Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: how will you follow Jesus in prayer and dependence on God this week?
Main Points
In this lesson shaped by Calvary Boise's teaching on 1 PETER: A Playbook for Your Life, Christ invites us to receive truth with humility, practice repentance, and walk in faithful obedience.
Sin and Salvation
we are in first Peter chapter 3 we've been studying this particular letter written by the disciple Peter to a group of believers who. are going through persecution in modern-day Turkey and he writes to them to say hey you've got the born-again spirit you guys have the. you're alive in Christ so no matter what you go through you have the answer on how to respond and we're gonna look for. this morning's text is gonna give us some real details some concrete ways that people who are alive in Christ this sermon series started. from Easter to this day basically saying if Christ conquered the grave and gives us the same spirit that he had what are we. able to concur with that same spirit today we have these really detailed ways that the born-again life is supposed to play out and. we're gonna look at that starting in verse 8 it says finally all of you be of one mind having compassion for one another. love as brothers be tender-hearted be courteous not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary blessing knowing that you. were a call to this that you and may inherit a blessing and he goes on to quote Psalm 34 that says he who. would love life and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit let him turn away. from evil and do good let him seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his. ears are open to their prayers but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil you see Peter contrasting the put. apart from evil and do good this is how you used to live in your old natural self but now you have the Spirit. of God living in you and this is what you're supposed to live like now and he says all of that to encourage these. believers that they are waiting for heaven Christ has conquered sin and death paying the penalty for us to now go to heaven and. that's why the beginning of this series started in chapter 1 we have a Living Hope and an in hair since in heaven reserved. for us by God part of us being born again means that we have a eternal destiny that we wait for now and Jesus. says that unless you're born again you can't inherit that eternal life.
Faith and Obedience
but that's only the first half of the letter it's to encourage them that no matter what they go through there's always the hope. of heaven waiting for them but heavens not today and the born-again believer is supposed to not just hope for heaven and live business. as usual but also allow God's Spirit to dwell in you so that people around you would know what it means to know God. because you live out the love of God in all of these different ways that we're going to talk about this morning and this. is good timing for this the last time that I preached we were looking at the good conduct that we're supposed to live out. so that anyone who would know us in our lives whether it's government officials or people that we work for or in the relationships. of our lives by our good conduct they would see God is on the throne in our lives and they would glorify Him that's. an amazing sermon except for after I was done preaching a man beeline for me which is always a little bit scary when you're. a preacher and someone comes right towards you to talk with their arms folded he waits his turn and after everyone I've talked to. he says company comes up to me and says hey I think you forgot something I'm thinking myself ok what did I forget and. he says you forgot to give me my homework my favorite part of every sermon is when I can actually take the word and. then test it out in my real life I'm like poof you're right I did forget that is a good thing to forget and. he is right to want that and so there is an encouragement this morning from his desire to taste and see that the Lord. is good we are here this morning not simply to go deeper into our understanding of the word so we have more information about. who God is but to know that the word comes alive so that we can leave here as better followers of Christ and test. it and try it and see what it looks like in our lives and so it's good for him to desire some practical ways. for a sermon to hit the streets now here's why I'd like to take that a little bit further for his sake and all. of our sakes because he most appears like that kid in.
Faith and Obedience
class where class is almost over and there's that one very faithful and dutiful student that raises their hand and says you forgot to. assign our homework and there's that collective groan in the classroom why because homework has this connotation that you get it as an extra. assignment and the word becomes a live-in application but we need to think of it less as homework it's less of us learning to. go deeper in our own personal studies and I'd like to this morning in reading this call it not a homework assignment that we're. gonna call and live out in the verses that we read but a playbook and this is much more exciting to me a playbook. is something that you receive not to go deeper into the information so that you can pass the test which is what sometimes sermons. feel like a playbook is I can't wait for the game and I want to win and that's what you get in the verses. that we already read look what Peter is encouraging these believers to remember he says in verse 10 of chapter 3 he who would. love life and see good days let him do this which is essentially it to say if you want to have a successful life. or in other words and other translations he would have a victorious life let him do this and so what we're going to look. at in the context of this morning is the playbook of the born-again believer modeled by Christ and given to us through the word. so that when we leave the sanctuary we're walking towards this promise of loving life and having happy days and that is the promise. of Christ there is a playbook to your life whether you like it or not Christ says that there's basically two paths there's the. broad way that is easy and it's the way that most people go down and it leads to ultimately destruction it will be fun. for a while to live life however you want or to allow your emotions or your culture or other things dick tank the dictate. the game plan for your life but Jesus says but then there's this narrow way and the narrow way is where he wants to. lead us and very few find it but it's the only way that leads to life you got to have the right playbook if. you actually want to follow Christ and it's not just that there's.
