Now we have the blessing of being able to turn our attention to the reading and preaching of God's Word. So let's pray and ask for God's help as we do that this morning. Lord, our glorious, almighty God, we are thankful that you are good. We're thankful that you are a God who loves his people, who is gracious and merciful, and has given us the gift of your word. And not only have you given us the gift of your word, but you have opened our eyes and ears to see it. You teach us that we might understand it. Lord, it is at work in us as the spirit is working, and so we rejoice. So help us this morning, we pray that that the Spirit would be working. We pray that he would lift up Christ before us, that the words of your servant would be guarded, that he would lessen and Christ would increase. Lord, teach us. We know that your word does not return to you void, not accomplishing all that you have intended, so we come with confidence. anticipating in the many ways that you'll be glorified and your church will benefit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I invite you to turn your Bibles or tap on your devices to 1 Peter chapter 1. If you're using, again, a church Bible this morning, that's page 953. We're continuing our New Sermon series through this letter of Peter's. 1 Peter, we're going to be looking, beginning at verse 13 in chapter 1, and we'll continue on to verse 3 in chapter 2. And as I mentioned, the last two times we were together, we have this letter that Peter is writing, and it's going out to the Jewish converts who had received Christ, come to faith throughout a large area in the Gentile world, as it were, about almost the size of California. It's gone out to where there were hundreds of thousands, if not perhaps over a million Jewish people, and amongst that group, the Lord had brought a harvest, and those dear saints were experiencing hostility from all sides. Hostility from their Jewish community and hostility from the Gentile community, and Peter writes to them And a letter that I think we've already seen and will continue to see is just as applicable today, 2,000 years later in our context. As we see that Christian, you're called to endure suffering with hope, trusting in God's grace that he will sustain you in faithful living in this hostile world in which we are. Let's hear from God. 1 Peter 1.13, reading to chapter two, verse three. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy, And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. 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, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it, you may grow up into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. There's a phrase that you may have heard It may not be unfamiliar to you, I would think, if you have any type of access to social media or if you watch news or commentary, listen to podcasts, what that may be. But over the last few years, something that's kind of arisen is this term, identity crisis. We hear it almost all the time. People are going through identity crisis. The culture's going through an identity crisis. Our nation's going through an identity crisis. It's thrown around and applied in these broad brushes. And there's this aspect that I think perhaps maybe the root of this is coming from is the way in which people are told that happiness comes from finding their true self. And that claim is what drives people then to have this crisis. Well, I must find my true self. What is my true self? And folks are told that they have to craft their own identity and they need to craft it upon their desires and their feelings. Or perhaps they just crafted on what they hear and see, what the algorithm feeds them. And I don't think we should miss the irony that there's this great push that everyone is to create and craft their own identity that's supposed to be radically independent and different from everyone else's, to be their true self, and yet the driving force of that is an overarching cultural social media push that everyone must be part of the group. It's very strange, the irony there. You need to be a radical individual, but you only do that because you're a member of the group. And if you don't, then you're not part of the group. There's sad irony in that. But no matter how much someone attempts to reinvent or craft or create their own identity, the search for self falls flat. And outside of Christ, it just leads to deep confusion. deep confusion for individuals, and deep confusion for our culture. As I just read, and we're gonna look at this morning, we see, as Peter's writing, he reminds us that our identity isn't something that we create for ourselves, it isn't something that's crafted by individuals, it's something that we receive from God in Christ. Our identities as Christians is something God gives us. It's not something we build. It's not something we make. It's not something we go and grab. It is something that is given. Given by the creator, ruler, and sustainer of all things. And it's a wonderful thing, actually, because we're not left having to reinvent ourselves constantly to discover our true selves. And today what we're going to do is explore a little bit of how God's grace calls us to be who