April 12, 2026 Bobby Dagnel - Preparation for Life

Bobby Dagnel — 2026-04-12

Chapters:

• 00:00 — Welcome & Introduction
• 07:25 — From Theology to Practice
• 10:07 — Command 1: Mindset
• 17:15 — Command 2: Embrace Identity
• 25:18 — Command 3: Exercise Love
• 30:35 — Illustrating Agape Love
• 33:49 — Communion & Final Prayer

Transcript

0:00

See, the services here. And one of the things we're going to do. I don't know if Mark mentioned this last week, but about three weeks ago, Mark called and was asking my opinion on us doing a collaborative effort and going through 1 Peter, which I think is a wonderful idea. When I was pastoring, probably my preaching was determined... I just determined I was going to go through books of the Bible, you know, do verse-by-verse exposition. That's what I did most of the time. And one of the things that that helps you to do is that it forces you to deal with very difficult passages. You know, when you're going verse by verse, you can't just say, "Well, I'm going to skip this." No, it makes you grapple with struggle with those things that are hard and difficult. But it also helps you to address some issues that if you address them out of context or if you just address them alone, people will say, "Oh, you have an agenda or you're talking to somebody." And so when you just go through a book of the Bible, it helps you to deal with a variety of different things. So I like this idea of us going through 1 Peter. 1 Peter is a wonderful book about God's people, this dispersed community of believers. You saw in the opening address last week. And how they deal with the trials of life. And these are a people that are just dealing a great deal with discrimination. It's not so much persecution at this point, there is some of that, but it's just, it's life, it's trials, and it's circumstances. This is a marginalized people. Depictions that we see on television, popular series of Jesus and believers, that is a far cry from those early stages. These were a people that were marginalized. They were impoverished. They had no influence. They had no voice. Had no power. Had no leverage. And they were anticipating, perhaps, that their faith in Jesus, that all of this was going to come to an end soon, that Jesus was going to return in their lifetime. He has not. And so they are struggling with the hardships and the challenges of life. And so 1 Peter is very timely in dealing with this issue. And Peter, you will see, is not unlike, he's not dissimilar to the Apostle Paul in the way that he lays the foundation in his letters. Like Paul, he would lay a theological, if you will, a theological, what is for us a biblical foundation of this great salvation that God has afforded us. I'm not going to go through those first 12 verses again, but we have this theological foundation that Peter is establishing for those that would be the people of God. This initiative, if you look at, just go back to verse 4 in 1 Peter chapter 1, but we see the initiative that God has taken, that he has chosen us. This, and the emphasis is God taking the initiative. This is not of our doing, this great salvation of which we are a part. This has been initiated by God, causing us to be born again. Peter would write there in verse 3, causing us to be born again to a living hope. That is something that is dynamic. This idea of being born again, sometimes we want to make it a past tense event only. We think of the idea of salvation just being something we point to in the past. That's a far cry from a biblical understanding of this salvation that God is accomplishing. But God has initiated this great salvation, causing us to be born again to a living hope. It is not a static event, but it is a dynamic, a living hope, this conviction that we have, an inheritance. He says an inheritance protected by the power of God into the full fruition of this great salvation that is being accomplished, regardless of your circumstances. Regardless of your trials. Regardless of whatever adversities are prevailing against you in this present tense moment. That you as God's people, you're a part of this great salvation that is being accomplished. And I know I've mentioned this to you before, but when we speak of the salvation that God is accomplishing and the salvation of which we are a part. This is so much more than the narrow evangelical definition held by most Christians in the West where salvation is just defined as me missing hell and making it to heaven. Probably not surprised that in Western culture that is so self-absorbed and so full of itself, we're arrogant enough to think that salvation is just about me missing hell and making it to heaven. But salvation from a biblical perspective has to do with the entirety of the created order that has been broken by sin. We know that Paul would write in Romans that all of creation groans for that day of redemption. So all of this is temporary, he says. This is just for a little while, these present trials that are producing faith. Peter goes on right there in verses five and six. We know the Apostle Paul would in 2 Corinthians, I believe it is in chapter four, he talks about, and this isn't to diminish our suffering in any way. Our suffering, our trials are very hard, they're very difficult. But Paul frames it in a unique way and says that these are but temporary afflictions. Temporary and light affliction. Compared to the eternal weight of glory. And again, it's not diminishing your pain. But everything that would prevail against us in this world, listen, Paul says when you compare that to the eternal weight of God's glory, what is to come, what is to be accomplished in its fullness. This is just temporary light affliction. The prophets, Peter writes, the prophets would love to know what you know. The prophets who proclaimed the word of the Lord, they would love to know what you know. You know and you're experiencing what the prophets could only point to. And so as a result of this salvation that God has done, laying this theological foundation, explaining to us and helping us in some way to understand the fullness of what God is doing, this fullness of God's love and his abundant mercies. This initiative that God has taken to bring about this full