Yipee! I’m Saved

1 Pet 1:3-2:3

One of the coolest parts of being a minister is getting to baptize so many people. I love to watch the expressions they go through as they struggle with where they are at with God, surrender to him and then have their sins washed away. You cannot tell me baptism means nothing in this process, I’ve seen the faces of too many people who have fully submitted to God to know that it is something special, something cleansing, something sacred.

I’ll never forget one young lady in Alaska who embraced me after she was baptized. That’s pretty standard, it was what happened next that caught me off guard. She shouts out “yes!” and then give me a high five. While I chuckle at that, her expression of the joy of salvation is exactly what it’s all about. Some of us realize the change more than others and some of us express the joy of salvation more than others, but we all know it in our hearts. Everyone of us who have been saved need to continue to rejoice in our salvation.

Peter starts out this letter by reminding the Christians he’s writing to that God’s salvation is something to be excited about. Don’t lose that joy. Remember what it’s about.

PRAYER

I. The Joy of Salvation READ vs 3-9

A. A living hope

1. The world needs hope

a) One of the greatest failures of the inner city is that is has robbed people of hope. They don’t believe they can make it out of the ghettos. Even if they did, there is nothing for them to go to, so they give up and are swallowed into the continual cycle of violence and despair. Into this world came a millionaire by the name of Eugene Lang. He was asked to speak to a class of 68 sixth graders in the Harlem district of New York. He struggled for days about what to say to a group of mostly black and Hispanic kids from the project. As he stood before them with his speech in hand, he scrapped everything he had planned to say and made this promise. Stay in school. Anyone here who finishes high school, I will help pay for your college education. Suddenly that group of kids had hope for something better. Of those 68 who heard that speech, 90% graduated and went to college.

b) God gives us an even better hope. A better promise of a brighter future.

c) He promises that if we are faithful he will give us eternal salvation.

2. Peter’s personality is a little more tempered now that it was when he was with Jesus, but his enthusiasm is as strong as ever.

3. You can’t help but smile like an adult listening to a child tell a new and exciting story that just happened to him as you read this part of the letter.

4. Peter understood redemption.

a) He had denied Christ as his crucifixion.

b) Christ had redeemed him as his resurrection.

c) Peter never forgot that and everything we know about his life following the resurrection show that the risen savior changed him forever.

5. We need to reclaim the joy of redemption.

6. We need to allow the risen savior to change us forever.

B. An inheritance that can never perish

1. Columnist L. M. Boyd described the amazing good fortune of a man named Jack Wurm. In 1949, Mr. Wurm was broke and out of a job. One day he was walking along a San Francisco beach when he came across a bottle with a piece of paper in it. As he read the note, he discovered that it was the last will and testament of Daisy Singer Alexander, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. The note read, "To avoid confusion, I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds this bottle and to my attorney, Barry Cohen, share and share alike." According to Boyd, the courts accepted the theory that the heiress had written the note 12 years earlier, and had thrown the bottle into the Thames River in London, from where it had drifted across the oceans to the feet of a penniless and jobless Jack Wurm. His chance discovery netted him over 6 million dollars cash and Singer stock. How would you like to have been making Mr. Wurm's footprints on that San Francisco beach? What a find!

2. Now let's compare Jack Wurm's inheritance with yours if you are trusting Christ as your Savior.

3. You have become an heir with Christ. Your eternal future is secure.

C. It overcomes the attacks of the world

1. Nothing this world throws at us can take away our salvation.

2. It stronger than all the attacks, all the persecutions, all the snide jokes that the world has.

D. More precious than Gold

1. Even the highest quality of gold will eventually lose it’s value.

2. But Salvation never will. It just gets more and more wonderful as we understand what God has done for us.

E. The gift that keeps on giving

1. Most of us were raised in a Christian home and so we don’t always feel the full effect of God’s salvation, but talk to someone who has had his or her life turned 180 degrees and you find yourself talking to someone who seems about to burst at the seams with joy at what God has done for them.

2. This is the awesome part of God’s grace, it covers us on a continual basis.

II. The Responsibilities of Salvation

A. With reward comes responsibility

1. Everyone talks about free grace.

2. God is the one that saves, we don’t have to do anything.

3. That’s kind of true.

4. Grace is free, but it isn’t cheap.

5. God gives it freely, but also tells us there are responsibilities that come with grace.

B. Prepare your mind

1. Peter tells us to prepare our minds for action.

a) That’s important to remember.

b) Action require doing something not just sitting there.

2. Be self-controlled

a) This is America’s biggest failure.

b) We badly lack self-control.

c) We want it all.

d) We want what we want.

e) lack of self-control is probably one of the Christian’s most common sin.

3. do not conform to the evil desires

a) Peter follows self-control by dropping the other foot.

b) Don’t conform to the evil desires of our former life.

c) Basically, Peter is saying, clean up your act and live right.

C. Be Holy

1. Why should we practice self-control and turn away from our former sins?

2. Because God wants us to be holy.

3. Grace continues to cleanse us only if we strive to follow God.

4. Paul said in Romans “Should we go on sinning so grace may abound? Never!”

5. The idea of grace is to cover someone wanting to follow God, not to cover us sinning more and more to make us happy.

6. God says be holy BECAUSE I am holy.

D. Remember, your only traveling through this world

1. The story is told about some Christians who were traveling in the Middle East. They heard about a wise, devout, beloved, old believer, so they went out of their way to visit him. When they finally found him, they discovered that he was living in a simple hut. All he had inside was a rough cot, a chair, a table, and a battered stove for heating and cooking. The visitors were shocked to see how few possessions the man had, and one of them blurted out, "Well, where is your furniture?" The aged saint replied by gently asking, "Where is yours?" The visitor, sputtering a little, responded, "Why, at home, of course. I don't carry it with me, I'm traveling." "So am I," the godly Christian replied. "So am I."

2. It’s not about the treasures we lay up here on earth, it’s about the treasure we lay up in heaven.

E. Remember the cost that was paid for your free gift

1. I don’t think I can say it any better than Peter so please listen carefully to vs.18-21