SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_00: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_00: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get into a series now on 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about prevailing through problems.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's principles for prevailing through problems.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to have a lot of problems this year.
SPEAKER_00: You have your regular problems that everybody has, but this year in our nation, with it being an election year, there's going to be a lot of surprises coming our way.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like it's my responsibility as the leader and senior pastor of the road to prepare you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically for what's coming down.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to be able to be a people that can hold our chest out, our shoulders back, and our head up with an optimal confidence that comes through the resurrection of Christ in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Easter's right around the corner.
SPEAKER_00: And we have that every year.
SPEAKER_00: We have this risen Jesus commemoration, as it were, and we're going to do communion today, which is very similar to that also, because we believe in a resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in a resurrected Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that you can have optimistic hope about the future, not based on who's president, not based on Congress, not based on the UN, of course not, not based on the WEF, but based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's good news.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we mean by kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_00: So turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter, and we're gonna look at the first half of the first verse, and then we're gonna look at Peter.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna actually look at the guy, and I've never heard a sermon on this, but I felt led to put one together for this because I feel like Peter's such a great model to us of how dumb we are, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, just stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter's mentioned more than any of the other apostles, mentioned 19 times in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And I think we could say that Peter is the comeback kid of the year.
SPEAKER_00: He's the comeback kid of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about Peter is I'm so much like Peter, and uh and you're so much like Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is like David, you know, David in the Old Testament, Peter in the New Testament, where we get to see a lot of the mistakes of these two guys and how much they messed up and how broken they were.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, with David, you know, he becomes king of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He's a man after God's own heart, even with adulterous relationship in his background, uh pretty crummy family life, quite frankly.
SPEAKER_00: Murdered a guy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he'd be in prison, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And if he was not in prison in our day and age, we'd all say David's bipolar.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he just seems like, but yet God says he's a man after my own heart.
SPEAKER_00: So God looks at things really different than we do.
SPEAKER_00: And he looks at you really different than the way you look at you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Peter's that way.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's this impetuous, emotional, insecure, embryonic leader who Jesus notices something in him.
SPEAKER_00: He sees something about this guy who's never been to seminary, probably never had a public education.
SPEAKER_00: He's a commercial fisherman, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Probably in a commercial business with his brother Andrew.
SPEAKER_00: He's a nobody from any standard, even in that time.
SPEAKER_00: He's just blue-collar Peter, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But God, through Jesus, speaks something into him.
SPEAKER_00: And so you know what he says in Matthew 16?
SPEAKER_00: It says, This is Simon, the son of Barjona, Simon, who I'm gonna rename you Peter the Rock.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Simon means?
SPEAKER_00: Simon means flat-nosed.
SPEAKER_00: I think I would take Peter for a new chant transition in names.
SPEAKER_00: And Dwayne Johnson was not the first rock, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But he's he's like this, you know, and if you get to know Simon, Cephas, Simon, the son of Barjonah, you can see why he was flat-nosed.
SPEAKER_00: He probably got smashed a lot in fights because always sticking his nose in the wrong places.
SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to do here at the beginning is I want to look at Simon-filled Peter and Spirit-filled Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And they're really different, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And this is true for everyone of this room.
SPEAKER_00: If you're depending on your power to live your Christian life, it's gonna be a disaster.
SPEAKER_00: But if you trust the Spirit, if you walk in the power of the Spirit, it will be victorious in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look first at some qualities of the Simon-filled Peter.
SPEAKER_00: The Simon-filled Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, Simon tends to make quick emotional decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody like that?
SPEAKER_00: Any of you make quick emotional decisions?
SPEAKER_00: You know, so here he is in a boat, storm's coming, Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_00: They think it's a ghost at first.
SPEAKER_00: He comes up, he sees him walking on the water, he says, if it's you, if it's you, command me to come, get out of the boat, and I'll walk to the water to you.
SPEAKER_00: And so, emotional decision.
SPEAKER_00: He gets out of the boat, he starts walking, and then he goes, Oh my goodness, I'm walking on water.
