New Birth for Old Problems | Apr 16, 2023

Episode Transcript

Rev. Dr. James Ellis III (00:00):
Be still and know that I am God.

(00:02):
Good words for us to think aboutthis morning.
The text I have today is onePeter chapter.
Versus three through nine, asyou, take some time to turn
there.
let me just remind you of aphrase that I was reminded of.
It's an anonymous quote, but theperson said, salvation is free,

(00:24):
but discipleship will cost youyour life.
Salvation is free, butdiscipleship will cost your
life.
I hope that here at Maplewood,we are people who want to offer
salvation, the free gift ofsalvation to.
Comes in that we could beconduits for that, but also that
we could let people know thatthat decision then marks you for

(00:45):
dying to yourself so that youcan live in Christ.
Amen.
Amen.
All right.
First Peter three, chapter one,verse three through nine.
Praise be to God the Father andthe Lord Jesus Christ.
In his great mercy, he has givenus new birth into a living.

(01:08):
Through the resurrection ofJesus Christ from the dead and
into an inheritance that cannever perish, spoil, or fade
kept in heaven for you, whothrough faith, are shielded by
God's power until the coming ofthe salvation that is ready to
be revealed in the last time.

(01:29):
Verse six.
In this you greatly re.
Though now for a little while,you may have had to suffer grief
in all kinds of trials.
These have come so that yourfaith of greater worth than
gold, which perishes, eventhough refined by fire, may be
proved genuine and may result inpraise, glory, and honor When

(01:53):
Jesus Christ is revealed, thoughyou have not seen him, you love
him, and even though you do notsee him now, You believe in him
and are filled with aninexpressible and glorious joy
for you are receiving the goalof your faith, the salvation of
your souls.

(02:15):
This is the word of God for thepeople of God.
Thanks be to God.
New birth for old problems.
New birth for old problem.
When I was a child, you know, inmy toddler years, pretty well up
until my toddler years, I waschunky.

(02:35):
I was curious and I was a littlesideways, sneaky.
And one thing that I loved to dowas blow ashes out of ashtrays.
It, it was my thing.
I, I couldn't tell you where I,I got that, desire from, why it
was such a big, big deal.
But I.
That it was a big deal.

(02:56):
I, I got an absolute kick out ofblowing ashes out of the
ashtray.
It's interesting because it's,it stopped, or my parents rather
stopped smoking when I was intomy adult years.
So naturally the ashtrays weresomething that was in my home
when I was growing up, and I, Idon't think, the commitment that
I had to huffing and puffing andblowing ashes everywhere was as

(03:20):
successful in my own.
Partly because my parents didnot play and they were more
familiar with the space.
So they could kind of police mebetter as a little chunky kid
that was very curious and,secretive.
But if you were coming over toour house or we were going over
to your house and you hadashtrays, which many of our

(03:42):
friends and family did, you canimagine it was gonna be on with
the ashes and the ash.
Like it was yesterday.
I remember kind of sinisterlybiting my time.
I was really plotting, inchingover to the ashtray.
I'd act like I was playing withsomething and just had no

(04:02):
interest really in the ashtray.
But I was locked in.
I was locked in out the side ofmy eye, and believe me, if you
didn't catch me before, my pintsize thick little thighs got to
moving.
It was gonna be.
I was already gonna be there atthe ashtray.
I was gonna put my face up tothe ashtray.
I was gonna fill my cheeks withas much air as I could stand,

(04:26):
and I was gonna blow the ashesto smithereens, and I was gonna
laugh.
I wonder if you would be inagreement with me this morning
that maneuvering across life'stensions is a source of serious.
We, we don't understand orappreciate why it has to be that

(04:49):
way.
There's, there's an itch that welong to scratch for fantasy to
conquer fiction someplace wherepixie dust and ice cream trucks
rule where money grows on treesand the good don't die young,
where decency is rewarded andjustice is punctual and it's

(05:10):
unbiased.
And the fountain of.
Exists as merely one of themultiple pools over at the
Holland Aquatic Center.
You just pay for a membership ora day pass and you're golden.
That's what we like to think.
Yet time has a way of provingthat not only is the mysterium

(05:31):
Tremendum, the tremendousmystery of God, a dominant theme
in life's gumbo, but it it helpsus to.
Whether we want to or not, thatno matter how relentless we are
in keeping our nose to thegrindstone, the dollars
sometimes just don't make sense.
Come on now, somebody, thedollars sometimes just don't

(05:53):
make sense, or, or we take threesteps forward in life while
we're out celebrating thatnight, and then we take three
steps backward.
We feel like we can't get ahead.
It could be that despite ournoble.
A relationship never dissolvesper se, but instead it marches
forward with an air of imbalanceand loud silence.

