What Everyone Desperately Needs

0:27 Today we're going to be looking at a passage of Scripture in the New Testament, the book of 1 Peter. Only three verses I want to look at. one of the most exciting experiences in life is the birth of a baby. Now, I say this as a man, a spectator, and I think moms feel a little bit differently, but it's pretty exciting to see a baby being birthed into the world, especially the birth of a grandchild. Grandparenting is the best because we have all of the joy and not the responsibility. In fact, the job of a grandparent, you ready? The job of a grandparent is to fill them with sugar and send them back to their parents. Almost as exciting as birth are a child's first steps.

1:26 It's a little bit scary because now that independent will is mobile. But it's pretty exciting because those few steps are going to lead to more steps later on. They're going to have their first steps to the school bus or to school. Or those steps that they're going to be taking at graduation. and finally the step down the aisle to get married. The few steps of a child lead to the steps later on. Or simply stated, birth leads to life, and life leads to a destiny. And that's true in the physical world, but it's also true in the spiritual world, that birth leads to life. And that is Peter's thinking in the text that we're about to consider in 1 Peter chapter 1, is that birth leads to a life.

2:24 It's leading somewhere. And it leads to a few places. But let's look at the text in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, if you have a Bible. Any of you bring a Bible today? That's good thinking. If not, I'll just read the text to you. It's 1 Peter chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation to be revealed in the last time. You know, we are living in a culture where hope is fading fast.

3:28 I read something this week by the World Health Organization that said there is a profound, widespread sense of hopelessness that is currently affecting many people. People are anxious about the future. They're anxious about current events. They're worried about the economy. They're worried about the political polarization in our own country. And several surveys have noted that a record number of people, especially young people, are feeling depressed and anxious and have a lack of hope. A little article in Psychology Today noted that almost 50, 50, 5-0, 50%, half of our population are feeling depressed and even hopeless. and one of the biggest reasons for that is people are always looking down at one of these things they're looking down at their phones all the time they get a 24 7 dose of reality every time they look down at their phones and they hear of wars and rumors of wars and unrest and government shutdown and terrorism. We're always exposed to it because we're looking down. You know, Jesus tells us to do exactly the opposite, to look up, not look down. Jesus said, when these things begin to take place, look up because your redemption is drawing near. These signs of unrest are pointing somewhere to the future. In fact, Jesus spoke of the problems that were coming on the earth, and he said that when these things begin to take place, lift up your heads because your redemption draws near. Now, Peter uses a very interesting term in this short little text that I just read do you? He uses the term begotten again, begotten again, or born again. He's speaking to people

5:41 that he says have been born again. I know that's become a cliche over the last 20, 30 years. People talk about born again Christians and they say, oh, you're one of those born again Christians. You know, that's sort of like a sect of Protestantism. You have that kind of a Christian, that kind of a Christian, then you have the born-again Christians, as if there's really any other kind of Christian. There really is not. Jesus said, you must be born again to enter into the kingdom of heaven. What does that mean to be born again? It means to have a reset, a spiritual birth, to be born from above. Now, I had never heard that term born again. and my neighbor asked me if I had been born again. My high school buddy named Dino Webster came up to me one day and he wanted to share the gospel with me and he said, hey, Heitzig, have you ever been born again? And I said, where did you get that term? He goes, what term? Born again. Where'd you get that? He said, that's what Jesus said. He said, you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. And I said, I'd never heard that term before, Dino, but I got to tell you, that's exactly what happened to me. That's how I feel. I feel like I have a whole new life, a whole new reason for living. It's like I've been born again. And that's what Jesus said must happen. And Peter is calling that out. He says, to you who have been begotten again. Now, this new birth that we're talking about, has three benefits. Three benefits to being born again. You'll have hope now, you'll have heaven later, and you'll have help in between. Pretty simple, right? You'll have hope now, heaven later, and you'll have help in between. The first benefit is hope. You'll have hope right

7:47 now. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he writes, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There's one thing that every single human being needs to make it through life, and that's called hope. You cannot survive without hope. It is hope that makes you cope with life's hardships. John Maxwell said that man can live about 40 days without food. He can live about three days without water. He can live about eight minutes without air, but he can only live about one minute without hope. We need hope. If you don't have hope, you don't last very long. A New York research group said most Americans are unhappy with their lives. Again, there's that sense of hopelessness that is setting in. And one of the places I see this more than any other place is at a funeral. Because at a funeral, I'm looking into the faces of people like I'm looking into your faces right now. And at a funeral, you can just tell by looking people that have hope and people that are hopeless. They're staring at death. They're looking at the inevitable. And some are facing it with a great deal of hope, and others are facing it with despair.