SPEAKER_00: And then he starts to sink.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so talk about a splash course in faith, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so he's an emotional guy, he makes emotional decisions, doesn't think things through.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, Simon is opinionated and opens the door to Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Simon is opinionated and he opens the door to Satan.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus, on one occasion in Matthew 18, Matthew 16, is talking to his disciples about going to Jerusalem and suffering many things there, it says in verse 22, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine you rebuking Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a, I don't think any of the other 11 were probably in the mood to rebuke Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So at this point, Jesus has healed the sick, he's cast out demons, he's preached the kingdom, he's taken on the Pharisees and the Sadducees, top leaders in Israel, with confidence and with this uh just the perfect word at the perfect time.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter knows more than him.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the kind of guy we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: His opinion matters more than anything else.
SPEAKER_00: So he pulls Jesus aside, and this is what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Far be it from you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Far be it from you.
SPEAKER_00: I can see, far be it from you, Jesus, but he says, far be it from you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You ever had like a you ever been in prayer and said, far be it from you, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: So he said, far be it from you, Lord, that any of this should happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says to Peter, get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: You're listening more to men than to God.
SPEAKER_00: So he's very opinionated and he just blurts stuff out.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Number three, Simon is ambitious for himself.
SPEAKER_00: Simon, the Simon Phil Peter is ambitious for himself.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what motivated Peter in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was this real, authentic kind of real faith in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He's a fisherman.
SPEAKER_00: Andrew tells him about him.
SPEAKER_00: They come, they follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't take long for Peter to realize this guy's really popular.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, people really dig this guy.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly you're kind of a rock star.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're you're part of the Rolling Stones now, you know, the Jesus Rolling Stones kind of digs it.
SPEAKER_00: So he starts to think, look, you know, we're taking all this stuff from people and everything, and like, what's in it for us?
SPEAKER_00: What are we gonna get?
SPEAKER_00: And then and then James and John, the sons of thunder, they even say to Jesus, can we sit on the throne with you?
SPEAKER_00: Can we, can we be on the as a mom.
SPEAKER_00: Their mom's like behind it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And they're and so that's Peter, and that's James and John too.
SPEAKER_00: They're ambitious for themselves, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Number four, Simon is boastful and arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: Simon is boastful and arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: At the Last Supper, Peter decides to tell Jesus what he is willing to do.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to Jesus, even if all, in other words, what he's saying is, even if all of them are made to stumble because of you, I will never stumble.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to him, Assuredly I say to you, this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's from Jesus, Lord Jesus to Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says to him, No, even, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.
SPEAKER_00: And then you guys know the rest of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Within hours, dark, not even light of day, dark, like dark, dark, like really dark, like you can't see hardly anybody dark.
SPEAKER_00: Fireplace, you know, fire going.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's there.
SPEAKER_00: A servant girl, not a soldier, not an emissary from the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: A servant girl comes up and says, You're a follower.
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you think, oh man, I he just said I would deny him.
SPEAKER_00: So, hey, I repent right now.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am a follower.
SPEAKER_00: No, denies him again.
SPEAKER_00: That's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Denies him again.
SPEAKER_00: So he's very arrogant, he's very boastful, doesn't know himself very well, very insecure.
SPEAKER_00: Number five, Simon is a coward.
SPEAKER_00: Simon is a coward when opposition comes.
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of big talk, we'd say in the South, big talk, no do.
SPEAKER_00: Bragging, arrogant, cocksure of himself.
SPEAKER_00: But really, when the when the pressure's on, he folds under pressure, just like most churches did during COVID.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just like a like a house of cards, man.
SPEAKER_00: Big talk about victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Big talk about resurrection power.
SPEAKER_00: And then everybody says, close down because of COVID.
SPEAKER_00: And so most of them did.
SPEAKER_00: And we didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And nobody got, we got COVID, but nobody died.
SPEAKER_00: So come on, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: So in 2024, are you gonna fold under cultural pressure?
SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna walk by faith and actually do our medical research and homework so we're not idiots?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So God calls us to be strong, and this is what one writer says about Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Simon was anything but a rock.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't dependable the way a Christian leader needs to be.
