Stand Firm
1 Peter 5:12-14
Transcript
Good morning. Everybody have a good Halloween. I dressed up as Anger from Inside Out, thank you, which, I mean, wasn't too much of a stretch. I mean, I had to wear dress pants, but otherwise, pretty straightforward. I hope everybody had a good time, and good to see everybody this morning. So, time changed last night, and who's the person that was like, sweet, an extra hour of sleep?
I know it's really 8 o'clock, or I know it's really 9 o'clock, but I'm still going to bed. Who's the person that was like, a bonus hour? I better stay awake. Like, it's only 9. I better, like, yeah, okay. So, we've got a mix here.
But anyway, we're in our last week of the First Peter series. So, we've been in this series for the past year and a half. No, it's only been about 20 weeks or so. We've been walking through it. Most of this year, we've been in First Peter. And we've just been going verse by verse through the book of First Peter because we believe that all Scripture is helpful.
And instead of jumping around all the time and looking at different things, we actually just want to kind of walk through a book, learn from the book, see everything in context, grow in our ability to study the Bible together. So, we're going to be in First Peter chapter 5. The last little bit is on page 658 if your Bible is one of these. And what we're going to do is just kind of read this and just talk about it a little bit and kind of see how Peter wraps the book up. And so, First Peter chapter 5, we'll start in verse 12. It says, By Silvanus, that's a really sweet name.
It does sound to me like he makes TVs. But, by Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you. So, he most likely either Silvanus actually penned it while Peter talked, dictated it, and Silvanus penned it, or at least Silvanus is the one who delivered this letter. So, he would have traveled around to all the different churches and actually all at once read it out loud to everybody. So, by Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.
She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, as so does Mark, my son. And so does Mark, my son. She who is at Babylon is most likely a reference to the church in Rome. So, they would have used Babylon as kind of like a weird cryptic code word for Rome. I don't quite know why. And she just being the church.
So, she who is at Babylon, so the church in Rome also, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark. And that's most likely Mark, author of the Gospel of Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. So, we're going to spend most of our time today looking at greet one another with the kiss of love. So, we're going to talk about what kind of kiss that is, kind of the best practices on how to go about it, length of time, hand placement, that kind of stuff.
And then we're going to institute. No, I'm kidding. We're not going to spend any time there. Although, cool, kiss of love, great. We're going to spend most of our time looking at where he says, I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.
So, Peter's finishing up his letter and he says, I've written briefly to you exhorting and declaring. So, declaring means I taught, I said it. And exhorting means I encouraged. I pressed hard into it. But, this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.
And so, what we're going to do is we're just going to kind of take a, we've read through the whole book together. We've studied through the whole book together. We're going to zoom out and just say, okay, what is he talking about? What is the true grace of God? How do we stand firm in it? What is his, what's his main point?
What is the true grace of God? What was the thing that he was pressing on the whole time? What was he trying to get us to understand the whole time? And then, how do we stand firm in it? What does that, what does that look like? What's that mean?
And how do we do that? Um, you don't, in life, you don't have to know a lot of stuff. I mean, if you go do trivia nights places, it helps. But, but most people who do really well know one thing and are very good at it. They're, they're really good at it. So like you have a friend who's good at a handful of things.
And so you have like, you call them and you're like, I need, I need help with some plumbing and they can, they can get you only so far. But in certain problems, like you need someone. No, I just want someone who, this is all they do. They plumb. That's it. They are a plumber.
That is it. That's all they do. I just want that person. Not the person who can kind of do half of this. Get in the middle of it, take it all apart and go, yeah, I don't know. I've never seen that before.
Like, like just knowing something and being very good at it. And that's just kind of how life works. So if you know one thing or captivated by it, gripped by it, and really just make that it for you, then that actually can take you much further than knowing a whole bunch of stuff. And I'll give you an example. And this is kind of a rule in business in general. But I want to show you all.
This is Google's homepage. That's it. You've got Google search, which you can also just press enter. And then you've got, I'm feeling lucky. But you're only doing one thing.
Google is a search engine. That's what you're doing. That's why we say things like Google it. It's become a verb because that is synonymous with using a search engine. So we used to have like Ask Jeeves, which was a butler that Googled things for you.
