Sermon Transcript
Hey, well, let’s take our Bibles out if you brought one. If you didn’t, you could probably find mostly what we’re going to look at on the message note sheets this morning and/or the Bible that’s there in front of you. We’re working our way through the book of 1 Peter, and we’re in 1 Peter chapter 3 today, verses 18 to 22. So I encourage you to turn there with us and share in this time together. As I was looking over this account, studying this, thinking about this, I got to thinking about my mom, who I’m pretty sure that I just don’t know the half of what she went through when she was 17 years of age to birth me into this world.
Mom had me when she was 17 years old. I don’t know the half of it. I mean, I’m hopefully living now with a big appreciation for her labor of love. But, you know, that has not come, and it didn’t come easily for me. Quite frankly, I think that probably raising me was harder than birthing me for my mother.
You know, I messed up her life on at least 2 occasions. Okay, more than 2 occasions, but you get the idea. You know, I made things pretty difficult around the house and And from time to time she would use both of my names that she gave me, you know. When things were okay, she would just say, Dave such-and-such. But when things weren’t okay, she’d say, David.
And when things were really not okay, she would say, David Ray, the second name that she gave me. And I can still remember her on occasion saying, you know, David Ray, I brought you into this world. I know what I’m talking about. Now, I know that you’ve probably never heard anybody, you know, say that to you. I brought you into this world.
I know what I’m talking about or whatever, but that was something that happened on several occasions around the house, which was basically my mom’s way of saying, you know, David, would you just pay attention to me? Would you just respect me? Would you just appreciate who I am? Would you appreciate all I’ve already gone through, what I’m trying to go through right now to raise you to, you know, become somebody that other people might love too? You know, would you just have a sense of appreciation for me?
And so, as I was looking at this passage, I got to thinking back on that, and it turned around for me about junior in high school. I finally around that age started to see more of what my mom was doing for me and what she had done for me these years that, you know, she was raising me in the home. And so, that kind of changed things in our relationship. And then, when I was 24 years of age, my mother died unexpectedly. And I’ll tell you one thing is that when she died, I, after that, really realized that I did not have the kind of appreciation for Mom I should have had all along, and that elevated— from that moment on, it just really got me looking at her life completely different with a whole new sense of appreciation.
Well, the reason I bring up this story is because maybe you can identify with it in some ways, first of all, because I think sometimes in the relationships that we share with each other, it’s possible for us to live without a sense of appreciation. For what these people have brought to our lives. You may remember Mark Twain said, when I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years.
Not exactly, you know. He didn’t change, you did. And I think that this text that we come to today actually can give us a whole new sense of appreciation for God and for what God has done for us through His Son, Jesus Christ, who wants to bring us to God. You know, God brought us into the world. Jesus wants to bring us to God.
And this subject comes up in this passage that we’re going to be looking at this morning. And I think if we— you know, I don’t know how long you’ve had a relationship with God. If you haven’t had a relationship with God, you’re exploring a relationship, but You know, at some point I hope that we want to grow in our sense of appreciation for what God has done for us, because that’s going to be to the betterment of our relationship with God, but it’s also going to be to the betterment of our soul. You can think of it this way. It’s kind of like we have people in our lives that have in some way contributed, contributed to the people that we are, right?
They’ve made us better people. Maybe it was related to a job, or maybe it’s related to school, and they’ve contributed in some way to us. And we are the people that we are because of their contribution to us. Or maybe it’s been in a sport or a hobby or some training, even sometimes vacations. Hey, go ahead and enjoy our vacation place, you know, and, and that’s been for our betterment, whatever you want to say.
But hopefully in us recognizing that, it gives us a greater sense of appreciation for people, and it’s better for the relationships that, that we share. So this passage we’re gonna look at this morning by just reflecting on this one thought that Jesus is the one that brings us to God, but just reflecting on that one thought, it could give us a new sense of appreciation for God, for Jesus Christ, and the relationship that we share, and it can help us do what Steve talked about the last couple of weeks. It can help us be winsome witnesses for the Lord so that when we’re connecting with people and the kind of people we are, we’re actually the kind of people that project this wonderful work that God’s doing in us and we live with a, A sense of appreciation and not a sense of ingratitude and not a sense of entitlement. Entitlement. That would be terrible.
So, this is what the passage says. 1 Peter 3:18. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. You might want to just underline those words or highlight them. Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous.
These words. You to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, 8 in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also— not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to Him.
