SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, I'd invite you to take it and open it up to the book of 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: The book of 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, there's one in your row.
SPEAKER_00: I'm on page 1014.
SPEAKER_00: How are we doing this morning?
SPEAKER_00: We good?
SPEAKER_00: I see that it's Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: You say, how do you know it's Mother's Day?
SPEAKER_00: Because some of you, you're here because you ask your mom, Mom, what do you want for Mother's Day?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I want you to come to church with me.
SPEAKER_00: And so just bear with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get you, I'll get you out of here on time, and you can go to the Mother's Day brunch, and everything will be fine, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a question: Is it dark in here?
SPEAKER_00: Or am I dying?
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting a little nervous right here, but have a little light out there because Lance is nodding off already, and I hadn't even started preaching yet.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody knows Lance.
SPEAKER_00: But before I go, I want to talk to you, before I tell you what I want to talk about, I want to ground what I'm going to talk about in reality because sometimes we preacher types can get in our own head and think, oh, yeah, this makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_00: And you talk about something, and you guys out there are like, what cloud is this clown living on?
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't know what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask this question.
SPEAKER_00: How many mothers here, you have hopes for your children that have yet to be realized?
SPEAKER_00: Some of them were hopes you had the day they were born.
SPEAKER_00: They first put them in your arms and you looked at them and something just swelled up in you, or as I say, swole up in you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word.
SPEAKER_00: Something welled up inside of you that you didn't have words for, but then later on you got words for it, and it's still there.
SPEAKER_00: It hasn't died.
SPEAKER_00: Your kids, it doesn't, regardless of how they live or what choices they make, that hope you have for them is still alive in you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a mom and you have this hope in you that is yet to come to pass, but you still hold on to it for your children.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand up right now?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, stand up.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I said.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the deal, ladies.
SPEAKER_00: You all understand hope better than we men do.
SPEAKER_00: We hope about 30 minutes in the future.
SPEAKER_00: We hope that today comes and goes and we don't give you a dorky card.
SPEAKER_00: We hope that there's not too crowded at the restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of things we hope for.
SPEAKER_00: Women have this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all got adult kids.
SPEAKER_00: You're not talking about like I got an eight-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: I'm 66, I got an eight-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong in that picture?
SPEAKER_00: But y'all got adult kids, and some of you right now are like, don't go any further, you're gonna make me cry.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, before you sit down, if you're here today and your mom's standing, give her this for Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Give her this present instead of that lame card you ran to H E B last night and got.
SPEAKER_00: After someone texted you and said, Where'd you get your mom?
SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be right back.
SPEAKER_00: We're out of milk.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to give your mom a gift, your mom's standing right now, before she goes to bed tonight, look her in the face and say, Hey, mom, what is your hope for me?
SPEAKER_00: What is the hope you have for me?
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated, ladies.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you this morning as we close out this series we're in about the hope of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: The hope of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Peter writes these words.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, remember who Peter was?
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Less than a stellar record, right?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of afraid he can't, kind of freaked out when the when the when the when the pressure was on.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 1, he writes these words in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Though you have not seen him, you love him.
SPEAKER_00: And though you do not see him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
SPEAKER_00: We'll just stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you about this characteristics of this hope of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: If this hope that is ours in the resurrection, what is it like?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, number one, it's living.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Peter says right there in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: He says that, you know, praise, he's blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And according to his mercy, he says he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: Born again into a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about that just for a second.
SPEAKER_00: So this hope that we have because of the resurrection, by the way, N.
SPEAKER_00: T.
SPEAKER_00: Wright says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says you need to think about consistently about what you would lose if you didn't have the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, if you took away the birth of Jesus out of the Bible, do you realize you would lose two chapters in Matthew and two in Luke?
SPEAKER_00: And that's basically it.
SPEAKER_00: If you took the birth of Jesus, virgin birth out of the Bible, you would lose two chapters in Matthew and two in Luke.
SPEAKER_00: But if you took the resurrection out of the Bible, you would lose the entire New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: See, the Bible puts this amazing emphasis on the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And we talk about it once on Easter.
SPEAKER_00: I got asked two questions this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, are we done with the resurrection?
SPEAKER_00: That's what they said.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm gonna punch you in the throat, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh secondly, uh, here's the other big question I could ask this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, last week you wore jeans, and this week you're wearing slacks.
SPEAKER_00: Which one's it gonna be?