salvation of which you are a part. And having established that foundation, like Paul, Peter would say, now then, this is what it means for you. This is how it applies to your life. Paul would do that in several of his letters, Peter is doing it now, it's built upon a conjunctive adverb there. Notice in verse 13, the word therefore. And whenever you're reading the scriptures, whenever you see that word therefore, I would always say to you, get up on the edge of your seat. Dial back in, focus back in, you might, your mind may be drifting in your Bible reading, but whenever you come to that word therefore, lock in. Because what Peter is saying now is that based upon this foundation that I have established for you, of what God is doing, of how God has initiated this great salvation, what God is accomplishing in his time and in his way. Therefore, based upon what he has done, this is what it means for you. This is a significant mood shift in Peter's letter. In fact, as we begin here in verse 13 and going through the end of chapter 1, it goes into chapter 2, the full section. What we're going to see is the heart of the letter for Peter. Because the mood changes, it goes from the indicative, that is the factual. You know, grammatically in the Greek, you may have verbs that are present active indicative. Well, the indicative means that it's just a statement of fact. And the indicative is the prevalent expression in these first 12 verses. These are facts. These are facts regarding the salvation that God is accomplishing, of which you're a part. But now there is a pronounced shift from the indicative to the imperative. From the theological to the practical. From the foundational and the doctrinal to the applicable of what it means for you in real time right now, as you face life that is always going to come against you. Well, let's pick it up here at verse 13. What is now Peter's practical applicable offerings that are commanded, remember imperative mood. That means a command. Not a divine option, not a divine suggestion. But what are the commands for our lives as believers. Beginning in verse 13 going through 16, what we find here is a command regarding a mindset that is to be practiced. Based on what God has done, these first 12 verses, this salvation of what we are apart, what is the mindset that is to be ours as believers? Now he says this in verse 13, "Therefore, prepare your minds for action." Keep sober in spirit, set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you. And we've already seen that grace is the work that God is doing. Grace is prevalent, this great work of grace that God is doing. It's prevalent in these first 12 verses. Setting our hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance. But like the Holy One who called you to be holy, also in all your behavior. Because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. Let's go back a little bit and unpackage some of this. Now when Peter writes "prepare your minds," he's talking about intentionality. Deliberateness. That if I'm going to have proper conduct, he's talking about our action here, in fact I like the way that Peter uses the word action. That's what he's saying, based upon your theological convictions, based upon this hope, and whenever we as believers understand from a New Testament perspective when the scriptures speak about hope. Biblical writers use it in a way that is different from 21st century Western people. We talk about hope in the sense, I hope I make a good grade on this test. You know, I hope I get that job. I hope I did well in the interview. And when we talk about hope it's always something that's somewhat subjective that can go either way. But when we as believers, and when scripture speak of hope, it's about a conviction. It's conviction, it's based upon fact. This is what I, what I cling to. And so out of that hope, it means that my life expresses itself in certain kinds of actions. As a result of that conviction, I'm obedient. I'm seeking to be obedient, as children in verse 14. It affects our behavior, he says in verse 15. He will leave and use the word conduct in verse 17. There's a way that we are to conduct ourselves. There are certain actions that are to be evident in my life. And understand, whenever I preach or teach before you, I do so as a co-struggler in the life of faith. Don't ever hear me speaking as someone who has arrived in the faith journey. What I speak and what I preach and what I teach is simply an overflow of what God has been doing in my life with this text in my week of preparation. And so because of this conviction of hope that is mine, it's going to translate itself, hopefully... there I mean, it could go either way. But I hope as a result of this conviction, my life is going to reflect the right action, obedience. That it's going to be seen in my behavior and how I conduct myself in verse 17. But it's interesting, isn't it? It doesn't sound very spiritual. But Paul does the same thing. It doesn't sound very spiritual but Paul says you need to prepare your mind. Too often we want to make the life of faith into something that is emotive, something that is emotional in nature. Peter and Paul would both say, no, if you're going to live the life of faith there has to be an intentionality about this. It doesn't happen haphazardly. You've got to have a certain kind of mindset that you lock in. There's a certain way that you think. The wisdom writer would say, thousands of years before, for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Paul would say, don't be conformed to this world, Romans chapter 12. Do not be conformed to this world, don't let the world have such an impression upon you in shaping your thinking and your outlook on things. Don't let the world press you, conform you into this mold like a Jell-O mold. Don't let the world press you into that mold, don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed by what? The renewal of your mind. Guard your heart, Solomon said. Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. So I'm protecting that place where choices and decisions are going to be made. Paul says, prepare your mind. Lock in. There's a certain mindset that has to be had if we're going to live rightly.