That’s a wonderful passage, isn’t it? And when you first read it, you’re like, okay, this is one of those passages I’ll skip, move on to something else I can understand. And oftentimes when we do that, we miss out maybe something that the Lord’s got there for us. Stay with me. I know there are a couple things going on here.
It’s like, oh boy, this is going to be a challenge for me to stay with this talk, but stay with us. Because what Peter is talking about here are really 2 events, 2 events that Peter brings into focus that are the ultimate expression of God’s love for us through his Son Jesus Christ. Christ came to the world on a rescue mission, on a search and rescue mission. He is the one who came because he’s the one that God appointed to, through him, bring people to God, to bring people to God. Now, that word bring, okay, you might just make this note, actually comes from 2 Greek words.
It means literally the introducer. So Jesus is the introducer. He’s the introducer of people to God. He’s also the giver of access. So he’s the one through which access is found to God.
Now, in that time, they had kings, and a king would have a prosagōgós, a prosagōgós. Prosagōgós was the introducer. Prosagōgós was this person that gave a person access to God. Do you remember the story of Esther and how Esther was there for such a time as this to stand before King Xerxes, but she did not want to stand before Xerxes because she didn’t have an introducer? And so she was talking about going into the king’s presence without an introducer, a prosagōgós.
Especially this traces back to Persia. So, she knowing that you— if you came into the king’s presence without an introducer, without being summoned, without being invited, that you could die because that was just one of the laws of the day. But she ultimately went and got the favor of the king and things really turned out pretty well for her family and the Jews and so forth and so on. Well, this is picturing a whole different situation. This is picturing a situation of people coming before God.
We can’t just come before God. Without an introducer, without the right of access, and the right of access comes through Jesus Christ, His Son. You might just think of it similar to like take a basketball player, an NBA basketball player like Steph Curry. You’d like maybe to, you know, hey, I’d like to meet Steph Curry, or whatever it is. Well, you’re going to probably have to get on the phone or email or something like that.
You’re going to probably be directed to an assistant or an agent or somebody like that because you can’t usually get direct access to Steph Curry or somebody of that caliber or prominence You can’t get direct access unless you’re a kid, you’re his kid, or you’re his wife, or you’re a close friend. You’re going to have to come through the agent or the assistant. And that’s the picture here. There was one who came that can bring us to God, and he is the one who we know as Jesus Christ. The King of Kings sent his Son, Jesus Christ, a prosagōgós, to bring us into a relationship with God.
Once you come into this relationship with God, once you become a child of God, once you become a friend of God, the door for you to continually have access to God is open. It’s really cool. So Jesus is the beginning of the access. So there’s initial access to God through Jesus, but then there’s continual access to God so that you could keep coming before his throne. Anytime you have a need, you can go directly to God through Jesus Christ.
So, this access to God has been made possible through Jesus, and Peter says, but there are 2 key events here to understand that made this access possible. First of all, Jesus died. That’s the first key event. He died, verse 18. He died for our sins.
Verse 18, he was put to death in the flesh. He gave up his life to bring us to God. And what this is telling us is that not anybody could just step into the role of the introducer here between man and God. There was only one, and this one that could step into that role was the righteous one, the righteous one, the one who’s unblemished and sinless, perfect, pure, the Lamb of God, that righteous one. And it’s certainly not going to be an unrighteous one.
In fact, you see the contrast here in verse 18 between the righteous and the unrighteous, the unrighteous being those who are blemished, that would be us, those who are sinful and impure and imperfect, people like us. So you have a contrast between the righteous one, Jesus, who could have access to God, and us unrighteous people who don’t have access to God except through a prosagōgós, except through an introducer, except through Jesus Christ. And Jesus, it says in verse 18, made it possible through his once-and-for-all death— not many deaths, not a sacrifice, a sacrifice, a sacrifice over and over and over, but one sacrifice when he died on the cross as a sacrificial lamb— he made it possible for sinful people, that would be us, To be brought into a relationship with God. His death and his death for us paid for our sins and made it possible for no longer sin to separate us from God. So, the point is, Jesus died.
He intentionally died to save us. Now, that ought to give us a whole new sense of appreciation for who Christ is and for what God has done for us. The one who did not deserve to die, died intentionally so that we could have a relationship with God. I don’t know if you’re following the rescue attempt in Thailand right now. I’ve been following this for several days now.
