[0:00] Okay, while we're going to focus on verse 22 and the challenge of the Christian life,! to live the Christian life, it's probably best to give you a little bit of an introduction.
[0:13] ! The introduction, like I did in Kalanish today, I'm just going to just very quickly glance over verse 3, 4, and 5. But before that, I think it's actually helpful for you to understand something about Peter. Now, Peter is often liked by a few of us who make mistakes in life, who say things that you probably shouldn't have said, and so on. So, Peter becomes that favorite of ours. If there's anybody, I've never heard anybody say, I'm more like John, the beloved disciple. I've heard plenty of people say, oh, Peter, I don't just put one foot in it, but I put two foot in it. You know, that's the kind of guy. And so, with Jesus, you can see him. You can watch him with Jesus.
[0:58] You know, when he says to Jesus, you know, where are you going? And he says, well, you know, the Son of Man will suffer and die. And eventually he says something like, you know, well, wherever you're going, I'm going to go with you, and I'll die for you. And the Lord says, oh, will you now, Peter? You will actually die for me, but not when you're expecting to.
[1:16] Peter. But you will deny me three times, Peter. Oh, no way, I'll lay down my... You'll deny me three times, and the cock will crow three times.
[1:29] And the Lord is telling Peter both how he will die later on. There will be a very difficult death, Peter. Probably around 65, 66, 67 AD. Not long after Paul would have been put to death in Rome around the same sort of time, because the violence against Christians in particular really started heating up. And that's what this letter is addressing.
[1:54] Five churches in Cappadocia, etc., at the beginning, verse 1 and 2, you see that they were suffering greatly for the Lord because they were being persecuted. They were being isolated. They would have been hurt and attacked and so on.
[2:09] Now, Peter, there is this moment in the upper room where Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. Jesus is in control. Okay? He's in control of everything. John 13, the upper room discourse.
[2:25] Brilliant. I love it. And it's just like he's preparing his disciples. Even at this stage, in chapter 13, he washes the disciples' feet. Then you have Judas leaving the room after taking the bread and betraying Jesus.
[2:42] And it is then you begin to see this teaching onset of teaching of Jesus preparing the disciples because he knew he was going home to be with the Father.
[2:54] So he's preparing his disciples for his departure. Now, there is something there that is really important. We'll actually, I'll go back to that later on because I think it's important.
[3:05] Now, so what's happened then is that he teaches. Eventually, he's arrested and then crucified. Beaten and crucified. And Peter has seen all of this.
[3:19] At the arrest of Jesus, he denies Jesus three times. He is now in disarray. And actually, I think the disciples are deeply confused as to what type of Messiah they were getting.
[3:32] They knew that the Messiah of God would come. They knew that he was sent by God, the Messiah. Peter himself professed that out loud. Moments later, he was rebuked.
[3:44] Wasn't he? Satan, get behind me. Get behind me, Satan. You don't have the things of the plans of God in mind. So this is the battle that Peter is having.
[3:55] And the rest of the disciples, I believe, are having the same problem. Right up to the crucifixion, now they're in complete disarray. They have lost their teacher. They have lost the one that they thought would sit on the throne in Jerusalem.
[4:10] They're in complete disarray. They don't have a clue what is going on. Even though they heard Jesus say, the Son of Man must suffer, must die, and on the third day be raised again.
[4:22] And of course, the woman ran to find the disciples. and all you see is, as John tells the story, Peter and John running to the tomb because Mary said, the tomb is empty.
[4:41] Jesus is alive. They come, they see an empty tomb. What does John tell you? They went back to a room and they locked themselves away. Why? What does it say? Because of fear of the Jews.
[4:53] I know what you're thinking. You're going, where is he going with this? Well, this is what's really important. The next moment. They're in a locked upper room. They've seen an empty tomb and they still haven't put two and two together to get four.
[5:10] And contrary to popular opinion, two plus two is four, right? It cannot be five. Whatever the world says, there's still truth in this world, right? Okay, just so you know.
[5:21] Even though I can't count very well. I do know that. Anyway, Jesus comes into a locked room in resurrected body, in a resurrection body.
[5:34] And he says, peace be to you. Peace. Now, I don't know about you, but I think I might be in, have a little bit of, what shall we say?
[5:48] I might be freaked out somewhat if I knew someone couldn't get in a window or a door and he still appeared. Peace be to you.
[5:58] See my hands and my side. Then, the next moment I want to bring you to is to the beach where Jesus restores.