we are in Christ, in this reality. So as we look at these few verses together, what I want us to see is that God's grace calls believers to be holy, hopeful, and hungry for his word. And we're gonna look at three things. First, hopeful minds. Second, holy hearts. And third, hungry souls. Hopeful minds, holy hearts, and hungry souls. We turn our attention first to these hopeful minds. Christians with hopeful minds are to prepare for action. We read right there in the beginning of our section. Prepare your minds for action. Or maybe if you've read an older translation, what is stuck in your mind, which is a beautiful saying, gird your loins. I mean, that is amazing, it really is. Young men, as you step into this world, that is something that you should have as a reminder to one another. Just tell each other, gird your loins, brother. And what does it mean to gird your loins? What does it mean to prepare your minds for action? Well, there's a lot going on here, this drawing in the original language of the cultural aspect that was amongst the Hebrews, but also in the Gentile world at a time in which there were more flowing robes and clothing that were worn. But when action was needed, whether it was for military, whether it was to do something physical, then the robes would literally be grabbed up and tucked into a belt so that one could move quickly or more easily. and we have that old language of girding your loins. It's getting ready for action and preparing to do something. It's a call of readiness. And what we see here, Peter here, he's echoing what we saw a couple weeks ago in Ephesians 6, the same language, the same concept of preparing yourself for action. Now when we were in Ephesians chapter 6, we were looking at spiritual warfare, and there was a clear call that Paul was giving to the church through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, telling Christians to, as it were, gird their loins spiritually for the spiritual warfare that's going on, to prepare themselves for action, to be alert, to be awake to what is going on. And the same thing Peter is saying here to Christians, be alert, pay attention, be ready, prepare. And that wasn't just important 2,000 years ago, but I think even more important today, because we live in a world of distraction. I think I've mentioned before the way in which the generations have lost their attention span, all the way down to, I think, the current generation, Gen Alpha, I think, sadly, have just dropped below the attention span of a goldfish, per studies. It's because we stick devices in their face. They have screens, and everything's hopping around. Watch social media. They don't even have videos anymore. It's just someone speaking. It's constant cuts and breaks and jumping all over the place, because more than three seconds, and your mind is bouncing everywhere. We have a very short attention span. We're distracted very easy in this world that we live in. In fact, social media, there's an aspect of that in which they're incentivized to create distraction. so that you're constantly wanting to get back on, get away from whatever it is you're supposed to be doing, but not just that, but you wanna flip all over the app because you need to move around more and more so that they can expose you to advertisers and make more money. It has great consequences to us all living in this distracted world, and Christians are being called to cultivate mental and spiritual discipline. Maybe another way to think of it is this way. Have you ever interacted with a child and tried to communicate to them the importance of thinking of the future? So if you're a parent or grandparent, you've known this. Hopefully, this was only when children and grandchildren were younger, but maybe it's stretched into their youth, where perhaps they have a birthday, and they get some gifts and money. And it's all of a sudden it is, oh, wow. I have all this money. I need right now. I need you to take me right now to the store. I must buy things. I've got to do this. I've got to move on. He said, well, wait a minute. Let's think about the future. What if you put money aside, and you worked chores, and you did this, and you built up, and you prepared for it? No, no, no, no, no. The future, that's crazy for you old people. I need it now. I need to do something right now. I can't think two days ahead. It's kind of like when you're traveling, what is it you hear constantly? What is it the children are constantly asking? Are we calling for with this cultivated mental and spiritual discipline? focus on fleeting things, temporary things. But that's important. We're not saying that you somehow live a life where you ignore the moment and only look forward. But at the same time, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those people, if we are those our actions, anchoring them in the reality of who we are in Christ and anchoring them in the reality that Christ is returning. And Christians with hopeful minds live in the reality of grace. Why do people invest for retirement? I guess there's one explanation is because they don't want to get old and have no ability to eat. But there's an aspect where they're what? Anticipating getting old. They're