SPEAKER_00: I dressed up today.
SPEAKER_00: This is not, I get this is dressing up for me.
SPEAKER_00: This is like I go to weddings like this.
SPEAKER_00: Because of my mom.
SPEAKER_00: My mom who says to me, Oh, you look so handsome when you wear slacks.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what my mom sounds like.
SPEAKER_00: You think I'm kidding?
SPEAKER_00: She smoked for like 50 years.
SPEAKER_00: She quit last year and she said, uh, or a couple years ago, she goes, I hope I can turn the clock back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, start with your voice, mom.
SPEAKER_00: That would be the first place.
SPEAKER_00: But but anyway, love my mom.
SPEAKER_00: Called her this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Did you wear slacks?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, ma'am, just for you, I did.
SPEAKER_00: My mom grew up Lutheran.
SPEAKER_00: She's now goes to the Baptist church and she feels a little dirty whenever she goes in the Baptist church.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, oh, I bet my great-grandmother's rolling over in her grave, and she said this.
SPEAKER_00: The Baptists are so much more casual than the Lutherans.
SPEAKER_00: I said, because we got it all figured out, mom, that's why.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting today, that's a joke, lighten up, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, hey, he's he he says, Hey, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: According to his great mercy, he caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: This the first thing he tells us about this hope is it's alive.
SPEAKER_00: See, birth is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't exist just for itself.
SPEAKER_00: But rather, when something is born, it starts this child on its way to maturity.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a process.
SPEAKER_00: When your children were born, you have this hope in these and these desires for them and these prayers for them, and you think about them and you don't stop praying them.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because that thing's still alive in you.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that the hope of the resurrection is number one, living.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's grounded and rooted in this reality called the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: It's fully alive.
SPEAKER_00: That means, by the way, it's not hoping for or hope, hoping so, uh hope so.
SPEAKER_00: It's I hope because it's not hope for or hope so, it's hope because, because of the reality, the certainty of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So this hope in you is alive.
SPEAKER_00: It was born, you were born into this living hope, and by the way, it's born and it just gets older and more mature and better and better, which means that if you're over the age of 50, which is not old, by the way, amen?
SPEAKER_00: That's midlife right there.
SPEAKER_00: If you're over 50 and you're a believer and you're a Christian, I don't mean you, I'm not saying you go to church or you think there's a higher power or a spiritual life force, but you have a relationship with the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what that means: you should be the most hopeful person anybody knows.
SPEAKER_00: And I just did an experiment this week because we're not we're not prepared for hope in our world.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize I was walking through a store this week and I was humming and singing, and and this lady said, Boy, you're in a good mood.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Actually, I'm really not, but I'm hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: And she, you ever say something?
SPEAKER_00: People look at you like, I don't want this.
SPEAKER_00: I just, whatever you're selling, I don't want it.
SPEAKER_00: Just I was just trying to make small talk.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of looked at her and I said, You don't know where this is going right now, do you?
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Not really.
SPEAKER_00: Get ready.
SPEAKER_00: I've got some religious literature in my pocket, I'm gonna whip it out right here.
SPEAKER_00: I said, No, it's just I'm uh I'm hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: That's all.
SPEAKER_00: Just just hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: Hope's a bigger thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of my meditation this week.
SPEAKER_00: Two days later, I'm in a conversation with some friends of mine.
SPEAKER_00: They're talking about, you know, the president flip-flopped, and then they come out and accuse Mitt Romney and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm standing there, and I care about this much about politics, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying politics is not important.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, I just I don't really keep up with it.
SPEAKER_00: And I just, and one guy said, Well, I guess we got the lusher of two evils.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, or maybe we got the evil of two lessers.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But they said, How do you feel about all this?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'm hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, I'm I'm I'm I'm hopeful, but I'm not hopeful that they said, So you think Romney's gonna win?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that that's markedly better based on what that man believes.
SPEAKER_00: I think their beliefs are different, but he's got some spiritual beliefs that are so far from the Bible, it's not even funny.
SPEAKER_00: Just like it's far from the Bible that the president says, Well, because of my Judeo-Christian beliefs and that Jesus died on the cross, I hold a position that violates what the Bible clearly teaches.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not hopeful about that cat either.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's not circumstantial, it's celestial.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only word I can think of starting with a C.
SPEAKER_00: That means it's heavenly.
SPEAKER_00: It's not found in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: If you're over the age of 50 and you don't know Jesus, right now your life should be puckering up just a little bit because all you hope for is what you can finance, own, or possess, or explain.
