Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Good morning, Valley View. It’s great to be with you today as we continue in our study of First Peter. If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn to First Peter. And if you have a church Bible, if you don’t have a Bible, we’d love to put one in your hands. Those are out in the connection corner. Slip out any time and grab one. We’re going to wrap up chapter one today. The page number for where we are in that church Bible should be on the screen. We’ve been working through chapter one. We’re going to land here on these last few verses, and I’m going to begin by reading those before we set up the theme for the day. First Peter chapter one, verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. For a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God. For all flesh is like grass, all its glory, like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls. But the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. Every parent has experienced seasons with your children when you ask them to do things. When you give instruction, when you give a command, usually that first season you encounter is the word no. No matter what you ask, the response is no. You work through that. You help them see, actually, you do need to do some things I ask. Then it turns to why? Why? No matter what you ask — why? The smallest little thing — why? There’s something within us when asked to do something, we want to know why. Give me a good reason. I’ll decide whether I should follow you or not. We’ve talked about how Peter is a book full of commands. Peter issues command after command, although at first he didn’t. At the beginning was just laying out who you are in Christ. And what we’re going to see today is that there is one central command in this passage. It’s love. Love one another. But Peter understands that we also wrestle with the question, why? Why, why should I love? You know, loving others isn’t really natural. It’s unnatural. In fact, I’ve I ran across a quote, by the poet Ogden Nash. He said it this way. He says smallpox is natural. Vaccines ain’t. Now, regardless how you feel about vaccines or the word ain’t. Sorry, mom, I’m quoting a poet. The point being, disease is natural. The breakdown of society is natural. We’ve got to fight for things that are good. Your heart. My heart, naturally is not loving. The natural responses defensiveness, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, selfishness. Peter knows that. And when he says love, today we’re going to see the reason why we should love. He’s going to give three reasons why we should love. So look back in verse 22 and we’ll see this first reason why we should love. If the command is love one another with a sincere brotherly love, why? Why should I ? Shouldn’t I just follow my heart? That’s what the world says. If I feel something, go with it. Just follow your heart. Why should I love? First reason here. Look back at verse 22 Since, because, therefore, here’s the reason. Since you have been purified, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love. The first reason why we are commanded to love is that you have been purified. Peter also loves to quote the Old Testament. We we’ve shown that a few times now. In verse 16, we saw where he says, be holy, for I am holy. He’s quoting Leviticus when he says that. Be holy. You are to be holy because God is holy, and he’s called you to holiness. What I love about this first reason why we are called to be loving is that act of holiness. That idea points towards the idea of being set apart for something different. God has set you apart, different from the rest of the world. And that’s holiness, that’s purity, that’s sanctification. And the way that wording there is, is it’s already true of you. You have been purified. If you know Christ, the reason why you are to love is because God has already set you apart. He’s already changed your heart. He’s already made a difference in your life. He’s already set you apart. Therefore, live that out. But it’s because of what he says here. It’s obedience to the truth. Much of our world is all about trying to get us to believe lies. But it could be the news. It could be school. It could be your own heart at times. The enemy is desperate for you to believe the lies he has for you. He’s the father of lies. But our call is to obey truth. And that’s not always easy. The truth can be harder to believe. It’s a lot easier a lot of times to believe a lie. Really. We’re called to obey truth. And because you have been set apart, because you have been purified, because your heart has been changed now your longings have changed, your desires have changed the things you hunger for, the things that you delight in, those have changed. One of the things I loved about growing up here at Valley View was our children’s church. We call it KidZone now. I loved going to that because the guys who taught that they were so good, they knew how to tell stories, how to connect with us as elementary age school kids. They were just– one guy in particular I remember, Uncle Joe, Joe Marr. He would come in and just tell the best stories. Here we are 40 or so years later, and I still remember the day he came in and said, y’all may not understand this, but God has changed me. God took me from an alcoholic and he changed me. He turned me away from that and I didn’t really quite know what that meant. But then he said this, and this really stood out to me. He said, I used to drive down Seventh Street and right away I thought, why would you do that? Because I’ve driven down it and it smells so gross, right? Immediately in my mind, we would go down Seventh Street whether my dad worked downtown or I had to go to school. I went to school over more in the West End, and I just thought, man, that smell on Seventh Street from the distillery. It just made my stomach sick. I don’t know if you remember that or not. If you experienced that, I just couldn’t. I wanted to vomit when I smelled it as a little kid. I was like, why would anybody want to smell that? And he said, when I would drive down Seventh Street, I would smell the smell of those distilleries cooking. And