9:23 Paul the Apostle describes our life before Christ and he said, you lived without God and without hope. You lived without God and without hope. There's a lot of people that are living that way. They don't have God in their lives. God is not the center of their lives. They have no hope for the future. I was reading in a magazine, one girl wrote a letter to the magazine. 17-year-old girl. And she wrote this, I'm 17 years old and I'm pessimistic about my future. The whole world is so messed up. Just look at the news. Our whole generation needs help. We have nothing to grasp. We have no one to believe in. We have no one to trust but ourselves. there's a Wallet Hub study that compared all 50 states in the United States to each other. And did you know that the state of New Mexico was third overall as being the most stressed state in America? The third. We're third. Before us was Louisiana. They're number one. Number two was the state of Kentucky. But number three on the list as the most stressed out state was the state of New Mexico. And they cite reasons for it. High crime rates, financial hardship, poverty spreading, limited access to health care, etc. We need a dose of hope. And it's found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And let me explain that to you. Let me tell you how. The author of that little book that I'm reading from here, 1 Peter, was Peter himself. Peter had been a fisherman in Galilee.

11:27 Peter met Jesus one day while he was fishing. Peter had a pretty simple life. It was very routine. He would get up in the morning. He would go to his boat. He would bring his nets. He'd get out on the boat. He'd fish all day long. He'd come back in the evening. He'd go home. He'd go to bed. He'd get up the next day, go back to the lake, throw out the net, go fishing time and time again. It was a pretty normal life. In fact, it was probably a very monotonous life. He may have even thought, is this all there is to life? Just getting up and working every day. And you know, there is a lot of monotony built into life. Lots of routine, lots of predictability. If you're a business person, you get up in the morning, you drive to work, you put in your time, you drive home, you have a meal, you go to bed, you get up, the next day you do it again and again.

12:25 If you're a housewife, you wash clothes in the morning, you make meals for your family, you change diapers, and you do it again and again and again. Even the wealthiest people in the world, the most powerful people in the world, feel a sense of monotony in their lives. King Solomon was one of them. He was very powerful. He was very wealthy. He was very influential. And he wrote a little book where he said, vanity of vanity, all is vanity. It's empty. At the end of the day, it's empty. He said, what profit has a man from all of the labor in which he toils under the sun? Now, here we are in one of the great countries of the world, the greatest nation in the world, the United States of America. And we're going to be celebrating our 250th birthday coming up. Years of freedom. But did you know that the United States has the greatest number of artificial amusements of any country on earth, and yet we have the highest per capita boredom rate of any country in the world? In other words, we have it all, but we're so bored with life. Well, Peter lived his life as a fisherman, got up and worked every day. And then one day, a man named Jesus came into his life. And Jesus came to Peter and he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. On that day, hope was born in Peter's heart.

14:15 And Peter, in following Jesus, Peter's life went from hopeless living to living hope. But then something happened. Something happened as Peter was following this Jesus guy around for a few years. And what happened shattered Peter's hope. It was the day Jesus died on that cross. The day that Jesus died on that cross, that was the day Peter's hope died inside Peter. There were two other disciples that were walking to a nearby town called Emmaus. Their heads were hung low. They were sad. Jesus was walking next to them, but they didn't know it was Jesus. And Jesus said to them, why are you guys so bummed out? Why are you so sad?

15:07 and they said you haven't heard the news and Jesus said what news and they said about that guy named Jesus who died on the cross and listen to what they said listen to what they said we hoped past tense not we hope we hoped that he would have been the one but he's dead their hope was decimated Peter's hope was gone but then something unexpected happened that made Peter's hope come alive he mentions it here in verse 3 the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and that changed everything for Peter when Jesus got back up from the grave Peter's hope came alive Thank you.

16:01 because it means that all of those other promises that Jesus made were also true. You know, he made a lot of promises. Listen to what he said. Here's some of the things Jesus said. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will never die. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. He said, he who hears my word and believes in him that sent me will have everlasting life. He said, because I live, you also will live. Now those are great promises. But then he died. And when a guy makes promises like that but then dies, the people listening to those promises think, yeah, whatever.

17:02 Those are just promises. But he's gone. He's dead. But once Jesus got up out of that tomb, it means not only those promises, but every other promise he made is possible and true. And you see, that's what's important about the resurrection. If there's no resurrection, then Christianity is stupid. This is ridiculous, getting up and doing what we're doing, if there's no resurrection.

