but he didn't have to save us and then write us into his will, write us into the estate, make us joint heirs with Jesus to the kingdom of God. That is too much. He already exercised mercy on us. He withheld from us that which we do deserve, the cross and eternal punishment, eternal death. But here he is not just exercising mercy on us, but exercising grace on us and promising us an inheritance. We don't deserve to be saved, and we certainly don't deserve to inherit the kingdom of God. But we are promised an inheritance. The inheritance is so great, we don't know how to describe it. Peter doesn't know how to describe it. And when you're trying to describe something indescribable, all you have to do is use negative contrasts. Peter says, Well, I know stuff that dies, I know stuff that perishes, and this inheritance that God is promising us, it's imperishable. Peter says, I know stuff that is that is dirty and impure, but this inheritance that God is promising us, it's undefiled. And he says, I know stuff that withers and fades away, but this inheritance God is promising us, it is unfading. The inheritance is undeserved, it's too much, it's too kind, and it's so indescribable. All Peter can do is describe it with negative contrast. He doesn't even know what to say. It's amazing that we're promised to inherit the kingdom of God. And our future is secure, our inheritance is secure. In verse five, we're also promised a salvation at the last time. I want to be clear about this because uh the Bible talks about salvation in a few different ways. You were saved, you are being saved, you will be saved. What is going on in verse five when Peter says, there's a salvation awaiting you at the last time? What is he saying? Stick with me here. I'm gonna use some big words. And some of you are like, you've already used some big words. I know. I'm gonna use some more big words, okay? So one way to think about it is you have your justification salvation. The moment in time when you become a Christian, you are saved from the penalty of your sin. You want a really big word? It's punctility or justification. The moment when you cross from death to life, you are saved from the penalty of your sin. You were saved. And that can never be revoked. You cannot lose your salvation. That is secure. Today, you have your sanctification salvation. You are being saved. Every day we wake up and the Holy Spirit is saving us from the power of sin in our lives. The Holy Spirit is helping us combat the power of sin in our lives. We are being saved. Lastly, you have your glorification salvation. One day you will be saved from the very presence of sin. And I can't wait for that day. In the new heavens and the new earth, death will be no more, pain will be no more, sin will be no more. And this glorification salvation is what Peter is referencing in verse 5. You will one day be saved from the presence of sin. You were saved from the penalty of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin in our lives, and one day there's a salvation awaiting us at the end of time. We will be saved from the presence of sin altogether when we're in the presence of God Himself. Our future is secure, our inheritance is secure. Our salvation is secure. You know, think about it this way. Uh, just a couple of weeks ago, uh, we have three kids. Uh we have a four-year-old, a three-year-old, and a two-year-old. And um, just a few weeks ago, we introduced them to the Disney movie Cars. Okay, this movie came out uh 20 years ago in 2006. I can't believe it's 20 years old already. Now, if if you got problems with Disney and you got problems with me showing my kids a Disney movie, you can email me. Uh my email is Jackson Kirchival at fbcleisberg.org, okay? So we we showed them the movie Cars and they loved it. They loved this movie, okay? But if you've if you've never seen the movie, um, I won't spoil it for you, but there is one part in the movie where a big, scary tractor named Frank comes popping out of the bushes and he starts chasing the main character, Lightning McQueen. And Lightning McQueen gets away, and we never see Frank again the rest of the movie. But my middle child, my three-year-old daughter Piper, was so scared of Frank. And the rest of the movie, she was wondering if Frank was gonna pop back out. And we finished the movie and we went to bed, and Hannah and I were sure that Piper was gonna have nightmares about Frank. But Piper slept fine, all the kids slept fine, they woke up the next day and they wanted to watch the movie again. We gave it a few days before we watched it again, but we did let them watch it again this past week. And you know, it was different for Piper this time because she knew the scene where Frank pops out of the bushes and it didn't scare her this time. And she knew that Frank never returns again in the movie, so she watched the rest of the movie calm and collected. You see, brothers and sisters, shouldn't we go through life like a three-year-old watching a Disney movie for the second time? You know how the story