Born Again To Hope

Welcome | Open to 1 Peter 1. It was written by Peter to modern day Turkey around 54-68. Peter is writing to  “spiritual exiles awaiting their heavenly inheritance.” – Tom Schreiner 

**TITLE: BORN AGAIN TO HOPE 

• Have you ever had a hope crushed? Something you hoped for only to be letdown.  
• I have, bad. As a 12-year-old I ordered that ab message belt that was supposed to give you abs by  doing nothing.  

o I thought I was getting ripped. Nope. Hope crushed. I’ll just say this, it didn’t work.  1 Peter 1 is about hope.  

**3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to  be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is  imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through  faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if  necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more  precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor  at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see  him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of  your faith, the salvation of your souls. 

• Faith in Christ leads to something; something hopeful and beating and purifying.  **TITLE: BORN AGAIN TO HOPE ————————————————- PRAY —————————— • Hope can be misleading/empty. It depends on what you’re trusting/having faith in.  • Def of Faith: To believe in or trust in something. You can have Faith therefore in many things.  o I wouldn’t have ordered the ab belt if I didn’t believe in/trust it. Sadly.  
• Big idea: Humans having faith in themselves/others isn’t living, it’s a flimsy/false hope.  • With flimsy/false hopes you never know when they’re gonna bail. | Let’s look at 1 Peter: **3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  
• Peter praises God, who is the Father of Jesus, who sent Jesus.  

**3b According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, 

• **4 truths from this verse. 1) God causes salvation. That’s a HUGE truth. 2) This salvation is a new birth; one is born again.  

o Born again comes from Jesus: JN 3 Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. • 3) HOW are you born again? Peter says: through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead! • 4) WHAT are you born into? Many things, Peter states 1: a living hope! Hope that isn’t dead but alive.  • **3 He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, 

**4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 

• Inheritance is adoption language; you inherit what belongs to your family. I will inherit my Mom’s  Camry. Most likely. 
• This inheritance is a strong – can’t fade, and it’s being guarded for you in heaven. It’s assured. **5 you, by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. • Our inheritance is not just for the future, but NOW. God guards you by his power.  o Faith is NOT something you muster up about God but something God DID that you enter into. o PAUL CARTER Faith is looking to God to provide that which [only he] can. 

**6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, • Jesus said, “In this world you will have trials/trouble.” Trials are a part of life. And they grieve us.  • But, with Christ, trials can result in good.  

**7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by  fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. • As you go through trials, your faith actually becomes more refined/stronger/richer. 

• PEACE&CURREN REFINERY The purpose of refining is to remove impurities. The crude gold is melted  and then treated with chloride. This converts any foreign elements or minerals still in the gold into  chloride, which will then naturally drift off the gold. The result of this process is 99.5 percent pure gold. 
• Although trials are grieving, they’re actually refining/purifying who we hope/trust in. Which is a  good thing, so we rejoice in it.  

**8 Though you have not seen him, you love him.  

• Jesus said we would not see him. JN 20:29 Thomas, have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. 
• Peter says, though you don’t see him, you love him. What a cool way of defining faith: Loving Jesus. He continues: **8 Though you don’t see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that’s inexpressible.  • Faith brings joy – straight from the author of your soul. Joy is hard to often explain, but it’s healing. **9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 
• What Peter begins with, he ends with: Faith leads to your souls being saved.  
• What a deal … faith in (belief/trust in) Christ = soul saved/secured forever and now.  • Therefore, faith is NOT mustering up more things, it’s banking on reliable facts about God.  • What are the facts? That the Father sent Jesus to die and resurrect causing a rebirth!  I have 4 points about what FAITH IN CHRIST is: 

1) **Makes you adopted as a Child of God. You’re born again to an inheritance. You’re in God’s family. • 2 COR 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, they’re a new creation. The old passed away, the new here. 2) **Leads to More Faith. God grows your dependence/trust in him > other things/people.  • You become that which you behold. As we behold Jesus we become like him. Particularly in trials.  3) **Gives God Glory. It’s an act of worship.  

• He’s proclaimed as King/God to the universe – through your allegiance to him.  4) **Gives You a Living Hope. 
• The hope Christ gives though is unlike any other on this earth. 

o Have faith/dependence in the economy – it can bail on you, unexpectedly.  

o Have faith/dependence in your health – it can bail on you, unexpectedly. 

o Have dependence in a government/system – it can bail on you, unexpectedly. • False hopes are feeble/flimsy. Jesus Christ is as RELIABLE as the blood stains on the cross.  • As RELIABLE as the echo in the tomb when John peaked in. Christ has risen and will NOT fail you.  

• That’s WHY trials are so purifying; they help us experience: this earth CANNOT give me what I deeply need. This earth is NOT my hope – Jesus Christ is my hope, my living hope! 
• Faith in Christ says, even when my world around me is crumbling, my foundation is still secure. o Jesus sits in heaven guarding me in HIS power/strength. 
• Even when your faith seems weak, Christ is STILL strong; he’s PURYFING you as his child, a mystery. 
• SPURGEON I am sure that I have run more swiftly with a lame leg than I ever did with a sound one. I  have seen more in the dark than ever I saw in the light, more stars, more things in heaven if fewer things  on earth. The anvil, the fire, and the hammer, are the making of us; we do not get fashioned much by  anything else. That heavy hammer falling on us helps us; therefore let affliction and trouble and trial  come. I bear witness that the worst days I have ever had have turned out to be my best days.  
• Christ’s hope is living – not dead, it will never bail. His new birth brings you a new hope. So, place your hope today in the ONLY thing reliable – facts – a bloody cross/empty tomb causing rebirth.  • Stone, in the new birth YOU CAN rejoice with joy inexpressible and filled with glory! 1 PET 4 Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you, as if something strange were happening. PHIL 2 For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

ROM 8 We hope for what we do not see, and we wait for it with patience. 

• In the trial, place your hope in the victor – Jesus – who will USE it for your good and his glory.