SPEAKER_00: But my hope can't be explained.
SPEAKER_00: It's otherworldly, and I'll show you in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: So much so it can't be explained that other people stop me and ask me about it.
SPEAKER_00: They don't say, hey, why are you so hopeful?
SPEAKER_00: They do ask like, hey, why are you in such a good mood?
SPEAKER_00: What, what, what's what?
SPEAKER_00: But they don't realize that there's this hope in me that's fully alive.
SPEAKER_00: See, the first thing Peter tells us is that this hope is living.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he says it's future-oriented.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Right there, he says that we've been given, we've been born again to a living hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to verse 4, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and un and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now just think about this.
SPEAKER_00: When he says this hope is future-oriented, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: To describe this inheritance, Peter uses four descriptive terms.
SPEAKER_00: Three of them speak of its nature, and one of them speaks of the certainty of its attainment.
SPEAKER_00: Let me put them up on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: He uses three.
SPEAKER_00: He says, first of all, it's imperishable.
SPEAKER_00: It's imperishable.
SPEAKER_00: About four or five days ago, I was in Sam's and they had like a gallon of strawberries.
SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: You can't buy anything less than the size of a gallon in Sam's.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you're out of pickles, I got a five-gallon bucket of pickles.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just slowly working my way through.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not coming back till I get through those bad boys.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a while, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because you get in there and you just get overwhelmed with Sam's mentality.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they don't sell one loaf of bread, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_00: You gotta buy two.
SPEAKER_00: You can't buy one bag of chips.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you could, I guess, but they make a bag for two to go in.
SPEAKER_00: Come to my house right now, there's eight bags of chips on top of my refrigerator.
SPEAKER_00: My wife said the other day, how are you gonna stay in shape eating all them chips?
SPEAKER_00: Zip it.
SPEAKER_00: It's Sam's fault.
SPEAKER_00: They sell too much.
SPEAKER_00: I grabbed that thing of strawberries, took them home, put them in the refrigerator.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't, it didn't seem long.
SPEAKER_00: Just a couple days later, I opened them up and I got it out, and for some reason I set it upside down on the counter.
SPEAKER_00: I think I had other things in my hand, and it flipped over is what it was.
SPEAKER_00: And on the bottom of them, they'd already started to rot.
SPEAKER_00: I was so mad at those people.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, what are you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: And I thought about this.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this inheritance we have is imperishable.
SPEAKER_00: That means it is incapable of spoiling.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing he says about it is undefiled.
SPEAKER_00: That means it's morally and religiously pure.
SPEAKER_00: It's undefiled.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can defile this inheritance that you have.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you think of inheritance, he said this is heritage, this inheritance, excuse me, verse 4, he says it's kept in heaven for you.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: We've been given this inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading is the third word.
SPEAKER_00: It's undefiled.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can get in and dilute it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, he says it's unfading.
SPEAKER_00: That means the flowers you get today, as beautiful as they are, the clock is already ticking on them.
SPEAKER_00: You realize that?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, it took me a while to figure this out.
SPEAKER_00: Flowers don't get you out of every situation, men.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you want to get something that lasts, because those flowers, because you hand to them and your wife is all like, oh, that's sweet.
SPEAKER_00: Well, she's thinking in her mind is what an idiot.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you get something that doesn't fade and die, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And just remind me that this has got to go away.
SPEAKER_00: Like this week.
SPEAKER_00: I I was taught a lesson by Kathy.
SPEAKER_00: She's my administrative assistant and great lady, uh, our friend Ross King, his father passed away.
SPEAKER_00: And I say, I want to send a the church to send some flowers or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, What about a plant?
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't think you want to be reminded that here's something else that's gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was just thinking that.
SPEAKER_00: Glad you said that.
SPEAKER_00: And so there I was at the funeral waiting.
SPEAKER_00: I drove up for the funeral on Thursday, and it was a big, beautiful peace lily from Grand Park Way Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, boy, I'm glad it's just a subtle thought I had.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad there's people in the world that are so much smarter than me.
SPEAKER_00: Because she said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I've been to funerals, and you get flowers, and then a week later, when they start to die, you're like, Does everything die?
SPEAKER_00: But this never dies.
SPEAKER_00: It's unfading, it's imperishable, it's undefiled.
SPEAKER_00: And the fourth thing that's that that that describes it.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the certainty of uh of its reality.