I just soaked it up and delighted in it. I thought, you’re messed up. Why would anybody do that? We believe the lies of what will bring you life, but the truth is opposite. You have been purified. Because of that, live it out. Live differently. Love. When you love others, you’re going to stand out. This world does not know how to love. In fact, look at some of the words here that are used for love when we’re commanded to love. Look back at some of the descriptors. By the way, isn’t it sad that we have to use words to describe love? We can’t just say love because I love coconut cream pie. I also love my mom. Those are very different loves right? We’ve got to add qualifiers to the word love. Look at what he does here. Have a sincere brotherly love is the first way. He describes it in verse 22, a sincere brotherly love, that word sincere. It’s the same word we get our word hypocrite from. It looks the same, sounds the same. Except it means not a hypocrite. The hypocrite is two faced. The hypocrite does one action and hopes you’ll see a motive that’s opposite of what they’re really feeling. The hypocrite. In fact, I remember a time for my dad’s birthday. I realized he really needs a new tackle box because I really need a new tackle box. I’m the one who is the one using it, and it’s not working as well as I would like. And so I bought him a new tackle box, and of course, he saw right through it because he never used it. And he was very gracious and kind and laughed. And in fact, I think this year I have a few books in mind he might like for his birthday, probably. When I gave him that, I wasn’t loving him. I was using him to love me. It wasn’t sincere. We’re called to give sincere love. Genuine love. Look at the other word that’s used here. Two other words love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Examine your heart. Is my love pure? Of course. Can it ever be 100% pure? Who knows? But we can seek it out and say, Lord, would you help my motive here to be pure? What’s my desire? What’s going on in my heart? Then I love this word earnestly. We don’t often use that related to love. Love them earnestly. That word’s only used two other times in the New Testament. One is in Acts chapter 12. In Acts chapter 12, it describes people who are praying for Peter to be released from prison. God, would you move? Would you bring him out of prison so that the gospel can be proclaimed? You see this intensity, this earnestness from them. Then the other place it’s used and both times are used of prayer, interestingly enough, is in Luke 22, where Jesus is in the garden and he’s praying, God, would you remove this cup from me? I don’t want to go through this. Would you remove this? But if not, your will be done. And it says this of him. As he prayed, his sweat fell from him like great drops of blood. Have you ever prayed so hard that you were sweating? Maybe before a test or something. That is earnest prayer. God, would you move? Do we love like that? Love earnestly to where it causes you to take extreme effort. You know, I think. True love, genuine love, sincere love, earnest love, at the core of it is always. It’s always involves sacrifice. It always involves giving up something. Now, of course, you may do it willingly, because what greater delight is there than to love someone well? What greater joy is there than to display love to someone? But it still costs you something. An earnest, a sincere love. This is what we’re called to be about because we have been purified. That’s the first reason why we should love. Why? Because God’s already changed you. Let’s look at the second reason here. Look at verse 23. Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Since you have been born again. Not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God. The second reason why we are to love one another. You’ve been born again. You’ve been made new. Second Corinthians 5:17 if anyone is in Christ, the old has gone, the new has come. You are a new creation. God has done something in you to transform you into something completely different than you were. You’re new. You’re not stuck in your old ways. This week I was. I mentioned this in the midweek update. I was cleaning out a closet and I ran across my high school yearbook, which is always fun. It’s probably been about 20 years since I even looked at it. And, I thought, who are these people? I have no idea who these people are. As I’m flipping, I’m reading the things people, the notes people wrote me in the front of the book. These would have been the people that were your closest friends in high school. Have no idea who half, more than half of them are. And as I read through it, though, I read through the whole, a lot of it. When I put it down, I was so discouraged I thought, man I, I wasted a lot of years. There were a lot of years that I could have been investing in others for the gospel, and it was all about me. I wanted everyone else to love me. I wanted everyone else to invest in me. I just put that down. I thought so self-focused. I was so discouraged by that. I kind of went to bed half depressed that night. I woke up the next morning and I was reading a devotional that I read from regularly by Ian Hamilton, and here’s what he said. This is going to be on the screen. One of Satan’s well-rehearsed strategies is to turn us in upon ourselves, to absorb us with our weaknesses and sinful failures. Too often, we fall into this quagmire and find it hard to get ourselves out of it. Yeah. You know, I had become self-absorbed about how self-absorbed I was. The enemy had used that. That over self-absorption, that over reflection on sin to turn me away from the gospel. But here’s what the next paragraph said. When the Lord convicts us of our sinful failures and failings, he immediately points us away from ourselves to himself. This is what nurtures and nourishes our faith, not dwelling on our sins. By the way, not ignoring our sins, not pretending they didn’t happen. We’re confessing them and taking them there to him. But we don’t dwell on them. We dwell on the one who freely and fully forgives our sins, and who delights to embrace us in his unfailing love. You know I’m not that guy I was in high school. