Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: 1 Peter 1:3-5

THE FATHER’S PROTECTION

Alrighty, come on back in. So, if you have your Bibles, we’re going to be in 1 Peter. We’re going to be in chapter 1, verses 3-5, and we’re picking back up on our conversation. Really, I want to kind of reframe where we’re starting. 

We’ve been in it for the last three weeks, and we’ll finish up today with just this little micro pocket of where Peter is really beginning with this church that he’s teaching. He’s starting them really with a revelation of who the Father is. 

And we could say that a few different ways: we could say with the revelation of the heart of the Father, with a revelation of the love of the Father. And I think the reason Peter’s doing that is very clear: there’s really nowhere we can go in the Kingdom until we are rooted and grounded in the love of God. 

Peter’s teaching and preaching to a people that are not very different from where we’re at today, and that is a people who really understood how to respond to God as an authoritarian or as a ruler, but they really didn’t know and have any idea how to respond to God as a Father, that Jesus will work on this concept all the way through. 

In fact, we go back to Luke 11, Jesus makes a statement. It says, “If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father?” What’s His point? His point is, in our nature as human beings– even in our fallen nature– there’s this native instinct to love children. 

And He uses that as a juxtaposition, and says, How much more does a supernatural, perfect being have love towards you as His children? And always, He’s working. I mean, we think about 1 John, it says, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has given to us.” 

All the writers and all the early apostles are working to establish this first thing, which is you’ve got to know who you are in Him and what it is to be loved by Him, because if you don’t know who you are in Him, and you don’t know what it’s like to be loved by Him, you’re going to spend the rest of your life in religion, trying to earn your way. 

See, religion is a really tough thing for us to navigate because it’s our instinct. Our instinct is to do x, y, z, and earn. And church is just not the same as a paycheck. The Kingdom is not the same as a paycheck. The Gospel is not the same as a paycheck. It’s all about something wildly undeserved being given. 

And we say that a lot, we talk about grace, and we can conceptualize it at moments, but we really don’t often live out of a place of– Brennan Manning will say this in Stranger to Self-Hatred, one of my favorite manuscripts he wrote, “To learn to live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness.” Learn to live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness. 

What’s that mean? I mean, sometimes at one point in your life, you have to wake up and go, He loves me. And it’s just that simple. I can’t do anything to change it. I might as well embrace it. A lot of times, out of our own dysfunctions, we fight it. It doesn’t resonate with us. It doesn’t hit the native spot in us that says, I’m lovable. I am loved. We will come up with a list of reasons why we’re not. 

And so, we instantly kind of pull away from that intimacy. In fact, if we go to the Garden, is that not the first movement we see in humanity once sin enters? The moment sin enters, a sense of self-deprecation and an inability to receive the goodness of God instantly hits, and they hide. That’s still in us. 

THE FATHER’S HEART IS FULL OF MERCY

So, Peter’s working to kind of establish that. And I want to pick us up. We’re going to just finish with the fourth idea that we’ve looked at in this passage, and he’s working to establish what it is for them to live from this framework. 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy–” or out of His great mercy is another way to understand that– “Has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” 

And out of those first two verses, 3 and 4, we just took these first concepts. The first one was the Father’s heart is full of mercy towards you. And I know these seem so simple, but really, when we understand the love of the Father, it’s about just fundamentals. His heart is full of mercy towards you. It wasn’t full of mercy, it is full of mercy that in your condition right now, wherever you’re at in life, His heart is still full of mercy. 

That word mercy, in this study, that concept, has wrecked me, because the word mercy really deals with this idea of compassion or kindness towards someone in a state of misery or affliction. 

What I love about that is, when I’m in misery, or I’m in affliction, whether it’s from my own doing or something that someone’s done to me, I tend to believe I’m less valuable, not more. But what Peter says here, is in that condition, something happens inside of Him, and He actually moves towards you. 