And this happens now. You remember, and some of you are old enough to remember, and I'm in this. You remember before Google and before smartphones when you used to have to sit and think to remember something? You're watching a movie on your VHS. Yes, you would pause it and go, what else has that guy been in? And everyone in the room would go, uh.
And you would sit and think. And you would have to try to remember. And if you were good enough at lying, you could convince everybody. No, he was in Hook. He was in Hook because he was the guy. He was one of the pirates.
And you could like, if you sold it hard enough, you get everybody to move on. And they could never find out. Like lying used to be way easier before Google. But you remember, you just have to sit and think. Now this happens.
And this is a real thing. You will go, ah, who's the head coach there? Or did they win that game? Or what has this person been in? And you'll sit for about seven seconds. And someone will go, this is stupid.
I'm going to Google it. And what they mean is sitting and thinking is stupid. That's the point. It's like, why would we sit and think when we have Google? But Google, that's it.
That's what they do. Don't change that. Do you remember Yahoo? Some people still use Yahoo. I don't know why. Yahoo started off as a search engine.
This is Yahoo's homepage. They're a search engine, I think. There's a lightsaber there. Kendall Jenner wears $1,000 sweatpants to the airport because this is her life. I needed to know that. Yahoo doesn't even know what they're doing.
Look to the left here. Mail, news, sports, finance, weather, autos, fantasy. Weird screen dating, shopping, making parents. Makers parenting, sorry. Not making parents, that's weird. Health style, beauty, politics, movies, travel, tech, TV.
Google? Google? Yahoo. Yahoo. Okay. Having one thing.
That's why we Google stuff. That's why you're never like, I'll Yahoo it. Do that in a conversation this week just for the heck of it. Someone's like, I don't know what he's, I'll Yahoo it. So when we read the book of Peter, the first letter that Peter writes and sends it out to the churches, we're going to see actually as we look at the whole thing that it's way more Google than Yahoo.
That he's got one thing. I have written to you declaring and exhorting that this is the true grace of God. What I have said to you can be boiled down to that one thing. This is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. So we're going to pray and then we're going to look at what he's talking about.
God, we thank you for how good you are. And we thank you for the time that we've gotten to share studying this book that you authored through Peter. We thank you for how it has helped us. And God, I pray that we would see as we kind of look back over this letter, that we would clearly see the true grace from you. That we would clearly see what the main point is. And then God, I pray that you'd give us the grace to stand firm in it.
In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so what's he been talking about? Flip back to 1 Peter chapter 1. We're going to kind of run through. We're going to jump around a little bit because we've got to see kind of what he's been saying. He starts off by calling them elect exiles.
So it's Peter and the apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles. And then he lists off a bunch of places. Okay, that's kind of one of the main themes he's going to carry throughout the book. Is that he's writing to people who, because they are Christians, because they have placed their faith in Jesus, they are elect, which means they are chosen, they are loved, they are wanted, they are made into a people, they are gods. And they're exiles. Which means that when you became a Christian, you did not disapparate into the air.
Is that not what they do in Harry Potter? Disappear? You didn't get sucked up. You weren't beamed up, disappeared, your clothes became just a pile on the ground. That's not what happened. You're still here.
You're chosen by God. You belong to him. The Bible tells us over and over again that our home is in heaven, but we're still here. And so what he's saying is that you're chosen by God. You belong to him. You're his people.
But you're where you are on purpose. God has exiled you on purpose. Where you are. And then he goes into verse 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 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Who, by God's power, are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. So he says, you're elect exiles, and here's why. You've placed your faith in Jesus, and he was resurrected from the dead. He died. He was buried.
And he rose again. And the tomb is forever empty. And he is forever at the right hand of the Father. And you have an imperishable, undefiled, unfading eternity. A hope held for you because Jesus rose from the grave. The first 12 verses in this is one sentence.
