Remember

We're calling the series Our Story Rooted. We were talking about the theme of story all throughout this year because we're talking about how we all have a story. We're part of God's story. Whether you following Jesus or not, you're part of God's story. We see wicked and righteous people in the Bible, and they're all part of his story, whether they believe in him or not.

We want to be reminded that we're part of a bigger story, and we also want to be aware of other people's stories. That's part of our goal through this year. But the reality is we all forget, don't we never forget something. How would you know you forgot? Yeah, right.

You ever forget things? Right? Lose your keys? Have you ever wondered, like, what day is it today? You remember Memorial Day week and like Wednesday?

You're like, no, it's only Tuesday. Oh, no, I got a lot of stuff to do. Like forget events or dates. Not calling anyone out. If your spouse is elbowing you, pay attention, pay attention.

Look at the calendar. You may have forgotten an anniversary, a birthday. Those are bad to forget. Do you ever leave the groceries in the car when you find them later? Your milk is now cottage cheese, but hey, your grape juice.

Well, depends if you're a Baptist or Presbyterian. All right, there you go. Things change. And forgetting, for the most part, is just a part of life. And as you get older, you think you forget more.

Well, you can justify and say, I just have more memories, so I have more options to forget than people that are younger. Or maybe it is your mind, who knows? But sometimes things do happen in our minds that are traumatic. There is a. And there are multiple types of psychological things that can take place that cause us to forget.

But one of them that's very unique and doesn't happen to a lot of people, so don't self diagnose yourself right now. Is psychogenetic amnesia. Have you ever heard of Agatha Christie? At one time the most famous mystery writer in the world? Did you know that in 1926, she kissed her daughter on the head one night, then walked out, got in her car, drove into the darkness, and no one knew where she went.

And they found her car the next day, but there was no sign, no note, no clues, which is interesting because here she is. She's the most famous mystery writer in the world at the time. And her disappearance is a mystery. And one of the reasons she was such a great mystery writer is because she would put all kinds of clues and details in her stories, and she had an ability not to just throw the details away, but to weave them all together. When the case was solved, the fact that she was missing was a national uproar.

There were 15,000 volunteers that came out to look for her. It was all over the news, and no one could find her. For 11 days, no one could find her. Her husband came out and spoke to the media. I will read you his quote.

He said, his name, Archibald. She has suffered from the most complete loss of memory. He didn't have the words at the time. They didn't have that diagnosis. But he said, I do not think she knows who she is.

She does not know me. She does not know where she is. Eleven days later, they found her at a hotel, which she had checked into and saying that she was from South Africa with a name. No one knows where it came from. And how many days was she there?

I don't know. Did she walk there? Because she was 200 miles from where she left her car, and she doesn't know how she got there. She doesn't know where the name came from, and she has no memory of leaving her house that night.

That was in 1926, in 2003. So, yes, she never knew the conclusion to the mystery. What irony of a life, huh? The world's greatest mystery writer, and her life is a mystery.

But in 2003, psychological researchers are examining her case, and she's one of the rare cases of psychogenetic amnesia. And that doesn't come because of a stroke. It doesn't become because of a virus. It doesn't come because of many of the things that can cause amnesia. It comes from stress.

It comes from trauma. And what they realized is that she, at a simultaneous time, had lost her mother and then found out her husband was having an affair. And what happens psychologically is it's like there's a firewall in your brain that stops you from accessing certain parts. I have a mentor who had this. I met him not long after he had a trauma.

His name was Dan Wallace. He is a scholar, Dallas theological seminary. And he had lost his memory, had forgotten how to walk, but he knew how to do advanced Hebrew. He was a Greek scholar, but he knew advanced Hebrew grammar, But he didn't know the Hebrew Alphabet, and he didn't know the Greek Alphabet anymore. He had to reteach himself from trauma.

Stress.

Reading from First Peter. There's a story of Peter in John, chapter 21, where he goes and he forgets his identity. He forgets who he is. In fact, when Jesus speaks to Him. He uses his old name, Simon.

What has happened is that Jesus has been crucified. Jesus raised from the dead. He's appeared to the disciples, including Peter, at this point. But Peter decides to not go on vacation, but to change his vocation and go back to fishing. He was a fisherman when he was called to follow Jesus.

And now he's gone back to that life. He thinks that he's too broken, too far gone, that the things that he knows and has learned about God are true. They just don't apply to him. And it's based on his experiences. Peter is written about and talked about in the Gospels more than any of the other disciples.

He's boisterous. He's committed. He's a fool. He says, jesus, you're. You don't have to die.

He rebukes the one man who was never wrong. And then he quickly adjusts. That was the good thing. He walks on water, but then he sinks. He says, I'll never deny you.

And then three times he does not. Because he's being tortured. Nobody's got a knife at his throat. A little girl asks him a question. I never knew him.

Never knew him. Three times. And that was in front of a charcoal fire in the high priest's courtyard. And Luke tells us that he did that. And right as he did it, Jesus looked him in the eye.

What was that like? Was it a look of shame, I told you you'd do that. Or was it a look of, I still love you? What was it like? We just know.

He looked. Well, we do know what happens in John, chapter 21. John, chapter 21. He's gone fishing. And similar to what's happened earlier in his ministry, he fishes all night and doesn't catch anything.