If we go to the book of Psalms, God is near to what? The brokenhearted. That there’s something in this King that when He sees and senses our brokenness, and He sees and senses us at our worst, He doesn’t step back and say, You need to get your stuff together. Instead, it’s the opposite. He comes running. 

Isaiah 1, I love it because it’s His heart for humanity. He says, “Look–” speaking to Israel, He said, “Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they don’t have to be. Though they’re red as crimson, they don’t have to be.” 

What’s His whole point? I remember as a young father that one of the things that I was really wrestling with, what does it look like to discipline my kids correctly? How many grew up in a spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child kind of household? I didn’t quite understand why, but I knew that I didn’t think that verse really meant a spanking stick. 

So, I began to study, and I realized the word deals with discipline. It deals with rules and boundaries, and so coming out of a wildly Pentecostal culture where that was just what everybody was taught, I had this deep consternation of, How do I manage my children? 

And the Lord took me to this verse. He said, I want you to see how I manage My children. My answer to them, when they screwed up, was, Come here. Let me help you. Talk to me. Come, let us reason together. 

I love that our Father knows this. If He can just get us in a conversation, He can fix it. And church, if I could put that in front of you, just talk to Him. I don’t care if you know what to say, just talk to Him. Just sit and go, Here I am. Let’s talk. I need to hear Your voice. 

Shut up all the whispers in your head that say you can’t hear God. Silence those. Those are lies because the Scriptures say the opposite. Yeah, but I don’t know how that’s truth. Because it’s a learned thing. Tune your ears to wisdom is what Proverbs will say. So, you have to sit with Him long enough to go, Okay, I’m here now. 

We live in such a microwave culture. People don’t love the idea of you have to sit with Him. What do you mean? It can’t just turn it on, and it’s there, not really. It takes a learning, but if you sit with Him, I promise His voice will heal you. 

THE FATHER’S HEART IS DRAWN TOWARDS US

The second thing we saw here was that the Father’s heart drew Him to help you in your sin. And I just want to restate this because it’s such a simple idea: in your sin, His heart made Him want to help you. So, in our continued stupidity, His heart still makes Him want to help us. That’s who He is. 

And we have to understand Him for who He is, not who we believe He is. That He is not a God that is pulled away or pushed away or repelled by our problems; He’s a God that’s drawn by them because He understands a simple truth: He is the remedy. 

Trust me, I believe He’s smart enough that if there was another answer, He would say it. If the answer was when you sin, Go to the gym, do one hundred push-ups, come back, and talk to Me, you’ll be great, He would do that, because for us in our DNA, that’s much easier. It’s just much more achievable. But yet, what He teaches through this text is that in our sin, He’s drawn to us. 

THE FATHER’S INTENTIONAL PLANS

And then the third thing we looked at last week is that the Father has very intentional plans for you, things reserved for you, things set aside for your living hope. That you’re not just following a God that says, Okay, you’re next one in, next one in. I got one plan for all of you the same. It’s not. 

I want you to hear the word, that we tend to kill the uniqueness out of the Kingdom. And sometimes that’s healthy because God does have a plan for His people. God has a plan for Israel. That is going to be the plan for Israel until the day it’s done because He’s had a plan for them. 

We Gentiles are grafted into that plan. He has all these things He’s released in Scripture that are true, and they’re happening, but He also is the same King that says, I’ll leave the ninety-nine for the one. 

What does that mean? Uniqueness matters to Me. You matter to Me. And Peter’s working to help them understand because they would have never had a concept that God cared about them. Their concept would have been He cares about people. No. Peter’s answer is, No, no, no. It’s much more detailed. He actually cares about you. 

How many would say in your life, It sure seems like He’s orchestrated a few specific events to get near me? Sometimes we want to pass it off as random. It’s not. You look at things, you’re like, Man, the Lord was after me. 

