Ep 16 | 1st Peter: A Living Hope in a Hostile World

Okay , we've been doing the podcast for a while now . Some of my favorite episodes I talked a little bit about my favorite episodes . Jake , what has been one of your favorite episodes that we've done ?

So anything that has to do with just talking specifics about Georgetown , yeah no , it's been a lot of fun .

So I guess the question for you , jake , is what are we gonna be talking about the next few Sundays ?

We are gonna be studying the book of 1st Peter and a quick word that I want to share .

Some people may understand this , some people may may not , but this will be an Expository series , and what that means is we are picking a book of the Bible and we are going verse by verse Through it , and before you begin to think , oh no , boring , you know Um number one , the Bible is not boring . It is the most impactful book that's ever been written .

But and a powerful thing about expository teaching is , you will have the ability to have a better understanding of a book in the Bible moving forward . Another important factor in expository preaching is you don't get to skip the challenging verses , the controversial verses , and there is controversy .

In 1 Peter , two of which one is , there's a portion where Peter is talking to slaves and he's telling them to obey their masters . Well , how do we quantify that in 2023 ? Do we just say , well , you know , we don't deal with that in the United States or do we study it and believe that God's Word is still God's Word ?

And then there's another one and my wife loves these passages where we will talk about a wife's submission to her husband . And and you know I love these because it forces my wife to know her place . No , not true at all , sorry , trish . Yeah , no , but it's so helpful to realize we're not going to skip difficult passages , we're going to go through them .

But I can't encourage you enough to jump into this series because you've got Peter , who is , you know , one of the main apostles . In fact , we read about in Matthew that Jesus told him on this rock , meaning Peter , I will build my church .

And Peter is such an important person in biblical history , but even church history , and he writes a letter to people Christians spread across several different provinces . So he's not just writing to Jewish people , he is also writing to newly converted Gentiles .

So you can kind of say that Peter is writing a letter to an eclectic group of people , and I think that's good to know , because we are an eclectic church . You know . So , maverick Number one , do you know what the word eclectic means ?

And then we also have people that in our church , come from a church of 50 members and they come to our church and they think we're a mega church and we're neither of those things . We're Georgetown , we're our church , and so I mean we have people from that different walks of life .

We also have people from like , we're a family community but we're also a retirement community and it's weird to be both , I'll be honest . Sure , and we're seeing an uptick in the family's rise since I grew up here and it's super sweet .

So , like a lot of churches , they say they're multi generational and they'll either be a bunch of young families and a few senior adults . There'll be a bunch of senior adults and a little bit of young families .

But , man , our church , we're a multi generational church and it's why we do Sunday school the way we do , it's why we do Wednesday nights the way we do is because we're ministering to the masses generationally and it's just super sweet . We have people that , like me , from Potsboro the whole life .

We have people from California that I've recently moved because of family or anything like that . Well , they really just wanted to come to God's country Exactly , exactly , potsboro's God's country , or they just want to like either or Either or but yeah , so I mean there's a and there's a few more aspects where why we're melting pots .

So , sure , they're coming to a Baptist church , but they might not necessarily identify as a Baptist and that doesn't freak us out or scare us or anything like that . Speak for yourself , sure , sure . So you have an eclectic group of people , and what a blessing is that .

And we deal with the same issues that any church deals with , as we're trying to be together in various aspects . But what Peter was taught , what he was dealing with , were people that were experiencing the the early onset issues of persecution .

And if you study when first Peter was written , and probably when most scholars believe that Peter died , it was almost before the time Emperor Nero started thinking that Christians had caused the great fire of Rome and started really amping up the persecution upon people .

So Peter's writing to these people , almost preparing them for a time when things are not going to be difficult for Christians . He's also telling people how to work with the authorities in their life .

You know we are in a time where political unrest I wouldn't say it's at an all-time high , because you can go to other countries and you can see massive civil wars , but you would have had to put your head in the sand for the past three years to see the dividing line politically that we deal with and Peter even has a message towards that for Christians .

How can we deal with all the hostilities around us and I talk to people on a daily basis that feel hostility around them . What are some hostilities that you've noticed , whether it's something you deal with as a Christian or people in our church that speak of you kind of already mentioned it on my example .

It's pitting one against the other , and I believe we did that early on , not for the wrong reasons , but it's just snowballed into this effect of where you almost have to pick your camp , almost feel why we're not necessarily there yet , which is great , but I almost feel like Joshua where he's talking to the crowd of like man , you have to choose whom you serve

today . You have to choose who you serve today . That's where I feel the hostility of you really do like I'm not saying you got to be the perfect Christian . There is none . There's Jesus and nothing else .

But you do have to wake up and you have to choose who you serve and that is going to affect how your day is going to be , because people are going to see that in the community and you're going to have some people who are on the other side and they think you're an outcast and why .

I know that's not the hostility that other people in the world face , but it's still hostility , it's still persecution . Let's not get into a comparison game . It's still hard , it's still difficult , but yeah , no , there's hostility definitely .

And as a Christian , I feel it whenever I walk into scenarios where I know that that everybody in this room knows what I believe in , I try to guard my words , I try to think about how I say what I say , to make sure that I'm showing love and respect , which , again , first , peter three talks about that as well .

And that's the point of all this , folks , is , this book goes through tons of topics . So maybe you heard expository sermon and you go . Well , I'm more of a topical guy . Well , great , because this book goes through those topics .

Yeah , and the main focus that we are going to be talking about and Peter talks about is how to have living hope in a hostile world , and Peter is telling us that even in times of difficulty , as we prepare for whatever can happen towards Christians moving forward , we can be a living hope .

And another really fun fact about first Peter is other than the book of James . First Peter recalls a lot of the sayings of Jesus more than any other New Testament book , and it makes sense .

Peter followed Jesus for three years and he alludes often to some of the teachings of Jesus , so you can really see the effect that Peter had later on in his life after Jesus . So we're really excited about this . We will be in this for a few months .

In fact , we might need to take a break around Christmas time , but we're going to go through this and I encourage you to bring your note taking whether you're an electronic note taker or you like to write on paper and pen , come and take notes , because we're going to really dive into this and my biggest prayer is that we can feel equipped for what's coming .

We've got an election year coming and , as a pastor , while I have my own personal political beliefs and I go and vote and I take that very seriously I desire to be a pastor to people that vote on either side , and as Christians , we should desire to love people on either side , and this book will help us begin to understand that more , and I couldn't be more

excited about it , and a lot of prayer has gone into this . Sometimes the Lord will reveal over a year of where sermons need to be , but truthfully , as of a week ago , the Lord hadn't made it clear , and then I began to really start praying and he just laid upon me that first , peter is going to be very important for us , so I'm looking forward to it .

Well , we know where we're going , and so we can be reading Peter as you're going through it , but even like , just as the week goes by , we can be reading chapter one , chapter two , chapter three , chapter four , chapter five , and then you know we can keep reading that and keep understanding it .

As we are diving deep into that as a congregation , as God's revealing new things through his living word , we can just read it even differently the more and more times we read it , and we can just do that as a church , and so I'm looking forward to it . I love expository preaching .

Keep asking questions and be looking forward to diving into first Peter together . So , anyways , love you guys , take care , thank you .