SPEAKER_00: If you possess it, look at the fourth thing he says about it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, It's kept in heaven for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's imperishable, it's undefiled, it's unfading.
SPEAKER_00: And forthly, it's kept in heaven for you.
SPEAKER_00: If it's kept in heaven for you, that means you're not keeping it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you need to take a deep breath and relax.
SPEAKER_00: You kind of act like you're on this obstacle course on your way to heaven, and you're gonna dodge and dart, and you're gonna get there, and then you're gonna be like, hey God, look what I did.
SPEAKER_00: This inheritance is so sure, it doesn't depend on somebody as uncertain as you and me.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad?
SPEAKER_00: Notice this, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse, he's reading there in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: He says, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is this your inheritance kept in heaven, but you're kept.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to talk about this, but I can't help but tell you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: He says, kept in heaven for you, verse 5, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
SPEAKER_00: Your inheritance is being kept, but you're being guarded.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, moms understand this more than anybody.
SPEAKER_00: When I was in high school, I was not a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: And many a nights I got home, 245, 417, and I knew front door, four steps, hang a right, put your hands out on the hallway, and my bedroom was the second door on the left.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way I found my way to the bedroom.
SPEAKER_00: I won't go into detail, okay, beyond that.
SPEAKER_00: But most of the times I would come in four steps, turn her right, my mom's bedroom was right there, and I could hear my mom praying.
SPEAKER_00: And she would say things like, Thank you for bringing him home.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for watching over him.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking, my mom's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: She's in there talking to herself.
SPEAKER_00: After I became a Christian, years later, see, now you what I'm getting at.
SPEAKER_00: And I because years later I said to my mom, I said, We were having lunch, I said, By the way, mom, do you do you used to talk in your sleep?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, No, she was not a mom, a mother never rests until all her children are home.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say that to me, mom, because all of a sudden I felt so ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you mean you you were waiting, she said, every night.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't go to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: I waited up every night.
SPEAKER_00: See, when the Bible says that your inheritance is kept in heaven for you, he says that who you, by the way, you, you persons who are guarded by God's power.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're you're being guarded through faith for a salvation.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: The the the mental image in the Greek language is the picture of a garrison of soldiers surrounding a fort so nobody can get in.
SPEAKER_00: So, moms, when your kids are out and it's you curfews midnight or one and it's 2.15, and you're thinking, Do I wake up my sorry husband who's passed out of sleep over there in that bed?
SPEAKER_00: You need to remember to appeal to a higher power because if your children are believers, then the Bible says right there in plain English that God's power is guarding them.
SPEAKER_00: And my mom used to say, I would just pray to your guardian angel to keep you safe and bring you home.
SPEAKER_00: I remember many a nights, and I even know how we left the club and ended up home.
SPEAKER_00: I remember we'd leave the club and go out to eat and then go home.
SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, What?
SPEAKER_00: We did what?
SPEAKER_00: And afterwards my mom would say, Yeah, I was just praying.
SPEAKER_00: Your inheritance is being kept, but you're being guarded.
SPEAKER_00: Third characteristics of this hope of the resurrection is that it causes joy.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse six.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're a thinking person, you're like, he said five, we're on number three.
SPEAKER_00: Man, we might beat the Presbyterians to the good restaurants.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse six.
SPEAKER_00: He says, In this you rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: In this you rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: You can't take sentences out of the Bible and them make sense.
SPEAKER_00: You have to read them in their context.
SPEAKER_00: So let's back up to verse five.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Who, by God's power, being guarded through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
SPEAKER_00: In this reality, you rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: Third characteristic of this hope is that it causes joy.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it begins verse 6 and says, In this you rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like to rejoice?
SPEAKER_00: Have you rejoiced lately?
SPEAKER_00: That's one of those words you read in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't got no definition for.
SPEAKER_00: How can you know you're doing it if you don't know what it is?
SPEAKER_00: And has anybody asked you, hey, have you rejoiced lately?
SPEAKER_00: No, I gave that up when I became a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And sadly, most of you did.
SPEAKER_00: There's not that much joy just kind of spilled.
SPEAKER_00: He says, in this, in this, the thought that you your inheritance is kept in heaven, it's unfading, it's imperishable, it's undefiled, it's kept for you.
SPEAKER_00: You who are being guarded by God's power.