It's like a crazy, amazing, run-on sentence of here's how amazing Jesus is, and here's what he's done for you. And here's how you have hope forever secure in Jesus. Hope forever secure in the resurrection. It's yours, and he has an eternity and an inheritance that's kept for you. Verse 13. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, thinking clearly, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
So our hope as Christians is set fully on the grace that will be given to us, brought to us, because of the resurrection. So Peter starts off, his main point that he begins with is, your hope is in the resurrection and an inheritance that is forever yours, and set your hope fully there. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus returns. For Christians, when Jesus returns, what is brought to us is not condemnation, is not judgment, is not guilt, is not disappointment. I used to think about that. I used to think, when I actually meet Jesus, is he going to be proud of me, or is he going to be disappointed in me?
When I stand before the throne of God, is he going to be proud or disappointed? I used to think about that all the time. Is he going to look at me and go, I'll let you in, because you trust me. And that's about all I've got to say. Because you didn't, you just... And I used to, I would be so worried that he would be disappointed, but what he says is, set your hope fully on the grace that will be given to you.
That everything, when we stand before God, is unearned. It's not based off of your behavior, if you've trusted in Jesus. It's based off of Jesus' behavior. So that God welcomes us the way he would welcome Jesus. Our hope is fully there. Because of the resurrection.
Because we have an inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us, through the resurrection. And we just trust. We have faith. We're guarded by faith. And we set our hope fully on grace. Okay, so if someone has their hope fully set on the stock market.
If someone has their hope fully set on being a professional athlete, what happens? You pour a lot of energy there. That guides how you think about things. How you walk through life. When I was in college, I played college football. I was mostly on the team, but I kept thinking, like, at some point, I'm going to play.
You know, you wait. At some point. Coach is going to see me, and he's going to think, good Job, in his head, and he's going to say it out loud, and then I'll get to ride on the bus, and I won't get car sick, which I always did. I'd get off the bus and be like, Coach, I need something. This is bad. I used to think that.
And I remember one time before practice, because football for me was, I had set my hope there. So it guided for me where I went to school, what I did with my time, how I made friendships, when I went to sleep, what I ate, what I did with my free time, was mostly set on football. I remember before practice one day, we were all out there before the coaches got out there. We were just on the field kind of hanging out, and I picked up a football, and I looked up a few guys near me, and I said, just a second, think about how much of your life has been devoted to this little leather thing. Like, how many hours of your life, or days when you add the hours up, has been devoted to this little leather thing.
And one of the guys who was an All-American linebacker heard me, his name was Antoine, and he goes, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, shh, hey, hey, shut up. Chet, say that again. And like, now there's like, everybody's listening to me that was over there. And I was like, how much of your life has been devoted? How many hours, and how many, when you add those hours up, how many days? When you think about workouts, when you think about practices, has been devoted to this little brown leather thing.
And it was like, the most profound moment that I think I've ever been a part of on a football field. Because there's not a lot of heavy thinkers out there. And their guys were just like, I mean, really, you could just see their brain like trying to do math. I'm like, how many hours am I going to be out here today? How many days have I done this? Like, people are just like, man.
And for all of us, you might could hold up something. Maybe it's not a brown leather thing. Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's, just pull out a dollar bill. How much time has been spent setting our hope there? How much time has been spent setting your hope anywhere?
And so what Peter starts off with is, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. And you have an inheritance, undefiled, unfading, imperishable, kept in heaven for you. Set your hope there. His first sentence, we had to break up into 12 verses because it was just this. I have too many words to tell you how amazing what Jesus has accomplished for us is. Set your hope there, fully, on the grace that will be provided for you.
Then he goes into chapter 2. We're going to look at verse 9, chapter 2. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So what he says, our hope is fully in the resurrection.
Our hope is fully in Jesus. Jesus is above all things, and our hope is in the grace that will be provided. And now, we've been made into a new people so that we might proclaim his excellencies, the excellencies of him who brought us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. that we were trapped, that we were enslaved, and that Jesus came and became enslaved, became trapped, became nailed to a tree, took our guilt, our punishment, our shame, took our beating, took our death so that we could be set free. So he just said, in the chapter before, he said, follow in obedience because you've been purchased, you've been ransomed by the precious blood of Christ.
That we were bought back through Jesus' sacrifice. We were enslaved, we were in darkness, and he's called us into his marvelous light. There's a movie with Brendan Fraser that is called Blast from the Past. And in that movie, he and his family lived in a bomb shelter because a plane crashed on their house, and his dad already had a bomb shelter because he was really afraid of the Cold War. And so he made his whole family get into this bunker. And then at some point, Brendan's like a little kid, and then he grows up, and then he's like, well, we're running out of food or something, so you've got to go out into the world.