Doesn't mean he's a bad fisherman. We just get two glimpses of two bad nights. Some of you are excellent investors, but nobody hits on all of them, right? Maybe you're a great salesperson, but you have a cold streak. Peter has a catchless night, and he notices a form on the shore.

And there's a charcoal fire. And it's the most simple and ordinary thing that's happening. It's not a big breakfast buffet, but it's a charcoal fire. There's only one other place there's a charcoal fire in the New Testament. In that courtyard when he denied Jesus.

And we know now, neuroscience, neurological science, how our brain works, has told us of our five senses. The one that triggers memories, the strongest is smell. To this day, and every day, it gets further and further in my past. But to this day, when I smell fresh cut grass, I think about 2A days in football.

Gasoline. That brings back a memory for me. Different things I smell. There's a smell that reminds me of my grandma. And I know if my house ever smells like that, I'm officially old.

That's what old people smell like. Your house doesn't smell like that. Don't worry about it.

So as soon as Peter smells that charcoal fire, you know what happens in his brain? All humans are the same. We have nuances. Technology changes, names change. But human behavior is pretty consistent.

Why does Jesus do that? It's not to shame him, it's to restore him. We know that because of what happens next. He asked Peter three times the same question. Because three times Peter was asked a question and denied Jesus.

And Jesus asked, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And three times Peter said yes. And three times he was told about his identity right after he said yes.

I just have one simple question for you today as we walk through a passage that's written 30 years later by the same man who's not the same man. Do you love Jesus? On behalf of Jesus, do you love me? Is what he's asking you today. If you've got your Bibles, First Peter chapter one is where we're at.

Pastor Brad did a great job last week kicking us off in First Peter, giving us the background. If you weren't here. It is insignificant who he's writing to. And it's significant. When he's writing, not only is it 30 years later, AD 64.

Approximately, about 30, approximately 30, 31 years later he's writing this, but he's writing it to people that are being persecuted. Overt persecution by the government, specifically against Christians. Not just a war that's taking place not just because of hard times, but the Christians. And it starts with simple marginalization. Like we get to the dramatic stories of killing that happens, in fact it's in this time period Peter himself will be killed.

We know, we know that he was crucified. The exact time, exact process of all other things happened. People debate, but we have non Christian scholars. Tacitus is one, Irenaeus is another. You can look them up to see them that are not biased by religion.

It wasn't an argument between Democrats and Republicans. It wasn't like dumb Presbyterian, you're Catholic. Nope, none of that. He was like a weatherman. This is the weather.

I'm just telling you what happens. And so we know that Peter was crucified. Tradition tells us that he requested to be crucified upside down because he didn't feel he was worthy to be crucified the same way of his lord. Paul will be killed in the same time period as well by Nero. He'll be beheaded because Roman citizens can't be crucified, so he's killed by the sword.

But it starts with just slander and mockery and being outcast, not invited, being put in, intentionally compromising ethical business decisions, being forced to act like you believe things you don't believe, being requested to deny the lordship of Jesus by proclaiming the lordship of government and other people. And then it moves eventually to murder. In fact, what happened, the big historical event that historians agree upon, exact details aside, they agree that Nero set half of Rome on fire. And the reason why it actually happened wasn't out of hatred for Christians. It was because he didn't get his way when he wanted to do a building project.

So he burned part of the city down so they'd have to build new buildings and cleared out the old buildings that he wanted out of there. And then he blamed it on the Christians so that all of society then went after them. And then what they would do is they put dead animal skins on the Christians, run them through the streets, and then put wild animals to chase them down for entertainment. They put tar and pitch on them, light them on fire, and people would watch in amusement as they ran around dying, burning to death. And Nero himself in his own garden, would put him on stakes up in the air like a spotlight, and burn them to light his parties.

So it wasn't popular to be Christian in this time. The persecution was serious, significant, and Peter knew it. And he tells them, they're exiles, they don't really belong in this place, but they're supposed to stay in this place. That's part of being faithful, and that's true of all of us. But what's happening in first, Peter, as Americans, we oftentimes want to dilute and make it about any pain, any suffering, any difficulty.

It's not. The Bible does talk about that. I'm not minimizing your pain. I'm not saying your difficulty doesn't matter. I'm not saying there aren't spiritual elements to it, but that's not what's happening here.

He's not writing and saying, yes, and if you got a bad doctor's diagnosis and if you're married, just regular, nope. This is about people are coming against you because you're being faithful. Not just we're in A broken world. Not you reap what you sow. Nope.

Your faithfulness is why you're in the storm. Kind of like Peter when he got in a boat and Jesus told him to. And then there's a storm. I am in the mess because I obeyed, not because I disobeyed. That's where they're at.

Our passage today will start in verse 10. But to give you some context from last week, we'll start in verse six. He's been talking about salvation, identity. In all this you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, everything from marginalization to murder.

These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold. And he's not diminishing money there. Gold and silver make the world go round. Not literally, God does, but it runs kingdoms, it causes, starts and stops wars. It's powerful.

And he's saying that your proven genuineness of your faith is of greater worth than gold. And how is gold proven to be true? Heat, pressure, fire. That's when the impurities rise to the surface, he says next, which perishes. Even though refined by fire, even when it's as pure as it can be, it doesn't last forever.