(06:17):
Regular rhythms of resentmentand rash.
Words that make reconciliationpretty tricky.
Let, let's be honest, humanbeing.
Meaning all of us past, present,and future, we like to think
that we have more figured outthan we actually do, and even

(06:38):
within the few obligations thatwe've been benevolently granted
by God to manage, well, not eventhe best of intentions,
guarantees that you will receivea passing grade.
Thomas Merton, A Monk wrote in aletter.
This, he said like Jonahhimself, I find myself traveling

(07:03):
toward my destiny in the bellyof a paradox, and that's how
life feels sometimes, like aparadox.
The, the neat and nice or orplain, sensible bow tie that we
want life to, to be wrappedinto.
It doesn't always, Cooper.
And it leaves us pondering whatin the world, the Lord our God

(07:27):
is gonna do about it.
It feels like when we've finallytidied up our finances, or we've
been the good Samaritan to afellow sojourner, or when we've
made it to the other side of ascary diagnosis, or when
retirement status has beenattained or, or in another way,
we feel like we can breatheagain or laugh again.

(07:51):
Or worship again or love againmore fully.
That's when life just sas onover to you.
It stoops down.
It puffs out.
Its chubby cheeks and gets asmuch air as it can, and it blows
ashes everywhere leaving you andme to pick up the pieces

(08:14):
addressed as it is to thosecommitted to the resurrected
Jesus Christ who were.
And displaced throughout variousprovinces.
Peter's letter is also addressedto us today.
Praise be to the God and Fatherof our Lord Jesus Christ,

(08:34):
despite the mess that we mayfind ourselves in whether we've
caused it or not.
There's no better place than tobegin with praising God.
That's.
Area for you to say amenpraising God.
That's a a great thing for us todo as Christians.
Just as we start out and weencounter life's issues, we can
praise God.

(08:56):
But in verse four, there's thismention of ed inheritance that
can never perish or spoil orfade, which merits some
explanation because when we hearthat today, we can kind of get
off.
We can get undone from theauthor's.
Actual intent, eternal life withGod or salvation as it were, is

(09:21):
the object of Peter's affection.
Here, though it, it is anassured outcome, confined to
those who make Jesus theirchoice.
It is quite distinct from stockoptions or a home.
It's quite distinct from fairlyfamily heir.
Quite distinct from a familybusiness that you bequeath to

(09:44):
someone you know in the will.
You can designate the fullyloaded Jeep Grand Cherokee to
your firstborn.
You can say that you want theriding lawnmower that's in above
average condition to go to yournext door neighbor.
He's been so kind to you.
You can say that you want yourconsiderable library to go and

(10:05):
pass on to the English Collegestudent major that you've been
mentoring, but well, whatdoesn't work is telling the
estate planner.
By the way, now that I thinkabout it, let me go on ahead and
sign my salvation over to mygrandkids.
That's not, that's not how itgoes.
What paperwork is needed totransfer that?

(10:29):
God endows us his creation witha conscious capacity to accept
or reject him and to sink orswim, as it were, to surrender
or to rebel.
Now, obviously as God, he knowsthe the end long before the
beginnings beginning, longbefore he formed us in our

(10:51):
mother's womb.
But I must stand by my decisionas you.
By yours, just as everyone isheld accountable for if they've
elected to build their life onthe rock, or if they've elected
to build their life on sand andthere's no proxy or absentee

(11:14):
voting either.
Each person can only cast a lotby himself or herself for
himself or herself.
Stevie Wonder had this popularsong some years ago.
It was Sign sealed, delivered,I'm yours.
And that highlights how distinctthis spiritual inheritance is

(11:37):
from the earthly kind ofinheritances come to mind.
The Holy Spirit is theunderwriter.
He's the the guarantee, theGuaranteer not, not the F D I C.
So when we trust Jesus with thislife and what will come in the
life, We were marked and we'resealed forever, we're signs
sealed, delivered.

