Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: 1 Peter 1:3-5

HE LOVES US

Take just a couple minutes and go back into Peter, mostly because I feel like there’s something that the Lord wants to do in here. If you remember, last week, we started talking about the fact that Peter’s writing to a group of people that would have been incredibly familiar with God, but not at all with the Father. 

And so, he really begins this book with an effort to kind of break down those walls, to break through those places where they’re going to naturally not know how to access the love of the Father. 

I would largely suggest, I think we’re still in that place. I think just the evidence of this morning has been very clear, there’s a lot of father wounding and issues that still are everywhere in humanity. Some of us have felt those and suffered through those and are working through those. And I don’t ever want that to come across as an indictment. I want to just call it for what it is. 

There’s also a danger, and there’s times where it’s easier to pretend we don’t have those things, and try to move forward in life than face them, because facing them is scary and vulnerable. But I don’t believe we can grab on to what Peter’s saying unless we’re really willing to be open to what the Father wants to do to heal us. 

And this teaching of Peter’s, I would say it’s rooted in the goodness of the Father. And if we don’t have the ability to understand the goodness of the Father or comprehend it, we’re going to have a hard time tracking with where Peter is going. I just want to use that idea about what Peter’s revealing about the goodness of the Father, the heart of the Father, just as a lens for us. 

I was praying through this last night, and I shared this at the beginning of the gathering. I really felt like the Lord gave me something very clear for us, and that is His initial movement into our lives is His love. His love is His initial movement into our lives. 

If you want proof of that, Ray and I were talking about Ephesians 2, and it just says this in verse 3: “All of us once lived among them–” talking about the people of the world– “In the passions of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and senses. We were, by nature, children of wrath, like everyone else. But God,” in verse 4, “Who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” 

“Out of His great love, He loved us.” His initial movement into our lives was love. So, our understanding of Him has to begin in His love. And I would offer that actual, real discipleship begins in an experience of His love and an understanding of His love. 

Because if we move into discipleship without an understanding of the love of God, we move into religion, we move into system. We can’t move into the depths of His grace until we’re settled in the gift of His love, is the way I would say it. 

The problem with that is experiencing the love of God requires healing, requires giving Him access to the places that are wounded and broken. It doesn’t feel very good. It feels great on the other side. 

But how many have ever gone to therapy? Therapy is not fun. It’s like an emotional disemboweling. But it’s necessary to work through those things. It’s necessary to get those things. And if you’re here, saying, There’s no way. I’m never going to therapy, we all already know that. 

You see, self-loathing and self-hatred are personal brokennesses that are aligned against the posture of God. Want you to think that through. Self-loathing and self-hatred is a posture that’s aligned against the nature of God, therefore those things are anti-God. 

Have you ever considered your self-hatred and your self-loathing as anti-God? It’s actually an affront to the very thing He says, which is, I love you. I’ve loved you with an everlasting love. Because of My great love, I’ve loved you. 

And so, when we confront those things, when we find those things in our lives, we have to push pause and say, The existence of this self-loathing, this mentality of self-hatred, this angst towards myself means I have not yet fully embraced His perspective of me. 

Let me say it a little more bluntly: sometimes we still think we’re God. We believe our perspective on ourselves is more important than His. Could it be that, as a simple act of surrendered discipleship, we embrace His perspective on us instead of our perspective on us?

MERCY LEADS TO LOVE

Now, if you remember last week, one of the key takeaways was this concept where Peter will say that, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy…” According to His great mercy is this phrase that means out of His great mercy. 

The word mercy here is compassion for the afflicted and the miserable. And what we left with was just a simple thing of here’s how you know if you need to get settled in the love of God, if you need to experience the love of God, here’s how you know if you need to experience the heart of the Father: if you see people in a condition of misery and affliction, and mercy doesn’t come out of you, that’s a good indication you need to go let your heart be worked on with Him, because it means you haven’t experienced it enough. 

Do you remember the woman at the feet of Jesus in Luke 6? It says she comes, falls down in front of Him, begins to weep, washes His feet with her tears, dries them with her hair. It’s offensive to the disciples. It’s sensual, it’s odd. They’re at a dinner party. Admit it, it’s kind of weird for a dinner party. 

