LEGACY BIBLE CHURCH > Embrace, Embody, Entrust, & Engage the Gospel

In the midst of trials do you have a "living hope"? Peter's goal is to prepare us for the trials and struggles that are sure to come, to equip us for the furnace. What carries us through and beyond our struggles is God's mercy and our "living hope." In the midst of trials we can live victoriously because of Jesus Christ and the salvation He has provided through His death and resurrection.

Today we begin to look at the book of 1 Peter and see that we are called to be both residents and aliens. We are to be part of the city, residents who are involved for the good of the city. At the same time we are called to be aliens, our lives are to look different so that we glorify Christ through our lives. These verses call us to look at the atonement of Christ, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and election.

Do you enjoy the gospel? We are commanded in scripture to "rejoice always." Today we will hear about cultivating joy in our personal time with God, road blocks that can prevent joy, and enjoying the gospel in community.

Are you hospitable? Most of us tend to measure hospitality through the eyes of the world and not from God's perspective. God met us at our point of need, invited us in and fed us. We were strangers outside the "gate." God's hospitality challenges us to invite others into our lives in order to share the grace of God through Jesus Christ with them. Hospitality from God's perspective is a way of life, not a moment.

As we conclude our series in the Book of Jonah we see that God's love is both painfully refining and incredibly gracious and forgiving. God's desire for Jonah, and for us, is to shape our hearts into ones that love others more than we love ourselves.

Are you looking for the living among the dead? This question, asked by the angels of the women who had come to the tomb, was a rhetorical question aimed at getting them, and us, to think. Today we will look at three ways in which we can treat Jesus as if He were still dead as we serve, love and follow Him in our lives.

Is there anything in your life that you need in order to be happy aside from God? If so, your heart is divided. Jonah's heart was divided, he loved God but he loved something else more. God desires a pure heart, one that has a single focus.

God asks Jonah (and each of us), "Do you have a right to be angry"? If we are angry and cannot forgive we need to examine our hearts, have we forgotten the forgiveness God has shown to us? Before we can forgive others we must deal with the anger in our hearts and then go to the one whom we have wronged or who has wronged us and seek to bring about peace.

Do you live for others? As we continue through the book of Jonah, we see God's enduring grace, His plan, and that God is a sender. As a result of his failure, Jonah was finally ready to be used by God to fulfill His plan, Jonah was ready to be sent. It was necessary for Jonah (and it is necessary for us) to die to ourselves in order to be useful to go.

Who are the people on your boat and do they know the hope you have in Christ? The captain asked Jonah how is it you are sleeping, don't you know we are dying here? Have we forgotten that we were once dying as well? If we belong to Christ then we no longer have a right to be absorbed with our "goals", but rather we are free to follow God's calling on our lives.