(12:00):
Consequently, there's neitherheight nor depth, nor anything
else in all of creation thatwill be able to separate us from
the love of God that is found inChrist Jesus.
This inheritance will neverspoil or perish or fade, and I

(12:21):
want you to.
Just how terrifically radicalthat is, that this inheritance
will never perish.
It will never spoil.
It will never fade.
What else can you even begin tothink of that that is equal in
its accessibility and can beaccepted or rejected by all

(12:44):
without co.
What else is immutable inperfect permanence?
Something that will be bothimmaculate and available
precisely as promised when thetime comes, no questions asked.
My goodness gracious.
I mean, vehicles absolutely donot work that way.

(13:09):
Those things depreciate as soonas you drive'em off.
Not to mention they can losehalf their value over the first
five years, and our bodies seemto do much of the same.
Come on now.
Somebody, our bodies aredisobedience, scaffoldings of
blood and bones, flesh andfeelings.

(13:32):
I mean, generally, you know,they, they work decently and may
even be highly cooperative atsome period of time in our life.
But you just.
You young people, you, you justwait, the strike is coming.
Sunny cofaq Adam Sandler'scharacter was right in the film.

(13:54):
Big Daddy, when disclosing thatwhen he was five years old, he
too could eat anything hewanted, but, but now he says at
32, if he has a chocolate cake,chocolate shake, anything c.
His dairy air jiggles for aweek.
That's what he said.

(14:14):
The struggle is real.
Many of us are, are intimatelyfamiliar with how when you reach
a certain age and, and ithappens sooner, then you think
your body goes somewhat rogue.
It betrays you, your, your skingets a bit more elastic than you
ever imagined it.

(14:36):
And, and Gravity has a way oftaking hold and refusing to
loosen its grip.
And your metabolism slows to acrawl and your eyesight takes a
hit, and all the crosswordpuzzles in the world will not
keep you from becoming at leastsome degree of forgetful because

(14:56):
our bodies are erratic and ourbodies are broken, and our
bodies are just like the.
The cash that is stuffed in yourmattress can fade it.
It can perish, not, not even agood name.
As important as a good name is,is above being spoiled.

(15:17):
White and blue collar crime canrob you of most anything
detained down here that youmight hope to pass on to your
next of kin, and even if you arefortunate enough to hold onto.
Even if that works out, you knowthe government is about to take
its obligatory cut faith.

(15:39):
However, the good news is thatfaith does not operate that way.
Christ's life and death andresurrection denote that this
inheritance is kept in heavenfor you.
Verse five, who through faithare shielded by God's power
until the coming of thesalvation that is ready to be

(15:59):
reveal.
In the last time, it is moresecure.
This inheritance is than FortKnox.
It is a pledge.
It is a vow.
Better yet, it is a covenantbetween God and whosoever will
wave the white flag to humblycommune with God forever through

(16:21):
the shed blood of Jesus.
And this is why for centuries,Christians have recited.
The chorus, there is power,power, wonder, working power in
what the blood of the lamb Thereis power, power wonder, working

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power.
Power in the blood of the lamb,and that's plenty enough to
rejoice over right there.
That by grace through faith, youare safe and secure in the arms
of the one who made.
Eight, though you have not seenhim, you love him, and even

(17:06):
though you do not see him now,you believe in him and are
filled with an inexpressible andglorious joy for you are
receiving the end result of yourfaith, the salvation of your
souls.
Nonetheless, the tensiondescribed earlier has another

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side.
And it is this as lovely and aspriceless as redemption is, and
oh, you need to know that it isOh, so lovely.
And it is oh, so priceless.
Recognizing of course, that youcan lead a horse to water, but
you cannot make it drink.
Or recognizing that you can andshould introduce others, as I

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mentioned at the onset to thesalvific power of Jesus while
accepting that, opting for God.
Or Godlessness is their choiceand their choice alone to enjoy
the new digs that are offered inheaven.
Demands One thing, it demandsthat you and I, we must die.