Paul would say let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2:3. Set your heart, your mind on things below and not on things above and not below, Paul would say, Colossians 3: 15:35

2. And while it doesn't sound very spiritual, this is a vital part of the faith experience that I have to train my mind to think a certain way so that I might act out in a certain way. Because we're called to be a holy people, that means distinctive, unique. I can't just be like everyone else. We are a holy people, we have been set apart that when the world looks upon us, they will say, you know, there's something different about them. I can tell they they walk to the beat of a different drummer. And we have to speak of those things. We can't... too often we say, "Well, I'm just gonna live my faith. I'm shy, I'm just gonna live my faith. I'm not gonna talk about it." Well, to just live it and not talk about it whenever the circumstances are light right and we have opportunity to speak of our faith. We need to seize those moments. It's not enough just to live our faith and then not speak of our faith. That says too much about us and not enough about the gospel. So Peter now says based upon what you believe, based upon this foundation of what God is doing, you need to have a mindset that is to be practiced. But he also says that there is an identity to be embraced. That based upon what God has done, the first 12 verses, there is an identity in this that you need to hold to, that you need to cling to. That you need to embrace an identity that defines you as a child of God. He says in verse 17, "But if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth." We know we're strangers, aren't we? Just passing through. Aliens. Peter would use the language of aliens and strangers in verse one. We're sojourners. This is not our permanent home. And so as we're just passing through this life, we're going to live our lives a certain way, knowing, verse 18, that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers. Because he's already spoken of this inheritance back in verse 4, where he talks about this great mercy that we have experienced of what God is doing to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable. Now Peter's using a legal term here in talking about inheritance. And again this idea of what we have inherited. But don't miss the little play that Peter is utilizing. Ours is an inheritance for which we have benefit right now based upon the one who has died already. But he has been resurrected to life. Whenever we receive an inheritance say from an estate, well it's necessary for that benefactor to die before I can become a beneficiary of that estate. But you know what Peter is saying is that this is unique in that your inheritance is a present reality. Yours is an inheritance that is yours now. Now there's going to be a full expression of this salvation that is to be accomplished when the Lord returns. But that's a reality that is being played out in your life right now. Because you have been chosen, he's already said back in verse 1. For he was foreknown, speaking of Christ, verse 20. "For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you." So that you might understand that you're a part of the chosen. You're a part of what God has predetermined. God has a foreknowledge of you. Now this is a whole different series of sermons I could do on this right now. On the idea of the elect, predestination, and all of that. I will say this, I think the biblical writers, I think the likes of Paul and Peter who would use these terms, these expressions of foreknowing, foreknowledge, election and things like that... I absolutely believe with conviction that they would be appalled at what those doctrines have evolved into. These writers are not writing to confuse people. These are not doctrines... the doctrine of the elect should not be a doctrine of confusion. Should not be understood as a doctrine of exemption to somehow say that salvation is for some but it's not for others. The biblical writers would be appalled at that kind of twist. This is where theologians muddy the waters. They're writing to a people that are marginalized, that are powerless, that are at their wit's end. These are a people that feel like giving up. And what the writers are saying, listen, you hang in there. There is a plan and a purpose that you are chosen, that you have been elect. These are words to help people persevere. You know, I don't want to... to people that are suffering, that are marginalized, that are powerless, am I gonna write to them... Listen, I wanted to write you a letter in the midst of your storm so that when you read this you'll be confused. What I want to do in the midst of your agony and your pain and your suffering and your grief is I would just like to raise a lot of questions for you. No, common sense would tell you that this is the stuff of theologians that creates all that. This is meant to help you to hang in there. Help me to hang in there. Listen, you're part of God's chosen. This is your identity. Your identity is not formed by the opinions of others. Your identity is not to be found in the institutions created by man. Who you are is not defined by your present circumstances. I know you feel like giving up, I know you want to pull the covers up over your head. Listen, you keep going. You're chosen. God knows you. God has a plan and a purpose for you. All this is but as he said earlier, it's just a little while. And so in the meantime, in a little while, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Your identity is in me and with me. Not what is happening around you. We've got to fight for that sometimes, don't we? We've got to fight to remember that who I am, because we put far too much weight on the opinions of others with whom we associate on a daily basis.

