The Most Common Thief of Hope

"Hope Rising," that is the name of our series that we began on Easter. Good morning, everybody. Who is glad to be at church despite the June Gloom today? Let me hear from you. Me too. My name is René. I'm one of the pastors here. And I'm just glad to be back home. I've been gone almost a month, and I'm super stoked to be back. And I want to say thanks to Mark and Val for filling in while I was away. Can we just thank them together? They did a wonderful job.

We have something very special going on right now in our family. Today, June 1, is not only the official arrival of June Gloom in Aptos, it is also my mother-in-law's 90th birthday. And she's sitting right there. In fact, I probably shouldn't do this, but we had family coming in from all over the country to give her a happy birthday. I want my whole family to stand up right there. Everybody related to me in any vague way from all over the country. It was awesome to have them here. It's so beautiful.

So some of you are like, were you away? Yes, I was gone. I was in-- first, I was in Naples, Italy for a week. That was so exciting. So Twin Lakes Church has been supporting two churches there since the day they were started by our ministry partner over there, Doug Valenzuela. They started from nothing, just storefronts where Doug told me for the first several months that he was pastoring these churches. He and his family were the only people in attendance. He was doing everything. And now these churches are booming. They are two of the largest evangelical churches in Italy. And I taught seven times there. I taught at a Bible conference five times, taught at a Sunday morning service, taught at a leaders event. And they are so grateful for your support. And they say hello to you. They love you guys. I just have to tell you that.

And then after that week of ministry in Italy, I got to go with my wife. She's been teaching a class here for the last eight weeks on the biblical places in Greece and Turkey and the biblical events that happened there. And we had a chance to go to that part of the Mediterranean and do some teaching over there with her class as sort of the last event of her class. So it was a ball. But you do have some interesting experiences when you're traveling. Like we experienced a 6.2 earthquake while we were over there. That's always interesting. And then just other cultural things. Well, we were in a different hotel almost every night. And one morning, I was jet lagged and bleary-eyed. And I got up, and I knew I had to brush my teeth. And so I grabbed the toothpaste, and I put it on my toothbrush and began to brush my teeth. And I thought to myself, this Turkish toothpaste that we picked up isn't minty like American toothpaste. But I thought, you know what? I'm not going to be one of those people that are like, this isn't like American toothpaste. I'm going to blend into the culture. So I was like, it tastes very medicinal, but it's probably super effective. So I'm going to give myself a really good vigorous brush and all the cracks and so on.

You know, when I was done, I took another look at the toothpaste tube and realized I'd been brushing my teeth with athlete's foot cream. But my teeth didn't itch all day, so it really worked. It helps when you put your foot in your mouth as often as I do. But anyway. But here's another cool thing that also happened. We actually visited the exact corner of the planet where there in Turkey, today's section of the Bible was actually addressed. This is so cool. Let's dive in. Grab your message notes that look like this. They're right in the middle of your bulletins. We always have those notes. We also have discussion questions if you're doing a home group or if you just like to dive in further into the text.

Hope Rising, as I said, is the name of our eight week series on hope. And here is why we thought we really need to do a topical series on hope very specifically because of the cultural moment that we are in right now. You've probably seen headlines like this. They've been dominating the news. I mean, politics has been dominating the news. But aside from that, you've probably seen a lot of headlines like this. Is Hopelessness a Public Health Crisis? The article goes on, "Despair is in the Air for US Well-Being, UMD, University of Maryland, economist finds. How can the world's wealthiest country be so poor in hope?" She talks about research that shows unprecedented levels of despair have manifested in a national mental health crisis. And when there is hopelessness that gets its root into a culture, it can be very hard to uproot that.

And hopelessness has been shown, as we've seen in this series, to actually lower lifespans, to raise blood pressure, to lower immunity, not to mention all the emotional effects of hopelessness. This is such a big enemy that we're all facing right now that it's found its way even into our pop culture moments. Like, I don't know if you've seen the new Marvel superhero movie, Thunderbolts. This isn't a recommendation necessarily, but an observation. In this movie, there's a character named Bob. And Bob is gifted with superpowers, and yet he thinks he's not worthy of them. Bob has been abused by a child. He's been a meth addict. He's been a convict. And he says, you know what, there's no hope for me. And he keeps saying things like, I feel a void inside. And so he actually becomes a villain named The Void, literally the personification of hopelessness. And what he does as he creeps through cities is he zaps people into his own realm of hopelessness and despair.