SPEAKER_00: Without God's spirit, he often spoke or acted in a way that would be inappropriate for a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: His actions belied in underlying insecurity in spite of his outward confidence.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus could see in Peter something.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I love about the story.
SPEAKER_00: Three and a half years of what I just read to you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a few shining moments.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he understands, he's probably the first one to understand Jesus, son of God, but then right around that corner, he's telling Jesus what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus sees something in this guy, and he says, You're not Simon Barjona the flat-nosed.
SPEAKER_00: You're Peter the rock.
SPEAKER_00: This is before Dwayne Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: You're Peter the rock.
SPEAKER_00: I've got something I'm going to build in you through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And men and women, that's what Jesus says to you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not what your parents said.
SPEAKER_00: You're not what that coach said.
SPEAKER_00: You're not what that person said to you that tried to drive you down.
SPEAKER_00: You're courageous, you're strong in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That same spirit in Simon, who became Peter the Rock, is the same spirit that's in you if you follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great news?
SPEAKER_00: No matter what's coming down, no matter what kind of problems you're going to face this year, you can be like the spirit-filled Peter.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at that.
SPEAKER_00: Four qualities of the spirit-filled Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the spirit-filled Peter went from coward to courageous.
SPEAKER_00: Went from coward to courageous.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit comes down.
SPEAKER_00: Just 50 days from when Simon filled Peter deals with a servant girl at night, denies he knows Jesus three times.
SPEAKER_00: He now stands up in the midst of thousands of people that are gathered from all these nations around Asia Minor, North Africa, and he proclaims at the risk of his life that Jesus is the only way, and 3,000 get saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Less than two months later, this guy who can't even admit that he's a Jesus follower to a servant girl now stands as a leader of a burgeoning yet embryonic tiny little group of followers who now have gotten filled with the Spirit, and he's in big trouble now.
SPEAKER_00: But he's bold, he's courageous, he's strong because of the spirit-filled life.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_00: The whole rest of the book of Acts is this.
SPEAKER_00: But Acts chapter 4, he gets put in prison for healing a guy.
SPEAKER_00: They release him, and the first thing that he does is he brings together everyone, and he says this, and it came to pass on the next day, the rulers and the elders and the scribes, okay, this is this is Biden's cabinet, this is Congress, and he's the House of Representatives, this is the Senate, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is CNN is there, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And MSNBC there, Fox News, they're all there.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Today Show with Katie Curt.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're all there.
SPEAKER_00: As well as Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you gotta understand what this is, guys.
SPEAKER_00: This is big stuff.
SPEAKER_00: These are the top leaders in the nation at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had set them in the midst of them, so John and Peter are right there, by what power or by what name have you done this?
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen some of our pastors on shows?
SPEAKER_00: How they know how to skip and they know how to jump and they know how to answer everything except something straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: Well, listen to Peter.
SPEAKER_00: This is spirit-filled, Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter, comma, filled with the Holy Spirit, comma, said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you and everyone else and all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you whole.
SPEAKER_00: This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is there salvation in any other?
SPEAKER_00: For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, come on, that's good stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, Peter could have started off in English vernacular, he could have said, Bring it on.
SPEAKER_00: Just bring it on.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that this one that you crucified has risen from the grave, and there's no other name that man can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine even an evangelical leader saying that on national TV?
SPEAKER_00: Unless it's some kind of a crusade or something.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, where they're actually just been brought in because they're under some kind of jurisdiction of that governor or that particular person, but to just say it to this is Peter transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the spirit-filled Peter goes from bragging to praying, goes from bragging to praying.
SPEAKER_00: So in Acts 4, same passage, they get released.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of bragging about what God did, they actually go straight into a prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00: And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
SPEAKER_00: So when they had heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of your servant David have said, Why did the nations rage and the peoples plot vain things?
SPEAKER_00: He's quoting Psalm 2.