[6:10] Peter has breakfast with him. The fish, the eat, resurrected body, eats with Peter. Then you begin to see that Peter, who didn't fully understand, now writing many years later to these churches, fully understands the magnificence of Jesus, the crucified Jesus who paid the price for sin, but also the resurrected Jesus who brings us living hope.
[6:45] Because he knows now, while he didn't get it before, now he's beginning to understand the majesty of the plan of God for the sinners of this world.
[6:57] Not just the nation of Israel, but the sinners of this world. Everyone has an opportunity now. He saw the resurrected Lord and Savior and eventually he sees him return, ascend.
[7:15] And so, let's read verse 3, 4, and 5 of chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[7:27] 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 cannot, inheritance, that is, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who, by God's power, are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
[7:58] So, what Peter is telling everybody in the churches there that are suffering for their faith, he doesn't go immediately to their suffering.
[8:12] He actually speaks about their suffering as well. You know, your suffering, actually, your faith is way more important. Your faith is more precious than gold. But it's built on these words.
[8:24] Now, I don't know if Carloway was any different, but Barbas and Stornoway, I've heard many a person talk about hope in a way that you wondered if there was any substance to it.
[8:36] You know, there was an old lady passed away in Lewis many, many, many, many years ago, and a friend of mine, I was in the church in Aberdeen, on a corridor at the time, came home for the funeral and he actually met someone on the street.
[8:51] An old woman who was very influential in a lot of people's lives, we prayed with her and so on, and the fellow who came from Aberdeen met a friend of his on the street and he was just talking away and he says, oh, she's with the Lord now and just spoke like that.
[9:10] And the person he was speaking to said, oh, I don't know if I can say that about myself. And he went, what? But you're a Christian, aren't you? Oh, yes.
[9:23] He was like, read these words again. Read them again. There isn't a kind of hope.
[9:36] It's a living hope. Why? Who's writing this? Well, Peter, what did I just explain to you? That Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified, the one who breathed his last, when he said the words, the price is paid in full.
[9:54] Peter saw him, John saw him being put into a tomb. They knew he was dead, and they saw him raised from the dead, and they saw him ascend to the right hand of God the Father, and it says he ascended to continue to intercede for us.
[10:13] So when we talk as believers, when we're saying out loud, we have a living hope, it isn't a kind of, God's not picking you and me up because there's something about you of tremendous value.
[10:28] He's picking you and me up because we trust in the one who's still living, the one who paid the price for sin. That's the difference. So it isn't a kind of, you know, if you're a Ranger or a Celtic fan or whatever, you know, okay, they've had the other side, the green side have had the best of it lately, but, you know, you kind of go, oh, I hope we win today.
[10:51] Oh, no, it's another draw. I hope we win. It's not like that kind of hope. See what I mean? And isn't it interesting that we project that to this truth, that we have a living hope.
[11:07] And this living hope, this hope that we have is because Jesus is alive and he's interceding for us. He's speaking on our behalf right now. Right now. And if you've believed in him, you're born again.
[11:22] You're born again to this living hope. It's not maybe I. it's all about Jesus. And he's saving rebels from all around the world.
[11:35] And he's saving us who have a long list of failures in the past. That's how glorious Jesus is.
[11:46] And it is that that stimulates the reaction to how now shall we live. And the danger that we always have in the culture of the Christian church in Lewis that has its own sort of culture, I know that, but it's everywhere, but it isn't just speaking about ourselves.
[12:06] And the challenge that we have is that we project the culture over the truth. The truth sets you free. The truth sets the culture of the church.
[12:17] that's the culture. And I think it's one of the greatest challenges we face today. And the church has become in many places around us and in other places that I've been involved in, the greatest challenges that we face.
[12:39] It's that move from being born again and understanding the privilege and the blessing to seeing the transforming grace of God in our lives on a day-to-day basis.
[12:55] But I think far too often we will instinctively do this. We will instinctively apply this in an individual way.
[13:12] But when you come to verse 23, or 22, sorry, I think that's what I said I was going to do, so I better stick to it.
[13:23] Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from the heart.
[13:40] The previous verses, as we read, focus on this new birth. Now it's focusing on the effects of that new birth.
[13:53] Isn't it interesting that when we talk about the mission of the church, we will rightly so go to Matthew 28 and talk about the Great Commission.
