How Then Shall We Live?

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0:00 So, turn over to me to 2 Peter chapter 3 and we'll start in verse 8. And it reads, and I'll be reading from the new living translation in case you want to kind of toggle through that on your Bible app. But you must not forget this one thing dear friends, a day is like a thousand years to the Lord and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn't really being slow about His promise as some people think.

0:31 Know He's being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise and the very elements themselves will disappear and fire. And the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.

1:07 On that day He will set the heavens on fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth. He has promised us, a world filled with God's righteousness. So dear friends, while you're waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that appear in blameless in His sight. Peaceful lives that are blameless and pure in God's sight. So I can sense in the room some concern after reading through that passage that we're going

1:40 to spend time talking about the end times and trying to predict when Jesus will return. Like some people on TikTok have done recently, but that's not what we're going to do today. We're going to focus our time today on a question. And the question is this, since Jesus promises to return, what does it look like for us to be found when He returns living lives that are peaceful, pure and blameless? What do peaceful, pure and blameless lives look like?

2:15 We'll come back to that in a second. But first, I just thought about a story. I'm the oldest of four kids. And I remember my mom, she was working two jobs, and so she would leave me at home in charge of my other three siblings. And she leave us with some expectations. Hey, make sure that room is cleaned. Make sure your rooms are cleaned, the dishes are washed, and there's no drama when I get back home. Those were her expectations. And then she said this, if it's not done, when I get back home, dot dot dot.

2:50 We had to fill in the blanks of what it would look like if we don't do what she said do. So well, you can imagine what happened with four kids at home unsupervised. One TV in the house, one phone line in the house, and most kids, you all won't know what this means, but that's older people get it. One phone line in the house with four siblings. I just remember my, I'm on the phone talking to my friends on three way, and my sister

3:21 younger, that means she would go to the other phone in the house and pick it up and listen to my conversation. And then time in and laugh and giggle and then hang up and run. So you know what kind of drama that calls, right? Mom gets home. Was there peace? What are the things done? Was anybody out of blameless in the house? No. It was a mess. And so the apostle Peter is talking to the people of God, living in a foreign land.

3:55 And first Peter, he says this, he's writing to God's chosen people, living in as foreigners in Galatia, Capadocia, Asia, Bithnia and Paunce. These are all cities and regions in Turkey, modern day Turkey. So he's writing to the believers there. And in his first letter, he lays out why the recipients of that letter should live lives that show their God's chosen people. And he also gave them instruction on how to do that while enduring insults and facing

4:26 suffering because they no longer partake in the evil things they once did and those, the people of those countries. So he states his purpose for writing the letter in 1 Peter 419. And it says, my purpose in writing to you is to encourage you and assure you that what you're experiencing is truly part of God's grace to you. Stand firm in this grace. So if you're suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right and trust your lives to God who created you, for he will never fail you.

5:01 So that's the first letter. So Peter writes a follow-up letter to the same people in living in what is now Turkey. And he wrote to make sure that they remembered three things. Remember the words of prophets and apostles. Beware of false teachers among you who are proud, arrogant and well-trained in methods of greed and make clever lives to get a hold of your money. That's what he said. And then he said to the third thing to remember is to live lives that really show you're the

5:33 people of God. So back to the question that I posed at the beginning of our time. What does it look like for us to live peaceful, pure and blameless lives in this day and age? So 1 Peter 1, chapter 1 verses 21 through 22, if you can turn with me there, kind of gives us a picture of what that looks like.

6:04 How can we live this life? In the reads, through Christ you have come to trust in God and you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him glory. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. So today I want us to kind of drill into three concepts that Peter mentions here.

6:34 And it's faith, hope and love. How do we live peaceful, pure and blameless lives in this day and age? Lives that are peaceful. Lives that are filled with faith, hope and love. So faith is the first concept to think about. It's simply a turning. Faith is a turning. Turning to Christ for salvation and at the same time turning away from the things of this world. Repentance, repentance and faith.

7:06 Same coin but two sides, right? We can't turn towards Christ without turning away from something else, right? Turning away from sin. We can't, and vice versa, we can't turn towards sin without turning away from Christ. So repentance and faith is what Peter mentions. And remember earlier I said Peter wanted the people to remember the words of the prophets. And so let's go back to one of the prophets, Ezekiel.

7:38 And in 33 you don't have to turn it but I can read it for us. Ezekiel 33 verse 10 through 11 he says this son of man give the people Israel this message. You're saying our sins are heavy upon us, we're wasting away. How can we live? How can we survive? As surely as I live says to sovereign Lord I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from the wicked way so they can live. Turn, turn from your wickedness and oh people of Israel why should you die? So the audience Peter is writing to has turned away from living like the people that were

8:13 in that region. In those cities in Turkey. And they were trusting their lives to the God of creation in life. So faith simply put his trust, trusting God with our lives, turning to him. Hope. What does hope look like for us in this day and age? So in 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 11 it reads, since everything around

8:53 us is going to be destroyed like this what holy and godly lives you should live looking forward to the day of God and hurrying that day along. On that day he will set the heavens on fire and elements where we read earlier but we are looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth. Hope is looking, he implores the gods, chosen people to look with hope to that great day when Jesus returns. And also putting our hope in him.