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the earth take their stand, the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, there's nothing new here.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing new with what's happening in our country.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing new with the persecution that's happening in Africa right now and across Latin America.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing new.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when there's a kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_00: And so we prayed for Nicaragua a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: We prayed for that team in Nicaragua because they're bringing a kingdom of God revolution and the authorities, Daniel Ortega as president, they're bringing this, they're bringing this persecution against the church.
SPEAKER_00: My brother just got back a few days ago from being in Nicaragua and teaching 200 pastors down there.
SPEAKER_00: So, so this is the way it is.
SPEAKER_00: You follow Jesus, you become a kingdom of God person.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to reality.
SPEAKER_00: The world doesn't like you as much.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what happens there's these people, there's these pockets of people that then go, I really like what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: That's truth right there.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize how many of the podcasters, how many of the secular people in America right now that are truth seekers are becoming Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Unreal.
SPEAKER_00: Hollywood's going through some real turmoil because these people are starting to read this book.
SPEAKER_00: I listen to all kinds of podcasters.
SPEAKER_00: Most of them aren't even Christians because they're more truth seekers than the Christians are.
SPEAKER_00: And so I so I listen to them, you know, and I'll hear them say from time to time, I've been reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I read the Bible, I read the whole Bible last year.
SPEAKER_00: I read the Bible, I read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh man, you're in so much trouble.
SPEAKER_00: You think it was hard because you're a true seeker now.
SPEAKER_00: Way to become a true seeker of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: That's good stuff, man.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, the spirit-filled Peter goes from being a talker to a leader.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit-filled Peter goes from being a talker to a leader.
SPEAKER_00: So he's big.
SPEAKER_00: Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
SPEAKER_00: Tuk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
SPEAKER_00: Always talking.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care about talk.
SPEAKER_00: I care about walk.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about leaders.
SPEAKER_00: So first test for Peter was this couple.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of seems like they're a wealthy couple named Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_00: And so what they do is they say they sold all this land and they're giving all this money to the church, but they were lying.
SPEAKER_00: So then Peter says, because you've lied to the Holy Spirit, you're dead.
SPEAKER_00: And then one of them drops over dead.
SPEAKER_00: Then the wife comes, she drops over dead.
SPEAKER_00: So if anybody ever tells you, we go to a New Testament church, then you have to ask them, how many people have died during your worship services?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So this is this is a leader.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's becoming a leader.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just a talker, big talk, with powerful to-do in his walk with God.
SPEAKER_00: And then number four, the spirit-filled Peter goes from ambitious to humble.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Peter has been humbled.
SPEAKER_00: He's been broken, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: And through the breaking in his life, he's humbled by that.
SPEAKER_00: And we see less of Peter after that.
SPEAKER_00: We see more of the Holy Spirit in Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why in chapter 5 of 1 Peter, we're going to get there in a few months.
SPEAKER_00: He writes, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Peter got it.
SPEAKER_00: Peter understood that a Simon-filled Peter is no good.
SPEAKER_00: But a spirit-filled Peter, there's no end to the mountains that can be moved by that kind of a man in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say this to you guys despite your past failures, mistakes, or sin, Jesus sees potential in you and he renames you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not whatever is the name given to you at birth, you're a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: You are a son of God.
SPEAKER_00: You are a daughter of God.
SPEAKER_00: You're beloved of God.
SPEAKER_00: God, you're a king and a priest.
SPEAKER_00: You know what a king is?
SPEAKER_00: A king is a leader.
SPEAKER_00: A king is someone who understands their territory, and then in benevolence and love, a kingdom of God king, it ministers love, kindness, peace, and prosperity to the people.
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound like our government?
SPEAKER_00: You see, here's the thing to remember in history.
SPEAKER_00: Always in history, always in history, and we've been really fortunate for 250 years that this is different in America, but the story of history is the story of despotic leaders who want worship.
SPEAKER_00: Little Neroes.
SPEAKER_00: Little Neroes out there that it's not about you anymore, it's about them.
SPEAKER_00: And the same thing can happen in America.
SPEAKER_00: And we need a kingdom of God revolution, like we read about in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter's transformed, and you and I can be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: So look at verse 1 again.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims, circle pilgrims of the dispersion, circle of dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
SPEAKER_00: So there was this group that came out of Scrooby, England, a few hundred years ago called Pilgrims.