anticipating getting to retirement There is an aspect there that they're believing that they're going to live long enough to need the money. They're hoping that that retirement money will take care of them. It's kind of the opposite of the child we just spoke of. There's a belief and a hope of things that will come. And there's no guarantee that any of us will make it to retirement. There's no guarantee that any of us will make it to tomorrow in God's perfect will. But God has promised His people that we will be with Him forever. And so, yes, it's important we should take care of things like, you know, setting money aside for retirement and trying to take care of those things, but ultimately the greatest thing that we need to have our hopes set in is the reality of what's coming, the reality of grace that we enjoy, that security in the Lord And God's grace transforms how Christians approach life. It motivates Christians to spirit and power to action every day. It changes, I hope, the way that we think and approach life. So that again, we're not like, like the person we spoke of in the beginning that has that identity crisis that is constantly trying to find their self. And being thrown this way and that with a different thoughts and philosophies and interactions that they come across, but instead that we be transformed, having our minds renewed, living for Christ in all things. And that we would know that God's grace is carrying us through this life and to His presence in heaven and the new heavens and the new earth, and it would encourage us as His people to live faithfully portion of this letter, and we come to holy hearts, Christians with two former desires. There is a difference. It makes a difference when God saves you, dear saint. Peter's command here to not be conformed refers to rejecting the sinful patterns and desires of our life before the Lord saved us. Now, we rejoice for those who all of us, and as we are witnessing Christ to this dark world and we are seeking to bring the gospel and the love of Jesus to our community, we should expect and anticipate to have conversions and lots of adult baptisms and family baptisms and folks who are turning by the work of the Spirit from their former sinful lives. And Paul would say, do not be conformed to those old ways, those old patterns before the Lord redeems you. Don't turn back to that. Don't look to that. Just as Israel was called to be distinct, if you remember in our Old Testament reading in Deuteronomy, there was that nations in the world. God says that to his church still today in the New Covenant. Dear church, you are distinct, holy, set apart from the rest of the world. As Christians, we're called to resist the cultural and sinful pressures that oppose this call to God's holiness. And we read here in Peter exactly that, this call, be holy for I am holy. And it's not something Peter's making up. He's quoting in this letter from Leviticus in chapter 11, verse 44. It's underscoring that holiness is an optional but a command that's rooted in the very nature of God. So if we were to say that I zero growth, sanctification. There is no fruit in your life that reflects what the scriptures say the Spirit does in the life. One must stop and take a very real account of their life and cry out to God and say, what is happening? Am I not yours? Oh Lord, forgive me. Save me, adopt me, transform me by the work of the Spirit. And it is something that though that sanctification that happens at that moment that God redeems us, He makes us holy in the sense that it is true. We are holy and set aside, and then He continues the rest of our life to make us holy. So there's that aspect of definitive sanctification, but also progressive sanctification, and it's not constantly where we fall backwards. There are times that we sin gratefully, but when we do, our hearts are... Who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are to daily examine whether our actions reflect God's holiness and I think we all should encourage ourselves to do that and allow the spirit to guide us and to work and to submit to it. It's a good thing to do when we're in our times of prayer before we come to reading the scriptures to say, Lord, teach me. Help me to be more like Jesus. Make it clear to me who you are, who I am, how I might be able to serve you to the glory of your name and the benefit of myself and your church. Christians with holy hearts live in reverence to the Lord for their redemption. You know, Christians, as it were, we see here ransomed or brought back from that deadly bondage to sin that they were in. So perhaps you can think of it in a sense that as a, outside of Christ, You were living a life, much like a zombie, dead to sin spiritually, in bondage, in chains, locked up in a dungeon in the darkness. And it was Christ who came, broke those doors down, ripped those chains off, gave you life, no longer dead, but living spiritually. He ransomed. you, and he ransomed you at a great price. It wasn't at some pile of gold that a bounty was paid that he might get you back, but actually it was what the old covenant was building towards and what we see, Lord Jesus Christ coming as the Messiah, as the perfect Lamb of God to the cross, dying, being