But that your faith may result in praise, glory and honor. He's zooming them out to a bigger picture here. When Jesus Christ is revealed, though you have not seen him, you love him. Some of them had seen him, actually. We'll talk about that in a little bit.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. It's been 30 years. That's a lifetime. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him. Some of them were wavering.

Some of them were like he was when he was out on the waves. I believe that's why I stepped out. But now I'm sinking, now I'm wavering. I believe I'll never deny you. And he cuts the ear off of the guy who comes to arrest Jesus because he's ready to fight till the death.

But then when a girl asks him in a religious setting, do you know him? I know I don't even know who you're talking about. And he swears, says, not me.

He knows what wavering is. And he's reminding them of who they are. He's reminding them of what they have. He's reminding them here of their belief and faith and the bigger picture and the end result. Though you have not seen him, you love him.

And even though you do not See him now, you believe in him, and. And are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. Are they feeling joyful? Are they feeling joyful when they're slandered? Are they feeling joyful when they're being persecuted?

You are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. The way we see salvation throughout the Bible is there's the moment of salvation when you trust Christ. You turn from your sins and you turn to him and you realize, I can't deal with my own sin. I need you. And you call on him to be Lord and, and he forgives you.

And if you haven't done that, you can do that today. And he will change you and give you a new identity and you'll be forgiven. But then we see through the Bible, salvation is also talked about as something that progressively is happening as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling and walking through this earth and this life. And then there's a future salvation when we see Jesus face to face and we're made like him and the sin is gone and the pain is gone and the struggle and the suffering is all gone. And so he says here, for you are receiving.

This is part of the working it out, the end result of your faith. Still future. And we'll read that in a second, the salvation of your Souls. In verse 10, our passage today concerning the salvation, the prophets underline that. Who spoke of the grace that was to come to you?

So the prophets, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, hard ones to pronounce, Haggai, Habakkuk, other ones in there, in the back of the New Testament or Old Testament that you don't ever read. Go read them. They searched. They were intently searching with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances. So they were aware that what they were writing wasn't just to the people they were speaking this to.

Some scholars disagree with that. They're disagreeing with the New Testament when they do that. Some scholars say, no, no, Isaiah just writing about this king. And he wasn't talking about the virgin birth. He was talking about the birth of this kid.

And then this is why they talked about that way. And he wasn't talking about the suffering Messiah because he had no concept of a suffering Messiah. He couldn't have known. Yeah, he did. Right here In Isaiah, chapter 52 and 53, when it talks about the Messiah is going to be beaten beyond recognition of a human, the weight of our iniquity is going to be on him.

He knew what that meant. Did he understand that there'd be a second coming. Did he understand that he would come in glory and judgment later? I don't know. But it says here that the truth was so great and he was so curious, he was trying to find out the time.

Verse 7, verse 11. Trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing. So they had an inclination towards it, but they didn't fully understand it. That's your salvation. When he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow, verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you.

Did they know it was 2,000 years later, 2,700 years later, 3,000 years? No, we don't know that. But it was future when they spoke of the things that have now been told you. So now you're living them by those who have preached the gospel, the good news about Jesus to you, by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. And then, get this.

Even angels long to look into these things. That's your story. And it's gonna point you to your identity. It's gonna lead us to our anchor, and that's what we're gonna see today. And the points today in the message are, remember your story, remember your identity, remember your anchor.

So far, we've only read verses 10 through 12, and in that, it's talking about our story. You go back there and you see verse 10 concerning the salvation. So that's what we're talking about. So we're zooming out. We're talking about the bigger picture of your story.

Not necessarily. Did you miss your alarm clock this morning? But that does matter. Not are you being slandered or are you about to be killed? But it does matter.

But don't forget your story. You're part of a bigger story. When in doubt, zoom out. Because here's what happens in pain. We get microscopic.

We miss the macro. You want an example? Put a sliver under your fingernail on Monday and see how your week goes. All you'll be able to think about, I'm an extremist. I'll be like, cut the finger off, all right?

Get it out of here. Pull the fingernail back like they do in movies when they torture people. Get that? I will experience greater pain to get this annoying pain out of here. A couple of you.

I know. You've told me throughout the years, you've got tinnitus. You've got this buzzing in your ear. If I had a buzzing in my ear all the time, I don't think I'd Be able to hear anything else. What's that buzzing?

How do we stop that buzzing? Where's that buzzing coming from?

Because we know, and research has actually told us, neuroscience has told us, psychologists have studied, researchers know, they call it the narrowing effect. That when there's pain, when there's suffering, when there's difficulty, we zoom in and what Peter's doing is going, let's zoom back out. That's. Let's talk about your story, the bigger story you're connected to. And he talks about it here as something to remember.

And isn't that interesting?

Because he's talking to people that are already saved. And you think through the Bible, one of the most common commandments in the Bible, because sometimes it's a description remembered and sometimes it's a command. Remember. You're being told to remember. Remember the Exodus, remember the Lord, when Joshua takes the Israelites across the Jordan.

Remember. I want you to set up memorial stones and remember this day so that when you come back by these stones, you can tell the next generation and your kids will remember something they didn't even see. Remember. We take communion as New Testament believers, and we were commanded do this in remembrance of meat. Why?

How could we forget? We do. We forget and we drift and we waver. So we are commanded to remember. And here he's reminding them of their salvation.