Prayer and Dependence
two ways it is true that whether you are a believer who I am going to speak to mostly this morning or a non-believer. there is a playbook to your life there is a way that you think about life and for this sermon I want to think. about this in three terms to keep it in this theme there's offense and there's defense and there's confidence for all of us maybe. you're not a sports person these are just words for how we respond in life offense is what you do when the ball is. in your court when you have the opportunity to treat someone a certain way when you have resources that you want to engage or. use or have an opportunity to spend money however you want this is you on offense defense is what you do when someone else. has the ball defense is what you do when you're responding to the actions and the behaviors of other people and this third part. which is also given to us in the word is the confidence why do you think this is gonna work why have you chosen. that way now this is a contrast that's being made in all of this letter and now in your life that there is a. battle between your flesh and your spirit the flesh represents the old playbook and Peter says you got to abstain from the old playbook. because it has these lusty desires these over desires to feed itself and this is the PlayBook of the non-believer it can be summed. up in one simple phrase that is the survival of the fittest that if you leave this place and you don't have the Lord. on the throne of your heart you will come down to this broad way that ultimately thinks about one person and that person is. you and your job is to out survive everybody else here's one of Charles Darwin's contemporaries speaking in the terms of his theory applied. to life Otto von Bismarck says it is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong and that he was a. political leader who thought it was his job to imperialize his surrounding countries and that's not just true of kings and rulers and governors. that is so often the method for life that people live by here's how one Silicon Valley power player puts it you gotta listen. closely to this one especially if you live in the north end.
Prayer and Dependence
the success is paved with dead squirrels don't ever hesitate and don't ever stop for those who do if you hesitate you're gonna die. and if you stop for someone dead you're wasting your time it's the survival of the fittest mentality now as a shout out to. the fathers among us how many of you fathers have toddlers if I can see a raise of hand keep it up we're all. gonna pray for you right now I'm gonna keep my hand up as well because toddlers show the human playbook faster than anyone else. let me share with you a code of conduct the ten commandments of the toddler if I like it's mine if it's in my. hand it's mine if I can take it from you it's mine if I had a little while ago it's mine if it's mine. it must never appear to be yours in any way if I'm doing or building something all of the pieces are mine if it. looks like mine it's mine if I saw it first it's mine if you are playing with something and you put it down it. automatically becomes mine and finally if it's broken it's yours is that not something that is revealed in the toddler and it continues all. the way until adulthood in all of these really polite and polished ways the Bible says there's a war between the mind mentality and. the mentality of Christ that looks in all the ways he can serve and love others the broad way is mine the narrow way. is Christ and he says that when we're on offense when we have the ball in our Court we're not doing land grabs and. money grabs and toy grabs what it says now for the born-again believer the one who has come alive to the new way of. life the new code of conduct the new playbook when you're on offense this is what it looks like verse eight finally all of. you be of one mind we're all a team now the believers in Christ are one mind now we come here with diverse preferences. we have different ideas of what neighbor hood should look like and sometimes what family values look like and sometimes what governments look like. or state values look like but when we come together we are supposed to worship God with one voice one mine essentially saying we. all now have one aim and our aim is to.
Prayer and Dependence
make God known to make his glory known that his glory would cover the earth like the sea that's our aim and in that. we have one direct mind this is why I love the PlayBook mentality because this is essentially saying you're a team now and when. you get together as a team you have one goal and that is victory our victory is that Christ would be known and we. would enjoy all that he has for us it goes on to say have compassion for one another care about one another that's our. playbook if a toddler was living out the born-again life that the playroom would look totally different because those who don't have would have. those who are hurting would be tended not just by the parents but by the other playmates and what does that look like for. us we suffer together we hurt together we go through the difficulties of life and celebrations together and pains together to have compassion and. then it says to love as brothers in other words love as if you're in the same family it can be a difficult verse. for those of you who have brothers it's not always easy to get that brotherly love example but this is saying love is brothers. are supposed to love as families are supposed to love and there are two things about a family that we should see embodied in. the body of Christ you don't choose your family and you don't lose your family it means that the people that God has brought. here this morning believers look around these are your brothers and sisters in Christ if we have accepted the Spirit of God in us. it says we've been adopted into the family of God and we are now brothers and sisters you don't get to choose who you. fellowship with you don't get to look for the perfect church that has all of your style preferences and all of your music preferences. it says that it is like a family and you don't choose your family and you also don't lose your family meaning no matter. how annoying and how difficult and how loud the music is and how messy the rooms are we don't get to say we're not. brothers and sisters anymore you can be estranged but the DNA stays the same you look at it under the microscope and you say. those are brothers and those are sisters and that's the family.
Faith and Obedience
and the body of Christ must represent an unrelenting love for one another we don't choose or lose one another the body of Christ. does not come with an unfollow button and it does not come with a delete friend button and we remember that because we realize. we live in a world that now offers those conveniences and we say our playbook is always to love like God loved us and. aren't we so grateful that he did not choose to delete us and now we represent that to the world then it says be. tender-hearted be soft to one another don't be so hard lined on your preferences and your thoughts and your desires and your things that. you like a certain way that you are unrelenting to the preferences and the desires of other people we have soft horse hearts one. another and we are kind and we are courteous now I say all of those things to say the Christian offense can be summed. up in one word in it's love and it's actually very easy to preach there's not a need for a representation or an interpretation. of the original Greek we don't need to do a word study we don't have to spend a lot of time breaking down the. text this is one of those verses that you read and it gives you a real clear answer on how we are supposed to. live our lives but the challenge is this the easier something is to preach the harder it is to practice when I see my. children fighting over one toy living out that fleshly desire to use that word mine I got a very short sermon for them and. it is this share very easy to preach and it's so hard to practice and sometimes in our church experience we want the exact. opposite we want sermons that are so hard to preach and easy to practice I can give you an example of a verse in. this chapter that would be very difficult to break down in the course of our time together it says that Christ in verse 19. of the same chapter it says that he went and preached to the spirits in prison the time between he was crucified and rose. again it says that he was somehow descended into hell to give a message of the gospel to the dead that went before him. what do we say about that's a that's a difficult.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.