And when they ask Jesus why she’s doing this, He makes a statement that’s so incredible: You see, the one who’s forgiven much loves much. Means she was aware of her forgiveness, was aware of the heart of God for her, aware of the compassion of Christ for her, and it caused her to become a lover. 

Could I suggest that when we don’t see the love of God flowing out of us towards others, it’s a clear indication that we’ve yet to really come face-to-face with it in our own lives, we’ve not let it touch us yet?

You can be resistant to the love of God. You can choose to set up vain imaginations where you won’t let it touch you. Sometimes, history and trauma causes us to believe things that get in the way of the love of God. 

We are not in a show-up-at-church-and-it’s-going-to-get-all-fixed kind of situation in this. We are in a get-face-to-face-with-Him-and-it’s-going-to-get-fixed situation when you are aware of your lack of understanding of the heart of God and the love of the Father. It’s an indication for you, I need to go sit with Him and be loved. 

The downside to the love of God– there isn’t a downside for the record, but there is a downside to us human speaking– you can’t do anything except receive it. The only thing you can do to help is time– time and truth. You can hear the truth of Scripture, let it sink in your spirit, but you have to spend time with Him. 

So, in this gathering, when the Lord’s working on these issues, I want to encourage you and challenge you at the same time: you’re going to have to go spend some time with Him. You may have to go spend some time with a therapist, and just say, Hey, I’ve developed a really bad thought process, and I really am trying to lean in and let the love of the Father impact me. I’m going to have to break through some of these things. 

That doesn’t mean you left faith. I wouldn’t advise going to a non-believing one, for the record. Going to ask somebody for help with the love of God, they probably should know God. Just a thought. 

So, we have to focus on this and let it settle kind of on us. We have to be willing to allow our hearts to be impacted and settled within His love, and allow that to bring healing to our authority relationships and how we interact with others. 

Because really, I think what Peter is going to get at in the rest of this book is, if we don’t have this thing rooted and grounded in us, if we’re not settled in the love of God, we will not be able to be Christ-like to the world around us. It’s not possible. 

BORN AGAIN

So, Peter’s going to begin his teaching with this focus on the heart of the Father, and I just want to draw us into verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy 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, who are protected by the power of God through faith for His salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 

There’s no chance we’re getting through all of this. We’re going to look at this phrase, “Has caused us to be born again to a living hope” because the phrase “Has caused us,” what I would say that Peter reveals here, is the Father’s heart drew Him to help us in our sin. The Father’s heart drew Him to help us in our sin. 

It’s imperative that we understand that: that our sin doesn’t repel Him, it actually drew His heart to us. He saw the condition we were in, and His response was, I’m going to cause them to be born again. 

And I want to look at that phrase because it’s really important. That phrase, “Has caused us,” in the Greek carries an activity. It means something activated. In other words, you were not capable of being born again. Prior to that movement of His heart, He willed it out of His heart for you to be able to be born again. 

Now, I want to talk about born again. I know that seems like it’s so simple, and it’s so grassroots. We’re like, Oh my, we’re in church, and we’re talking about being born again. Yes, because I think a lot of us have terrible theology on what it is to be born again. 

According to what Peter says here, we could not have been born again unless God first chose to have mercy on us and made it possible. He both gave us the gift and the ability to be born again. So, if we’re going to ask the question, What does it mean? There’s two places we have to go in Scripture. 

We have to go to John 3, which is Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, and I’m just going to talk us through it for time. Nicodemus is coming to Jesus, he’s really wanting to know what this thing’s about. And Jesus says to him, Unless you’re born again, you can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Now, Jesus uses wordplay, and the wordplay He uses is born of the earth and born from above. He uses a word that means both, and Nicodemus’ statement is, Wait, time out. What? How am I born again in the earth and born from above? I don’t think Nicodemus had such a problem with it because I think he knew that meant that was something supernatural.

Let me try to break down what I think is the simplest way to understand this supernaturally: it’s the mystery of our spirit, man being birthed into the Kingdom of God. Let me say it this way: at the moment you came into relationship with Christ, according to Corinthians, you became a new creation. Something new happened. 