The great theologian Nick Saban. He said it best, and I adopted it a long time ago in ministry: 23:51

"I have to first value your opinion before I'm bothered by your opinion." That's a great thing to go by. You know, and the more I spent my life studying God's word, and time and maturity takes care of a great deal of this and moving us to that place where we really find our identity in him. But in studying God's word and pastoring, where you're subject to all kinds of opinions, the thing that I probably grew to appreciate less and less was human opinion. Fickle humanity. I smell every compliment like a rose. It's, you know, for every person that walks out, "Pastor, I really enjoyed that sermon today." The reality is there's somebody coming that could care less about that sermon they heard today. So you don't seek the opinions of men. Your identity... Peter says, "Listen, because of what God has done. Because of the theological conviction that is ours, the hope that is ours, yours is an identity you need to embrace." Cling to, hold to in your storms. But a final thing, a practical application of all of this, of what God is doing is that ours is a love.

In our faith, it is a love to be exercised. He says here in verse 22: 25:32

"Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this was the word which was preached to you." Interesting slant in verse 22, if you look at it again with me. That first word "love" that Peter utilizes here is the word "phileo". Some pronunciation of "phileo", it's actually not "phileo" in the Greek but it's a derivative of "phileo". "Phileo" is the root word. Brotherly love. And you understand that the Greek language is very nuanced. Far more nuanced than our English language. You and I say we love someone. I mean any one of you I'd say I love you. But I say to my wife too, I love you. Jim, I love you differently than I love Patty, but I'm going to use that same word. Greek is much more nuanced. For me to say I love Jim, I would use the word phileo in the Greek. A love for Patty, I'd use eros, and I would use agape, there's a couple of loves in there. But it's interesting here the play that takes place, the phileo. Have a sincere phileo. Have a sincere brotherly love for the brothers and sisters. Fervently love. And he switches to agape. Which is the more common word that we find in scripture. Talks about God's love for us, it's an agape kind of love. The love we are to have for God, God whom we do not see, we are to have an agape love for him. It's the kind of love that we're to have prevalently throughout scripture when it talks about love between the brethren. It's an agape love, not phileo. Agape love, in marriage, have an agape love for one another, to be foundational. And we always... we always hear that defined by pastors and theologians as an unconditional love. I want to give you a definition of agape love that I think captures well a practical application for it. Agape love is a willed, willed... that's intentional. It is a willed commitment to love in the absence of feelings. A willed commitment to love in the absence of feelings. You see how it transcends emotions? It transcends feelings. Transcends how I feel. You after 43, 44 years of marriage, you know, neither Patty or I wake up in the morning going, "Oh man, do I feel in love today." We don't. You say, "Oh my gosh Bobby, there's something wrong with you and Patty, are y'all struggling in your relationship?" No, not at all. Just that what, you know, at 67, I have a whole different kind of feeling, you know. My love, my agape love is much deeper for her in our 60s than it ever was in our 20s. I mean I was driven by a whole different set of needs and emotions in my 20s. Probably leaned a little bit more towards that eros side, you know, the desiring side. We change, we grow, we mature. It's an agape. It's a deeper love and commitment than I would have ever understood. A far greater, deeper love that I