THE FATHER IS PROTECTING YOUR JOURNEY

So, the fourth thing I want to pull out of verse 5 is Peter will say, “…Reserved in Heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 

The fourth thing I want to bring to us is that the Father is working to protect you in your journey. This phrase, “Who are protected by the power of God,” that word protected here, what’s that mean? It means someone’s working to advocate for you in this process. 

The word actually is a military word. It’s a garrison. It means to be encircled or protected. Again, I want to highlight the phrase you and your because we tend to believe there’s a journey He has, it’s for everybody. 

What happens if your unique journey is something He’s willing to protect? What happens if you’re a unique process? What happens if the dreams you have in business, what happens if the family dynamics, that all the unique intricacies that make up you actually matter to Him? And His delight is to have an intimate relationship so the two of you can go through that together? 

That it’s not just I show up at church, and He’s the God that kind of advocates for me once in a while, there’s actually something so detailed in His heart that His desire is to sit down face-to-face and talk to you about your life and show you what He has planned and work with you in it. 

How many have experienced in your lifetime the Lord working with you on something that’s very specific and unique? I think the greatest place this happens is in the marketplace. I think the Lord has a deep desire to be in business with us, to be in process with us. 

What’s that look like? I will tell you what I think it looks like: an unfair advantage that we could go into the marketplace with an Advocate that would whisper and speak and reveal things. Now you’re like, Oh. 

If that goes into your head as a get-rich-quick scheme, shut that off. What it should go into your head as is, I have a King who is really excited to see me succeed, and to see His name be known through my success. I want to partner with Him. 

If you’re in sales and you’re not taking your sales before the Lord and asking Him for His favor and His blessing, asking Him how to present, asking Him which accounts to chase, you’re crazy. 

If you’re a manager, and you’re not taking your team before the Lord and saying, Lord, will You give me unique understanding of these people? Would You bless my team? Would You pull them together? Would You show me how to lead? You’re crazy because you’re letting go of something that is your unique DNA. You are to be one who carries the word of the Lord into the marketplace. He wants to be with you in your journey. 

So, there’s clearly an idea in what Peter says here of someone, or many someones, defending you and watching around you. So, protected is a pretty broad term. So, let’s talk about that for a second because Peter just puts the word out there as you who are protected. 

He doesn’t qualify it as long as you’re in church, as long as you’re doing ministry stuff, you’re protected. As long as you’re not watching bad films, or you’re not doing blah, blah, blah, you’re protected. He doesn’t put any qualifications on it. He just sends it as a term: you who are protected. He tells this young church that they are protected by the power of God. 

I want you to consider you’re not the only one defending your faith. Think about that, that your Father’s actively working to keep you on the path. He’s actively working to keep you believing. What does that mean? It means when I have lousy days– how many have woken up with a song in your heart, and you’re like, I don’t know where this came from, and you start singing it? 

I would offer a simple idea that maybe He knew what you were going to face that day, and you needed that song. Like, really, it could be that simple. Learn how to find the victory of the Lord in the small things. Understand He’s working with me, for me, protecting me. He’s working to protect your belief, He’s working to protect you and your journey. 

I have been thinking about this for a while in this teaching, I just don’t think we make enough space for Him to be committed to our process and our journey. We go through life like it’s ours to go through, and then we take stuff back to Him when it doesn’t work. I think we should reverse-engineer that and take our life to Him first, and then say what Scripture says: commit your plans to the Lord and then you find success. 

So, what’s it look like for us as a people to go, Okay, He’s super committed to my journey, therefore I’m going to lay my journey in front of Him. Hey, Lord, I know You have a deep desire to protect me. You’ve promised Your protection. Love that. Let’s lay this out in front of You. 

How many know this phrase: an ounce of prevention is worth what? What happens if an ounce of present prevention in this situation is learning to take your life to the Lord beforehand and not have to clean up afterwards? If you never have to fire the alcohol of, Hey, Lord, I need clean up on an aisle. I made a mistake. Because you can sit with the Lord and say, Hey, here’s what I’m thinking about doing. What do You think? 