9:24 Putting our hope in this gracious salvation that will come. And that doesn't mean that what about today? What about what's happening around us today? Where is he showing up today? And hope is the energy that says hey we are going to keep going because we trust God is in control of today. Hope is looking at tomorrow and the weight of the world around us with the reality that God is in control.

9:55 We can be confident that yes he will return one day but in the meantime he is still making all things new. He is still joining us allowing us to join him in his good work. So hope what is hope looking towards tomorrow with confidence that God is in control. So faith is trusting God with our lives. Hope is looking towards tomorrow with confidence that he is in control. I know these are all simple concepts but something that we should hold on to in this

10:29 day and age. And the last is love. Finally we have the concept of love. And to answer that concept is we know what love is. And we talked about what love, who are the people in our lives who are the personification of love. I think about my mom. My mom who worked two jobs, single mom, my parents had just divorced when I was 13

10:59 years old. She is working two jobs to make sure we lived as good of a life as we could. She sacrificed so much for us. She as she was working two jobs she sacrificed her peace, her rest, her health, all of that so that we could live. So I am reminded of her and what she has done and how her love for me set the course of my life on track, set it on track.

11:30 And that love was sacrificial. And so I think about Peter what he is saying too to the people of God is, hey, you are cleansed from your sins. You are forgiven. Sacrifice yourself. Love others. Love others with a sacrificial love and do it deeply from your heart. How many people have ever heard the passage in Second Corinthians chapter 13 on love? What do you hear most frequently?

12:01 Weddings. So if you think about the context of that, was Paul doing premarital counseling for a young couple when he wrote that? He wasn't at all. So when he wrote that passage, he was writing to the church in Corinth, the people of God, living in Corinth, or in Corinth who were being torn apart by selfishness, greed, adultery. They were suing one another.

12:31 I mean, it was just chaos. And so in his frustration and anger, he wrote, what is love? What does it look like to love? How can you live as the people of God while loving? What does love mean to God? So turn with me to Second Corinthians 13, and we'll look at verses 4 through 7. It says this, love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

13:02 It doesn't demand its own way. It is not irritable. It keeps no record of being wronged. It doesn't rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up. Love never loses faith. It's always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. So Paul, we have the words of Paul. The people that Peter was writing to didn't have these words at the time.

13:32 I'm assuming. Man can correct me when he gets back. We have those words that show us what love actually looks like. So love is this, the act of seeking the well-being of someone other than yourself. By this we know that we are the people of God. We live in with faith, we live in with hope, and we live in with love, sacrificial love, life-giving love.

14:05 In chapter 3 that we read, 2 Peter, chapter 3 that we started out reading, there was something that stood out to me that as I was reading through it even this morning preparing. It's in verse 9. I was wondering, how does this all fit? What is the point? In verse 9 of 2 Peter, chapter 3, he says this, the Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return as some people think.

14:37 He wants people to repent. So I think about that and I think about the goal of our lives is to live lives in such a way that other people see us and say, why are they living that way when they're faced with suffering, when they're faced with divorce, faced with kids not turning away from the faith, faced with suffering? Like why are they living that way? And like the sisters and brothers living as foreigners in the foreign land that Peter's

15:11 writing to, they're waiting for Christ's return. We too are waiting for that return, His return. And while we're waiting, we're commanded to live lives of faith, hope and love, and we're called to live lives in such a way that people ask, why are they living that way? And we can say, hey, I have a reason for the hope I have. It's because I've turned away from sin. I've turned to Christ.

15:42 I've turned to the living God. And I place my hope in Him. And that hope and that faith has caused me to love my neighbor as myself. Sacrificially, and love those in my community. So that faith, hope, and love is like a motivator. It's like a fuel source for our lives to help us live those peaceful, pure, and blameless lives. The work we do in collaboration with God in this world, in our places of employment, in

16:16 our schools, our communities, and even in our families, will endure. People will endure the flames in the fire that second Peter talks about. Because while we'll endure, because the grace of God meets us, it meets the faith, hope, and love in us. God's grace meets us as we're living lives of faith, hope, and love. And the result of this is more and more people joining the family of God. That's what God wants. That's why He's being patient and not returning, because He wants more people to repent and

16:49 turn to Him. And that's the good work we get to enjoy doing with God and collaboration with God is seeing more and more people come to a safer faith in Him. So let's pray, and that's God that He will do that in our lives. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word to us this morning. I ask that You make it true of me and my friends here today that we live lives that

17:22 are peaceful, blameless, and pure in this present day. Lives that are fueled by faith, hope, and love. Even when the opposite of that is what's trending, the opposite of that is what's comfortable sometimes. Help us to get out of our comfort zones and trust You and walk with You in faith, hope, and love today. Come Lord Jesus, come.

17:52 So may the words we heard today be, a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and may they be hidden in our heart that we may not sin against You, but that we may live lives of peace and blameless before You. We love You and we thank You for loving us first. Amen.