could have ever even understood as a 25-year-old man standing at an altar. After being a follower of Christ since age 21 till now. I don't wake up every day going, "Oh man, am I in love with Jesus." Is his commitment wavering? No, not at all. My commitment is my will. My commitment is much more fixed and determined at 67 than it ever was at 21. I could not have comprehended the magnitude of that commitment as a 21-year-old. In practical terms Peter is saying, act your way into a new feeling. You can act your way into a new feeling. You cannot feel your way into a new act. You know, in ministry and in life, if I waited until I felt a certain way to do a lot of things that I ought to do, they would never get done. I can even have a bad attitude about some things, but if I will just act the way I'm supposed to, I can act my way into a new feeling. It's somewhat of a shameful illustration, but I'm going to give it to you. In my first pastorate, there was a man that didn't like me and I didn't like him. It was a two-way street. He was a passive-aggressive man. Never would just say what was on his mind. He had the laugh and say, "Well, I guess we're not going to do anything else, hee hee hee." You know, just a weak little man. And I don't deal well with people like that. And when he would call and complain, I could hear his wife in the background telling him, you know, seeing what kind of guy he is, how brow-beat he was, but I could hear his wife in the background telling him everything to say to me. I didn't like him, and he didn't like me. He got diagnosed with cancer. I knew he was going to MD Anderson on this appointed day, supposed to be there at 8 o'clock, start his first battery of tests and all that. I was determined I was going to be there waiting on him in the lobby. And I wish I could tell you I was doing it for a noble reason. I wanted to be there. He knew I didn't like him. I knew he didn't like me. I wanted to be there to rub salt in the wound so that maybe he would feel bad for all the things he ever said bad about me. And yet here's Bobby sitting in the lobby of MD Anderson. Do you know I walked with that guy for the next three years? And you know what happened? As I willed and determined myself, not even for the right motives, but you know what happened as I willed and determined to be with this guy at every turn? My agape love, and I confessed it was insincere. It turned into this sincere love. I acted my way into a new feeling. When his grandson tragically died in a lake accident, I had already been gone for five years from that church. They called me to do that funeral. When his wife died, they called me to do that funeral. When he died, his family called me to do his funeral. And to hear them talk about their daddy's love for me. You would have thought I was the best thing since sliced bread. Acted my way into a new feeling. What we are going to do here today in doing this communion. What we are going to act out here in this communion. Is to be taken from here and enacted out there. That's what we do with the theological foundation, the theological realities of God's great grace and abundant mercies. Let's pray together. Father. We understand who we are. And how grateful we are to revisit on occasion such as this. These needed reminders of the identity that is ours in Christ Jesus. That we are a people who have been chosen. That in the midst of our storms, we know that you know us. And that you love us. And that because of this great and merciful love, you have enacted, you have initiated this work of salvation of which we're a part. And so Father, as we act out this meal today, we pray for ourselves that we might be reminded of who we are, just as we are reminded of the great sacrifice that is yours. So that we as a collective people might be a sacrificial offering to our world, serving it in the name of Christ and for his sake. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.