sacrificed for the forgiveness of his people. so that as our sins are placed upon him and he paid that price, he ransomed his people, earned their forgiveness that we might enjoy his righteousness and live in that. Truly is an amazing, amazing thing. One that I hope continues to grow us in awe and worship and driving us to a life in service and love to the Lord. As God teaches us, and we understand more and more about the love that he has for us, that it then turns us to be folks who love more. Just as we grasp better the forgiveness that we've received as God's people, that causes us, by the work of the Spirit, to be more forgiving. As we grasp more and more the love that the Lord has shown us, it causes us to be more loving, as we see the selfless way in which Christ redeemed us, it causes us to be even more selfless, God-focused, others-focused. And when you're tempted to think lightly of the sin that's before you, I hope that myself and all of us in that moment, that the Holy Spirit will put clearly before us, John, think, remember the blood of your Savior, your sins are not cheap, and that that in and of itself would cause us to stop and say, oh, thank you. Oh, Lord, thank you. And that we might then even turn and say, Lord, strengthen me that I would not face such temptation again. Forgive me that I would even think lightly of the death of my Savior and the redemption that I enjoy in him, the blood that he shed, that we would always remember Christ's death on the cross, his resurrection, his redemption that he has earned for us that allows us to live, and that not only would we rejoice in it, but that we would submit to our King and allow him to teach us and tell us how to live and that out of love for him, we would live as he's called us, that we would change everything about our lives and say, Jesus, teach me how to live. I don't care what my friends are saying. I don't care what the world is saying. I don't care what's considered cool and whatever it may be. I don't care what will get me ahead at work. I don't care about these things. Jesus, how is it that you want me to live? How is it that you want me to serve you in every aspect of my life? We have hopeful minds, holy hearts, and then finally here we come towards the end of this section and we see hungry souls, hungry souls. Christians with hungry souls pursue earnest love. Christian love isn't superficial. Christian love, what we understand sometimes, those who look to God's word and we see the doctrines of grace, Perhaps, maybe rightfully so at times, this caricature has been put upon Presbyterians and those of the Reformed faith, but there's a caricature that is cold, it's lifeless, but actually it's the exact opposite. The more and more that we come to understand that God is sovereign in all things and he is work in us, that He is the one, as we'll see tonight as we look at Ephesians chapter one, as we look at the church and aspects of it, that the more we see God at work, the more it humbles us and causes us to live for Him, the more it causes us to understand His love, that we might love others. It gives us a fervent love of God and love of our neighbor. It's the exact opposite of a coldness. It's the exact opposite of the caricature. Christian love in which the Spirit is working in you, dear saint, is deep love. It's generous love. It's costly love. And it's not a love that the world thinks of love, but it's as God has told us what love actually is, as we see in the Word. And this love in the church reflects the transformative power of the gospel. So it's, I don't think, any shock that Jesus would say that the way in which they will know you, the way in which they will be able to identify that you are my disciples following me, is they're gonna look at you and say, people don't love like that. That love is mind-blowing, the way they love each other. And they love their neighbors, these strangers. That's not normal. And by God's grace, as his people, we're so transformed by that, and we love in such a godly way that it literally causes the world to stop for a moment and think, what is that? That's one of the ways in which the Spirit is at work in the growth of the kingdom while he's blessing the kingdom. It's an amazing aspect of how God works in such a way. True Christian spiritual growth is reflected in how Christians love one another. And I know that we realize that, and it's why we pray that God would deepen and continue to grow our love for each other here at Christ Church. And that what we read about, what we hear about, that that would be the reality that we are living out, enjoying and experiencing. And it's an aspect of growing in Christian maturity. One might say, well, I know someone who's growing in maturity when they know a lot more about the Bible than I do. And there's an aspect that learning, knowledge is important, but the way in which we see growth and maturity, the way we see growth and maturity and can measure that is the way in which the fruit that produces genuine love biblical, godly love amongst the church, here at Christ Church, spreading out to our Presbyteries, to our sister churches around us, and then to the denomination of the churches throughout the