Why is that important? Because I believe we often think that we are just forgiven versions of our old self, and Biblically, something new happened. A spirit was released within you that is new. You became family with Christ, bloodline family. 

You, supernaturally, according to Paul’s teaching again, were translated from one kingdom to another. You moved into a different birth line. You were supernaturally brought into a family, became a legitimate heir of the family. That is not just being forgiven, that is something new being created in me. 

The statement Jesus makes to Nicodemus is to be reborn and born from above. Here’s what I think the reborn part is: I think the earthly reborn is that we are now going to put on the nature of Christ. We’re going to birth a new life into this world, that’s carrying His nature. 

But the supernatural one is one He did. I want to be clear: when you come into the Kingdom and He puts a new nature in you– I don’t know, this is going to be dangerous ground– I really have a hard time with believing that I can get rid of that nature. 

This whole dangling-over-hell-so-they-stay-saved idea is so counter to the Scriptures that I don’t think we should even talk about it. What the Scriptures say is that we were a new creation, that we became new. 

Do I believe you can live in this world contrary to that new nature and probably stand before the Lord and be really sad about a loss of reward? Yes. I just don’t know that I believe Scripturally that you struggling with sin changes that new nature at all. That should be freedom. You should be able to say, Because of His great mercy, I’m saved. I’m a new creature. It’s not because of anything I do. 

LIVING IN THE NEW NATURE

In fact, all over the Scriptures, it says it’s nothing you can do. He did it. It’s His work. John 15, “I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me…” There’s all this language about vineyards. 

One of my favorite places in the world to go is a place called Paso Robles, California. I love it. I mean, if I wasn’t called to lead this church, I would live there now if it wasn’t in California, because I don’t want to be in California government.

I love the landscape, I love everything about wine and grapes, and the growing. And one of the fun and interesting facts about wine is, did you know that the best wine is produced by the vines that struggle the most? And yet the Scriptures call us a vine. They liken the people of God to a vine. 

Isn’t it interesting that maybe He knows that we need difficulty in life, so we produce great wine? And if He knows that, we’re going to look at this later on in chapter 1 of 1 Peter, Peter basically says that God, if needed, will send difficulty into our lives so our faith gets proven, which means– and I love this– every time difficulty comes in my life, I have to assume that God’s sovereign and in control, therefore I can no longer complain about the difficulty because He thought I needed it. 

Oy vey. So, we have to stop complaining and whining and start going, Okay, you know, I need this. I trust You to grow me. That’s a different teaching. So, we’re grafted into the plant family of God. We’re part of the organism of Heaven. 

So, here’s the simplest definition: you are new. You are not just a forgiven version of your old self. You’re new. That means you’re not just trying to behaviorally modify. You have a new nature that you can activate, or you can ignore. 

Well, how do I activate it? Paul teaches all over the place, and it’s simple: do not let the old nature control you. You simply look at it when it rises up, and say, That’s not my identity anymore. My identity now is Him. He gave me a new nature. And according to Philippians, I am a luminary. I can reflect Him. I have the power in me to act like Him, that I can actually put on the Divine nature in this life, I don’t have to act like my old self. I just have to be willing to shut it down. 

This is why Paul and Peter, in the whole New Testament, they both write this: lay aside, take off the old nature, put on the new nature. You have two natures. Before Jesus, you had one. 

You’ve got to understand you’re not a forgiven version of your old self, your family history doesn’t actually have to impact you. You have a new history. You have a new bloodline. You can say, That’s from the old line. I don’t need to take that. I’m taking what’s from the new line. 

The dysfunctions that have riddled family lines can stop because of Christ, because of what He did. He put a new nature in us to where we can say, Yes, everything in me wants to act out in this old one, but I don’t have to because He gave me a new one.

Let me use a word that’s tough. A lot of times, I think the Church wants to act like a victim instead of a champion. The difference between a victim and a victor is one allows the world to happen to them. The other ones happens to the world. 

