Living Hope to the Fullest

I'm going to invite you to grab your message notes as we continue with our study in 1 Peter Living hope and today living hope to the fullest. I want to start by asking a question ready What would you do if you had incredible wealth? I'm talking about off the charts type money. Like you could buy your own Hawaiian Island like Larry Ellison of Oracle just did a week or so ago. How would you enjoy it? Would you enjoy it? Most of us think that we would, but I'm not sure it's as easy as all that.

I don't know if I mentioned in all the services last weekend, but at the beginning of the summer we were up at Lake Tahoe. Laura, the kids, and I would love to go up there. It's so gorgeous. We went to our secret spot like we like to do. It's this hidden cove with turquoise water and a white sandy beach, and for hours we had it all to ourselves. It was awesome, and I would tell you where it is, but then I'd have to kill you. So instead, I'm going to give you a hint. It's close to one of the most amazing properties on the entire lake called the Thunderbird Lodge.

It was built by a guy named George Woodell, who was like the Howard Hughes of Lake Tahoe. In fact, they were friends. It's a fascinating story. George Woodell was born to a super wealthy San Francisco Nob Hill family. In fact, his parents had huge land holdings on both sides in both San Francisco and in California gold country. His maternal grandfather founded a little utility company that morphed into PG&E, so it gives you an idea where this guy came from.

He was an only child, sole heir. He was quite the rebel, famous for chasing women. He even ran away and joined Barnum and Bailey's circus for a while. But in 1922, he inherited, at the age of 40, 30 million dollars, and that fortune grew to 50 million dollars by 1929. He just happened to pull all of his investments out of the stock market just months before it crashed. Yeah, he was in on something. Anyway, 50 million dollars in 1929—that's over half a billion today. What to do with all that cash? Well, among other things, he ended up buying over 20 miles of the north and east shores of Lake Tahoe.

If you know the lake, it's essentially from Sand Harbor all the way east to Stateline. Yeah, I mean he owned more of the lake than Nevada did. He built there this beautiful lake house where he played high-stakes poker with Howard Hughes and Ty Cobb, two guys who were notoriously antisocial. Right? Well, George Woodell was exactly the same way. In fact, his original plan was to build casinos at Zephyr Cove and Sand Harbor and to kind of fill in with homes. But he became such a recluse that he changed his mind and decided he preferred an immense buffer zone instead, so he didn't develop anything else.

From his days in the circus, he had a love of exotic animals. He would bring his pet elephant and lion up to the lake along with other exotic animals. But perhaps his most prized possession is this yacht, the Thunderbird yacht. It is a work of art. In fact, it eventually was used to shuttle the likes of Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and other Rat Pack celebrities from Calneva on one side of the lake to Harrah's on the other.

But Woodell was such a recluse that where he parked his boat, he dug—and he didn't do it personally, but he had to dig a 600-foot tunnel right through the granite so he could go from where he parked his boat into his house without ever being seen. That's how much he valued his privacy. Now the Thunderbird Lodge and yacht are owned by a preservation society. But from our little secret beach, on more than one occasion, I've paddled over there in nothing more than a little rubber raft.

In fact, this last time I was with my daughter Anna, and we paddled up right up to where there's this garage. It's an amazing garage right on the water, and it was open, which it rarely is. We were looking at this yacht, which was incredible. We didn't take this picture, but we were that close. In fact, this catamaran came over from the North Shore, and there were all these other boats trying to take pictures, but Anna and I, who had the best view in a $10 dinghy, I mean it was awesome. They were having to shoot over our heads.

Now, how much George Woodell enjoyed his immense wealth, I can't say. I mean, despite having a number of wives and mistresses, he never had any children. So he basically left behind a beautiful house, a really cool boat, and miles and miles of pristine shoreline, not because he was such a conservationist, but because he simply didn't like people. So in the end, his wealth bought him a lot of privacy. But beyond that, who knows?

All right, now back to you and me. Here’s the question again: how are you enjoying your inheritance? Are you enjoying this living hope to the fullest? Earlier in this letter, Peter says that we have this incredible inheritance that can never spoil, perish, or fade. In the truest sense, we are wealthy beyond destination because dollar bills can't buy you eternal life, can't buy you grace and peace, but Jesus Christ can and has through his death and resurrection.

And so if you haven't already, I'm going to invite you to open your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter this morning. We're going to be in chapter 2, but before we dive into chapter 2 as a theme for verse 4 today, let's look back to what Peter says right at the outset, chapter 1, verses 1 & 2. If you haven't found it yet, feel free to use that table of contents. Or, you know, don't worry about it. It's also going to be in your notes or on the screen behind me. But the Good News Translation puts it like this: to God's people, you were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by his Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by his blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure.