And he shows them this progress from the prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, who are audibly hearing the voice of God, who are getting visual pictures of the future, writing it down, proclaiming it, telling kings, you're a wicked king, telling people repent, experiencing suffering themselves. Read Ezekiel, read Jeremiah. Their life was miserable. Not because they were disobedient, because they were obedient. And they wanted to know about you, and they wanted to know about your salvation.

You go, no, no, they're just studying the Bible. It's kind of an academic thing. Well, then what do you do with the progressive statement? And it gets to. And the angels long to look into these things because.

Pause and think about that for a second. Who are the angels? Yes, Created beings, but they've been around longer than you, FYI. In fact, they've seen creation. They've seen when some of their compadres fell from heaven and became demons.

An irreversible decision. No angel will ever know what it's like to be lost and then found. But they've seen the crossing of the Red Sea, and they've seen walking on water, and they've seen the death and resurrection of Jesus, and they've seen every sinner who's ever repented. In our last series, we were doing, we were talking about the stories that Jesus told. In Luke chapter 15, he tells three stories.

The first two stories end exactly the same way. The third story is an invitation to us to turn to Jesus. In Luke chapter 15, in verse 7, after telling a story about a lost sheep, he says, in the same way, all of heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. Then Jesus tells another story about a lost coin or a lost ring, depending on what version of the Bible you read. Same idea.

It's the same story and verse 10. In the same way, all of heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. Here's the reality. You have a story and the story is true. And what you experienced is true and how you felt is real.

But some of you tell yourselves a false story about yourself, about your pain, about God, about the people around you, about the way the world works as a result of your trauma, of your pain, of the difficulty. Everyone's just telling themselves a story because they're trying to survive life. Most people, apart from psychopaths aren't just trying to hurt people, they're just trying to make it. Everybody's got a different idea on how they do it. And the way that you know whether it's true story is how are they living their life because it reflects the story they're telling themselves.

And so what I'm telling you is not that your pain isn't real, but I am telling you the story you tell yourself about your pain might not be trustworthy. And if you can't trust you, who can you trust? Because you might wonder about the car salesman, you might wonder about the door to door delivery Amazon person. Is that an Amazon person? Is that a porch pirate dressed like an Amazon person?

What's happening here? Am I getting a gift or are they taking my stuff? What's going on? You might wonder about the pastor, you might wonder about your spouse, but yourself. What kind of shape are we in if we can't even trust us?

It's not that we try to lie to ourselves, but we tell ourselves stories like this, even believers. I don't matter. If I just stopped showing, I mean, it wouldn't be a big deal. I mean, I do what I do and I show up and I do this. But if I didn't do it, they'd replace me pretty quick.

God's not paying attention, especially in our pain. And if you do that, you're just being honest. The psalmist do that. Why have you forsaken me, Jesus quoting from a psalmist When Jesus himself says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Has he forgotten?

Why aren't you paying attention? Where are you? Why'd you stop? I'm too far lost. And I it's true.

There's true things about God and it's true. And it might have been true about me in the past, it's not true today. I'm too broken, I'm too forgotten. And you start saying statements like this. That's just the way that it is, as if change is impossible.

That's not true.

What Peter's doing is he's going, let me give you a true story. Here's the true story story concerning the salvation. When in doubt, zoom out. Who spoke of the grace? It wasn't something you did, so none for you.

It's given to you. That's what grace is. That has come to you.

The prophets search intently, the greatest care trying to find out the time, the circle about your salvation. Even the angels long to look into this. So if you think you don't matter, if you think God's not paying, angels are watching your life, not just the moment of your salvation, the working out of your salvation and Peter's calling us to then look forward to the future grace of our salvation when it's fully realized. If you're telling yourself you don't matter, that's not true. If you're telling yourself God's not paying attention, that's it may feel, it may be true that you feel that way.

It's not true to the story. He's reminding them of their story and then he also reminding them of their identity. Remember, they're being persecuted. We're told in second Timothy chapter three and verse 12. This verse, I bet you none of you have selected this for your life verse.

If you have a T shirt on that says this verse on the chest today, I'll give you a million dollars. I don't even have that. But I will find a way. Second Timothy, chapter three, verse 12. Everyone underline that who wants to live a godly life, even just desires to live a godly life.

Not even that you're doing it. Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Not might be, could be, not. If you live in America, you will be, but not if you live in Syria or vice versa, or if you live in Yemen and not Raleigh. Everyone who even desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus.

Not some people, not just the paid professional Christians on the mission field or in the pulpit, not just the people who are like, uber Christian. You ever met Those uber Christians are so annoying, but they're oftentimes faithful. Some of them are fake, but they're faithful, says everyone. That means you if you're a follower of Jesus. And so I wrote down some questions this week.

If that's true. If it's true that everyone who desires to live a godly life will be persecuted and that persecution might be slander, it might be being outcast, might be being marginalized, it might be being murdered, it might be being attempted to be forced into compromise. Not just because the world's broken, but because of your faith.

If it hasn't happened to you yet, maybe you haven't been a Christian very long. Here's some questions to ask yourself. If following Jesus has never cost me anything, am I following him closely enough for anyone to notice?

Write that down for yourself. You can think about it later. What parts of my faith have I quietly hidden to avoid discomfort?

Am I being persecuted for Christ? Or am I merely experiencing the consequences of my own behavior? Or am I a jerk? Would be another way to say it, but I was trying to be nice. I wrote it down.