And so it's a fairly entertaining movie, which is, you can't say for many Brendan Fraser movies. And there's this one point, though, where he spent his whole life in this little box underground. And there's this one scene in the movie where he sees the Pacific Ocean, and he just stares at it, and then he just runs into it. He's like fully clothed. He just, it just like captivates him. And I just have this picture that that's just a small glimpse of what it means for us to be called out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
The amount of now freedom and hope and massiveness that we just can't even take in, can't even really understand what that means for us to have been enslaved to sin, headed for death, headed for destruction, headed for hell, and Jesus rescued us and brought us into his marvelous light. Okay. Peter says, everything, banking on, hoping in, the gospel, that Jesus died for you, that he rose again, that your hope is secure because of that. And then, he says, so, so obey, even when you don't understand? And so one of the things we talked about when we talked about that was that when we come to something in the Bible that we just, I don't, it doesn't, doesn't give me enough.
Like I don't, I want it to tell me more as to why I should do this thing that it says I should do. I want it to tell me more as to why I should care about this. And one of the things we talked about was that if Jesus really died for us, then he's ultimately trustworthy. So, taken. We talked about this. There's a guy in taken, his daughter gets taken, and he has a select set of skills and he goes and gets her back.
And then she gets taken a whole lot more, I think. So he's not, his select set of skills is getting back, not keeping. But, in the second movie, if he calls her at the beginning, I hadn't seen the second movie, I saw the first one. He calls her, if you hadn't seen it, this is what happens. If you have seen it, this is hypothetical. In the second movie, if he calls her up and says, she answers the phone and he says, you're going to be taken.
Because that's what he says. He doesn't say kidnapped, he says taken. You're going to be taken. I need you to get as much money as you possibly can. I need you to set the house on fire. I need you to head north 50 miles and meet me out of Texaco.
Now, if you're his daughter, what do you do? You don't ask questions. You get as much money as you can. You burn the house down and you drive to the Texaco. Because he's trustworthy. And for Christians, when the Bible doesn't give us enough, we get to walk back to Jesus, the Son of God, who deserves honor and glory and praise forever, went to a cross for me to rescue and redeem me, to make me his.
He is ultimately trustworthy, even if I'd rather he explained this more. So Peter goes, obey. Then Peter goes, submit to authority. Follow the leadership of your country. Submit to those over you. Listen to your bosses.
And you're like, well, my boss is an idiot. He doesn't. Listen to your boss. Whether Trump wins or loses, whether Clinton wins or loses, whether Bernie Sanders, who is also the co-creator of Seinfeld, wins or loses, doesn't matter. Because our hope is not in the political system. Our hope is not in the authorities over us.
Our hope is fully in Jesus. And then he goes, so he goes, submit to authority. Then he starts talking to servants. And so he's basically saying that whatever you do on a regular basis with your job, here's how to do it. And when things don't go well, continue trusting Jesus. Then he goes to husbands and wives.
And he says, wives, even if your husband is terrible, submit and follow because your hope is not in your husband, but in God. And he says, husbands, realize that you need grace too, that both of you have to be rescued by Jesus and lead well, serve well, love well. Then he goes into suffering. And he talks about suffering for a long time. That in the midst of pain and heartache, we can trust in Jesus. That when people don't like us and when we're ridiculed and when we're made fun of and people say, oh, I didn't know you were into superstition.
Oh, you really believe what was written in a book. Haven't we grown past that? Aren't, isn't that so backwards? You're going to be on the wrong side of history. It's one of my favorite ones that I get to hear. And over and over you hear this and you keep thinking, are we?
And Peter's saying, no, in the midst of that, continue to trust, continue to believe, continue to hope because of the resurrection. Then he talks about what we get, how do we relate to each other in the church. So really, Peter says, everything's about the resurrection. Our hope is in Jesus. And then he just talks about all kinds of stuff. And it's like, I feel like maybe you lost your point, Peter.