That's the gospel in a nutshell right there, in case you're wondering. But I want you to also notice what Peter says: may grace and peace be yours in full measure. That's his prayer. That's his hope for all of us—grace and peace in full measure. So let me ask, does that describe you? I have to admit I don't always feel full of grace and peace, but I want to. I'm sure you do too. So how do we experience greater fullness in our faith?

Think of it this way: if you were in a sailboat, you could do nothing to create the wind, right? But what you could do is position your sails to catch it, right? Well, it's kind of that way with our faith. And so this morning, I want to give you just three very simple reminders that when lived out practically are going to help you trim your sails and fill them. These are points that kind of give you handles to remember what Peter is saying in these verses here today. So buckle up, here we go.

To live your faith to the fullest, remember first of all: you are what you eat. I know it's simple, but it is so true. Take identical twins, exact same DNA. One eats a healthy diet; the other lives on junk food. Over time, you'd expect them to develop very differently, wouldn't you? Over the years, in fact, they would look less and less identical, even though they started out looking exactly the same. Well, what's true for the body is also true for the soul.

So, 1 Peter 2:1, Peter writes this: therefore—and that word therefore is our signal to look back at what Peter's already said, right? About the new living hope that we have in our identity and inheritance in Jesus. And he says, therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. I want you to notice something about this list: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. What kind of mental diet feeds on these types of attitudes and activities? Not a healthy one, that's for sure. And notice also Peter doesn't mention the more notorious sins that these former pagans were famous for. He doesn't talk about their promiscuity, doesn't talk about their idolatry, doesn't talk about their drunken orgies. He talks about things that are often more tolerated in Christian circles. Am I right?

But our minds and our relationships become toxic feeding on this kind of stuff. It destroys Christian community. In fact, it tears down what God intends to build. That's how serious this is. However, we have a healthy alternative. Verse 2: like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

You know, there's only one thing a newborn baby can do for itself: feed. That's it. And when it comes to faith, we can't, you know, will ourselves into growth. No amount of positive thinking, "I will grow, I will grow," is going to make us grow. But what we can do is feed, and we can choose our mental and spiritual diet. And so Peter says crave pure spiritual milk. Now, what's that? Well, just right at the end of chapter 1, Peter has been talking about the Word of God. And so it's very likely that he's just continuing that thought, talking about God's Word here at the beginning of chapter 2, because God's Word is absolutely essential to our spiritual growth. So crave it like a baby craves its mother's milk.

And that's why, by the way, and I think I speak for—I know I speak for all of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church—we take our obligation to teach God's Word faithfully and accurately and clearly really seriously. I mean, it's why we've initiated a series of theological seminars that we participate in together. While reading good theological material is a complement to our Bible study, because hey, we don't feel like we've arrived. We want to be intentional about our own growth because we know we're accountable to Jesus to present his word in pure, unadulterated form.

In fact, I'll never forget when my preaching professor in seminary started—I had him for two different classes, and he started each class the exact same way. He opened up the Bible to Isaiah 55:10–11, which are great verses where God says this: as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

At that point, my professor says to us, "We have right here clear indication that God is absolutely committed to his word." And he says, "Class, I see no such indication that he's committed to yours. So preach his word, not your own." And that is spot-on. And so in the grace and the power, despite our weaknesses, God gives us the ability and the privilege to serve you by teaching his word, and we take that very seriously.

But you don't eat just once a week, do you? I don't think so. In fact, if you did, you wouldn't do so well if you ate just one meal a week. In fact, it reminds me back in April of a sad story about a Swiss woman who starved to death trying to live on a diet of sunlight alone. You might have caught this; it was in several news outlets. It turns out that this woman was completely taken in by a documentary about this 83-year-old Indian yogi named Prahlad Jani, who claims he's lived without food or water for 70 years. Yeah, I'm not making this up. So this woman tries this, and it leads to her demise. This idea that we can live on light only is a New Age concept called breatharianism.

You probably may have never heard of breatharianism because the only time you do is when one of their gurus is caught eating, which often happens, or when one of their really committed followers dies of starvation like this woman. It's sad, but it points to the importance of knowing and feeding on truth because you can sincerely believe in something and still be sincerely wrong. And I doubt that any one of us are seriously considering giving up food. I know I'm not. But spiritually speaking, you know, my concern is that sometimes we think we can live like a breatharian when it comes to God's Word.

