Big Idea: The gospel reveals the nature of God’s love and our lives reveal our response.
How have you witnessed a mother’s love? I have been very fortunate to have many personal experiences of a mother’s love. Very grateful for all of them. But one episode stands out as a brilliant example. When we were quite young one of my little brothers fell into a filthy, oily, mire. Disgusting body of water. Foul odors from rotting vegetation and who knows what else emanated from this sludge. And yet my mum went straight in to drag him out. She willingly entered the muck to save him. You see, that’s what mums do. Dads would probably be on the edge, come on mate you can swim, this is a life skills moment. But mums are straight in, protecting, guarding, saving their offspring.
This is the sort of love we expect from mums.
But in the gospel we see an unexpected love. A saving love offered to rebels and failures. This letter is written by a failure. The apostle Peter. He’s the disciple that promised Jesus, even if he had to die he would not forsake him. But when it came to the crunch he denied Jesus three times. I swear, I don’t know this man! And yet, maybe unexpectedly he became a famous Apostle and co-author of the NT after receiving unexpected love. Today he tells us about the unexpected response to unexpected love.
This term our sermon series title is “I’m (not) done with church.” A catchy way of saying what does a healthy church look like. We will see that a healthy church Loves God, Serves Others, On Mission, In Community. Two sermons on each aspect. Another aspect – deep trust in the Word. So, we will preach on these four aspects from the Bible. Today a healthy church loves God.
The expected response to a mum’s expected love …
How do we respond to unexpected love? Peter says, in unexpected ways.
Why is that an unexpected response? Take a look …
Praise … According to his great mercy … unobliged compassion, pity. caused us to be born again … new birth, new creation… you must be born again. into a living hope – through resurrection of Jesus … eternal life, he fixed our forever.
Out of relationship with God all we could expect on the last day is wrath and judgement. But now… According to God’s mercy and through Jesus’ death and resurrection we have been given a new forever, eternal life. We see that in the next verses.
My dad tells us that the inheritance we can expect is a bill for his funeral.
v4 an inheritance of immeasurable value – imperishable, undefiled, unfading; kept safe…
Andrew Lloyd Weber …
v5 You are shielded by the power of God until the last time…
There is no way that you will lose your inheritance. Now consider the unexpected response. Peter simply says, Praise. Why is that unexpected?
Because it’s not a payment plan. Because it’s not a demand to prove you are worthy of your position. Because the response is simply praise. What does praise look like?
On long service leave we stopped in Innsbruck, Austria for a few nights. That was the natural beauty highlight of our entire trip. The mountains were astounding, mesmerising. I had a constant urge to photograph them but my pictures never truly captured their beauty. It felt like I could not see them enough. I truly understood the Proverb which says, “the eye never has its fill of seeing.” I was awestruck. And in that experience I started to understand the Psalmist and Isaiah declaring that the mountains declare the glory of God.
Praise is to be captured by God’s glory. And that glory is never more fully revealed than in the gospel. To praise God is to explore the gospel, seek to understand every facet of the gospel, to delight in it, soak yourself in it, and to marvel at God’s glory revealed in it. To thank God for saving you. Pray that God would give you ever deeper insights and a greater view. To know that you can never move beyond the gospel. Unexpected because it is freely given on the basis of mercy. That is our message to the world. The world does not need us demanding them to conform to the Bible’s moral standards. The world needs to hear the gospel. The power of salvation for all who believe. And that belief, that faith comes through hearing. The world needs us to declare God’s glory in Jesus. The first unexpected response is praise. The second … trust.
In this we Rejoice (that seems expected). … even in trials (that’s unexpected). Rejoicing when things are hard! Various kinds of trials
Little While. In relation to eternity it is a little while. When you are under pressure it does feel longer. 25 seconds doesn’t sound like a long time … unless you are on an assault bike. Put our present situation in the context of eternity.
Trials move us to trust not question. It could feel like God has abandoned you … or never answers your prayers for relief … Expected – Complaining. Getting grumpy, Questioning. Unexpected Rejoicing in trials.
Viewing our time here as short. Understanding this is not our forever home, not the arena of our best life. Being prepared to lose our lives now, endure suffering now because we take God at his word when he says that the end goal, salvation of our souls is worth it. Why?
Trials are the testing ground of your faith.
Gold under high heat. The gold will survive but the dross, the undesirable elements mixed in with the gold will burn away. Through trials God is burning away all the other things you might be tempted to trust in, find security or identity in. Through testing God is helping you put your idols to death. He is refining your faith in him. When you realise that is what’s happening, Peter says rejoice.
Gym, muscle strength. No pain no gain (kind of). God’s gym.
God is preparing you for a greater weight of glory.
This is the mindset we need to respond to unexpected love in unexpected ways. Look at the result – here’s one God prepared earlier.
Love of Jesus and belief in our salvation to be revealed. Through trials of various kinds God is working in you so that you grow in your love and trust in Jesus.
Even though I had that great example of a mother’s love; something which has stuck with me for a long time I still needed reminding how to respond. When I moved to Sydney to study, in the days before mobile phones … Dad would ring me on the college landline. I’d get to the phone a fair way from my room and Dad would simply say, ring your mother then hang up. Dad’s way of saying you are not responding correctly to your mum.
How do we live as a healthy church who loves God? Gathering for corporate worship. Get together to praise God together. We are not doing that very well at the moment.
Early is on time. On time is late. Late is unacceptable. In the culture we live in where everyone is busy nothing expresses importance more than what you are willing to give your time to.
One practical thing we can do.
Love Your Church material and in each of the books, living out a love for God is foundational. Have you seen that mural in Blackwood St? Our bit of Brisbane. Let that mural be a reminder and a challenge that what Our bit of Brisbane needs most, above anything else is our church to boldly declare God’s praises in the Lord Jesus Christ. To take the gospel out.
A healthy church loves God by responding well to the unexpected love of God.
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