[14:05] Go ye therefore into all the world, to all the people groups of this world, and preach the good news in the name of the Father, the Son, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, so on. It's great, isn't it?
[14:15] But isn't it interesting to me, at least, it's interesting to me, but I hope it's interesting to you because I think it's important to you. He also set out a great love commission to the church.
[14:32] He set out a great love commission to love one another deeply, to love one another as brothers.
[14:46] That's a staggering reality we're being called to, and you and I know that it is a very difficult thing to do.
[14:57] Now go back to John 13 very briefly because now you'll see why I wanted to go back now. It's really important. John 13 down towards the end where Jesus talks about love.
[15:11] It's a very similar thing to what Peter said. Love one another deeply. Love one another deeply. The new command I give you, love one another as, listen, as I have loved you, you must love one another.
[15:28] By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Wow.
[15:41] How about that? When we're told clearly the expectation of being born again into a living hope through faith in Jesus Christ, the transformation continues to begin to mold and reshape your thinking, your mind, your words, your action.
[16:07] And he has given us the great love commission. He prepared his disciples who would face incredible stress in the coming days to love one another.
[16:20] as I have loved you, he said to them, you are to love one another in the same way. I think this is possibly one of the greatest challenges in the church that we haven't focused on much.
[16:40] I remember being in the town, I think it was the YM, it was still called, shows you how long ago that was, and I was asked by someone, what are you reading just now?
[16:52] And I just said, oh, reading Philip Yancey's book, we're studying it in our small group, what's so amazing about grace? And he goes, oh, grace, grace, grace, what about the law? And I kind of looked fairly shocked, like, you only asked what I'm reading, and I told you, I'm only reading what's so amazing about grace because we're studying it in the small groups.
[17:17] And as I thought about it, and I thought, what's it, what's it, about the law? What's your problem with grace, too much grace? Because if you understand grace, you've understood that you cannot fulfill the law, that God helps you to do that, that's grace.
[17:34] What's your problem with that? And grace doesn't diminish the law. Well, we don't keep the law because we can't, but Jesus has done, that's grace, Jesus has done it for you.
[17:48] But we never, we went our separate ways. I thought it was a perplexing moment. It's amazing to me how we can diminish this teaching.
[18:01] The very thing he creates as a foundation of the church, Jesus is preparing his disciples, and years later, 30 plus years later, here he is writing a letter to the churches in Cappadocia and Bithynia, etc.
[18:19] And he's telling them, love one another based on the fact that you are born again, that you belong to Jesus, that you have a living hope in him, through him.
[18:33] And I just think, you know, I wish we had thought about that more in my 30 plus years of ministry.
[18:48] Student and ministry in 26, 27 years as a minister. You know, just recently I was in Rwanda, recently, as in over a year.
[19:00] That's a reason for me. So I was in Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. And so it was that trajectory, and so we were in a few days. And so we went to the genocide museum.
[19:12] It was the 30-year anniversary of the genocide that took place there in Rwanda. And I've told the story, and I tell the story all the time because I learned something exceptionally powerful on that trip, more than I'd ever done anywhere else.
[19:30] We had been to a service to commission a building. My previous, the previous CEO of Mission International, which I now work for, it was his last trip, and so they asked him to commission the building to do a preach and so on.
[19:43] So anyway, if you're going to be complaining in five or ten minutes, too long in the service, I'm just going to let you know this service in Rwanda was five and a half hours. All right?
[19:54] So just telling you, this is nothing compared to some of the stuff, the length of time. It was great fun. They were, yes, Africans do. Next couple of days, the four guys that were in this team, we did some teaching, two on the Monday and then two on the Tuesday, and I finished off the Tuesday session.
[20:12] After this Tuesday session, again, 150 people there, and we're doing Bible training or whatever, and really enjoyable time. We went for a bite of lunch as we concluded our time there.
[20:26] And I'm sitting beside Stephen. I still see the picture. I have it on my presentation when I do the Mission International slides. So I'm sitting next to Stephen and Bonnie, one of the other pastors in Kigali, and he starts telling me, you know, Roddy, 30 years ago, I lost my whole family in the genocide.
[20:49] I'm looking at the other guys going, what do you say to that? No, he said, my whole family. He says, your immediate family. No, well, yeah, my immediate family, but also my relatives. They were all killed. And you are, oh, right, eh, how do you come back from it?
[21:05] How do you continue a conversation? And then he says, you know, see when you're preaching today, and actually what he said, yeah, he actually said, not long after I became a Christian, and I remember praying to the Lord, and it was very clear to me.