If you haven’t heard about it, there’s a whole soccer team, children, kids ages 11 to 16. They, after a soccer practice or game, I can’t remember which it was, but they decided they would go explore this cave, and they got into this cave in Chiang Mai Rai area, and some torrential monsoon kind of rains came, and ultimately it flooded this cave and they were stuck in there. They got to higher ground in the cave somewhere way deep into the cave, and so they’ve been trying to rescue these 13 souls— 12 children and one coach, a 25-year-old coach. And they’ve been trying to figure this thing out. The kids, they first sent in a search team wondering if they were alive because they found their bicycles outside the cave or near the cave or whatever it was.
And so they went into the cave and explored, and they sent all these search teams like the Navy SEALs of Thailand went into this rescue effort and others like them, all kinds of people there working on this rescue effort. And they found them. They had been in the cave at that point 9 days. 9 days. And so anyway, they found them, and but there’s so much water in the cave, and many of the kids evidently can’t swim.
So they’ve been trying to figure out if they’re going to be able to get them out. How are they going to get them out? What are they going to do? You know, in fact, one of the suggestions that was made was, well, maybe we’re going to have to wait till after the monsoon season is over, like 4 months from now. And so we’ll just, you know, help them survive in the cave for 4 months.
So, all of this has been going on. And this past week, one of the SEALs, one of the Navy SEALs, as he was placing air tanks, evidently he ran out of air in his tank and he died.
So, now you have somebody who’s died trying to rescue these kids, these 13 souls, so that they won’t die. And, of course, now all the more you’re saying, I sure hope that his death isn’t in vain.
That all, or at least some of them, would be rescued. And if you followed the report this morning, evidently 4 are out. They got 4 kids out. And I hope, you know, the rest of this day as it unfolds, we’re going to hear about more and more who got out, but 4 are out now.
Well, we want to see them all get out, right? We don’t want to see any more deaths. One death was enough. But you certainly don’t want to see that death be for nothing. And that’s the picture here, friends.
God loves us so much that he sent Jesus on a search and rescue mission.
But it wasn’t going to happen without his death. I mean, this, this Navy SEAL did not intentionally die. He’s trained. He’s an expert underwater diving.
He didn’t intentionally die, but Jesus did. He intentionally died for us that we might have a relationship with him now and forever.
Now, when Jesus’ body died and it laid in the tomb, it’s interesting because this text is telling us that there was Other stuff going on. Yes, Jesus’ body was there in the tomb, but him, his spirit didn’t just, you know, like stay there in the tomb. His spirit, well, first of all, it went on living. Jesus’ spirit went on living. In fact, while Jesus’ body was in the tomb, his spirit lived on.
He was alive, we’re told, verse 18. Do you see it there where he was alive by the Spirit? And while His body was in the tomb, Jesus’ Spirit made an appearance. And where did His Spirit make an appearance? His Spirit made an appearance— do you see it there?
In a prison, in a prison, verse 19. You say, huh? Prison? What’s that all about? I mean, what are you talking about?
Well, read the text. It says, verse 19, through whom also He went Speaking about Jesus’ Spirit. Through whom also he went— by the power of the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who disobeyed long ago, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people ate, and all were saved through water. What’s he talking about here?
Well, he’s talking about when Jesus was in the grave for 3 days, Jesus’ Spirit took a trip. A trip? To prison, a prison that was inhabited, verse 19, by spirits. What kind of spirits? Disobedient spirits, verse 20, disobedient spirits that actually come all the way back to Noah’s time, to the time when God was patiently waiting for the ark, that ark that Noah built.
While he was patiently waiting for that ark to be built, he was giving people an opportunity to repent. And to believe in God and to believe that there was judgment coming and to turn to God for salvation. How long did God wait? Well, if you go back to Genesis chapter 6, verse 3, you’ll find out that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark. 120 years.
So God waited— listen to this— 120 years. Now we don’t get that at all, right? I mean, it’s like, I told you to clean up your room. What are you doing? Why are you out here?
Get in there, clean your room right now. We don’t want to wait, right? But God waited 120 years. I mean, that’s a long time, right? Some of us who drive down 101, we’re thinking, when are they going to finish the construction out here?
You know, it seems like it’s always going on, year after year after year after year. Well, just imagine this. 120 years God gave mankind, warning after warning after warning that a flood was coming, that He was going to destroy sinful mankind. He gave them plenty of time. He gave the disobedient plenty of time to believe and to obey God and to repent from their wickedness and their sins and to turn to God for salvation through an ark.