Now, how do you fight an enemy like that? Well, the other heroes eventually realize, this is an enemy they can't fight with punches. They can't fight them with laser beams. They eventually realize that the only way to fight hopelessness is through unconditional love and community. It's really actually a remarkable conclusion to a superhero movie, of all things. But I was thinking how in the whole previous generation, the threat that superheroes and super spies fought in all the films was nuclear bombs and madmen with weapons of mass destruction. Now what they're fighting is despair, hopelessness. Because there's this accurate, I would say, perception that that's currently our main threat.

And so what I want to address this morning is what I see as the most common thief of hope, which is how I see myself. That's what drained hope from that character in that movie, Bob. And I think it's draining hope from people today, even people who know the Bible and who know theoretically that Jesus loves them. See, I can stand up here, or Val or Mark can stand up here in this series and say all these great things about what the Bible says about the hope that God gives you. There's the resurrection, and there's your redemption, and there's the new creation, and there's your sanctification. But so many people can hear all that and think, yeah, that's great for other people, but not me. I'm just not good enough.

Many people right now feel like the character in that movie. They feel unwanted, like nobody really likes me. They feel I am unappreciated. No one really knows how hard I work. My boss doesn't-- my family doesn't appreciate you. But even though I work hard, my efforts are ultimately meaningless. They're in vain. My job is pointless. My life has no real value. And in fact, I am irredeemably bad as a person. I'm so dumb. I do so many stupid things. And I'm not saying people who are lost feel this way. I'm saying even a lot of Christians feel this way. And how do I happen to know that? Well, because I felt this way for so much of my own Christian life. Even though I could tell you chapter and verse about God loves you and for God so loved the world and so on, I just felt like, but I'm blowing it all the time. And surely when God sees me, he's just disgusted with me. And I know I'm not alone.

I got an email from-- I'll keep this anonymous-- but from an objectively very successful man here at Twin Lakes Church. And he said, my main personal struggle has been that I frequently feel worthless, both as a human being and as a believer, thinking that my failings prevent me from having any worthwhile influence. Dealing with this issue has been a lifelong challenge for me. I won't ask for a show of hands, but can you relate? Well, this morning we're going for the cure to all of this. This morning I really want to help change the way you see yourself. And this is not going to be some shallow self-help message. We're going to go deep today.

In today's message and next weekend's, I want to go directly to the book of 1st Peter in the New Testament. This is known as the Epistle of Hope. Why is it called the Epistle of Hope? Well, I want to set up the context historically and culturally and then really do a deep dive on just two famous verses that are set up almost like a poem. They're very memorable. But I really want to go deep on these today. Are you ready to go deep this morning? Anybody ready to go deep this morning? All right, let's dive in. Chapter 1, verse 1. It says, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ." This is the apostle Peter, as in one of the very first followers of Jesus. And he's writing way back in the days of the Roman Empire in the first century. "To the elect who are exiles scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia."

Now, I know that those are just like syllable words to you and me today. We're like, whatever, cappuccino, milk of Bignesia, Bitcoinia, I don't know. But this context is really important. These were all areas in what the Romans called Asia Minor, modern day Western Turkey. You see the names for all the provinces that he identifies. And this is exactly where our group just was just a few days ago. And in the first century, 2,000 years ago, this was populated mostly by all kinds of groups that came into Asia Minor to seek their fortune. It was sort of like the California of the first century. So you had Jews, you had Syrians, you had Arabs, you had Africans, you had Europeans, especially Celtic tribes that came down from what is now France. You had Armenians, you had Kurds, you had Greeks, you had Romans, you had all these different ethnic groups, so there probably wasn't even an ethnic majority. All these people coming in to try to make their fortune, and they are hearing about Jesus. And in increasing numbers, they're becoming followers of Jesus.

Problem, the Roman Empire is hearing about this. And three times in the early days of Christianity, Asia Minor became the focus of intense persecution. In fact, there's a famous man named Pliny the Younger, who was the Roman governor here. And a few years after First Peter was written, he writes a letter that we still have copies of to this day to the Roman emperor Trajan. And what he's doing in the letter is he's like, this is the way that I'm killing Christians? Am I doing it right? Here's what he says. He says, "I interrogated them as to whether they were Christians. And those who confessed, I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment. Those who persisted, I ordered, executed." And Trajan writes back like, good job, well done. So these are the situation, these are the people that Peter is addressing here. There was the persecution under Nero to these people, then under Domitian, another Caesar to these people, and then under Trajan to these people. So he's addressing people in this situation and anticipating the situation. What I'm saying is their future looks hopeless. It does not look bright. They are ripe for discouragement.