[21:22] The Lord made it absolutely clear to me. He said these words, Rwanda will never survive unless we forgive. I know what I would do.
[21:36] I know exactly what I'd do. It's not that. And then he says this, see when you were preaching today, Roddy, two or three of my elders and some of the congregation were the people who killed my family.
[21:52] And I'm telling you, it was difficult to look at my colleagues across the table, the guys who were on my team, not the Rwandan guys. Because I didn't know what to do.
[22:04] I didn't know what to say. For me, this was one of the greatest moments I think I've ever had in my Christian formation. Because I saw a guy whose life was completely ruined by hatred, but grace not only saved him, but grace and mercy keep him every day.
[22:33] Just think, just think if this kind of context was the same, and every Sunday I'm getting up and have a bad morning.
[22:44] I'm really annoyed. Satan has been attacking me. I learned that day what it is like for someone to get up every Sunday morning, and other times, of course, but every Sunday morning, just using that as an illustrative picture for you, to get ready to preach God's word to several hundred people, and how easy it would be for Satan to get a foothold when the fiery arrows of the devil come in, and how easy it would be to become resentful, unforgiving, seeing hate rise up in your heart.
[23:28] What I learned that day was profound, and I share the story as much as I can because it blew me away, and we look at the people in Africa as primitive.
[23:38] I'm saying profound, profound beyond anything that I've ever heard in my life.
[23:51] I'm thinking to ourselves in the UK, we're called to be a body that is so transformed by Christ, yes, salvation-wise, toward God, but also transformed as a group of people towards each other.
[24:12] And it is so easy to allow the past failings of other people or things that have been said, things that have been done, to begin to shape your life as a believer.
[24:27] And it seems to be the easiest way that Satan will use, to bring about fragmentation in the body of Christ. And that is one of the greatest challenges I think we face within the church, that we allow things to come in that are not healthy, that are damaging to the very grace and mercy that has saved us.
[24:59] That's profound. And we need to face up to that. We need to be willing to take a good look. And so this is really important.
[25:14] Why are we called to love? Why is this call to love so important? Is it because we're born again? sinclobby Ferguson reflected on how Willie still many, many years before to all the students that he would have in his congregation because he had many.
[25:37] He says that the great characteristics of the Christian life is that we learn to do the spiritual thing naturally and the natural thing spiritually.
[25:50] Family love is natural. We need to learn to do that spiritually. Love for the brothers in Christ is spiritual.
[26:02] We need to learn to do that naturally. That's sinclobby Ferguson. Then he goes on. Sincere love is one free from false or self-centered motives.
[26:14] It is without hypocrisy, without a mask, genuine, face-to-face. The principle is not only that the truth of God should be taught in the church, but that the love of God should be manifest in the church.
[26:31] The scriptures are full of the call to love, show respect for everyone, love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
[26:42] Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love us brothers, be tender hearted, be courteous, do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you, on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you are called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
[27:09] And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love does what? Love covers a multitude of sins.
[27:22] Sinclair himself wrote a great book called The Grace of Repentance. Now, often we preach about repentance, and it's usually towards those who have never trusted in Jesus, and rightly so, it should be done.
[27:34] It is a grace that God gives you. If you've never trusted in Jesus, the grace that he gives you, he calls you to come to him to repent, to turn, change direction.
[27:48] Normally, it is away from God. The grace of repentance is a turning back to God, turning to God. But what's amazing to me is that we as believers have the grace of repentance every day.
[28:02] God is forgive us our sins. Hear it out loud. Forgive us today our sins.
[28:16] As we go on, I don't mind you speaking, I'm not going to give you a row, as we forgive each other's sins. Did we not just read something like that here?
[28:29] above all things, have fervent love for one another. Why? For love will cover a multitude of sins. Wow. That is to be the distinguishing mark of the church.
[28:44] That is what, it's like Jesus said, the world will know me, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the way you love one another.
[28:59] That is tough, isn't it? But then we also read in verse 5, just for the sake of it, just so you remind it, towards the end, it says, we have this imperishable undefiled inheritance, unfading inheritance, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power, that is a present action, by God's power now.
[29:26] You are kept by God's power now, yes, you have a living hope, to when Jesus returns and it's a fulfillment of salvation, when we will experience what it is, to have the new heavens and the new earth, but that power is active now, it's an active power, you're called to keep in step with the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, and to have the fruit of the Spirit be produced in your life, and what is the first fruit of the Spirit?
