Celebrating New Beginnings in Faith and Community

As a body and to celebrate with the three kiddos, kiddos, they're teenagers, who are going to get baptized and confirmed into the life of the church today. So welcome. If you're worshiping with us online, we're glad that you're with us. We would love to know that you're with us by having you put a comment into the chat stream. If you're here in the sanctuary, we'd love for you to fill out your connection cards attached to your bulletin. Especially if you're new to us, we'd love to be able to connect with you that way. [00:02:00]

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the sacrament of baptism, we are initiated into Christ's body as his holy church. We are incorporated into God's mighty acts of salvation, and we are given new birth through water and the Spirit. All this is God's gift to us, offered freely and without price. [00:37:05]

So I'm going to present three candidates for baptism and confirmation this day, and as I call their names, I invite them to come forward. First we have Chloe Jade Cunningham, Tyler Reese Hammock, and Brayden Luke Rush. You'll see that there are two other names listed in your bulletin, Elizabeth Lee Brown and Owen Michael Lewis. Due to scheduling conflicts, they'll be confirmed on May 18th at our early service. So you're welcome to come back and see them as well. All right. If you'll pick up your cards. All right. I have some questions for them, and then I have a question for y 'all, too. All right, candidates. On behalf of the whole church, I ask you these questions. [00:37:28]

And do you accept the responsibility to resist evil, injustice, and oppression by the grace and power of God? I do. Will you obediently keep God's holy will and commandments and walk in them all the days of your life by the grace and power of God? I will. All right. Congregation. Will you who witness these vows encourage these persons in the faith and do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ? And if you will, your answer is, we will. We will. Wonderful. Let us pray. [00:38:43]

Above all, we thank you for your most dearly beloved Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. As He hung upon the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, from His side flowed both water and blood for the healing and cleansing of the world. After His resurrection, He commanded His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. [00:40:47]

And they are now full members of the church, which I told them when I was getting ready for today. I told them that means they can, you know, be on committees and vote and stuff like that. And they looked at me like I had seven heads. It's fine. But I also told them that in a new way they can serve within the life of the church. And all of them expressed, all five of them expressed an interest in different areas to serve within the life of the church. So, be on the lookout for them in different areas of the church. So, congratulations, y 'all. I'm so proud of you. Thanks for hanging with me for this last few months as we got ready for today. And thanks for being up here. And thanks for letting me have the opportunity to baptize y 'all and welcome you into the church. As you make your way to your seats, let's congratulate them one more time. [00:44:27]

And I told them that you guys just get to listen. Okay? So, this is for them. If you get something out of it, it's fantastic. I hope you do. But this is for them. We're going to be in 1 Peter chapter 1, which is near the end of the New Testament. I'm going to be talking about forging faith here today. So, just a bit of context for 1 Peter. Peter is riding to churches in Asia Minor, which is modern -day Turkey. And he is hoping to encourage them and to help them see that the life of faith that they have embarked upon, saying yes to Jesus, means that there will be some struggles along the way. So, I need you all to know, confirmands, that it doesn't necessarily turn out all roses and puppy tails and unicorns from here. And those who are laughing understand that, yes, that's what happens, is the life of faith is often hard. Because, especially for Peter's context, Rome didn't like them. The Jews didn't like them, and the pagan culture around them in Asia Minor didn't like them either. And so, sometimes you will run up against some resistance as a follower of Christ. Thank you. [00:46:04]

Peter writes, In all this you rejoice greatly, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. [00:47:30]

We thank you, O God, that your Holy Spirit lives inside of us and empowers us to be bold for our faith, to stand up in the midst of trials, and offers us the opportunity to grow more closely to you. We pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Peter says, In all this. I love it when the scriptures give us a phrase like, in all this. Because what Peter is telling us is that there is rejoicing even in the midst of trials. And indeed, there's even rejoicing in the midst of really good things. [00:48:19]

He says, praise, if I just jump back a few verses, he says, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This is for you. This is what you have stepped into. And so we can rejoice in that. But we can also, Peter says, We can rejoice even though there may be some times where we have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. [00:48:47]

Peter's trying to tell us, and the scriptures as a whole testify to the fact that even in really difficult situations, we can still give praise to the Lord. We can still hear and feel his presence with us, guiding us and directing us and moving us closer to him. Even when it's hard. Because those moments of rejoicing in the hard times come from the deep well of faith that sustains us. [00:49:39]

Peter knows that many people who hear this letter, many who read this letter now even into today, will have had to suffer because of their allegiance to Christ. That it is... That it is... That it is... That it is... oftentimes when we stick our neck out in faith that somebody tries to cut our head off. And for Peter and many of the apostles that quite literally happened. The Romans didn't make it easy on them. The Jews didn't make it easy on them. And indeed many of their families didn't make it easy on them either. Peter shows that simultaneous joy and grief is quite normal. Within the life of faith. [00:51:03]