SPEAKER_00: When the thought of this, in this you rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: See, see this kind of hope, by the way, when he says in this, he's not talking about your inheritance or your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about your hope.
SPEAKER_00: I won't get into the details of the syntax or the Greek and everything, but in the Greek, it doesn't make sense for it to be anything else but the hope.
SPEAKER_00: In this, in this hope that you have, that you were born into, this living hope because of the resurrection, it causes you to have this sense of joy, which is not a feeling, it's an understanding.
SPEAKER_00: It's this reality that kind of adores your life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn there.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, think of Acts chapter 16.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Silas have been beaten and they've been locked in stocks.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's the Bible says about midnight they were praying, and what's the next line?
SPEAKER_00: Say it again singing hymns to God.
SPEAKER_00: About midnight, they'd had the snot beat out of them, and they were praying and singing hymns to God.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's that's the kind of hope that the resurrection affords you and I.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, I hope they weren't there kind of going, I hope, I hope, I hope our parents got hold of a good bondsman, a bale bondsman, we get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: No, they were praying and singing hymns to God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because this joy.
SPEAKER_00: Because this hope causes them to have a joy that the world doesn't quite understand.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth characteristic of this hope of the resurrection is that it transforms trials.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_00: He kind of gets into it there.
SPEAKER_00: After he says, In this you greatly rejoice, in this hope that is yours.
SPEAKER_00: Though now then he by the way, it's not pie in the sky.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here today and you're not a believer and you think this is all just just kind of vertical optimism, it's just kind of this morose, stupid, non intellectual, you people don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: No, we get it.
SPEAKER_00: No, and the Bible gets it.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: After he talks about joy, he says this hey, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than Gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When we say it transforms trials, there's four words I want to put up on the screen right out of the Bible that you can need to kind of see and maybe take a pen and just kind of mark.
SPEAKER_00: The first phrase is just that right there for a little while.
SPEAKER_00: For a little while.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's not unaware that hardship is going to find all of us.
SPEAKER_00: He says, though now for a little while.
SPEAKER_00: You say, what is he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: When compared to our future, right now is always described as for a little while.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear me this morning?
SPEAKER_00: When compared to our future, that's why you got to have understand the hope of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Because if all there is is right now, you're going to be mad till the day you die, and you're going to die on your deathbed, an angry, withered up, bitter soul.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to have this juicy heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be shriveled up like a raisin because you just feel like you're being cheated.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have the hope of the resurrection in your life, you just remember for a little while.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says in Romans A, the sufferings that we're enduring right now, they're not even worth comparing to the glory that's going to be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's always this sense of the Bible always puts right now in its perspective for a little while.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about trials, don't forget those four little words for a little while.
SPEAKER_00: Second phrase I want you to see is if necessary.
SPEAKER_00: If necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Look there in your Bibles, verse 6, though now for a little while, and then if necessary.
SPEAKER_00: If necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say something.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to come from the heart of a man that loves you.
SPEAKER_00: All of you, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's necessary that you endure a little hardship.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not me telling you that.
SPEAKER_00: That's your father telling you that.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_00: Because see, if you turned on your TV this morning, you could find 10 TV preachers that'll tell you, no, God doesn't want you to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want you to put you to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of father makes his kids uncomfortable?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know when.
SPEAKER_00: So if you come to me and say, hey, I'm going through this thing, I'm not going to say, oh, that's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: But I can tell you, on the authority of the Bible, with absolute certainty.
SPEAKER_00: Because see, if you don't know God, you just get mad and you just grip things tighter and take more things into your hand and say, hey, this is it.
SPEAKER_00: Eat, drink, and be merry, for we're going to die.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'll live to be 70, 80, 90 if I'm lucky.
SPEAKER_00: That's plenty for me.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, baby.
SPEAKER_00: See, y'all raised your voice and got that baby awake.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, if necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Then the third thing I want you to see about these trials is he uses this word, various.
SPEAKER_00: Though for now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.
SPEAKER_00: What is a trial for you may not be a trial for somebody else, so be careful how you speak about it.
SPEAKER_00: Like today, some of you are all excited and happy, and some of you that wanted children and have yet to have them, you're not very excited.
SPEAKER_00: Today's a trial for some of you.
SPEAKER_00: We're fully aware of that.
SPEAKER_00: I also got to ask, hey, hey, are you preaching a Mother's Day sermon?
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00: Sure am.
SPEAKER_00: Five steps to being a better mother.
SPEAKER_00: Sure hope my wife's listening.