Are you following me? I mean, true confession: sometimes I feel like when we talk about developing Bible study habits or the importance of reading God's Word, it's like trying to convince people to eat their vegetables. It's like, "Okay, if you say so." In fact, I asked my wife Laura this week, I said, "Honey, what do you think motivates people to read their Bible?" And she kind of looks at me and kind of serious, kind of joking, and she goes, "Guilt." I think she's onto something there. But man, I don't want you to be motivated by guilt. I don't want to be motivated by guilt. I want us all to be motivated by growth because we are what we eat—all of us. So we got to own that. We got to say, "I will be intentional about my own growth."

And here's the thing: when we grow spiritually, we benefit. We experience greater joy and fulfillment. And not only that, we grow in our intimacy in our relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the source of all grace and peace. And not only that, we become a greater blessing to everyone else around us, which really matters. Because after all, the second thing Peter reminds us is we're in this together.

You know, the goal is not just for us to grow up as individuals but for us to grow up together. And so in these next verses, Peter paints a word picture here, and it's not an individual portrait; it's a group picture. Check this out: verses 4 through 6: as you come to him, the living stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says, "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

If you look in the footnotes of your Bible or even those TLC Bibles, you'll notice references to Isaiah 28 and Psalm 118, and what Peter is doing is intentionally stringing together this Old Testament imagery. He starts with what he calls the living stone—that's Jesus. In fact, centuries before Jesus was even born, the Jewish rabbis would teach that the references to the stone in Isaiah 28 and Psalm 118 were references to the Messiah, the coming king of Israel. Now, as we enter on verse 5, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

This means that when you and I give our lives to Christ, we become part of God's house, part of his great plan that he is doing on this planet. Like a little visual aid for you, look around at these perimeter walls in here. They're all made out of bricks just like this one. Valerie's kind enough not to throw it at me, but think about it. This brick here by itself, you know, doesn't really offer a whole lot. Okay, I suppose it could be used as kind of an evil and primitive message-delivering device, you know, to tie a note to it or maybe even, like we started at the outset, you know, the guy I mentioned, George Woodell, his life's goal essentially was to be an isolated brick just off by himself.

But when we are joined together, bound together by Jesus Christ with all the other bricks, we become part of something so much greater than we are in and of ourselves. And if you pull any one of these bricks out of these walls, what are you left with? It's not a trick question—a hole. Yeah. The same thing is true for us because every brick matters. Every brick has its place. We need every brick, which means we need you. I mean, God only made one of you, and there are unique contributions that only you can make in the way that you would make them. And if you don't end up doing the things that God has designed you to do, it leaves a hole. And God can find another brick, but he's not going to make another you.

If I don't offer up my gifts to him, I leave a hole, and the same thing is true of you. And I'm not suggesting that our service is limited to the confines of this campus. God is using so many of you all over the place. But what I'm talking about is being an active part of his capital C Church, his entire spiritual household, because every single one of us has something to offer, something to contribute—what Peter calls spiritual sacrifices here. What are those? Well, I've listed some references in your notes, and if you have a really good vision, you might even be able to read them. But let me help you out. Romans 12:1 says to offer your body as a living sacrifice. Ephesians 5:2—it's loving others. And Philippians 4:8 mentions financial gifts. In Hebrews 13, it's our praises and good deeds that are spiritual sacrifices.

The bottom line is this: we all have a role, a purpose, and a contribution to make. And let me just add that if you are struggling to find your place here, we've got a pastor named Jim Jocelyn dedicated to helping you plug in. You can contact our office or email Jim at Jim@TLC.org. He would love to help you out. Any one of us would, in fact. And we've also got a class called 301 that helps you understand how God has designed you to be part of the spiritual house, so to speak. Val can give you more information about our next 301 class; just email her at Val@TLC.org.

But man, may we never, ever—and I mean this with all my heart—may we never take our privileged place for granted to be part of God's household. I mean, it's just so amazing because the sobering truth is this: not everyone ends up being part of God's household. Continuing at verse 7: now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone and a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the message, which is also what they were destined for.

Now, these are some heavy verses, and the picture here is of builders, you know, they're working on a wall or a building, and they get to the part where they need the one stone that holds everything else together. They find a stone, and they inspect it, and they say, "No, this is not the one." They reject it; they toss it aside. But what happens is that it causes them to stumble over because God is not going to let this stone be ignored. It's an analogy, in fact, of what happened with Jesus with many of his own people because God chose Israel to make a spiritual house. But when the stone came, many of those builders rejected him. The Old Testament predicts, and the New Testament affirms, in fact, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. So Jesus is the capstone, but for those who reject him, he becomes a stumbling block.