If persecution is promised, why are so many Christians surprised by it? There's a good small group discussion for you. If this verse is true, what do I do with a version of Christianity that costs me nothing? It's not Christianity. That's the answer.

Sorry, I had to give you that one.

And you got to ask yourself the question. If you have been claiming to live by faith for a long time but have never experienced persecution, is it real faith? Biblical faith? If this verse is true, second Timothy 3:12, everyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted.

He goes on in verse 13, and he says therefore. And he's connecting back to everything that's been said, not just the verse 10, 11, and 12, which was talking about our salvation. Not that, but going all the way back to the very beginning, verse one, all the way to verse one, all the way through, which has been about our identity, about our salvation, about all the things God has done. And it's had nothing to do with what we do. Grace.

It's amazing. It's happened.

But those are the indicatives, and the indicatives precede the imperatives. You're about to be told what to do. That's what the imperatives are. They're the commands. The indicatives are statements of truth.

It's true regardless of what you do think. Say it's True. This is the story. Zoom out. Know the story.

But now let's talk about identity. And the way that we're going to know whether that story is true about you is we look at what you do and. And if what you do, then we see your behavior. And so then he goes on and he says this, therefore, with minds that are alert, pay attention, fully sober, not drunk on the world. Set your hope.

It might underline that word set. We'll come back to it on the grace, not what you do, but remember, this was given to you to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. There's the future grace received, the grace of salvation. Here's the future grace as obedient children. So there is something for us to do.

Do not conform. We've already been told to hope. There's a command. Now we're told not to conform. That's going to be unpacked more with a word that for some of you, if you've ever experienced legalism, is going to make you stop listening.

Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. Empty lives is another way to translate that. But here's the contrast. Just as he. It's based on his character, who he is, the grace in your life, what he's done.

Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy. Be who you already are. The moment of your salvation. You weren't sinless, but you were made holy. You are different, set apart, and you shouldn't fit in this world.

Be holy in all you do, for it is written. Be holy. Because I, God, am holy. He's talking about our identity. Be who you are in light of your salvation and talk about Agatha Christie and her amnesia.

There's a lot of different types of amnesia. One of them was made popular by one of my favorite action movie series of all time, the Bourne Identity series. And there's an older story that I don't know. The writer of the Bourne series. I would love to meet him.

If you know him, please introduce me. But I have to think he was inspired by the older story. What actually happened in the late 1800s? There was a preacher and his last name was born. And one day he forgot who he was and he actually got in his car, drove.

He lived in Connecticut and drove two towns away and started a new life in a different city. Rented a storefront, began selling furniture out of the storefront and going by a different name, Mr. Brown.

Two months later, he heard a pistol shot. And then everything felt wrong. But he didn't know why. And he woke up one morning and he went to his landlord's door down the hall and knocked on the door. The landlord came out and said, yes, Mr. Brown.

He goes, I'm not Mr. Brown. And where am I?

He was a preacher living like a store owner. He didn't change who he is. He just started living different because he had this amnesia. What happens in the Bourne Identity series. And listen, let me just tell you something.

I have a guy that told me two weeks ago, he said, I've been going to your church for like four years. Only complaint I have about your preaching is you ruin movies for me. All right, Got it. Let's get that out of the way. Some of you are like, I got other complaints.

Yep. Don't want to hear it. All right. Yeah.

I said, buddy, I'm not giving you new releases. Sometimes these movies are decades old. It's not my fault. Like, you gotta get with the program or don't care. One of the two.

The Bourne series. I love the Bourne series because I usually watch action movies because they're so simple and so clean. And some of you are like, what are you talking about? Here's why. Because when you have a problem and you're in an action movie, you just shoot the person and it goes away.

And no one ever looks for that person. They don't have any family members. There's no investigation. They just walk through houses just killing people. And the next day they're just walking around town.

Nothing happened. Like, wouldn't it be awesome? Now do you want to kill people? Not saying you want to kill people. Would it be awesome if you could just solve your problems?

Like, yep, don't deal with that. Then delete, delete, delete. Like, it's all. That's why I watch them. But the Bourne series, isn't that.

Yes, he's awesome. Flipping out of a window and somehow still hits a target with a pistol. That's crazy. But it's complicated because it's theological. He wakes up with amnesia.

He doesn't know who he is. But it's not just about finding his name in a file. Spoiler alert from I don't know, 15 year old movie. So it's your fault.

You look tired, Pam. He knows his name at the end of the movie, all right? But he still doesn't know who he is. That's why there's got to be more movies and they make money and there's going to be more movies because he's asking the question through the whole movie, who Am I? Why am I here?

Where did I come from? And where am I going? And everyone in this room has asked those exact questions. And everyone in these towns that Peter's writing to in Pontius and Cappadocia and Asia, they're all asking those questions. Because every human asks to those questions.

Regardless of your theology, regardless of your life experience, who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going? And Boren does that.

And he learns a lot of facts, but it's never enough, right? Like in the first episode. First. Whatever they call it. Episode's not a streaming service.

I'm broken on my time frame here. He's sitting across the table at a diner with a girl. This part of that movie, I won't spoil that. But I'm tempted to. Is that because I'm poking that guy?

Anyway, he knows a whole bunch of stuff about himself. He says, and I think we have the quote on the screen. He says, why is it that I know all these skills and all these facts and I make these observations? Why is it that I know the license plate numbers of all six cars that are in the parking lot? Why is it that I know that the waitress is left handed?