SPEAKER_00: My wife doesn't need no steps.
SPEAKER_00: She's an incredible mom.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm the guy that sits on the on the couch watching the golf tournament.
SPEAKER_00: You need me to do anything?
SPEAKER_00: And she says no, just so I won't be underfoot.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm on to her.
SPEAKER_00: But I like watching golf, so I just act dumb.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: He said, various be careful that you don't think trials come in all one shape and form and expression.
SPEAKER_00: They come in various very it's it it's a it's a many splendor thing.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth phrase that he uses is just these two little words that you all of it's got a hinge on.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, so that.
SPEAKER_00: So that.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's a purpose to every trial.
SPEAKER_00: See, God's not this heartless dictator that's kind of like jerking with humanity, kind of going, hey, watch this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna mess with this guy.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So that.
SPEAKER_00: The tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire.
SPEAKER_00: See, one of the things that trials does is it teaches you what to value.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's situations, that's why when your kids are sick, you've prayed to God before and said, I'll give you all the money I have, I'll give you everything I have, just make my kid better.
SPEAKER_00: Because trials remind you, wait a minute, my value system's kind of jacked up.
SPEAKER_00: It says, so that.
SPEAKER_00: So that the tested genuineness of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, the tested genuineness?
SPEAKER_00: It's not like God needs to know that you have faith.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: You and I need to be reminded sometimes, you really do believe what you believe.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the easiest way for that to happen is for you to just get to a point where you just go, you know what, God, that's that's all I got.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I need.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I got I understand.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Just turn over one page if you would to 1 Peter chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: We're just about done.
SPEAKER_00: You still with me?
SPEAKER_00: You fantasizing about that buffet yet?
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all think I'm kidding, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: You're kind of like, you're not gonna let us out early.
SPEAKER_00: It's Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are like, I don't believe you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll have an invitation for unbelievers and you have little faith after the service.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 3, look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Now, trials have have a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's evangelistic.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
SPEAKER_00: But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Now he says that and have no fear of them.
SPEAKER_00: Who is he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: These people that are giving you a hard time, that are jerking with you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid of them, nor be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
SPEAKER_00: Yet do it with gentleness and respect.
SPEAKER_00: Translation: don't be some religious blowhard who clubs people over the head.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm happy because I know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: What a wee.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: With gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: For it is better to suffer for doing good than if that should be God's will than for doing evil.
SPEAKER_00: See, this hope of the resurrection transforms trials for a little while, if necessary.
SPEAKER_00: It's various so that there's always a purpose to it.
SPEAKER_00: And look, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the purpose for the trial you and I are going through is so that somebody else can see the hope that it was in us, and we're we stand ready to explain to them.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I'm not getting my way.
SPEAKER_00: Life's not going like I think it should.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not getting what I deserve.
SPEAKER_00: My boss is a jerk.
SPEAKER_00: My 20-year-old kid's out there just off the deep end, but I still hope in God.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're like Job's wife.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Job's wife?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all hell was breaking loose in his life, and she showed up smoking Paw Miles, going, curse God and die.
SPEAKER_00: That's the wrong time to realize you married the wrong woman.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's at the city dump, he's got a broken piece of pottery, and he's scraping sores off his face, and he's nagging why, curse God and die.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go have a vodka collins.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be back to check on you.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you just want to just off yourself if you were married to that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm sure Job was kind of like, what are the chances?
SPEAKER_00: But see, here's the thing hope transforms and transcends all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Transform means it makes it look, it changes the way you look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Transcends means it's above it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the mercy of it.
SPEAKER_00: Fifthly and finally, this this hope of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: It's proof enough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm back in chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: You with me?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: It's proof enough.
SPEAKER_00: Because look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who I'm talking to, but I'm talking to some of you in here.
SPEAKER_00: You're smart people.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: You think if life is going well, you don't need God.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, you look.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need God.
SPEAKER_00: I got everything I need.
SPEAKER_00: I hear it every week.
SPEAKER_00: I talk to people.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, do you have any?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, do you go to church where you have a church home?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not preaching to you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm good, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good, I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you asking.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing fine.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need God.
SPEAKER_00: God's been plenty good to us, the big man.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_00: You think the land your family owns is enough to console you in this life?
SPEAKER_00: You think this life is all there is?
SPEAKER_00: Or I get, well, you know, I'll tell you what, I'd believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: If he just gets on TV and prove himself, I mean if he's real, why don't you just get on there and make himself known?