And Peter's not going to lie to them. He doesn't say, yeah, by the way, your suffering is just going to end tomorrow. He says, yeah, you're going to be suffering for a while. But then watch how he builds them up. And you know this worked. The Christians in Asia Minor outlasted the Roman Empire by centuries. So how does he lift up their hope? First of all, he calls them elect exiles. You got to love that. You are exiles, but you're elect. That means chosen. And this idea becomes his emphasis. Verse 2, God the Father knew you and chose you long ago. Then in verse 3, in God's great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So what is this living hope that he's talking about exactly? Not just ultimate hope, but vibrant living daily hope that can change every moment of your life right now. Well, in the next chapter, Peter elaborates. And now that I've set up the context, who's hearing this, I want to do a deep dive into these two verses. In chapter 2, he starts that chapter by talking about the people without hope. And then he says in verses 9 and 10, but you are not like that. You are a chosen people. Now, I looked up that word chosen in the original Greek, and you know what it technically means? Chosen. You are chosen. You are a chosen people. You are royal priests. You are a holy nation. You are God's very own possession.

Now, hit pause on that just for a second. This isn't in your notes, but jot down in your margins if you want to do a deeper dive. Exodus 19, verses 5, 6, and 7. This is a paraphrase of those verses. Why is that important? Those were delivered to the Israelites 1,500 years before this, 3,500 years ago, when they were getting out of slavery in Egypt. They've been slaves for 400 years under the thumb of Pharaoh. And God says to them, stop thinking of yourselves as slaves. Stop thinking of yourselves as people who are powerless and under oppression. You're chosen. You've got special possession. You're a nation of royal priests. And now, 1,500 years after that, Peter is writing these people who are Jews and Arabs and Syrians and Kurds and French ancestors, all of these desperate people. And he's saying, God's called you all together, and he's building you into a chosen people. Why? So that you can take over the Roman Empire? No. So you can show the goodness of God, who called you-- just like those Israelites had been called out of slavery and oppression-- who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.

He says, once you had no identity as a people. Now you are God's people. Once you receive no mercy, now you've received God's mercy. Isn't that powerful? There's four things Peter says in these verses to discourage believers that you and I need to hear. I want you to jot these things down. First, as part of God's family, I am accepted. Accepted. Say "accepted" out loud with me. Accepted. A lot of us spend our entire lives seeking acceptance, validation. The drive to be accepted can influence the kind of music you listen to, the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the haircut you have, the college you choose, the career you choose. And so the very first thing Peter says is, you people who are being so insulted, persecuted, slandered, and oppressed by the great Roman Empire, no. You're chosen. God chose you. God chose you. Did you deserve it? Not a chance. Are you good enough to earn it? Never. He chose you just because he wanted you. And this answers that first bullet point, I am unwanted.

I really want you to hear this because maybe you deal with this constant low background hum of rejection in your psychology. Maybe it was the way you were raised. Maybe the religion of your childhood. Maybe the way your parents treated you. Or maybe it's just your personality. But you always kind of feel like you're at fourth grade recess and everybody else has picked for a team and you're standing on the blacktop looking at your tennis shoes alone. But do you get this? God says, I choose you. I pick you to be mine. And this idea is all over the Bible. Like Ephesians 1:11, in him we were also what? Chosen. Or Romans 15:7, Christ accepted you. You know, many of you have accepted Christ. Have you ever thought that Christ accepts you? Say Christ accepts me out loud. Christ accepts me. And if that makes you feel like, I don't know, I get it. For many years, I used to think that, yeah, I'm saved or I'm getting into heaven kind of like I'm part of a grab bag pack of used baseball cards.

If you ever used to collect baseball cards, and I did briefly as a kid, you can buy these grab bag packs where it's just like you just get whatever you want. You don't know what's going to come in this pack. You buy a pack, and you get to see what's inside the card. And the reason you buy a grab bag, because probably you're going to get at least one cool card, like maybe this Tim Lincecum card, right? But you know when you buy a pack of cards, you're going to get lots of journeyman players that you've never heard before and you don't really want, right? And when they made these packs up, they throw in a lot of these guys' cards, right? Because they know nobody's going to ever buy this card unless it's in the pack. And I used to think that's kind of how it is with me. Like God was going for Abraham Lincoln. He was going for Mother Teresa. But to get them, you know, like legally or something, he had to offer salvation to the whole planet. So I just kind of got thrown into the grab bag pack. But I wasn't the point of the transaction. The Bible says, no, he chose you. If you had been the only person on the planet, he still would have chosen you. And you're not alone. You're not the only person on the planet. You're part of a chosen people, a new team that he is putting together. God picked you. Some of you, you walked in thinking, do I really belong here with these people? You do because God picked you.