Why is it that I know the guy at the counter is £215 and he can hang handle himself. And the best place to find a gun is in the glove box with a gray truck in the parking lot that I can run at top speed for half a mile at this altitude before my hands start shaking. But I don't know who I am. Notice how Peter packages what's being stated here. Remember when Peter failed the questions that were asked of him, not Peter, how much have you done for me now, Peter?

What will you do for me? Peter, do you love me?

The indicative. Then feed my sheep feeds the imperative. Who are you chosen by God? It's gracious. It's a rich salvation, greater than silver or gold can purchase as bought with something not temporary like gold, but eternal gold.

Very valuable, very powerful. But the blood of Christ more so.

You wonder about your worth. Some of you think not paying attention to me. Some people think I don't matter. I'm too broken. I'm something's worth what it cost.

I'm referencing. I don't think we've actually read the verses yet, but in verses 17, 18, 19, it talks about your salvation. This is this. Trying to find the page first. Peter, chapter 1, verse 17.

Since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear for you know that I was not with. It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors. You once were that way. But you've been changed. Look at.

There's a contrast, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. You weren't purchased with what's temporary. You were purchased with what's eternal. You weren't purchased with what's material. You were purchased with what's relational.

Something's worth what. Someone will pay for it. You might have a house that you think's worth something. Maybe. Or maybe it's worth less.

Or maybe it's worth more. Maybe there's an oil field under it you didn't know about. Maybe the last owner left a lottery ticket in a place you'll never find it and he needs to buy it back. They will pay something for that. Above market.

Maybe you feel like you're too broken, too lost, too gone. He paid with his son's blood for you. You don't think he's paying attention? The angels are watching. The prophets were searching.

Do you know who you are? You are holy. You are a person of hope. If you've been around Southbridge very long, you know that we talk about hope different than the world talks about hope. How many of you watched the hurricanes last night?

Sit up, watch all those overtimes? Most of us. All of us probably were hoping they would win. That isn't bad. But you do not have a promise to back it up.

We want it to be true. We think that's the best future that can happen.

But we have no guarantee. We wish suffering would stop. You have no promise of that. Just so you know. Until the realization of your salvation.

When you're face to face with Jesus. And what did he say here? Notice how he talked about it way back in verse 13. Therefore call or set upon, set your hope. That's interesting language.

It's not. Wait till you feel hopeful. Hope doesn't come to you. You set it. Set your hope.

That also means it's not fickle, it's firm. Kind of like Peter when he's sinking. He gets out of the boat. What bold faith. How amazing.

Only human to ever walk on water. But then he starts looking at the circumstances. He knows what it is to waver. He knows when there's pain and tragedy. We get narrow and he starts to sink.

And then whose hand does he reach out to.

We don't often talk about that. What was it like for Jesus to know what was going to happen? To see Peter, to know where he'd be from one moment to the next, to be the one who commanded Peter to go into the water when it was calm, knowing there'd be a storm because he needed it. Because 30 years later, he'd write to people in a storm, wavering some, thinking they'll go to the death within a minute later, ooh, I don't know. There's a girl asking questions outside.

Peter knows.

And what was it like for Peter to see Jesus use the very waves that were the tragedy around them, to walk right into their lives and to be the solid foundation to pull him up? Why do you have such little faith? Put him back in the boat soaking wet and restore them and keep moving forward. Peter, you do believe. You do have joy.

He's telling them their preferred future. There's vision. He's telling them their identity. Zoom out. He's telling them about the price.

He's telling them about holiness. Not to burden them with, hey, you get small. Just be like all the Christians around you want you to be. Some of you aren't faithful to God because you're doing what everybody around you wants you to do. And the people around you are brothers and sisters in Christ.

And you were called to a different life than they were. The definition of holiness here is not to conform to the world's pattern. The world's pattern is go with the flow, do what everybody else is doing. That is not faith's pattern. When they go, wouldn't it have been a whole lot more comfortable for them to go out as a group of 12 to start churches?

At least you got a core group. At least we know we got each other. There's 120 of us here. Let's just go from town to town. Uh, that's why Thomas gets speared to death in India, Peter, another part of the world.

Paul, remember it said, the uttermost parts of the world, that's what it was thought of. To be in Rome with his head cut off.

That's not how it works. And so what he's doing is he's saying, stop looking at the temporary and look at the bigger picture. I don't think my daughter's in here, so I'm gonna use an analogy she'll be mad about later, so let's not tell her, okay? For years, I told my daughter, who just graduated from high school, hey, don't worry about so much what Other people are doing, thinking, wanting you to do just be yourself. Because I tell.

I'm telling you, two weeks after you graduate, you're not gonna care what they think. Trust me. I get requests on Facebook, and I'm like, I don't know who that person is. Oh, I went to high school with them. I didn't even know they exist anymore.

And if I want them to think something about me, I just put a fake version of my life on Facebook. We're good.

She didn't believe me. And I do love telling stories. I rarely do it that prove that I'm right. Here we go. She told me the other day, hey, dad, you were right.

I don't even think about those people now. It's only been a couple weeks. Yes. Not because I don't want to care about the people, but it's like, stop. Don't worry about.

We think the moment is such a big deal. You're in chapter one of the story. Chapter one is where the tension is introduced. Chapter one is where the problems are. Chapter one is just learning the characters.