Like, you talked to wives and you talked to husbands, you talked about submitting to authority and then you were like, honor the emperor and love God and then you were like, if you suffer, and he just kind of goes all over the place. You brought up Satan, just out of the blue. What's his point? Why does Peter start off so heavy here and then just talk about all kinds of stuff? Normal everyday life stuff, being married, doing your job, living in a country, having governors and people over top of you. Like, why does he do that?
I've heard recently people talking about asteroids hitting earth. So I don't know if y'all know this. We're on a rock that's on an angle. It spins really fast. And then it's constantly hurling in outer space in like an oval shape around the big yellow one and that's the sun. And there are other rocks doing this too.
And as far as we can see, there are other big yellow ones and other rocks swirling around and the more we look at it, the more we're like, there's more stuff out there. They pointed a telescope into nothingness and it was just a little, like a little tiny black thing and then they let it just soak up light for a really long time and then they were like, there's a whole bunch of stuff there we didn't even know about. Like, you can get on the internet now, I encourage you to Yahoo it, and you can, you can see all of these beautiful pictures of all of this stuff that's going on. And so we're spinning on this oddly shaped rock in an oval and there's these other rocks just like whizzing around.
All the time. Now they're not as big as us, but like, I don't know, stuff blew up somewhere else and then like gravitational pools like throw it and it's just whizzing around and so there's this potential for us to be spinning on our little rock around the big yellow one and then this other little rock just come flying in and our gravitational pool will be like, come on in! And then this rock just smack into us. Now, NASA's paying attention to these things and so they're most of the time being like, we're good, we're good right now, like I think you can ask NASA, anything going to hit us? And they're like, nah, not anything big, nothing to worry about, but they're doing studies and trying to figure out what would happen if it did.
And so I read a study that they did in New Mexico and they, I think it was like a mile sized rock if it hit, if it smacked into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. And what they said was that all the coastal areas would just be destroyed. One of the quotes is this, it says, the coastal lands would be devastated, not by the actual impact, some 1,500 miles away, 1,500 miles away, but by a relentless succession of colossal waves traveling at the speed of a jet aircraft and towering much higher than the Empire State Building. That if a giant asteroid smacks into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there would be a colossal succession of massive waves bigger than the Empire State Building traveling as fast as an airplane that would just start pounding everything.
I've also read that if that happened, there would be enough dust and enough debris and enough problems that the whole climate would change and everything would be different for everybody if this happens. Regardless of where one of these big ones hits, everything is different. And Peter is saying, you're the Earth and the Gospel is that asteroid and nothing is the same anymore. If you are a Christian and you have placed your faith in Jesus, your little thing you had going is not the same anymore. There is nothing that is untouched by this. And whereas this is destructive, the Gospel brings life and meaning to everything.
And so Peter goes into all of this random, normal stuff because the Gospel goes into all of this random, normal stuff. That colossal wave after colossal wave of the Gospel has begun to wash over your life. And so some of you are struggling with a particular issue, you are hurting in a particular area and you went to Jesus and you said, help me. You saw the Bible said, yes, he helps marriages. Yes, Jesus works in relationships. Yes, Jesus works in the midst of brokenness and the pain and loss.
Yes, Jesus died for us and he suffers alongside of us and he understands and so you trust in Jesus and then you begin to realize everything is different. So first it was just, I realized I can't go to work the same way and then it's, I actually can't even view work the same way. I can't even view what my goal in life is the same way. I can't view my money the same way. Or I realized that this relationship, I can't think about it now without having the gospel wash over it. But then it actually affects how I relate to everybody.
People I like, people I don't like. It affects my marriage. You see, the gospel permeates every aspect of our lives and that's why Peter says, here's the gospel. Now, work, submission to authority, relationships, marriage, because the gospel impacts everything. Nothing is left untouched by the fact that Jesus Christ died for us. Do you know what we're saying we believe as Christians?
That we were rebellious against a holy, righteous God. That we were trapped in our sin, destined for destruction. That hell and heaven are real. I can go, I preach, I read the Bible and stand up and say things. I can go weeks without thinking about heaven or hell. In any kind of real way.
But what we're saying we believe is that there is a real place of eternal joy in relationship with God and there's a real place of eternal torment. And that Jesus came because he loved us so much and he didn't want us to get away from him. Didn't want us to rebel. Didn't want us to be destroyed. That he took our rebellion on himself. That he took our pain.