SPEAKER_00: When I was in school, we used to study the pilgrims.
SPEAKER_00: I asked some kids some questions when I was at the youth retreat yesterday, and I had to explain what a pilgrim was because of the kind of history that they're getting these days.
SPEAKER_00: But pilgrims came and they called themselves, the government didn't call them pilgrims.
SPEAKER_00: There wasn't a pilgrim's book of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: No, they called themselves pilgrims because they saw themselves as pilgrims.
SPEAKER_00: That means that we're sojourners.
SPEAKER_00: We're passing through.
SPEAKER_00: You and I have a dual citizenship.
SPEAKER_00: You're a citizen of the kingdom and you're a citizen of America.
SPEAKER_00: You're a citizen of kingdom, or if you're from another country, citizen of that country.
SPEAKER_00: But you're a citizen of this earth and you're a citizen of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the citizenship of the kingdom of God is the most important.
SPEAKER_00: Secondarily, is citizen in the United States of America.
SPEAKER_00: But we have a dual citizenship, and there seems to be a growing sense within evangelicalism that what it means to be a citizen of the kingdom is whatever happens within these four walls.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me what to do between these four walls.
SPEAKER_00: But then when you leave, you gotta act like everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Don't cause any problems, don't cause any stir.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I read about here in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: God calls us to be kingdom citizens that go into the kingdom of America and make a difference here.
SPEAKER_00: That actually share our faith and have integrity and tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: It's a real bummer to be a liar.
SPEAKER_00: Because you don't know who you lied to.
SPEAKER_00: So I was telling the kids on Saturday, say the problem with lying is you forget who you've lied to.
SPEAKER_00: So you're trying to remember all the time which lie did you tell and how much did you embellish it?
SPEAKER_00: And is this the same crowd that you told it to?
SPEAKER_00: And it's so much more freeing and joyful to just do something that the scriptures talk about called tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: So I love truth seekers.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be truth seekers.
SPEAKER_00: Don't believe all the paddling that you hear.
SPEAKER_00: Dig deep in science, dig deep in the medical realm, dig deep.
SPEAKER_00: Follow not the experts.
SPEAKER_00: Follow those who have experiential knowledge and know.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you're watching if you're reading my blog, I'm talking about John D.
SPEAKER_00: Rockefeller right now with petrochemicals and the whole birth of Big Pharma and where that came from.
SPEAKER_00: So follow that.
SPEAKER_00: I think my third installment's coming up.
SPEAKER_00: So we're citizens on earth and we're citizens in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter's writing under great persecution.
SPEAKER_00: So Nero is the emperor of Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And he was he was a mental case for sure.
SPEAKER_00: But he figured something out, and that is that in the Roman pantheon of gods, people all over Rome and all over the Roman Empire had many gods, little idols in their home.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you create an environment where you can be called the one true God?
SPEAKER_00: Nero himself, burn it down.
SPEAKER_00: Just burn it down.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you do.
SPEAKER_00: So he burned Rome, and then he was smart enough to know that the one group of people that oppose me the most are those people called Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Little Jesuses, little Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll burn it down, so we burn up all the idols, and then we can put my put me in, and then we'll blame it on the Christians.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the context.
SPEAKER_00: So you think you got it bad?
SPEAKER_00: So you see, these believers saw themselves as pilgrims.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is a citizen of Rome, but he's always in opposition with Rome because he had dual citizenship.
SPEAKER_00: He saw himself as a citizen of the kingdom first.
SPEAKER_00: So they get dispersed.
SPEAKER_00: Christians are scattering all over Asia Minor and North Africa because of Nero's persecution.
SPEAKER_00: That's our context.
SPEAKER_00: This is Peter's principles for prevailing over problems.
SPEAKER_00: I think we can learn from him.
SPEAKER_00: I think that there's going to be stuff we're going to read here, and we're going to go, yes, I'm going to apply that to my life because I have a lot of problems in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now watch what's about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: So do you guys remember the book, the Da Vinci Code?