I was reading a blog this week by Karina Allinson. And maybe you can relate to this. She had found a high school diary that she was writing when she was 15 years old. And it struck her. So she blogged about it. She said, apparently I used to write mean things about myself in my journal. Here's a peek at my 15-year-old self. Why am I like this? I'm fat and I hate it. I feel so worthless. I hate being me. There was a massive war going on in my soul. I struggled terribly with who I was and my self-worth. I ultimately chose to believe that I had value. Watch this. Not because I felt that I did clearly much of the time. I didn't. But because God said that I did. And she says, I've come to realize in a way deeper than I've ever recognized before that Jesus saved me from a life of self-hatred. And he can save you too from sin and self-hatred. She came to understand what it means to be accepted by Jesus.

And then this verse just keeps getting better. Peter says, this is also true of you. I am treasured, cherished, valued. I want you to think about something. What determines value? What determines the value of anything? Money, Bitcoin, some antique. Really only two things. What someone is willing to pay for it. What's a piece of artwork? Whatever somebody is willing to pay for it. And then second, who has owned it in the past? For example, here's a couple of things I just read this week. This pair of sticky, stinky, smelly, worn out sneakers recently sold at auction for $1.5 million. That set a world record for the most amount ever paid for a pair of sneakers. Now why would somebody pay that much for this pair of sneakers? Because they were worn by Michael Jordan in his rookie season in the NBA in 1984. I also read that these notes written on hotel stationery recently also sold for $1.5 million. Why? They don't say anything important, nothing famous, nothing world changing. But they were written by Albert Einstein.

Now before you pack rats say, this is exactly why I never throw anything away. Because I could be throwing away a fortune. These notes are valuable. Why? Because they were Einstein's. Einstein? But it did make me think that perhaps as a church fundraiser I might put up for auction my used Turkish toothpaste. You just never know. But Peter says you are God's very own possession. What this means is it's a sign of your value. Forget Einstein or Jordan. You're God's. And what was God willing to pay for you? The Bible says God paid a high price for you. How high? Ephesians 1:7. God is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins. Nobody has ever paid a higher price for anything than that. And that means you are the most precious thing in the universe. That second bullet point on the list on page one, I'm unappreciated. No, I am this treasured.

Is there anybody here who kind of feels worthless? Well, the one who matters most says you are worth the rarest substance in the universe, the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Is there anybody here who feels kind of ugly, unlovely? The only eyes that count when they look at you, they're radiant with love. Look at Ephesians 1:4, "Long before he laid down the earth's foundations, God had us in mind and had settled on us as the focus of his love to be made whole and holy by his love." Long before the earth was made, it says, so it doesn't matter what you've done or not done. It doesn't matter if you've got a great job. It doesn't even matter if you're employed or unemployed, rich or poor, young or old, got good grades in school this past year or bad grades, whether you're in jail or on the outside. God says, I treasure you. You. I accept you and I treasure you.

And it just keeps getting better because number three is, I now have purpose, a divine purpose given to me by God. And this answers that third bullet of, my life is meaningless. It's all in vain. Look at what Peter says next. And this is truly, completely mind-blowing if you really grasp this. He says, you are royal priests. When you believe in Christ, when you believed in him, God made you not only royalty, but a priest. You say, I'm not a priest. This is worth looking at this more closely. And in the Old Testament, priests had a right and a responsibility. They had the right to go directly to God. Everybody else had to go through the priests, but the priests went one on one with God. And they had the responsibility to bring people to God. And those are the very two things that are true of you as a believer.

First, you have the right right now to go directly to God. You don't have to pray through anybody else. You don't have to connect through anybody else. You don't have to confess to anybody else. Of course, it's healthy to confess our sins to one another for accountability and authenticity. But God says, you have a direct line now. So you read your Bible. You pray to him. You don't say, well, I'm going to leave that to the professionals. And second, you can bring people to God. You can be a bridge builder. Peter says, you're royal priests, so you can show others the goodness of God. How do you show people the goodness of God? How do you serve as a priest to our community here in Santa Cruz in your life right now? How can you do this? Well, there's a million ways, right? Not just through your words, sharing people. We're going to talk more about that next weekend. But also through your actions.