Could I suggest that the new nature of Christ that was given to you, His intention was that you would happen to the world, not it happened to you? That from the moment you came into the Kingdom, you would put a stop in line of everything historically sin, all of it, what I was, what I inherited, because now all of that is no longer my inheritance because I have an inheritance now that’s in Him, so I get to be like Him? You can step into the new nature He gave you. 

CARRYING THE DIVINE NATURE

Oh, man, we’re running out of time. Let me offer a thought: you can step into the new nature He gave you. He will never put it on you. I do believe with all my heart we are talking about two different things– salvation and carrying the Divine. 

I believe our salvation is sure because of what He did. I cannot find anything in Scripture that actually says it’s not. I can find a lot of stuff in human teaching that says it’s not. The problem is they’re not that. I choose that over people. I choose that over theologians. 

But I also can’t find anything that says He will put the Divine on us. What it says is we have to carry the Divine. We have to put it on ourselves. And every place that we are unwilling to carry the Divine, we will display our old nature. 

You see, your sin condition caused Him to do something so you could be born again, has caused you to be born again. Why? Because He doesn’t want you carrying that nature. He wants you carrying His. He wants you walking in all the blessing and all the future and all the hope. 

Here’s the beauty of it: in the Divine nature, there’s blessing not cursing, there’s life not death, there’s love not hate, there’s joy not misery. But in order to walk that out, we have to exercise this little thing called trust. 

Think about your home life– roommates, children, spouse. What would it look like if your answer to your spouse– don’t say this out loud, this will be your internal monologue– No matter how stupid you treat me, no matter how awful you are to me, all you’re ever going to get out of me is Divine, because I’m not going to let my old nature reactivate because of your old nature. 

I want you to think through that one for a second. No matter what you do to me, I’m impermeable because I’m carrying the Divine. My actions and reactions will always be of a Divine realm, because in those moments, I’m going to push pause, I’m going to shut down what I want to do, and I’m going to look to Him and say, What’s my move? 

Okay, this is high-level chess for the record. There is zero room in this for reaction. This is action. This is you making an intentional choice to say, Okay, I just experienced misery. I just experienced stupidity. I experienced all the signs of your sin nature. What’s going to come out of me, mercy or judgment? 

If your flesh nature comes out in reaction, it’s judgment, because it’s an eye for an eye. If you push pause and let the Divine come out, I would offer, those are micro-moments that get rewarded at a very large level on the other side. I would also offer, the more you do that, the easier it is to do that. 

Okay, that’s all the time we have. That was a good one. That’ll give you something to work on all week. I want to finish with bread and cup because I think it’s important for this to get sealed. Whether you have father issues or whether it’s just, Hey, I don’t really have mercy coming out of me towards people issues, all of us probably have places we really need the Lord to bring some health. 

I’d love to ask you to take bread and cup with a question on your mind: Do I see the mercy of the Father coming out of me towards others? And if I don’t, Father, will You bring health? Will You assess me and show me what’s broken? Let’s stand. 

Jesus, You told us when we get together, to do this in remembrance of You. And admittedly, Lord, I think Your dream was that we would have a meal together all the time, and I wish we could pull that off. 

But in this moment, we want to come to the table, and take the bread, and take the cup with an honest assessing of ourselves. You tell us to examine ourselves. We want to do that. And the question today is this: do I see the mercy of Heaven coming out of me towards others? And if not, can You heal me? Lord, heal my issues with Your heart. Bring a revelation of Your heart. Bring a revelation of Your love. 

Jesus, we thank You for the cross, thank You for Your body. I love that Romans teach us so clearly You took all of the anger and the punishment towards sin, and You absorbed it, and You beat death, and You gave us the ability to step into this new life, and we’re so grateful for it. 

We’re grateful for Your blood that speaks a better word. Just keep saying the same thing: forgiven, restored, reconciled. We stand before You today, just as Your kids, dearly loved by our Father, but needing to know how to appropriate that, how to let it really sink in and hit us. 

So, Lord, would You do something supernatural as we just take the bread and the cup? Would You begin that process fresh in any places that still need it? We love You. We honor You. Let’s take bread and cup.