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody remember the Da Vinci Code?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the Da Vinci Code came out, I'm going to say that was like 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: And the Da Vinci Code, if you read the preface at the beginning of the book, it gives the impression that when the early church was formulating the original canon of scripture, that they left out certain writings because they didn't fit the narrative.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what this guy did, uh Brown was his name, what the author Brown was doing is he was taking sort of our current type of way of looking at culture and life and the church, and he was imposing it upon this idea that there was a conspiracy by Leonardo da Vinci to hide the fact that Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's the premise of the book.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you know any amount of history, if you go to Seminary 101 or do any kind of history in the church, you know that Brown doesn't know what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of believers believe that stuff because they were kind of illiterate historically as well as the formation of the canon, as it were.
SPEAKER_00: So it says here, so one of the things that he talked about was that the Trinity, the idea of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one essence with different personalities and actually different functions, came later as a power play by the church.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here we are.
SPEAKER_00: This book was written in the first century, one of the early books, 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He says here, listen, elect, verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, underline that, comma, in sanctification of the Spirit, underline that, comma, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, underline that.
SPEAKER_00: So this Trinitarian formula of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is as early as we have it in the early church.
SPEAKER_00: Grace to you and peace be multiplied into you.
SPEAKER_00: Men and women, follow Jesus, cooperate, and partner with him and his plans for you.
SPEAKER_00: The Father's with you, the Spirit's with you, the Son is with you.
SPEAKER_00: So we're coming into resurrection day.
SPEAKER_00: It's on our Easter, Easter, Easter, Easter's all over our walls right now.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the resurrection of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We would not have the signs and wonders and miracles and power that we have today if Jesus had stayed on the cross and stayed in the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: But he rose again, and then some 10 days later he ascended to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's seated at the right hand of the Father until his enemies are under his footstool, quoting Psalm 110.1, the most quoted verse in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And then what happened?
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of God came down.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit comes down and he takes his 120 cowardly, frightened, concerned, holding up in an upper room, group of people, he fills them with the Spirit, bam! Spirit of God comes, and we have a kingdom of God revolution on earth like the world has never seen before.
SPEAKER_00: And today, some 2 billion, 2.5 billion, however you want to count it, people on the globe consider Jesus their Lord and their Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And let's say I don't know if they're all born again.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they all know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say half of them are.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so only one billion.
SPEAKER_00: But men and women, when a billion people get filled with the Spirit and it's coming, we will rock this place.
SPEAKER_00: We will rock this place.
SPEAKER_00: Why not start right here?
SPEAKER_00: That we would walk in the resurrection power of Christ with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit filling us every day.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: A living hope through the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Underline a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: That's the most important part of this verse.
SPEAKER_00: That we have a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: You know what living hope means?
SPEAKER_00: It means confident optimism.
SPEAKER_00: That we have a confident optimism through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote this with Nero in power.
SPEAKER_00: Nero is in power.
SPEAKER_00: Christians are being fed to lions in the Colosseum.
SPEAKER_00: You can go there today.
SPEAKER_00: I have been there.
SPEAKER_00: I have stood there.
SPEAKER_00: I've been in the Colosseum, and thousands of Christians were martyred there.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't deny Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't like Peter before a servant girl in a little fire pit.
SPEAKER_00: No, they were Peter standing up and saying, I follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we need in America.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we need in Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we need in El Paso County is believers who walk with confident optim, not arrogance, not getting on your soapbox and preaching the gospel and telling everybody they're going to hell.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about a confident optimism that organically flows through us with integrity, with love, with compassion.
SPEAKER_00: We should be the most compassionate people on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Caring for whatever that issue is that that person has.
SPEAKER_00: We love them.
SPEAKER_00: But we love them enough to let Jesus change them.
SPEAKER_00: We don't love them enough to keep them where they're at, but to make a transformation and I'd be disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So we have an inheritance kept in heaven by the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: To an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
SPEAKER_00: So, church, this is really important.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't save yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You had faith, but God gave you the faith to believe.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't save yourself, you can't lose your salvation either.