Keep your eyes on the fulfillment of your salvation. Well, how do I stay anchored? Let me tell you something. Every time you open your Bible, it's the same as when Peter grabs a hand and pulled him out of the waves. God's word is your anchor.

Look at the last part of this passage we left off. I believe in verse 19, so pick up in verse 20. If you're following me and putting that on the screen there. Verse 20, it says this. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Through him, you believe in God, who has raised him from the dead and glorified him. And so your faith and hope are in God. Set your hope. Something firm can't be set on temporary things. Temporary things might be a good thing for a little bit.

It will expire. It's like leftovers in the fridge. We might disagree about when it expires. My wife and I do disagree. Every once in a while, I come back, I'm like, where did that.

Where did my takeout go? She's like, it's been in there for three weeks. I was like, yeah, but I've been busy, and today was the day. She's like, it was changing colors. I was like, I got a plan.

Why'd you mess with my plan? Some of you think your legacy matters a whole lot more than it does. You will be forgotten quickly, a lot faster than you think. Some of you think what somebody else thinks about how many people did you think of that about six months ago? And you don't talk to them, you don't see them.

You don't even know them. We think about stuff. We think that that pain is never gonna end. There are struggles you went through in the past that are now nothing to you. It's like when you work out and you lift weights and you're like, one time that was your max.

Now you're like, I warm up with that. And that's what you do as you get stronger, as you grow. And so it seemed like a big deal is not a big deal. That's what he's saying. He starts us off with, it's not this temporary stuff that you're going through.

And when you're in it, it doesn't feel that way. He's giving them perspective. Now that you purified yourself by obeying the truth, some of them are in process. So that you have sincere love for each other. Love one another deeply.

This is how we'll see it. It'll flow out of you. You want to know what holiness looks like? It's not about keeping some person's rules. It's about being so connected to your father that when people see you, you look a lot like his son.

There's something different about you. That's what holy means. Be different, be set apart. Don't conform to this world is how it's defined. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed.

And you might underline seed. There's something happening here when he talks about flowers and grass, but of imperishable, not of temporary, but of permanent, through the living and enduring Word of God. Now we're going to talk about God's Word for the next couple verses. And people for all people, me and you, people in Isaiah's day, people in the Garden of Eden, people. If Jesus doesn't come back a thousand years from now, all people are like grass.

And all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The flowers of the field are beautiful for a season. James says our life is like a vapor. The flowers of the field. He's not saying grass is bad.

Those of you who manicure your grass, that's awesome. I hope you're my neighbor. Good for property value. The HOA loves you. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

God's Word is an anchor to our soul. I could read you a hundred verses about the importance of God's Word. How it cuts through the heart, how it's eternal. How it directs your path, how it'll reveal God's will, how it shows you what to do in the grind and dailiness of it. Here's the problem.

Most people don't want to open God's Word and the grind in the daily sub it you'll watch podcasts, you've programmed your algorithm that you get Christian people on there telling you encouraging words, and you save it and you got quotes. And if you have a quote for second Timothy 3:12, oh, man, I'm in trouble. You have quotes and verses on your wall and you got all this stuff. But if you don't get in the Bible on your own, which can be hard work. Cause it's not always.

There's this electric moment that happens. And it's like eating your vegetables. And it's like daily discipline sometimes. And then sometimes stuff happens that's pretty amazing. But regardless, that other stuff that somebody else told you or that you liked in the moment, too weak for real struggle and persecution.

But when you've had your roots go down like an anchor sinking in the ocean, then you're rooted in the story. And you recognize when you start telling yourself false stories because you know what's true. You recognize when other people are tempting you to conform because you know the path.

Anchor. What he's doing here is he's quoting From Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 6. Isaiah's people were in exile. It was also a struggle. Isaiah, chapter six.

A good king has died. He says, Isaiah, chapter 40. A voice says, cry out. And I said, what shall I cry? All people are like grass.

All people then. All people then. All people now. All people now. All people in First Peter.

Yep. All people are like grass. And all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. So you're saying it doesn't matter? No, I'm just saying it's a vapor.

It's for just a moment. Just be faithful for a moment. It'll pay off for eternity. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flowers fall. But the Word the of our God endures forever. That's your anchor. And so when you're in pain and you're in struggle, that's where you go. I was looking everywhere for a book in my house yesterday because I wanted to conclude, and I'm concluding with this, the story that Corrie Ten Boom tells in her book, the Hiding Place.

You read that story, Read that. I'm gonna ruin a book for you in a moment. If not, you should have read it. It happened in 1944. It's your fault.

1944. Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy. Believers, followers of Jesus, were placed in a Nazi concentration camp. Rivers. Riversbruck.

Ravensbruck. Sorry, Ravensbruck. Ravensbruck, if you're German. Little dots over it. Anyway, they were in Barracks 28.

And it was a terrible place to live. Obviously, they knew that it was gonna be bad. It was way worse than they expected. They knew they'd be into forced labor. Unpaid forced labor, terrible food.

Some people dying of starvation. The smells were awful. You're imprisoned. No freedom. People tell you what to do, where to do it.

They're not cleaning up. And people have to do what human bodies have to do. But they said one of the worst parts was the fleas. Barracks 28 was infested with fleas. And Betsy was one of those, as Corey would say.

