Five choices that will bring us hope and holiness:
I. CHOOSE TO
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
A. Where are you setting your
? 1 Timothy 6:17-18 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
B. Real hope is found in God’s
! Titus 3:4, 7 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us … 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
II. CHOOSE TO CULTIVATE
1 Peter 1:14-16 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
A. Christians have been
holy. Justification (legal) vs Sanctification
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Hebrews 10:10, 14 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
III. CHOOSE TO FOSTER GODLY
1Peter 1:17 Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
A. Godly fear means taking God
. Matthew 12:36 But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
B. To grow in hope, grow in
. 1 Peter 1:18-21 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
IV. CHOOSE TO EXPRESS
1Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
A. Love is a heart
. John 13:34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
B. Need to grasp how much God
you!
1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
V. CHOOSE TO BE
1Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
24 For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
A. The ONLY way to have TRUE
and be eternally (Set Apart) is Jesus!
- All verses used are NIV84 version