That by his wounds we are healed, Peter says. That we were ransomed, bought back with the precious blood of Christ. And that our hope is forever secure through the resurrection. And that our hope needs to be set fully on the gospel and fully on the grace that will be provided for us. That that is the one thing that should be the overarching thing for every person who says they believe in Jesus. That your hope is fully set on the gospel.
And that impacts everything. That's the true grace of God and it comes into every ounce, every bit of your life. There's not a second of your day when you were at work that does not now matter. There's not a millisecond of time while you travel down the road a mile that you go. There's not a conversation that you have that is not now infused with absolute importance and meaning because the gospel is real. Peter doesn't say exit the normal.
He says you're exiled into it. He doesn't say have set apart special times. He says no. Working. Marriage. Friendship.
It all matters. It's all important now because the gospel touches everything. The gospel impacts everything. And then he says stand firm. Don't forget. Don't forget where your hope is.
When you lose your job don't forget where your hope is. When you're at work and people don't recognize how hard you work and how important you are and how much you pour in and when your boss doesn't acknowledge the fact that you're working harder than anybody around you don't forget where your hope is. When you're in your marriage and it does not seem like there's any possible way that this could work out and your husband is not following Jesus and he's not repenting of sin don't forget where your hope is. Stand firm in the grace. Put your hope fully in the grace that will be provided for you.
Stand in it. Remember. Keep going. Keep remembering that your hope and your eternity is set secure in the resurrection of Jesus and so everything matters and all of the things that we chase after aren't as big and as important as they used to be. In light of the gospel everything matters and then all the things that we would say matters most no longer do. that we get to be normal Christians in normal life set free from the gospel by the gospel to follow after Jesus and have that be the thing the main thing for us where our hope comes from where our joy comes from and then we're untouchable in the midst of suffering then we're untouchable when work isn't going well then we're untouchable when marriage is hard.
Do you know why he covers all the difficult things? Because we need to remember in those moments that nothing has been taken from us that our hope stays secure when we're anxious we have someone who's rescued us redeemed us bought us back when we're worried when we're tired when we're sick when we're suffering when everything looks like it's not going to work out we get to remember that we've already been taken from darkness into his marvelous light and we already have our hope secure. Stand firm. Don't forget. Don't lose focus. Don't get caught up chasing after something so much smaller and so much more insignificant.
Stand firm in the true grace of God which is that Jesus has already done everything for us. Matt's going to come back up and we're going to we're going to celebrate by taking communion together and communion is a tangible reminder of Jesus' work on our behalf. So Jesus before he died before he went to the cross the next day he says this is my body that's broken for you this is my blood that was spilled for you and so one of the things that we do as Christians is we if you are a believer if your hope is in Jesus if your hope is fully set on the grace that will come to you we get to remind ourselves that all we need is Jesus. That our hope is there forever and so there's bread and there's juice and you take the bread and you can dip it in the juice and you can partake in communion which is a reminder a tangible reminder we need the gospel we need Jesus my hope is here forever and so I would just ask as we do this if you are a Christian and you go to take communion that you would just remind yourself of how good Jesus is and how much we need him and that you would ask God to help you by his grace and by his spirit to stand firm to not be caught up in smaller things to not be knocked off our guard to not be pushed around by normal life but to realize that the gospel applies to everything that there is not one square inch of your life that is not impacted by the fact that your hope is fully in Jesus forever and stand firm and praise Jesus that he's already done everything that needed to happen to rescue you to redeem you to bring you back and take communion I'm gonna pray and then we'll take communion together and then we'll sing God we thank you for your grace we thank you for your love we thank you for the hope that is ours fully and forever through Jesus and God I pray that the gospel would continue to wash over us would continue to permeate every single moment that there wouldn't be a moment in between heartbeats that was not affected by the gospel was not claimed by you and that God in all the normal things of life shopping exercising celebrating Halloween that God the gospel would be active that your Holy Spirit would be at work and that we would follow after you help us God as a church to stand firm in what's most important to not lose focus to not be knocked off our guard to not forget we praise you and we thank you that our hope is fully and forever in Jesus not in our abilities our goodness are mortals in Jesus name Amen