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus. I’m not stuck in that sin. I’m not stuck in self absorption. Christ worked in my life to change me. And he’s still doing that. And he did that in your life. And he continues to do that in your life because you have been born again. He made you new. He changed your life. He went to work in your life. He did what you couldn’t do. You tried to save yourself. Who here has tried to save yourself year after year, after year? Three people. Okay, a lot of others have I think. You tried. It didn’t work. You made a bigger mess of it. I did too. He brought you to life. He made you new again. Born again. Now look how this happens. Look how he did it back in verse 23. You’ve been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God. First, it is the living and abiding Word of God that is at work in your life. Hebrews 4:12. The Word of God is living and active in your life. You open His word. You will find something that relates to your life today. You will. His spirit is. It moves in your life. His word works in your life. You can trust it and depend on it. But he also said here, and this is actually interesting, it’s the third time already in the first chapter, he’s talked about things that are perishable and imperishable. He’s given this contrast between the two already. If you look back at verse four, we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading. If you look back at verse seven, the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. And then if you look back at verse 18, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious, imperishable blood of Christ. Why is it that he’s giving us this constant contrast of perishable, imperishable, especially in the context of silver and gold? He mentioned silver and gold in particular, being perishable, which I thought was interesting because in our life there are few things less perishable than silver or gold. We don’t tend to categorize those as silver or gold as perishable. You call produce perishables. Silver and gold, man, those stay around, those last, those have value. Why does he keep referring to that as perishable? Well, to understand this, we’re going to jump ahead to our next point and the next couple of verses, because the next couple of verses are going to quote directly from the Old Testament. In fact, if in your Bible, those verses are probably for some Bibles set out, kind of separate, maybe indented a little differently to help you see these come from the Old Testament. Look here at verse 25, verse 24 and 25 — for all flesh is like grass, and all the glory, like the flower of the grass, the grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. This sets up the third reason why we’re called to love. This will be on the screen because flesh fades, but the word remains. We’re called to love because that passes on to others things that remain. Now why the perishable, imperishable descriptor? Why does the grass fade? Why bring all that up? This is a direct quote from Isaiah 40. And we’re going to turn there and look at why he quotes from Isaiah 40 here in first Peter. Isaiah is in the Old Testament. That’ll be on page 561 in a church Bible, if you find I’m turning to page 561 of my Bible, it’s not the same. It’s on page six. Yeah, you don’t care. It’s Isaiah 40. Power of suggestion right there. Isaiah 40 is an important chapter in the New Testament from the Old Testament. Isaiah is one of the major prophets of the Old Testament. And it’s Isaiah is the second most quoted book in the New Testament. Psalms is first, then Isaiah. And 40. Chapter 40 in particular, is quoted from quite a bit. In fact, verse three shows up in each of the four Gospels. Look at verse three. A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. This is quoted in each of the Gospels in reference to John the Baptist being the one who is coming to prepare the way for Christ, for the Messiah, for the one everyone had been waiting for. And then, of course, verse six and eight are what are quoted in our passage, verse eight in particular, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. That idea also shows up in Psalm 103, I think verse 14 or so. And it’s this idea. Yeah, we fade, the flesh fades. In fact, we are like dust. Here one day, gone tomorrow. Our yard was like that recently. One day it was green and lush, like right back before Labor Day. Green and lush. The fine assortment of weeds, but green and like three days later, dirt just dead brown. Just like that. Your life is passing. It is going to be over so fast. Make the most of it. Make the most of every moment. I love that you’re here. I love that you make the most of. How do I get around other people who are pursuing Christ? Other people who can encourage me, other people who can build into my life, come find places to experience that. That’s what I love about our Wednesday night suppers. Yes. Subtle plug, not so subtle. Wednesday night suppers. You can walk into a room and just sit down by anyone. Who are the people that you have wanted to get to know? Go sit by them. Talk to them. Connect with them. There’s so much wisdom in that room to be gained from. We had a great time this week. Great meal. In fact, if you want to come celebrate our 25th anniversary with us, you can come enjoy a nice Wednesday night meal this week. That’s where we’ll be celebrating it. We have other plans too. Don’t worry. In fact, I got a card from the Peercy’s, Larry and Sharlett. just encouraging us. Hey, congratulations. 25 years. That’s a big number. That’s a that’s a big deal. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, but she had to write ‘By the way, we celebrated 68 years this year.’ Yeah. Yeah. Praise the Lord. 68 I’m not even 68 years old. They’ve been married that long. There’s a lot of wisdom in that room. There’s a lot of wisdom in this room. There’s a lot of people that you can get time with, sharpen your life and grow closer to Christ because the days are fleeting. They’re going by quickly. Now, this brings us back to the question. Why does he keep bringing up silver and gold being perishable? Isaiah 40 in particular addresses that and oftentimes when New Testament writers quote just even one subtle verse from a chapter in the Bible, they’re often referring to a whole lot that’s around it. Just like if I say ‘Four score and seven years ago’ you know, I’m talking about something else entirely. And you hear the whole thing and you think about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln all just in a few words. Look here in verse 18 and 19, to whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compares with him? An idol? Your Bible might have an exclamation point. It might have a question mark. The point being, really? You want to compare him to an idol? You want to set up an idol instead of him? A craftsman makes it, a goldsmith overlays it with gold. And cast for it silver chains. Gold and silver are perishable. In particular. Peter and Isaiah both know our temptation to want to worship something other than God. Whether it’s gold and silver, literally, or an idol, it’s going to fade away. It won’t last. All the things that this world says, this is what really matters. It’s going to fade away. It will. Proverbs 30 sums this up perfectly. Charm is deceitful, beauty– Proverbs 31– beauty is vain. Vain beauty is vain. Charm is deceitful. Beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord, she will be praised. You can take the most charming, most beautiful person. And if all their identity is in those, it will crumble. It’ll fade. But give me the person who fears the Lord. That’s the person I want to be around. And that’s the person I want to learn from. Gold and silver perish because they are no substitute for God. In fact, Isaiah 40 is bookended about two things that we need in particular, and especially 1 Peter’s audience, because our whole theme for First Peter is finding joy in suffering. First Peter’s audience, he knew they were being persecuted for their faith. By the way, Isaiah is writing to Jews who have been taken out of their country to Babylon and told don’t talk about God anymore. How do we help those? How do we help those find joy in the midst of suffering who are being persecuted, are being told you can’t believe or you can believe it but don’t talk about it? Here’s how chapter 40 begins and ends. Look at the very first word– comfort. Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Cry to her. Her warfare is ended. Her iniquity is pardoned. Comfort. When you’re suffering that’s what you need to start. Bring commands. Yes. Give me direction, comfort. Start with comfort. But then it ends with hope. The book is bookended with comfort and hope. Look at the last few verses. Verses of Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 28. The Lord is the everlasting God. Look, no matter what you’re going through, he is there. He is the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary. Young men shall fall exhausted, but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Isaiah knew it. Peter knew it, and we know it today. What we need in the midst of suffering. Comfort and hope that God is there and he is real. I think all of this in the book of Peter, all of this is meant to try to draw out one thing that is should be true of those who follow Christ. Everything he’s trying to tell them is trying to say to them, one mark of those who truly know Christ should be love. If I’m growing in my relationship with Christ, if I’m growing in my knowledge of who he is, if I’m growing closer to him, then I should also be growing in love. I should become more loving, more tender, more kind, more understanding. Yes, still better at standing for truth. Better at casting aside lies. But if I think I am growing in my knowledge of the Bible and I’m becoming less loving, more harsh, more cold, more bitter, less teachable. I’ve misunderstood the gospel completely, entirely. Love one another with a sincere, brotherly, earnest love. I remember when we started serving in marriage and family ministry. My first job was to work as kind of a personal ministry assistant to the guy who was over the whole ministry, and the guy who had done that job before was training me, and he said something to me that’s always stood out to me. He said, John, the guy I work for is Dennis. He said, Dennis, he’s the first man I’ve ever been around that as I’ve gotten to know him better, my respect for him went up. I thought, man, how sad, how sad. He said, every other man in my life up to this point. They had a facade. They had an appearance. And as I got to know them better, I saw they were someone different. He said, But this guy’s the real deal. When he talks about love, he means it. He lives it out. When he talks about integrity. He lives it out. And I thought, thank you, Lord, for the men you’ve put in my life. My dad. My respect for him has gone up every year. Our student minister here growing up, Kerry Jones. Better I got to know him. The more my respect for him went up. Our staff here, our elders here. It’s true. It’s the same. For those who know Christ. We should be becoming more loving over time. You’re not going to be perfect. I’m not going to be perfect. Just ride with me in a car somewhere. You will see there are areas of sanctification that could still be improved. But we should be growing in love. And that’s the call. Love one another. It’s what everybody wants. You want to open the door to the gospel? Love your neighbor well. It’s what every single person on this earth wants. It’s what I wanted in high school. Love me, love me. Love one another. I’m going to close the sermon with a short prayer. And then I’m going to transition and just give us a brief budget update for the church. This is the time of year where we do kind of just a short couple of minute business meeting in the service to set up the budget that we’ll vote on in a few weeks. Let me pray to wrap up the sermon. God, thank you. Thank you for your word that guides us. Thank you for the challenge and encouragement to love and not just giving us the command, but giving us the reasons why. Love one another. You have changed us. Love because you have purified us. Love because this life is short. But your word remains. I pray as a church we would be known as a place that is growing in love. We love you, Jesus. Amen.