[29:53] They're all a collective, they're all together, it's all by the power of the Holy Spirit, what's the first fruit? Begins with L and ends in E, come on now, I'm not letting you fall asleep, I'm going to keep you awake, love, thank you, isn't that amazing?
[30:12] That is the first fruit of the Spirit, named, love. Well, because if you think about it, the church becomes absolutely, it falls on its knees, far too often, when we have not engaged correctly with the scriptures, seeking to transform you, to renew your mind and your heart, and to help you break free from the curse of an unwillingness to forgive, or whatever it might be, it sets you free.
[30:47] And when a church is, has this issue in it, the church, let's say, not a church, the church, will do the collective, because that's what we are, we're part of a greater collective of people.
[31:00] When the church fails, the church is damaged and hindered, the witness is damaged, but the power of God's transforming grace and mercy in the life of the church is damaged.
[31:14] And that is, I think, one of the greatest challenges that we face. I really do think it's something so significant. The call is to a spiritual, mature life.
[31:28] Now, briefly, just towards the end here, it quotes Isaiah, I think it's 40, all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field, and the grass withers, and it falls, and the flowers fall.
[31:47] But, the word of the Lord stands forever, and this is the word that was preached to you. See, sometimes it's very difficult when you have a past, if you are a professional footballer, for instance, when you're no longer recognized.
[32:06] It's not that your achievements aren't recognized, but nobody recognizes you, and you could be sitting amongst people unaware, or whatever it might be, something like that. You know what?
[32:17] That is life. There is something profound about these words that you have to take on board. We can look for and want to be like the flower of the field in all its beauty, but the word says, oh yeah, well if that's all you have, the flower falls, the grass falls, it fades, it's gone.
[32:44] but the word of the Lord doesn't fall and fade or decay. Isn't that amazing?
[32:55] If you haven't trusted Jesus, hear these words, they're for you, they're for you to bring you to the feet of Jesus, to know what it is to have the gift of eternal life. Now, verse 1 to 3, and we'll close fairly quickly, but it's self-explaining, I hope.
[33:13] So, I'll stick to the text so I don't end up doing another sermon for you. It's the call to a spiritual life, a transformed spiritual life, and you have, straight from the bottom line is this, you are called to transformation.
[33:33] Paul, starting in Romans 12, most Christians have heard Romans 12 preached by great preachers, whether it's Sinclair or Thomas or whoever, and the fantastic stuff.
[33:46] You're called, therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
[34:00] Then you will be able to test and approve what God is. I've heard some brilliant sermons on that, but isn't it interesting if you follow Paul's thought down to a few verses, verse 9.
[34:12] What does he start speaking about? What does a transformed mind start to look like? After a transformed heart, he starts talking about love.
[34:23] Get rid of all malice and deceit, impocracy, envy, slander of every kind. It's this getting rid of the things that are actually diminishing your life, damaging your life, getting rid of the things that bring anemia to you as a spiritual person alive in Christ.
[34:40] Get rid of it. The renewing of your mind, a new way of thinking, because you're born again. Let's stop introducing or stop the introduction of the old ways, bringing the old ways of thinking into the life of the church.
[34:57] church. And here you have five things given for you and for me to think about. Well, it was actually to them, first of all, in these five churches.
[35:08] Get rid of all malice and deceit. Hmm. It's not difficult to find deceit. And we might kind of white wash it a little.
[35:23] We might do that. we might just kind of, it's not quite so bad, really. But it's, get rid of it, because it brings anemia to your relationship with Christ and does the same, has the same effect in the body.
[35:42] All malice, all deceit. Get rid of them. Get rid of the things that Satan can use to diminish you and diminish the body of Christ and diminish the witness of the body.
[35:54] This is not calling you to some holier than thou life, because you never forget what you're saved from. If you do that, it's a great mistake.
[36:07] You always are thankful for what God saved you from and the extent of His mercy, the majesty of His grace.
[36:19] And it always reminds you not just to, when you see a fault in someone else, to smash them spiritually.
[36:31] But collectively, we're told, get rid of all malice and deceit. Get rid of hypocrisy. Now, we know our politicians love a little bit of hypocrisy.
[36:45] I'm pretty sure if I gave you the floor or gave you the mic, I'm pretty sure you could find some politicians who are, you know, they say one thing and do another. But are they the only ones?