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We gotta leave this place, and Iwant you to know that death has
a perfect memory.
It's not gonna forget you.
I'm sad to say.
That not only that are we gonnadie, but in the relatively
little while that we do havehere on earth, the, the 30 or

(18:33):
maybe the 65 or maybe the 95some odd years that we have
Peter rights in verse six, thatyou may have to suffer grief in
all kinds of trials.
Now no one really shouts at apoint like, like that, that,
that Peter is making.

(18:55):
And we all inherently know whynone of us wants to die.
None of us wants to suffer or beoppressed because of our faith.
Either we, we'd appreciateskipping all of that together if
it were possible.
It's, it's actually antitheticalto what it means to be a human,

(19:16):
to pretend that we are absent ofangst or absent of anxiety or a
absent even of anger.
About the fact that one day weare all going to leave this
place.
And the thing is, it's gonna beat a day and it's gonna be at a
time and a place.
And by means that we were notconsulted over.

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Even if it is, as it is, theonly palpable way that we can be
with Jesus, but the hardshipsthey're not for.
All this unrest goes down evento the point of death itself in

(20:00):
order for us to be refined andto be cleansed.
Verse seven is just about yourfaith being tested, partly
because it, it helps you to knowwhere you truly are regarding
comprehension and applic.
Going from what's in your heador what you're experiencing

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internally, what you believe inhere, and then applying it.
Without that, we're, we'rereally just flying blind.
We're, we're potentially veryproud, but proudly incorrect,
assuming that we're on thecutting edge of maturity and
we're brimming with love and joyand peace, and forbearance, and

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kindness and goodness, andfaithfulness, and gentleness and
self-control.
In truth, it might be that we'rein the remedial class for
believers who've been, you know,just kept back a couple of years
spiritually speaking in one ofhis devotionals.
This New Testament scholar bythe name of DA Carson, wrote the

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following.
He wrote that people do notdrift toward holiness, apart
from grace driven.
People do not gravitate towardsgodliness, prayer, obedience to
scripture, faith, and thedelight in the Lord.

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He writes that we drift towardscompromise and we call it
tolerance.
We drift towards disobedienceand we call it freedom.
We drift towards superstitionand we call it.
We cherish the indiscipline, hesays, of lost self-control, and

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we like to call that relaxation.
We slouch towards prayerlessnessand delude ourselves into
thinking that we have escapedlegalism.
We slide towards Godlessness andconvince ourselves.
He writes that we have beenliberated and this is why.

(22:10):
Despite the shortcomingsinvolved, nothing is perfect.
This is why Vacation BibleSchool and Youth Catechism and
Sunday School and children'ssermons and Bible training Union
and adult Christian educationhave historically been so vital

(22:31):
to individual and corporatespiritual growth in Christ.
These.
Just provide measures, they'remechanisms to measure where our
gaps are, and then for us to goget some help from fellow
believers.
And that's really the spiritbehind Peter's notion that

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trials come so that the provengenuineness of your faith may
result in praise and in honorand glory when Jesus Christ is
re revealed.
I wanna be clear.
God is not tempt.
He's not dangling cookies andbon bonds and bonette with all

(23:14):
the good almond paste.
He's not dangling that in ourface, knowing good and well that
we've been trying for a longtime to lose these 15 pounds,
but God is both producing on theone hand and permitting on the
other hand, circumstances inthis fallen world to act as a

(23:35):
practic.
By which we can put our faithinto action because we learn by
being instructed, obviously.
But we also learn by doing onesport that I've continued to
dabble in through the years isbasketball.
Any of y'all familiar withbasketball?

(23:56):
Okay.
Couple people.
These days, however, I've gotzero interest in fighting for
loose rebounds and trying todribble as well as Alan Iverson,
or getting my competitive juicesgoing with pickup games at my
age.
The last thing that I need is,which I know has happened to a

(24:17):
couple of guys, you know, at 40something to tear my acl.
Or to tear my Achilles tendonwhile I'm sprinting around at
some pickup basketball game,trying to use my limited energy
to win.
But every so often what I'll dois I'll go to the gym, I'll find
a court that's empty and I justshoot around all by myself.