SPEAKER_00: That'd be my brother, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Just when you thought we were running short of morons, we've got an endless supply.
SPEAKER_00: Just come to my family reunion.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean this hope is proof enough?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.
SPEAKER_00: It's got a measure of heaven on it, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at verse 8 again.
SPEAKER_00: Peter covers two tenses there.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Though you have not seen him, past tense, you love him.
SPEAKER_00: And then he covers present tense.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Though you do not see him now, though you do not now see him, you believe in him and you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.
SPEAKER_00: When you go to lunch today, have dessert, have something so good that you don't have words for it, so you just gotta make that noise.
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta go, mmm, oh, mmm.
SPEAKER_00: I remember last baseball season, I was watching the Sports Center one night, and Niger Morgan, he's the center fielder for the Milwaukee Brewers.
SPEAKER_00: He made the game-winning hit, and they were interviewing him in the tunnel after the game, and he was talking, and all his teammates were walking by.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I did chap off the Astros a few times.
SPEAKER_00: If you wonder why they're in a hurry to get in the clubhouse, because there's everything you can imagine in there to eat.
SPEAKER_00: They have beer and food and fajitas everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I never understood why are they all in a hurry to get in the clubhouse?
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: And their CBA, their collective bargaining agreement, they get a pregame meal and a post-game meal.
SPEAKER_00: It is like a spread every time.
SPEAKER_00: But Niger Morgan is standing there and he's talking and he's all amped up and the guy and he's like, How'd it feel?
SPEAKER_00: And he got to describing it, and he was, well, you know, and then he went and ran them off.
SPEAKER_00: And I just like thank you, Jesus, I'm having DVD on her.
SPEAKER_00: And I just backed it up.
SPEAKER_00: And he was just talking, and then nah, and then he just ran them off.
SPEAKER_00: And even the sportscasters and I'm a talk show radio, and they were like, we're going to commercial, and they were then, he was just talking about and and I was sometimes I talked to my TV because people can't get things figured out, and I gotta help them.
SPEAKER_00: And they were saying, we don't know what came over him.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, what came over him?
SPEAKER_00: What's the thought of what was awaiting him?
SPEAKER_00: What's better than where he was right now?
SPEAKER_00: So he had to go.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and the Bible says, you undeserved wretches, you should be the same way about heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You should be filled with this inexpressible and glorious joy that makes you rejoice because you've been born again into a living hope, and every once in a while you try to describe it, and you're like, I gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, you're gonna go to work tomorrow, and your pathetic god friend's gonna go, what'd you do for your old lady for Mother's Day?
SPEAKER_00: And you should hear God saying, punch him in the throat.
SPEAKER_00: She's not your old lady.
SPEAKER_00: Problem number one.
SPEAKER_00: But after you talk about the way you bestowed gratitude on the woman who makes your household run, you could start talking about the hope that is yours as a Christian, and then just kind of be like Niger Morgan and just be talking along there and just go, I'd love to tell you more about the hair.
SPEAKER_00: And then run them off.
SPEAKER_00: Just mark them out, run down the hull as a Mustang.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to talk about you got papers in your hand, throw them in the air.
SPEAKER_00: And just sprint down the hall and slam your door.
SPEAKER_00: And don't come out for a couple hours.
SPEAKER_00: And then come out with your shirt all torn, smoking.
SPEAKER_00: What are y'all doing?
SPEAKER_00: How was y'all's weekend?
SPEAKER_00: They've been talking about you, what they've been doing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it, we'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: It says, though you do not see him, you have not seen him, past hence, you love him.
SPEAKER_00: Though you do not see him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: And loving him and believing in him causes you to rejoice with joy that is inexpressible.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have words for it.
SPEAKER_00: And filled with glory because you're obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
SPEAKER_00: Let me close with this question this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You hadn't seen him.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna see him today.
SPEAKER_00: He ain't gotta show up and demonstrate himself to you.
SPEAKER_00: You can see evidence of his existence.
SPEAKER_00: You can't deny there's not that there's a God.
SPEAKER_00: The question for today is do you believe in him?
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out and speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: There is a thin line sometimes between foolishness and faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that line is erased because of your understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Your God has revealed himself to you because he wants you to understand him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that you're smart, it's that you're his.
SPEAKER_00: And being his makes all the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now and live like sons and daughters of God and call your mother.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.