SPEAKER_00: It's by the power of God that keeps you.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you say, and some of you struggle, I know you do, with something you did or that happened, or you said that, or you go, I man, I don't know if I'm I don't know if I'm can be a Christian anymore or any of that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, that's a lie from the pit of hell.
SPEAKER_00: You are a believer, you stand up, you ask for forgiveness, you walk with a confident optimism, not in your resurrection, but in his resurrection, and through his resurrection, you are rising from the dead yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us have issues, and all of us have problems, and all of us have struggles, but I'm telling you, God wants you to be filled with the Holy Spirit and become a new person through the filling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: What's the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: People say to me, sons, well, I got filled with the Holy Spirit eight years ago.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been through 14 divorces since then.
SPEAKER_00: Because we think the Holy Spirit's some event.
SPEAKER_00: Like some guy came and laid his hands on us, we spoke in tongues, we fell over, the guy had white shoes on, so you know he's a real evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: No, listen, everybody, this is really important.
SPEAKER_00: The filling of the Holy Spirit's not an event, it's a function.
SPEAKER_00: And you have to do it every day.
SPEAKER_00: So if you got in a big fight with your wife or your husband yesterday, you were not probably filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Get real, man.
SPEAKER_00: Just say, hey, I blew it.
SPEAKER_00: That was that was the Simon-filled Peter.
SPEAKER_00: You think Simon had it all perfect after that?
SPEAKER_00: I doubt it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we want to walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit-filled life is putting Jesus on the throne of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to do it every day.
SPEAKER_00: That's a happy marriage, a spirit-filled marriage that happens every day.
SPEAKER_00: So don't look back to something that happened a century ago.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the future and think of where you want to go and say, you know, I'm not going to get there dependent on my power.
SPEAKER_00: I can get there through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So whoever's president, whoever controls Congress, I'm still going to walk with optimism and hope and faith and confidence because of the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not some resurrected White House.
SPEAKER_00: Now, everybody, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Vote.
SPEAKER_00: Not saying don't vote.
SPEAKER_00: Saying vote.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm saying this.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever happens in the days ahead in this year, whatever pressure we start to feel, I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_00: Be a kingdom of God person first.
SPEAKER_00: That's the main citizenship.
SPEAKER_00: And take the kingdom to the world.
SPEAKER_00: Live it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just talk it.
SPEAKER_00: Live it.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody stand up.
SPEAKER_00: Push your chest out.
SPEAKER_00: Suck in your gut.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys know that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Suck in your gut.
SPEAKER_00: Shoulders back.
SPEAKER_00: Head up.
SPEAKER_00: Confident and optimism in the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Walk in his power.
SPEAKER_00: Be confident in his power.
SPEAKER_00: Be joyful.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we do that, it's attractive to the world.
SPEAKER_00: They're looking for that.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows it's bad out there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, anybody will tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: But why can't we believe there's a better future?
SPEAKER_00: There's something good.
SPEAKER_00: We win.
SPEAKER_00: We win because of what Jesus did by rising from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: Would all of you just bow your heads with me right now?
SPEAKER_00: If you're in this room right now, men and women, and you've never discovered a personal relationship with the resurrected Christ, I want to give you that opportunity right now to receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: To become not just a Christian, to become a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: To become part of the greatest revolution the world has ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the Kingdom of God revolution.
SPEAKER_00: To become a revolutionary, not a churchgoer, a revolutionary.
SPEAKER_00: One who takes the revolution into work, into the family, into our parenting, into our singleness.
SPEAKER_00: So that's you right now.
SPEAKER_00: There are like five in the second service, but if you'd like to be a Jesus father, raise your hand right now.
SPEAKER_00: You want to become a kingdom revolutionary.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand right now.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, everybody, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Bring it on.
SPEAKER_00: You've got what it takes.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you have it, but because he has it in you.
SPEAKER_00: So walk with optimal confidence.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a bright day.
SPEAKER_00: The best is yet to come.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_01: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steveholtonline.org.
SPEAKER_01: God bless.