I will tell you my own business journey. There are several times when I’ll sit with the Lord, say, I’m going into a meeting, here’s what’s in my heart. And I’ll have Him say things like, Don’t say that. 

I had one time where it was brutal. It was five minutes before a meeting, and He said to me, That’s out of your own insecurity. We need to deal with that later. That was kind of one of those, like, Okay, and then you pick up the phone and you make the call.

Fortunately, I deal with churches a lot, so on that call, I was just honest. I said, You know, I was really worried about this. Lord told me it’s out of my own insecurity, so let’s just talk about business. They were like, Oh, it’s so refreshing. 

I would have never known how to do that had the Lord not had a voice beforehand. I would love to offer that He’s committed to your journey, to your success, to your process, to the life you’re living, and He wants to have a voice early, not late. 

HOW DOES HIS PROTECTION WORK?

So, there’s this reality that we have to answer the question: how does His protection work? There’s two things Peter says: number one, it’s supernatural, as in, it’s a power-of-God thing. We can just say it this way: He’s doing it. He’s providing things. He’s covering things. He’s working at all times towards our benefit. 

I want you to just think about that phrase. He’s providing things for your life that you need, that you don’t even know you need. He’s providing. Why? Because that’s who He is. He’s Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our provider. 

Provision is not always a response to need. Oftentimes, it’s factored ahead of time. Do we give Him credit for the things He factors ahead of time? I love where David will say in the Psalms to count your blessings, to name them. Why? He’s reminding us there’s a bunch of stuff happening to my life, and I just ignore it. I just go through life because I didn’t even notice it was there, because I’m super fixated on the stuff that’s not happening. 

Anybody like that, where you’re like me, where you’re more fixated on what’s not happening than you are on what’s happening? And you find yourself consternating over three things when there’s thirty-five over here that were awesome.? So, learn how to understand He’s providing for me. 

And I need to take those moments and turn them into praise, the dumb stuff. Let me give you one dumb thing. Paycheck shows up and you had enough to pay your bills. Why not stop and go, Man, Lord, thank You for Your provision? Well, I earned it. No, you didn’t. You were blessed by God to have the opportunity to make that money. It’s that simple. 

Because if that’s the attitude in the excess, then the attitude is not wrong when there’s lack. It’s not wrong to go to Him and go, Hey, we’re short. I need You to perform a miracle. If we only run to Him in need, what it says is we’re entitled. Let that one sink for a second. 

There’s an element of protection here that walking as He leads will bring us. I want you to think about this: because of His protection, there are things you’re not going to connect with in life, there is chaos and sin, things that you’re just never going to touch because you’re walking the way He said to walk. That’s part of His protection. 

What do you mean, Greg? I mean He’s putting you on a path that avoids stupidity, and just by following Him, you’re protected. Does that mean it’s conditional? No, it’s just the byproduct. Hey, if I tell you to get on I25 and go south, you’re going to hit Denver. But if, for some reason, at Highway 52 you take a hard right, you won’t hit Denver. 

If the Lord says, Here’s how to live, and you just stay on the path He said to live, you’re going to end up in all the places He wants you, and you won’t end up in the wrong places. 

So, there’s an element of protection that we know He will do, therefore, our first movement should be to ask Him to protect our situations and trust His heart with that request, learning again to talk to Him ahead of time: I know You’re for me, I know You want to protect me. Here’s what’s in my heart. What do You want me to do? 

PROTECTION THROUGH FAITH

The second part of this is not supernatural. It’s that, according to Peter, he says it this way, “Who are protected by the power of God.” There’s the supernatural through faith for salvation ready to reveal in that last time, the second half of this is it happens through faith. 

What is faith? It’s trust. It means we’re protected by trusting Him. That’s a great phrase. It reads like a greeting card. I’m protected by trusting God. You can put it on a t-shirt. But what’s it actually mean? It means you’re trusting Him to do something, and you’re trusting Him by doing something. You’re trusting that He’s going to do what He said. 