(24:40):
Few dribbles this way, fewdribbles that way, and I shoot,
and I.
Keep doing that for maybe 45minutes.
It's a good workout.
You know, it gets my heart rateup and it makes me feel good.
But, but this is the kicker.
You don't play basketballagainst yourself.
I mean, the whole point of thesport, whether it's, you know,

(25:04):
one-on-one or three on three, ortraditionally five on five, is
to compete against, Shootingaround by myself is perfectly
fine.
So long as I'm okay that itrenders me horribly.
And I mean horribly cuz I,there's been a couple times I'm
like, oh, I'll, I'll play withyou guys.
And I was like, it was horrible.
It was horrible.
Shooting by myself renders mehorribly unprepared.

(25:28):
It makes me an indisputableliability.
If I were to one day play on a.
Because I'm not accustomed toshuffling my feet and, and being
in a good stance to guardsomeone or calling out screens
or running plays and makingquick outlet passes.
I'm not accustomed to dribblingpast or shooting over someone
who is contesting me andspiritually speaking.

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Then hoisting up shots solo.
It has its place, but it doesn'tspeak to the new birth, the
sacred inherit.
That we seek to steward well inChristian community, one with
another.
We need each other.
And sadly, generations of peoplethese days are Christian in name

(26:19):
or theory only.
I'll rewind that nowadays, whichit has always existed, but it's,
it's very prominent nowadays.
There are whole generations ofpeople.
Are Christian in name or theoryonly.
People of all kinds of ages andraces and socioeconomic levels
and denominational backgrounds,who they've been hard pressed,

(26:42):
as it were to get in the game,is what I'm trying to say.
They're, they've been stunned byfear of failure, or they fear
hard work, or there's this fearthat accountability might
reveal.
That an obedience to God that'sthat's been far less refined or
robust already made as they havesaid or suggested, that it has

(27:06):
been the ultimate fulfillment ofour inheritance happens only
when we pass on to see God theFather, through the sacrifice
that the son Jesus made.
But in the meantime, we bearwitness.

(27:26):
We bear witness to the, thealready, but not yet truth of
our new birth as God's kingdomis as well already, but not yet
as verse nine explains whatChristians anticipate is
receiving the end result of ourfaith, which is the salvation of

(27:51):
our.
So on this sojourn, we justcan't afford to get caught up
laboring to tie life into aneat, nice bow where the, the
calming Michigan blue in ourcottages and our trips to
Mackinac Island, or to Floridaor to Spain become idols because

(28:12):
you must work out your salvationwith fear and trembling here.
On compromised bedrock here inthe mosh pit of competing
ideologies and families likeyour own families that make you
wanna holler and you have to doit in the midst of sorrow.
And you do it in the midst ofthe lust of the flesh and the,

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the pride of life and the lustof the eyes.
You know, like right down hereon earth, this is where the wild
things.
So trust me when I tell you thatlife will find you no matter how
fast you run, no matter how faryou run, it will meander down to

(28:57):
whatever size it needs to, or,or get up to your level and it
will fill its cheeks with airand life will blow ashes all
over the place because that'swhat life does.
But in Christ.
We have, you and I have.
If we are in Christ, we have aliving hope.

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Amen.
Amen.
Let me pray.
Gracious, heavenly Father, youare our living hope.
We've put all of our marbles inthe basket of Jesus Christ.
So God, would you convict usthis week for us to be people of
faith?
N nothing more, nothing lessthat we would be.

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In who you have called us to beand by whom we are called to be
that God.
And I pray for those who mayhear this message, those who are
here hearing this message, ifyou are not confident, if
someone's not confident in theirsalvation in Christ Jesus, God,
I pray that they would run likenot speaking metaphorically, but

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that they would run to findsomeone who could help them be
introduced to Jesus, God thatthey could pray and they could.
Lord that you love them, thatyou created them, and that Jesus
Christ died for him.
In Christ's name, amen.