She was a super Christian, you know. I told you, there's annoying Christians. Yeah, she was one of those. And she was trying to encourage them. She was going to the Bible and she said, First Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 8.

It says we're supposed to give thanks in all things. So I think we should thank God for the fleas. And Corey thought she had lost her mind. You want to thank God for the fleet? Like, the other stuff's terrible, but we'll make it because of Jesus.

The fleet. Why do the fleet? Why the fleas even have to be. It's not bad enough that we're probably going to be killed. The forced labor, the way that we're treated.

Dehumanized, objectified, used, abused.

The fleas. And Betsy actually prayed. And Corey writes about it in her book, which I did not find in our house. Thank you, Claude, for pulling the pages. And she says, God, we want to thank you.

We want to thank you for this place. We want to thank you for Barracks 28. We even want to thank you for the fleas. Corey thought she was nuts. And they were overt with their relationship with God, their Bible study, their praying.

And dozens of women started coming to them to find some hope. And they started up actual, open public Bible study in the concentration camp. A Nazi concentration camp in Nazi oppression. And none of the guards bothered them. They would go into the other barracks.

They would overturn the bunks. They would search falsely, sometimes claim that they found stuff that was, you know, scattered in there they didn't like. They didn't just kill Jews. They didn't like Christians either. A lot of Christians were killed in the Holocaust, a lot of persecution.

They're openly having this Bible study. Women are hearing the gospel, they're being prayed out loud over and they're not being bothered. And Corey said that one day she came back a few weeks after this Bible study had started and she comes into the barracks and Betsy had been in her knitting class and they were talking about some things that got onto the topic of why do the guards never come into our barracks. And then she found out it was because of the fleas. And Corey said, when I came in, Betsy looked very self satisfied and she wanted to tell me something.

And she said, I know why the guards haven't been coming. It's because of the fleas. The fleas have been our protection. The very thing that we thought was unnecessary pain, God has been using as protection to further the gospel. The same way that Jesus used the waves to walk into the lives of the disciples.

The same way he uses your pain to get to your heart. And so I end the same way I started. Do you love him? Do you love him? Let's pray.

Father, we come before you right now.

There are those that will hear these words. They don't love you. They don't even know you. If they were asked, like Peter, have you been with them? Are you a follower of his?

They'd say, I don't know who you're talking about. No, I've not been with them because they haven't.

I pray that right now would be the moment of salvation. It can be for you. Why wouldn't it be? Why wouldn't you trust Christ right now? He'll change your identity, he'll change your story.

He'll forgive your sins. He will make you right with him, will reveal to you who you are, where you came from, where you're going and why you're here. Not with what culture tells you, not with what you tell you. With what the living, enduring, powerful word of God truthfully tells you. Because God loves you.

That's why he came for you. That's why he paid the price to purchase your salvation with his own blood, more valuable than gold. To wash you clean of your sin. To wash you clean of these temporary sins you've done with the eternal blood of Christ. That's how one man could die for the sins of many.

Because he was God and man sinless and dying for sin, your sin and my sin at the cross. The way you start a relationship with him, it's simple to state, but it requires change in your heart. Abc Admit that you're a sinner, believe that Jesus died for you and call upon Jesus to be your Savior. Admit, believe and call. If you want to become a Christian, will you walk through that ABC with me right now and just pray, God, I know that I'm a sinner.

And if you want, as you sit at your computer or as you're in this room, quietly, out loud, your calls, confess actual sin to him. And you won't be able to remember all of them, because that's how we are. We forget.

And you might not have all your questions answered about God. And you might be mad at him for some things. You might have questions that maybe you won't get answered in chapter one.

But will you admit your sin and believe he died for that sin? And will you call on him to be your Savior, to be your Lord? That means you have to acknowledge you can't do it on your own. And you're handing your life over to him and he promises to come into your life and he will adopt you as one of his sons and daughters.

And the indicative comes before any imperative. You think, well, do I have to? And am I going to have to listen? It's like getting adopted into a house. And then you start to learn how that house works.

And you don't do it so you can get into the house. You do it because you're part of the house. And the closer you are with the Father, the more you are like the family. And eventually people see and go, you must be a son, you must be a daughter. What's it like to be in that family?

And don't be shocked when they reject you. Don't be shocked they crucified him. If they see him in you, they don't mind your morality. They don't mind you going to a place at a certain time. They don't mind you posting verses.

But they start to see Jesus. That's offensive.

That's why they killed him. He calls you to change. That's turn, repent. That's a hand over your life. If you just did that, all of heaven rejoices.

The angels are watching. They're longing to know what it's like to be lost and then found, to be broken and then made whole, to be away and apart. And Ephesians 2 says, without hope and without God and then reconciled in the family at the party. Part of it. Atheist.

He cares. You're not too far gone and not broken. Some of you have done that a long time ago. How's it going working that out? Do you have your eyes on the future fulfillment, the future salvation.

Do you look into that the way that the prophets looked into your salvation? Oh, it's amazing to think about. We won't have it all figured out, but you can know more than you do. And if you did, you'd know him more. And if you did that, you don't have to worry about what are all the rules of holiness.

It'll flow from your love and connection. Abide in him and you will bear fruit. That's grace. Holiness is rooted in grace, not in rules. The rules show us our sin and need.

The grace shows us his greatness and should fuel a longing for connection.