Presbyterian Church in America, and then beyond that, don't be shocked, beyond that, beyond Presbyterians, Our love extends to all the brethren worldwide, all of those in the church. That's why we pray in the evenings, on Sunday nights, that's why we pray in the mornings, that's why we pray throughout the week, not just for us, but for us with a capital U. So that we remember there's more than just here, this little local gathering, we are a part of the body. And that's why we pray for the church, big C. and other churches that are part of that. And I think we should notice and pay attention to the reality that this earnest love that we've been called to pursue, and that Peter's speaking of here, that that love is threatened, it could be disrupted, and problems can come from our sinfulness, our pride. bitterness, deceit, hypocrisy. These things sometimes are open and easy to see, sometimes are hidden and only God sees. And so these are things that by God's grace I pray that we will seek, through the means of grace, to see the Lord grow us through, that we would seek forgiveness, repentance, and belief in Him, that we would be sanctified, that we might not see relationships in the church, but especially relationships with the Lord hindered, but instead, we, by God's grace, would be putting off these sinful ways, putting on godly ways, growing in Christ-likeness. And Christians with hungry souls crave spiritual nourishment. You know, it's a joy that we have babies who cry. And what always happens is typically, because I remember when I had little ones and they would cry and I'd be like, oh my goodness, he's crying. This is the worst thing ever. And so parents will come sometimes to me and say, I'm so sorry that my child made noise. Now, I'm not sitting right next to them. I don't hear them. I'm going deaf, I'm old, but I rejoice to hear children. That is the sound of life in the church. It's like when you hear a child crying at home if you're a parent. What is it typically? You know a few things are going on. One of those things is, I'm hungry. That's how the child is communicating. Hopefully by 10, they're not crying when they're hungry, but you know, it's a little child. That's how they communicate. They don't have words yet. Could be multiple things, but hunger is typically one of them. They're desiring to be nourished and fed. They need it. They're hungry for food. To grow that in us, that we would have that hunger for God's word, that we would need the spiritual nourishment that comes from the means of grace. And we wouldn't cry out like a baby, but we would cry out in prayer, we would cry out in praise. Because we'd have that same hunger to be fed, not physically, but spiritually nourished. For those who have ever played a sport, and if you've gotten really serious at a sport, you know that as an athlete, you have to make some decisions You have to say, I can't do this, I can't eat that. Those habits have to go away if I'm gonna be able to perform, if I want an opportunity to do X, Y, Z, if I wanna get better at this, I need to set those things aside and cast them away, because I want to get better at my sport. Well, in a greater way, Peter's calling you to cast aside, to put away, by God's grace, the sinful habits that you're picking up or perhaps overflowing from a past and your memories and things you're doing, to cast those things aside. And instead, you might grow in grace to become more like Christ. As Peter says here in the letter, grow up into salvation, this focus on Christians growing in sanctification, in Christ-likeness. And it's interesting what Peter says here. There's one key thing the Spirit uses for this, and it shouldn't be shocking, because we saw that same consistency when we were looking at our short sermon series on spiritual warfare. What is that consistency? What is it that we see here? What is it that Peter's saying that the Holy Spirit is using in this growth and sanctification maturity, helping Christians to be more like Jesus? Of all the things it could be. we see that God has chosen to use his word. And again, we rejoice that God has given it to us, even as we prayed earlier, that we're not left in darkness, but he's given us his word, and he uses it to his glory and to the benefit of his church and to your benefit, dear saints. God uses his word to grow you individually, but he also uses his word to grow the community, to grow the church, that we might grow in grace, that we might go and be salt and light, living out the gospel every day to the glory of our King. Hopeful minds, holy hearts, hungry souls, God's grace calls believers to be holy, hopeful, and hungry for His Word. Let's pray. O Lord, we thank you for your grace that you poured out upon us. Lord, we pray for those who do not know you, that you would bring them to faith in Christ, that they might come with us, that you would make them and us continuing to grow in holiness and hopefulness and hunger for your word. Oh Lord, we love you. Help us, cause us to not only understand your love more, but that we might experience it and that it would drive us to love you, your word, each other, and our neighbors more and more every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.