They're literally tripping over him because he just won't go away, and he impresses the reality of himself upon people's hearts. Notice it says they stumble because they disobey him. Peter uses a term there in the original to mean ongoing, continual rejection and refusal to believe. This is not like, "I never heard of him." This is like, "Yeah, I checked him out, and I said, 'No thanks,'" which ultimately confirms their destiny. And that's a sad reality. Understand that God is not just picking people out for disbelief; their own rejection and disobedience is tied in with their destiny. On one hand, God is sovereign; he knows the destiny of all people. On the other hand, people still have free will, and how that all ties together, we have a hard time with that. In fact, Peter, he doesn't really even bother to unravel the riddle for us. He just says, "This is kind of how it is." Now, he's going to circle around in his next letter and say it's God's will that no one should perish, but there's this tension and this sad reality that not all are part of the household.

The bottom line is this: God is both loving and just, and that's good enough for me. What you can know is this, and you can know this for sure: the message of grace in Jesus Christ is for you to receive. God loves you so much, and if you haven't already, I pray that you will receive what Jesus wants to do in your heart and life. And if you already have, that you will live that to the fullest. And so to that end, remember you are what you eat, we're in this together, and finally, this is really big.

You know, we all naturally want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Well, what God is doing on earth is bigger than anything else. In fact, as a Christian, you're part of the kingdom of God, which includes heaven. So this is like really, really big. And maybe you came in here today and you feel really small. You feel like your life hasn't really amounted to much, and in fact, often you find yourself feeling worthless. If that's you, I want you to really take to heart what Peter says here in verses 9 and 10 when he says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

Man, you are far from worthless. And here's the big picture: because God loves the world, it has always been his plan to create a household that would bless the rest of the earth. That's his desire. And so it started with a guy named Abraham—you might have heard of him—and it extends now to you and to me. We're all the bricks that have ever been or ever will be part of God's house, held together by Jesus, which means this: it means we're chosen. God chose us long before we ever chose him, and we're royal priests because we serve and represent the king of the universe. We're a holy nation, not one defined by borders and not because we're perfect, but because Jesus is perfect, and he gives us his holiness and sets us apart for his good purposes and to be a people belonging to God.

So, man, you may not feel special, but to God, you sure are. And God wants to show us off to the rest of the world and that we might declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. God is using us to demonstrate he's still in the business of extending his mercy. And you mean there's no more important job on earth than that? I don't know what you do, you know, for a paycheck, but there's no more important, significant location in life and calling than to be part of the people of God. And that's who you are, church. This is no trivial thing. This is really big.

And when it all comes together, our personal growth in Christ and our togetherness as a community of faith, our service, our worship, it forms something really, really beautiful. That's why on the night that Jesus was arrested, one of his last recorded prayers is that we would be one, just like he and his father are one, because he said when that happens, the world will know that the Father truly sent him. That's how much this matters. That's how important our oneness is.

So to inspire you, I came across a little cool image of unity. Remember last week I told you I was kind of a nature boy? Well, I found a really cool anthill for you to check out. All right, no, just kidding. It's not that, but it's a video clip that captures a flock of starlings demonstrating what's called murmuration. Have you ever heard of murmuration? It's amazing. It describes how starlings move in just uncanny coordination with each other, and hundreds, even thousands of them move like they're being controlled by a single mind. Scientists can't even explain how they really do this, but when they do, it's breathtaking.

Check this out.

That cool? It's just mind-blowing, that beautiful dance as these creatures essentially declare the praises of their maker. Well, as well, but it makes me think, you know, what happens when the people of God move with that kind of love and unity and fly with that kind of formation? You think that would blow a few minds as well? You better believe it. In fact, Jesus believed that it would. And the more that we grow in our relationship with him and each other, the more this flock will look like a beautiful testimony to God.

So would you join me in praying that we would shine with the living hope that's in us and that we would live this life of faith to its fullest? Let's pray to that end.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace, for the peace that you offer us in Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that we would really embrace, take seriously—not in some heavy way, but although maybe that's necessary—but in a sense that we're called to be part of something beautiful and wondrous and so significant. It's what you are doing in this world right now, and we all have a part. And so, Father, I pray that you would help us to find our place in your household, that if we've never invited you to enter into our lives and forgive us and wash us with the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, that we would invite you to do that. Words aren't so important as it is the attitude of our heart, just saying, "Jesus, I need you. I want your love and your grace to be in my life and for you to change me."

And for those of us, Lord, who call you our Savior, I pray that we would continue to sense your upward call in our lives and that you would be glorified through all that we have to offer you. Pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who gave his everything for us, asking you through your Spirit to give us the desire and the will to give ourselves back to you. We pray this in Jesus' name.