She was building an ark through which people could be saved. And so the question you can ask is, well, did they repent? Did they believe? And you got the answer right here. No, they didn’t turn to God.
Only Noah and his wife and their 3 kids and their 3 wives were saved, and so that is 8. Verse 20, only 8 believed God’s warning. The rest of the people ignored God’s warning, and the floodwaters of judgment came, and ultimately mankind died, and their spirits ended up in a prison along with other disobedient spirits. That’s the prison that’s in focus in here that Jesus went and preached at during the 3 days that his body was in the grave. Now, the Bible only speaks about one prison that houses disobedient spirits.
You know what prison that is? It’s a prison that’s talked about in Revelation 20:13. It’s called Death and Hades. The prison of Death and Hades. It’s a prison that ultimately Satan will eventually be bound in, Revelation 20:7.
So this prison in the New Testament is called Hades. In the Old Testament, this prison is called Sheol. It’s called Sheol. And this is the place that while Jesus’ body was in the tomb for 3 days, this is the place that Jesus went and he preached a sermon. Now, I don’t know about you, but I try to stay away from creepy, shady places, okay?
I don’t really want to go to creepy, shady places. Sometimes I end up in creepy, shady places. Accidentally. Like recently, Bernice and I were down in San Diego. We were there for a wedding.
We stayed at this hotel that was evidently on the shady side of town, but we actually didn’t know that until on the last day. We were coming back to the hotel. We had taken a Lyft back to the hotel, and while we’re driving back— while he was driving back, we’re riding in the backseat— while he was driving back, this guy says, hey, you mind if I ask you a personal question? We said, no, go for it. He said, well, I was just wondering, you know, why did you guys choose to stay at the hotel that you’re staying at on this part of town?
We said, what are you talking about? He said, well, this is really an unsafe area to be staying at. Now, we had been walking around viewing the sights and, you know, having all that kind of fun while we had some free time around there. We had no idea. I mean, that was totally an accident.
We would never go there and stay again, I promise you. But Jesus took a whole different approach. He intentionally, during the 3 days that his body lay in the tomb, he made the trip to an ultimate shady place, Hades, so that he might do 2 things. Number one, so that he might preach. He might preach.
He might give a victory speech. In fact, the word that’s used here for preach is the word kerygma, which is used to describe a speech that proclaims victory. And what Jesus was doing at this point in time is just fascinating. Think about this, is that he has given— he’s giving a victory speech. It’s kind of like, you know, game after game after game, you get the championship, you give the victory speech.
Well, Jesus is giving the victory speech.
He’s won. God has won. You see, even though he’s only died at this point, the game’s over really. The game’s over. Victory is assured.
When He died on the cross, victory was guaranteed even though the game was not yet done. The clock was still ticking down to the time of Jesus’ resurrection. Just the fact that He had already gone through with the death, and it was something that troubled His spirit. He would have liked to have found a different way than to have to go through the death, but just the fact that He went through the death, He in going through the death, dealt a death blow, listen, to sin and to death and to God-haters and to Jesus rejecters and to all of that. That’s what happened here.
So Jesus took some time in his spirit while his body was in the grave and he made a proclamation in a prison. He made a proclamation in Hades. It was like, you know, the victory proclamation that an umpire, a tennis umpire proclaims at the end of a match, you know, like, game, set, match. Well, this was game, set, match. His death on the cross assured the final win.
The outcome was irreversible. The writing was on the wall. The next event on God’s calendar was resurrection. But before He left, and this isn’t talked about here, but you can read about it in Ephesians chapter 4, Not only did Jesus give during this time as his body was in the grave in Sheol a victory speech, but he also led out a victory parade. A victory parade.
This is fascinating. We won’t get into all of this, but there are 2 compartments in Sheol the Old Testament talks about. There’s the good compartment, the bad compartment. You don’t want to end up in the bad compartment. In fact, Jesus told a parable about that, the rich man who ended up in the bad place.
There’s a good place, and this good place is inhabited by the believers, Old Testament believers before Christ, people like Abraham and Isaac, Moses and David, Solomon and others, people that walk with God. And evidently, the same time after he proclaimed victory, he led these believers out of prison, out of the good part of prison. It’s just hard to imagine. Abraham’s bosom, I think it’s called. Abraham’s bosom.
Now, I’ve just thought, you know, I wonder what he said.
I think he could have said things like, I came and I told you I was coming to give my life. That you might have life. It happened. I defeated sin. I defeated death.