I want to just break it down really simply: what are we really trusting Him to do? That He said we’re trusting that He’s going to receive us on that last day, He’s going to usher us into His presence, and He’s going to reveal everything He promised. We’re trusting that He’s good on His word. 

I think there’s a lot more on the other side, and there’s a lot more to the other side than we possibly could know. I believe it’s going to blow our minds, the goodness that’s in His heart, the things that are His heart. 

We have these weird pictures of Heaven where everybody’s got angel wings, and they have harps, and they’re just hanging out, and they’re boredly singing, and you’re like, I don’t know, thirty-five to forty minutes of worship is tough already. What’s it going to be like for eternity? 

I don’t think that’s what it looks like. I just don’t think that’s what it’s like. I think that we have no concept of how good it’s going to be, but we’re trusting Him to bring it. We’re living with a trusting expectation that when we stand before Him, He’s going to look us in the eye and say, They’re mine. Come on in. 

We’re trusting that His way is the right way, that if we choose to live as He’s shown us, it’s going to work. We’re trusting Him that if we choose to ignore our core impulses, our sin nature, we’re going to be better off. 

Think about that from a sin diagram. When I’m struggling with sin, that all it takes is me having a moment of clarity where I go, You know, my core impulse, I think is wrong. He told me it’s not going to work, so I’m just not going to do it, not because I don’t want to, I’m just not going to do it because He told me it won’t work. 

It has nothing to do with appetite at that moment. It has to do with discipline at that moment. I would offer that it’s great to admit I really want to chase this thing, but He told me it wasn’t going to work, so I’m not going to do it.

If you take the appetite out of it and it becomes an obedience response to Him, you’ve nullified the power in it because you’re no longer at war with whatever said thing it is that you’re tempted by, you’re now just a disciple under the authority of Heaven going, He told me it’s not going to work, so I’m not going to do it. 

We win over sin when we don’t make it about sin. The battle of sin is about discipleship. I’m not doing this because I don’t want it, that’s a lie. Remember what Jesus says: agree with your adversary on the way so you don’t end up going to court. 

Agree at times with the enemy, when you want something, go, I do, I want that. But He told me no. He told me it’s not going to work, so I’m not going to do it. And then you can go back to Him and say, Okay, can You help me with this appetite? Show me how to unlearn it, because appetites are learned behaviors. 

It’s our crazy culture that believes appetites are identifiers. Our culture right now believes that my appetite defines my identity. That’s actually an absolute false truth. You’re trusting that choosing His life is going to bring the promise He declares. What is that promise? That you can actually carry His nature and become like Him.

See, sometimes I don’t think we believe that. Sometimes I think we don’t believe we could actually ever be like Him. We see our own brokenness. We’re like, I don’t think this thing’s going to work. We’re trusting that He can revolutionize your home, your marriage, your attitudes, your dysfunctions, you name it. If you just choose to live the life that He declares, it’ll change your journey. 

So, what’s the activity of that trust that you’re laying down and refusing your false nature, your sin nature, you’re just not letting it have authority, and you’re living the way He taught you to? And in those moments, when that false nature comes up, and the sin nature comes up, you don’t panic. You just simply remind yourself of your future and what He said, and you step back into that path. 

I want us to consider that the faith we live in is just simply to be in a living and active relationship with Him. There’s nothing else to it. I’m hanging out with God. I’m learning from Him. I’m being taught by Him. It’s just a life guided by His voice. We follow Him, we talk with Him, we study Him, and we pattern our behaviors after Him. Could it really be that simple? 

So, I just got to have it out with God? You’re telling me I just got to study, get to know who He is? I got to give Him permission to speak, and I got to follow what He says? That’s it. He’s got to do that, yes, because we’re holding on to what He said He would do. 

And as we do that, we’re holding on to what He said to do. You see, part of what Peter’s trying to help them understand is this trust that you have that He’s going to be who He said He is, you need to incorporate a set of beliefs that does what He said to do to get there. He gave you a way to live to get to that moment. He’s going to do everything He said, so live the way He said.