I'll give you an example. Our fifth graders here at Twin Lakes Christian School in this last week of school last week, they became priests. They served as priests. You want to know how? Well, they helped out at our People's Pantry food distribution this past Wednesday. They sorted produce and chicken and helped prepare the food. They prayed for the people who would come to get food. And from a Christian perspective, this is part of our mission, right? Jesus specifically asked us to feed people. And this builds hope in those young people. So many studies show that when young people are given a sense of purpose, not just like they're seeking validation from somebody who's grading their papers or somebody who's putting them on a team, but they are given a sense of ironclad purpose in life, like divine mission. Well, I mean, they're going to have lower levels of anxiety, lower levels of depression, better academic performance. All the data shows that. And the same can be true of you.

By the way, speaking of People's Pantry, next weekend, it's the groundbreaking of the Hope Center, the new home of People's Pantry. That's going to happen after this service. So by the way, so plan, we're going to all be going over there praying for that building's construction. And then we're going to have a free lunch. That's going to happen next weekend. It's going to be so exciting, the Hope Center. But there's so many other ways that you can be priestly to your community. The community of faith you can serve in our kids' ministry, which really needs you this summer. Share your faith with neighbors. You can be a bridge builder. Now, that voice in your head might say, well, you say I'm a priest, René. You say I have a divine given purpose. But I'm so unworthy. Maybe this is what God wants me to do. But I've disqualified myself. I'm putting myself on the bench. You don't know what I've done. Maybe you're thinking about something 10 years ago. Maybe you're thinking about something 10 days ago. And that leads to our final point. You have to know this. I am forgiven. I'm completely forgiven.

Peter says, once you are not a people, now you're the people of God. Once you have received no mercy, now you've received mercy. Circle that word mercy. If you ever hear that accusation in your mind, you really blew-- God may have chosen you once, but now you're off the team. So many Christians struggle with this. There's a pastor I'm friends with who says that there's a woman in his church who every single weekend comes up to him after his sermon and says, thanks for that sermon, Pastor. Man, God really convicted me. Every single weekend, God, man, God just punched me in the mouth with that sermon. God convicted me of that saying. Man, I am under so much conviction. And finally, he asked her, does God ever say anything nice to you? Like this in Ephesians 1:4. God loved us and shows us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. In his eyes right now, you're without fault. If you've just received his offer, his free gift of redemption. And of course, that answers the final bullet point, right? I'm irredeemably bad. No, you're forgiven. Does that mean you're perfect? No. Because you're covered with his love. God sees you as holy and without fault in his eyes. Stop benching yourself. God's not benching you. Somebody say amen if that is good news to you this morning.

So look at this list. Let's say this list out loud together. I am accepted. I am treasured. I have purpose. I am forgiven in Christ. So here's the question. Do you actually believe this is true? Not just up here, but in here? Because if you don't, that's going to be the biggest thief of your hope. Because you're going to learn all these things about biblical hope and you're going to go, but I just-- I just don't qualify for those things. I've blown it too much in my life. God may think these things of other people, but not of me. In Christ, this is true of you. This is a challenge because in your life, people will say all kinds of negative things about you. You will say all kinds of negative things about you. And it's always much easier to remember the negative than the positive, the bizarre than the beautiful.

And I know one of the dangers of the message today is you'll go home and the only thing you'll remember is René brushed his teeth with athlete's foot cream. That's it. But you know what I'd love for you to remember? I'd love for you to remember the word chosen, because that is what you are. I'll close with this. One of the most famous American sociologists ever was a guy named Charles Cooley. And his most famous quote was this. He said, "Your self-image is determined to a large degree by what you think the person who matters most to you thinks about you." Let me say that again. Your self-image, your self-worth is determined to a large degree by what you think the person who matters most to you thinks about you. Can I just suggest you make Jesus Christ the most important person in your life? And you hear him say to you that you're accepted, that you're treasured, that you have purpose, and you're completely forgiven.

Open your heart to Christ today. Let's pray together. Would you bow your head with me? With our heads bowed, some of you might be thinking, I need to believe that about myself. How do I get that? It starts when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. So I invite you right now to do that, to believe that God entered our world and gave his life as a sacrifice so that all these things are true. And you can pray something like this right now. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your overflowing kindness, for this hope, and to think this is all ours by your grace. All we need to do is receive it. That is amazing. It's amazing grace. And I pray that each of us in our own hearts now can say to you, I receive that. I receive that grace bought for me on the cross and proven true by the Resurrection as a first time commitment or as a reaffirmation. Thank you, Lord. And God, I pray that as we move out from this church building today, we would overflow with hope, with radiant hope, with living hope to a community that needs hope so badly. Help us be the people of hope to our despairing world. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.