I paid for the penalty of sin. I paid the ransom price. I was crushed. I suffered. I died.
I gave my life as a guilt offering for sinners so that anybody who wants a relationship with God now and forever can have it. And I’m just happy to announce today, mission accomplished. By my wounds, many will be healed. God’s demonstrated his love toward you, and that while you are yet sinners, I died. I died for you, that you might come to God, and that you might live in God’s love forever.
See what Peter’s saying? I came to bring you to God. I came to bring you to God.
But it would not have happened had Jesus not died.
Now, does that give you a little sense of appreciation for what God’s done for you? I hope so.
I gave my life. I think that when, Lord willing, these kids, this coach, they get out of this cave in Chiang Rai, I think they’re going to have a whole new sense of appreciation for their rescuers. Don’t you? I think they’re going to live for the rest of their lives with a sense of appreciation and gratitude for what these people are doing, for that SEAL that died trying to rescue them. That’s what’s going on here.
Jesus died to bring me to God. I would not be getting— I am not good enough.
Jesus died to bring me to God.
Then he goes on and he focuses on one other event. Verse 21, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also, not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand with angels and authorities and powers in submission to Him. It’s possible for a person to be brought to God because of Jesus’ death, but also it’s possible because of Jesus’ resurrection. Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ, resurrection of Christ made salvation possible.
You see that in verse 21? Salvation from what? From Noah-like floodwaters, from Noah-like floodwaters of judgment. The resurrection, kind of think of it as it is here symbolically like the ark. It made it possible for a person to be saved and to live a brand-new life, to put the old life behind them.
To start over. And we are baptized into Jesus. We’re baptized into Jesus at the point that we come to receive Christ as the one who died and was risen from the— who rose from the grave, that he came to give his life. And when we place our faith in him, we begin a brand new life. We’re not saved by baptism, but baptism is an expression of what God has done for us.
Taken away the old life. He’s washed the old life away, and he’s given us a brand-new life so that hopefully we have a pledge to live with a new conscience even. You see that there? A pledge to live with a new conscience. A desire, a commitment to walk differently than we lived and walked before.
Really, this is just an expression of what Paul talked about in Romans 6:3-4, where he said, or don’t you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus, baptized into Christ Jesus, that we’re talking not about a water baptism, we’re just talking about the baptism by the Spirit into Jesus Christ, salvation. That all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, into his death. So, see, this part of Jesus giving his life is absolutely necessary for salvation. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life. So this, this death to the old life is so that we would make a pledge, as you see it there, toward a good conscience or toward a brand new life.
And this new life would then be lived under the authority of Jesus. Jesus, the one who is resurrected, but Jesus then the one who was ascended, who is now at the right— do you see that there in verse 22? He’s at the right hand of God. He’s at the right hand of God. That’s another way of saying that Jesus now is in a place of authority.
He’s in a place of power. He’s in a place of favor. He’s in a place of honor. He’s in a place of prominence. In fact, do you remember the sons of Zebedee?
You remember them? James and John. You remember how James and John wanted to be after this life in a place of prominence? So they sent their mom. Their mom came and asked Jesus a question.
Hey, let my boys sit on your right hand and your left hand when they get to heaven. You remember that? Why did they want that? Because they wanted authority. They wanted positions of— the highest positions of honor or power.
Well, Jesus today is carrying out God’s plan in heaven from a position of authority over— notice this— all spiritual beings, whether angels, authorities, powers, good or evil. They’re all subject to Christ. So what you have here is just this incredible kind of string of thoughts here that one, there’s a heaven. Jesus is there right now. There is a heaven.
Heaven’s for real. Secondly, heaven is a place where God is and where Jesus is, and it’s the place where God’s will is perfectly being done. In fact, Jesus said we ought to pray for that. When the disciples asked him, how should we pray? In part he said, well, pray this way: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth even as it is— where?
It is in heaven.
So, pray that God’s will would be done on earth even as it is in heaven, that people would live for God while they’re living on earth. And so, what you have here then is a picture of how even now Jesus is continuing to work out His plan to bring people to God. And really, when you think about that, that should give us all a new sense of appreciation for what God is doing for us. I love The Message Bible as it translates verse 22 here. It says, Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angels to armies.
He’s standing right alongside, and what he says goes. Doesn’t that sound good to you? The perfect leader. When you think about a loving, perfect leader, a perfect leader to be under, that’s Jesus. A loving, grace-filled, wise, fair, just, righteous, impartial, caring, aware, attentive leader, that’s Jesus.