So, maybe you’re in a spot where you’re like, I really struggle with my attitude, or I struggle with unforgiveness, or I struggle with greed, or I struggle– you pick the sin, you pick the area. All you have to do is ask the question, What does He say to do? I’m going to choose that. 

Yeah, but I can’t. Yes, you can. The lie of the enemy is you don’t have power over your sin nature. The revelation of the Scripture is that you were given a new nature. And according to Philippians, you have the power to become a luminary where you can reflect Him. 

And you can actually choose that nature. You just have to put on the nature of Christ, which means, in those moments that I don’t want to, I just look at myself in the mirror and go, It’s cool that you don’t want to. You’re going to because you’re crucified with Christ, yet you live. So, you don’t have the right to sit in this wrong attitude. 

You say that to yourself. Practice it, get in the mirror. You don’t have the right to sit in that attitude. You don’t have the right to sit in that behavior. It’s contrary to Him. We’re going to choose Him. Well, that just feels like I’m just sweeping it under the rug. No, you’re not. You’re ruling over your flesh. What we’re trusting is that if we do that, He’s going to do everything He said. 

I want you to catch this: that our Father saw our condition, that He sees your condition, history, brokenness, and His desire was to fix it and reshape it. His desire was to give you a new nature so you didn’t get stuck in that old one. Mercy, a new nature, the ability to actually live the character of Christ. 

To the level we trust Him, we’re going to choose to live the nature of Christ, because what we’re simply going to say is, You’ve already told us how much You love us, You’ve revealed Your heart. You’re for us, You’re not against us. So, we’re just going to grab onto everything You have. 

So, I want you to ask this question this week: where in your life does the nature of Christ need to grow? What areas do you look at and go, Okay, this is a good spot for me to put on more of the Lord Jesus Christ? I see some things ruling over me, I see some things that are fighting for His place. I need to lay those down. 

And then don’t, in shame, run away. Take that to Him and go, Hey, I’ve been looking at my life, there’s places I want more of You. There’s places that I see a need for more of You. Will You help me in that? Here it is. Show me what it looks like to step into that. 

Hey, Lord, I’m in constant conflict relationally. Why don’t you try having a conversation with the Lord about what you want to say before you say it, and see what happens? If His answer is, Yeah, don’t say that. Say it this way instead. Maybe He’ll say, Don’t say it at all. Just pray. Trust me with it. 

But all of a sudden, you’re now in partnership with Him because you understand His heart is for me. He wants me to succeed, so I’m not afraid of His voice. You see, that’s the root of the sin nature, it’s afraid of the voice of God. 

All the way through Scripture, from the Garden, through Israel’s history, all the way through, we see the sin nature in our humanity cause us to want to run away from the voice of God instead of running to it. 

Peter’s whole point here is you don’t understand this Father, you don’t understand who He is. You don’t understand what He wants for you. You don’t understand what He’s done for you. You don’t understand what He wants to do for you. Run to Him and talk. 

Let’s pray. Jesus, we love You, we honor You. Thank You for the way You work to reveal the Father. And Father, thank You for Your love, thank You for Your heart. 

Lord, I know this has just been really simple stuff, but we need so desperately to be reminded of our standing before You, and the reality of our familial connection to You, that we are truly sons and daughters of the Father. 

And we echo the words of John, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, He’s called us sons and daughters.” And we really are, Lord. We want to take that awareness, we want to turn it, and just lay our lives before You, and say, Here we are. We want to do it Your way because You love us, Lord. 

If there’s any aspects in our lives in this room today that just cannot access Your love, I ask, Holy Spirit, that You begin to dig to the root, bring it to the surface, pull it out, so that we could be rooted and grounded in Your love, we could walk around with just this dumb grin on our face because we’re the dearly loved of God. We bless You. In Jesus’ name, amen.