ends. Your future is secure, and your confidence in the security of your future gives you hope right now. It may be painful right now. Christ doesn't promise to take all of our pain away right now. I wish he did, but he doesn't. But you know the hope that you have in the midst of that pain, your secure future. It's like you're watching a movie again, you know how it ends, and that gives you hope right now. You know, I heard one, I heard one preacher put it this way this week. Worldly optimism is you always asking what if, but biblical hope is you always saying even if. Let me say that again. Worldly optimism is you always asking what if, but biblical hope is you always saying, even if. Worldly optimism, what if my finances don't get better? Well, what if I lose the house? What if I lose the car? What if it's what if it's repoed? What if it's foreclosed? What if, what if, what if? But biblical hope says, even if my financial situation does not get better, God is in control and my future is secure. Or worldly optimism. You might say, well, what if I'm sick, I'm injured, what if I don't get better? What if I have to live the rest of my life differently because of something in my body? Or what if I pass away too early and I leave behind my spouse or my kids or my grandkids? What if, what if, what if? But biblical hope says, even if my body doesn't get better, God is in control and my future is secure. There's a difference, brothers and sisters, between optimism and positivity and biblical hope. The object of your hope is not in future circumstances that might be good or might get better. The object of your hope is a living hope because it's a person who's alive today and his name is Jesus. You can have hope right now because your future is secure. Praise God for that. Well, hey church, this morning we've we've kicked off our series through the books of 1 and 2 Peter by talking about how God gives us hope. He doesn't give us optimism, he doesn't give us positivity, he gives us something different, something that's only accessible to his children. He gives us hope. And he gives us hope by reigning over our past and our present. It doesn't matter how good or bad you think your past was or is, God reigns over it. He's not responding or reacting to it, he reigns over it. God gives us hope by providing for us abundant reasons to praise him. Wake up tomorrow and choose to praise God. Watch what it does to your soul. Lastly, God gives us hope by securing our future. Your future is secure in Christ. But hey, maybe you're here today and you're not a Christian. Can I tell you I'm so glad that you're here? But maybe you're saying, Pastor Gary, I'm not experiencing hope. I'm not experiencing anything close to hope. My life is full of despair. I'm searching for hope and I don't know where to find it. Can I tell you you've come to the right place? More importantly, you've come to the right person. Jesus wants to be your living hope. If you'll surrender, repent, and believe in Him. He wants to be that for you. And so if you're here today and you're not a Christian, but you want to make today the day of your salvation. Today, the day when you're saved from the penalty of your sins once and for all. Let me tell you what's about to happen. In just a moment, I'm going to pray to close our time of Bible study. And when I say amen, everyone in the room will stand to sing one more song of worship. As we sing, a lot of our members will reflect and pray while standing in their pews. Many of our members will come forward and kneel at the altar to pray. But if you're here today and you're not a Christian, but you want to become a Christian, as we sing, I would encourage you to walk the aisles, grab one of our pastors, and say, I need hope today. Help me become a Christian today. It's the best decision you'll ever make. Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, we love you and we praise you. We're grateful for the gospel, for the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is alive today, and he's our living hope. God, I pray for my brothers and sisters in the room that you would help these five verses in 1 Peter chapter 1 to take root in our hearts in the coming days and weeks and bear fruit. God, I pray for my brother or my sister who came in with a big weight, a big burden today. God, I pray that they've they've seen Jesus this morning, that they've gained hope this morning as a result of studying your word and being around your people. God, I lift up to you that person in the room who's not a Christian, who does not yet have a right relationship with you through Christ. God, would you make today the day of their salvation? As we sing and pray in just a moment, and people are coming forward. Would you help that person in the room who needs to place their faith in Jesus for the first time? Step out, walk the aisle, and grab one of our pastors. And more importantly, than meeting one of our pastors, meet your son Jesus. God, we give this time over to you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.