[37:01] I think there's been a fair bit of hypocrisy in the church, if we're honest. One writer said, I think it's Tom Shrine, a great commentary that he has, he said, guile and hypocrisy are closely related, for in both cases deceit and falseness have entered the community.
[37:23] Sincere love, verse 22 previously, is to be the goal of all believers, and deceit and hypocrisy introduce pretense and dishonesty so that the trust necessary for love vanishes.
[37:38] Do you see the effect? There is a negative effect, get rid of, get rid of, malice, get rid of deceit, get rid of hypocrisy, get rid of envy. Hmm, I think envy manifests itself in loads of different ways, but it's so easy for it to come into the life of the church.
[38:01] But one writer again, that's actually Tom Shrine again said it, envy is also contrary to love, for instead of deciding the best for others, it hopes for their downfall, it prefers the advancement of oneself to the joy of others.
[38:20] Now, if you read 1 Corinthians 13, it talks about love. If you don't have love, you're like a clanging cymbal, and so on and so forth, but it's incredible to hear what it says, it talks out loud, it doesn't boast, it isn't rude, it doesn't envy, it hates evil.
[38:39] Now, that's what love looks like. Go to 1 Corinthians 13, go read it, it's there, and get rid of slander of every kind.
[38:50] Now, this is probably the one that enters into the church quite easily, don't you think? Maybe a bit of self-examination when we're thinking about this last one, before we listen to a helpful answer.
[39:04] slander is so easy, but that's exactly what Satan did, slandered the word, slandered the trust.
[39:20] Our first parents had diminished the love and the truth of God to where they believed the lie. Slander is destructive.
[39:34] We're told to get rid of it, every kind of it. And that's the activity for you and me when we have the gift of repentance, the grace of repentance.
[39:45] It's that constant activity to take a good look at yourself, stop looking over your shoulder and the failings of others because sometimes the failings of others makes us feel better.
[39:58] But when you're in a collective, we care about the fall and the demise of each other. we want to build up each other rather than bring about any of these five things that we're told to get rid of.
[40:10] Finally, it's an interesting thing. When I'm reading the commentaries, according to the many commentaries I was reading, there is a main command here.
[40:22] There is an imperative. And the imperative isn't rid yourselves off, although it is a strong word that is used. The greatest word here, the most powerful imperative here is the word crave.
[40:37] The answer to you and to me is the same for every Christian. Crave pure spiritual milk of God's word.
[40:48] Sometimes we see the use of spiritual milk for babies. I love my dogs, and so when I see algorithms work on Facebook and I stop and see a dog rescue.
[41:04] You ever do that kind of thing? You see a dog rescue, and of course loads of dog rescues coming up on your feet. It's kind of really annoying. Where is that dog? It's in America. Oh, it's in Australia.
[41:16] Never near me, but you know, to actually be able to help in any way. But anyway, you have that thing, and sometimes you see a dog that hasn't eaten for ages, and they're giving them food, and they're hungry, really hungry, ravenous, because they've been so affected by the fact that they've been dumped or whatever it was.
[41:39] There is that kind of idea here. There is something so powerful. God's word is living and active. God's word changes your thinking from the old way to the new way.
[41:51] You're no longer the kingdom of darkness, but you're now the kingdom of light. You're no longer dead in sin, now you're alive in Christ. And so therefore, you're called to engage with the word, like Romans 12, that living and active way, the renewing of your mind for a new way of thinking.
[42:08] That's the call for you and for me, for the church entirely. The whole body, we're called to take the word of God seriously and engage with it, not to be greatly engrossed in our culture, but the culture of the word to transform your mind, transform your ways, so that you're able to get rid of, filling your mind with the goodness and the love and the grace of the word of God because you've tasted that the Lord is good.
[42:44] You have tasted, you've fulfilled the words of the psalm, taste and see that the Lord is good. And the more you grow, the more you want his word, the more you see, ah, how did I do that?
[43:00] Why did I let Satan get in? The more you use the word, it is more of a light onto your life and the more opportunity you have to change and be transformed so that you can bless your neighbor, that you can bless your brothers and sisters in Christ, that you can be a great witness to the people of car away.
[43:22] If you've tasted that he is good, what a blessing it is that you're called to get rid of things that diminish the witness and to increase the testimony of the church, the testimony of Christ in the church, the testimony of the church to the world.
[43:39] That's your calling. May God bless you. Let's pray.