A leader that’s gonna make the right decision at the right time in the perfect time in the right way, that’s Jesus. And don’t you long to be under that kind of a leader, not only just now, but forever? That’s Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ made all of that possible Through his bringing people to God through his death and through his resurrection, through what he did when he lived. So, friends, what an encouragement this is this morning. I hope what this does for all of us is it gives us a whole new sense of appreciation for God, for what he’s done for us, and a whole new sense of appreciation for the relationship that a person can share and if you share that relationship, a whole new sense of appreciation for the relationship that you have through Jesus Christ.
Right now, my family is living with a new sense of appreciation for hospitals and those who work in hospitals, those who are connected to a hospital in some way. Some of you probably know, you may have heard that our daughter’s 11-year-old stepson was in a UTV accident. A UTV is a utility vehicle. It’s a vehicle often used on ranches and farms. Looks like a little pickup, an open pickup.
And he was in this pickup and they were in an accident. He was seriously injured. Tyler is his name. And so he was, because of the severity of the injury, he was taken by helicopter to Valley Children’s Hospital. He was brought to Valley Children’s Hospital by helicopter.
Valley Children’s Hospital is in the valley near Fresno. They did what they could to help him immediately, worked with him for a few days, and decided that his injuries are so severe that they needed to get him to Stanford here, the children’s hospital here. So they brought him by ambulance to Stanford. He’s now at Stanford so that he can get specialized help here at Stanford. And we are living with a new sense of thanks and appreciation for those who are trained and equipped to help people that are in medical need.
Well, all the more do we want to be people who live with a sense of appreciation for Jesus Christ, who brings us to God. Who saves us.
See, the Scripture says Christ died for our sins once for all, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Oftentimes think about this image that if this is us over here, this side, and there’s a gap here between this side and this side, that this side would represent mankind, unrighteous mankind, and that this side would represent God, righteousness, sinless, sinful over here. And our sins— this is a bigger gap than this aisle will help us understand— but our sins separate us from God. And this scripture says That Jesus came to bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.
But you got to want to be brought.
And I don’t know where you are in this thing. I just hope and pray that there’s going to be, if there hasn’t already been, that there’s going to be a day of salvation.
Jesus is the one that God sent to bring us into salvation. Our hope would be that if you’re already a Christ follower, that you all the more appreciate that. We all the more appreciate and live every day thankful for the one that died for us, for the one that was resurrected from the tomb. We’re all the more thankful for the victory that he has provided for us, victory over sin. That we live in light of that.
We live with a pledge to live a life pleasing to God, honoring to his name. And if you haven’t come to that place of salvation, that you would, that you would, that you would confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that that God raised Jesus from the dead, the Scripture says you’ll be saved.
Let’s pray.
Father, there’s so many things in life that we could take for granted, just life itself. Sometimes though, it happens in relationships, we just take the relationships for granted. We don’t really appreciate all that others are doing for us. The influence they have over our lives, the way that our lives are different, better because of so many. God, may we never underappreciate what you’ve done for us in Jesus, what you did to send your only begotten Son into the world to give his life so that we might have life in him.
So our prayer this morning is, Father, that we would walk with a sense of appreciation, a new sense of appreciation. It wouldn’t take 7 years or more, but we would just, even from this moment on, live with greater appreciation for what you’ve done, who you are, for the God you are, the God that saves. And we thank you for the salvation, for those of us that have the salvation in Christ, not because we’ve earned it or deserved it, not because of our righteousness, but because of Jesus.
Righteousness. Because of that, Lord, help us live lives filled with gratitude.
May our lives be an expression of thanks. And Father, if there’s anybody here today that’s not yet in your family, we pray today would be the day of adoption for them, the day of belief, the day when they would be willing to say, I’m gonna die to my old life, I want to surrender to Jesus.
I want him to be my Lord and Savior.
And Father, I pray that they would confess you with their mouth that you are Lord, believe in their heart that you raised your Son from the dead, that they would be saved.
And if that’s the desire of your heart, tell God that right now. He’ll hear that prayer.
You will be birthed into his family. There’s no better family for you to be in.
Thank you, Lord, for this special time to encourage each other. We look forward to how you’re going to use this in our lives this week. May we be an expression of your hope to others. And may this all the more help us be able to talk about the hope that’s within us. For we pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