Grief arises because there are many difficult things that we encounter in this life. This world is still broken. And the reality that you've stepped into today is that our faith looks beyond this world and into eternity. I want you to know that next week between our services we're going to dedicate our prayer garden right out those doors right there. That prayer garden has been a work of love. It has been a it has been a work of faith. It has been a work come that comes out of in many cases grief and the loss of a loved one. And yet there is joy in that. [00:51:52]

And here's what I want you to know. Even if you don't know their names, they are the people who have helped make this moment possible for you. Like they have been, they invested in their lifetime into the life of this church and the life of faith so that generations they would never meet would have the opportunity to come to the waters of baptism and find faith in Christ. [00:53:09]

I want you to know that every time of trial is an opportunity for us to walk by faith, to take that step towards the Lord, to walk by faith and not by sight, to keep that eternal perspective that we have. Now, in verse 7, Peter says that trials don't come without purpose. They have indeed, they come so that the proven genuineness of your faith may result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. At the end of time, these moments that you have that are challenging, that all of us have that are challenging are opportunities for us to lean into our faith. [00:53:46]

But in order for gold to become shiny and beautiful and valuable, it has to go through this incredibly complicated and brutal process, basically. There's incredible heat and there's these caustic chemicals and it doesn't happen like that. It happens over time. It takes time for gold and silver to be refined. But Peter says that the faith of those who are tested, those he's writing to, those who I'm looking at right now and are here to witness for your faith as well. That faith is of greater worth, Peter says, than gold because that faith does not perish because of trials. [00:55:17]

Gold is shiny and beautiful and valuable, but the faith of one who stands for Jesus amidst the trials of life that the world will throw at them is even more beautiful, valuable, and worthy. Hear me clearly. Your faith makes you even more beautiful and valuable and worthy than any of the precious metals on this earth. Trials burn away the extra stuff that God doesn't want us to carry with us. The impurities. Just the way that the process of refining gold gets rid of the impurities. [00:56:21]

What is left when the trials have ended is the purified, genuine faith that is analogous to the gold or the silver that comes from the refiner's fire. I read a story one time about a silversmith who was working on some silver ore. And a reporter came and wanted to kind of interview him about the process and everything. And the reporter asked the silversmith, how do you know when the silver is ready? And the silversmith, while heating this blob of silver up to, you know, super high temperatures, without looking at the silversmith, said, when I can see my reflection in it. That's when it's ready. [00:57:03]

The trials of this life refine us and it moves away the impurities. It moves away the things that God wants to rid out of our lives until he can see his reflection in you. That's all, that's for all of us. That's for all of us who follow Christ is we want to see, we want the Lord to see his reflection in us so that when he looks at us, he sees himself. When we're refined, does the Lord see his reflection in us? [00:57:43]

Genuine faith that is proven through trials results in faithful receiving of praise and honor and glory when Christ returns at the end of the age. This is still true for believers today, not just for Peter and his particular context. Trials and temptations, though they are unpleasant in the moment, they present believers an opportunity to let God purify their faith and to make them wholly focused. [00:58:42]

So Peter thus reminds the Christians that he's writing to and to us today that God's purposes in present grief may not be fully known in a week or in a month or in a year or even sometimes in a lifetime. Christ's coming will burn away all the impurities such that only what is true and genuine will remain. That dross, that extra material around us that weighs us down will be gone and only the pure and undefiled element will be left. [00:59:12]

And because they are here right now, they want you to know, because they said we will encourage you, that when you go through those moments of ups and downs, you can turn to them. And you can lean on them just as much as you lean on the Lord. Because there will be those times. Honestly, I'm going through one of those moments right now. To baptize the three of you, to talk to you today, to celebrate with you is an incredible joy. [01:01:15]

And I want you to know that in those moments, when your world seems like you're riding the worst roller coaster ever, and you feel sick to your stomach, and you don't know what to do, the Lord is with you. He is with you. He is in you. He is encouraging you and your parents and your family and your friends and your church family. We are the body of Christ. And because we are the body of Christ, we come together in moments that are hard, and we cry together, and we mourn together, and we grieve together. And then we come together in moments that are incredibly joyful, and we celebrate together, and we eat cake and punch together, because that's what we do as the body of Christ is we celebrate together. This is life. [01:02:13]

But the family that you have joined my friends is here for the long haul they're here for the ups and the downs they're here to celebrate with you and cry with you they're here to praise you and to encourage you and to honor you and to lift you up in prayer congregation every time we baptize a child or a teen we have an incredible responsibility to do our very best to love them and care for them and support them and encourage them to lead them well to teach them well to honor them and to gather them further into the fold of Jesus that's our responsibility that's what you've agreed to that's what you agree to every time we baptize every time we confirm someone because that's what the body of Christ does and then as we are equipped and enabled to be the hands and feet we don't just send them I don't just send them we are all sent out to be the hands and feet of Christ for this world amen amen [01:03:27]