Active Hope: Engaging Grace in Our Lives

Peter Begins by saying therefore having girded up the loins the hips of your mind, it's an image of in those days people wearing flowing clothes, not able to run easily in those clothes reaching down between their legs and and pulling the back skirt up and tucking it in their belt that's the way you gird up your loins so you turn a robe into running shorts in other words okay that's the way you do it and you can move and you're not hindered by this ordinary domestic way of dressing that's his first image do that to your mind your mind the Mind needs to move it needs to be free it needs to act the second image is and being sober so he's talking about a mental spiritual alertness avoiding anything that numbs and intoxicates the minds the spiritual things so two images girding up the Mind ready for action and avoiding mental inebriation then the third thing hope fully fix your hope completely [00:55:55]

the therefore we passed over that word too quickly at the beginning or wherefore if you have an old version therefore emphasizes the connection between hope and all the grace of God that he's been talking about for these 12 verses that went before therefore fix your hope completely why well let's just let's just rehearse it since verse 1 God has chosen you since verse 3 God has caused you to be born again it's since verse 4 he's keeping an inheritance for you imperishable undefiled and unfading since verse 5 he's protecting you through faith since verses 6 he is providentially refining your faith through afflictions since birth 8 he's enabling you to swim with the stroke of love and and faith and joy since verse 10 to 13 he has moved prophets and angels to lean over to get excited about what he's doing in your life since all of that therefore hope in it hope in it hope in it fully [00:45:00]

Christianity is not first and ethic Christianity is not first a faith Christianity is not first a failing Christianity is not first a theology Christianity is first The Sovereign free initiative taking action of God that's Christianity first God chose you God calls you to be born again God is keeping an inheritance God raised Jesus from the dead God is guarding you through faith God is using fire to refine you God God for 12 verses now here comes the command hope in it that's the second half of Christianity Christianity is first God acting and then you hoping in that action Christianity is not first God delighting in what you can perform for him in your strength Christianity is first God delighting in your hoping in what he can perform for you in his strengths [00:06:00]

God does not Delight in the strength of the horse nor take pleasure in the legs of a man but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him in those who hope in his steadfast love what pleases and delights the heart of God is not what you can do for him but what you hope he will do for you and the measure of your hope is how much you look to him to do it today and when Jesus comes that's the point of the verse that's Christianity Can You Feel the essence of Christianity pulsating in this book 12 verses of God's action and now the first command not work that will come but the First Command and the most important command and the essential command is Hope in it [00:07:23]

Being Sober keep on being sober unto hope this is your second means this is my second practical suggestion he says so that you can be a people who are not half hopers but full hopers complete hopers in God what does it mean what does he mean being sober I think it means don't drink anything into the mind that numbs it to the value of God's grace don't drink anything into the mind that numbs the mind and the Heart to God's Grace don't let your mind become inebriated by anything but God don't use an illustration here if Noel and I choose vacation spots Noel would more generally choose the ocean and I would more generally choose the mountains now there are various reasons for this difference one is found in this text that's how I get into trouble buttressing my opinions with the Bible [00:14:09]

my concern for me at that point is not primarily that I will be seduced by one of these scantily clad females into cheating on Noel and committing adultery my concern is way back Upstream from that namely if I understand this text right my passion on vacation should be to stay sober unto hope that is not to let anything intoxicate and numb my mind to the value of the glory of the grace of God and I know from 34 years of experience that to dwell long upon or to return often to a sexual sensation precisely intoxicates my mind in that direction it precisely numbs me to the glory of God I'll choose the mountains thank you because I want God now that may be exactly why Noelle goes to the beach look at the ocean she'd give a rip about these other women look at the ocean it is big it is deep it is heavy like the love of God and there are nights when I get that too when nobody else is around [00:16:09]

if it isn't your intoxicant dragging you down away from the fullness of Hope in the glory of Grace then try money career power romance novels soap operas TV advertisements fishing coin collecting computers rehabbing gardening or anything else in this world that leaves you less in love with God and if you catch the burden of this verse you will say no I will not be enslaved or intoxicated or inebriated or numbed out by anything so that when I stop doing it I have to work hard to love God again I have to work hard to go to church and worship I have to work hard to want to pray or to read the Bible you know what those things are this verse says be sober by don't drink them don't see them don't hear them flee from them why because your world denying no because you're God affirming anything anything anything that Kindles the Purity and passion of your love for God move in on it with power and anything that pulls you out of that Purity and that passion and that fullness of Hope in God flee it flee it [00:18:07]

engage your mind let your mind be preoccupied with run in truth that comes from scripture about Grace and God now there are two reasons why I think that doesn't say that in the verse that truth is the thing you gird your mind up with but the two reasons I think it number one is from the next verse which we'll talk about next week but let me just read it to you do not be conformed to your former lusts which were yours in ignorance okay now if you were driven by hopes and desires that were contrary to God's Will and destructive to your life because you were in ignorance than the way to cultivate having hopes that are life-giving and saving namely hope in God is to get rid of that ignorance namely replace it with truth that's the first reason I think truth is implied in girding up the loins of your mind think on truth and just memorized yesterday that great great verse therefore Brothers if there is anything that is true if there is anything that is Honorable if there's anything that is just if there's anything that is pure if there's anything that is lovely if there's anything that is praiseworthy there's any Excellence if there's anything worthy of Christ think on it think on it think on it use your mind don't be passive set it [00:10:47]

Peter's first practical suggestion to you this morning if you respond how do I hope where do I get strength to Hope where do I inspiration to hope his answer is put on the running shorts of your mind and it is not a field of Truth run you find it it's right here this is the field of Truth over against the world so what he means now when he says gird up the loins of your mind is Engage The Mind with truth in the service of Hope Engage The Mind with truth in the service of Hope the second practical suggestion he gives is be sober [00:13:33]

my heart's desire as I close is to just beg of you catch the spirit of this text let God do a new thing in your heart this morning God doesn't want you to coast in the Christian Life that is to say well I believe click oh I believe click he wants you to go for it for broke gird it up gird it up put on your shorts you see that I mean what does that mean please do that let's do it as a church engage your minds with hope producing truth and guard your minds by avoiding hope destroying causes in the world [00:19:37]

you have given us so much grace and so much salvation and so much Glory it is such an awful contradiction of its value to just say ho hum yeah I've got that I made a decision once click Lord speak this word therefore having girded up the loins of your mind and being sober hope fully in Grace that is being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ [00:20:47]