17:39 That's why Paul said, if we have hope in this life only, we are of all men most miserable. But if Jesus rose from the dead, then sky is the limit. Every promise he made is possible. Now, we talk about the resurrection. How do we actually know Jesus is resurrected? Maybe his disciples just made up that story. Well, there's a few reasons we know he's resurrected. Number one, he called his own shot. He predicted himself before the events happened that the events would happened. He predicted to his disciples, I'm going to Jerusalem. They're going to arrest me. They're going to kill me. I'm going to be dead. But then three days later, I'm going to get back up. He called his shot before it happened. Second, there were eyewitnesses. We have eyewitness testimonies, individuals that saw him raised and spoke about it and wrote about it. A group of over 500 people at a single time saw him and told about it. Other historians, secular historians, like Flavius Josephus, writes about the resurrection. A third reason we know it's true is because the changed life of Jesus' followers, their lives were different after the resurrection.

19:13 Did you know that every one of the disciples was willing to die testifying that Jesus had risen from the dead? You see, if there was no resurrection, you'd think one of them would like break. They'd crack. I'm not going to die for that, for that made-up story. But they knew it wasn't a made-up story, and they were all willing to die because of it. Their lives were changed. And then fourth, because of the conversion of skeptics, like Paul, Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle. He was the biggest skeptic at the time. His life was changed. It was converted. Also, James, the half-brother of Jesus, who was an unbeliever until the resurrection. And there have been many, many skeptics since whose lives have been transformed. I have a friend named Lee Strobel who has written a book, many books on Christ, The Case for Christ. He used to be an atheist, and he was the chief editor for the Chicago Tribune, and he said the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best attested to event of the ancient world.

20:27 so Peter says there's benefits to being born again number one we have hope and we have it right now not only do we have hope now we have heaven later verse 4 says to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away reserved in heaven for you. So we have hope now, but wait, there's more. There's something coming up, and it's called heaven. It's called an inheritance. Now, we know what an inheritance is. An inheritance is property or money. It's a title that you receive at the death of the previous holder to that money or that property. And it is usually passed from parent to child, because children are the heirs of the parents. That's an inheritance. And so Paul writes in Romans 8, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ.

21:37 for I consider that the present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. There's a place called heaven, and it's a real place. And in the Gospels, it is mentioned 142 times, many of those times by Jesus himself, most of those times by Jesus himself. Jesus spoke of the kingdom of heaven. He spoke about your reward in heaven. He spoke about the Father in heaven, joy in heaven, a sign from heaven. He said heaven is God's throne. He spoke of the angels in heaven. And then Jesus said, I came down from heaven. all of the disciples including Peter heard all of those times Jesus spoke about heaven but you know what the resurrection of Jesus Christ made heaven real to them because when Jesus got up out of the grave and then ascended upward and they saw him go upward they saw the resurrected body of Jesus go back to heaven, that's when they thought, okay, heaven is real.

22:56 Heaven is a real place. So because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we not only have a living hope, we have a lasting hope reserved in heaven for you. I was watching TV the other day, and they had a special about one of the great authors, Henry David Thoreau. But he was an unbeliever. And he said, you must live in the present. You must find your eternity in each moment. For there is no other land, there is no other life but this. wrong. There is another life. There is another land, and it's called heaven, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives assurance of that place.

23:50 Let me take you back to 1999. Some of you will remember what happened up in the Denver, Colorado area at Columbine High School. A very tragic event. A murder spree where 13 students and one teacher were gunned down by two boys who went to that Columbine High School, brought weapons to school, and shot up that class. One of the students that died was a young girl, 17 years old named Cassie Bernal. And Cassie Bernal was confronted with one of the shooters with a gun. And the shooter said, do you believe in God? And she said, yes, I believe in God. And the shooter looked at her with a quizzical look and just said, why? And not even giving her a chance to answer, he aimed the gun at her and shot her, and she died. A few days before that event, Cassie Bernal, that young girl, wrote in her journal Philippians chapter 3, where Paul said, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable even to his death, if by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead. That's a quote right out of the Bible. And she wrote that in her journal.

25:26 And then she wrote this. She said, now I have given up on everything else. I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again and to find out what it means to suffer and die with him. So whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead." End quote. and she closed her journal. And for the last 27 years, Cassie Bernal has been enjoying her heavenly inheritance. She lived with hope, and she died with hope, and now she's in heaven.

26:20 Hope now. Heaven later. But there's a third benefit, help, help in between. You can have hope now, you will have heaven later, but between now and then, God's help will be with you. This is what Peter writes.

26:43 We who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That is, God gives the power to secure you, to keep you safe. He'll guard your life. He'll help you through life. You know, the world is less safe. People are feeling less and less safe as the days go on. People are worried about the crime rate. In fact, one woman, she was so worried about it, she got a concealed carry permit and started carrying a weapon with her, a gun. and so she was doing that and and five months later she went out to her car at night in a dark parking lot and she saw her car was occupied by four men and so she ordered them out of the vehicle they refused to go so she pulled out her gun and pointed her gun at them and they all fled they all ran away, got out of the car and ran. And then she noticed her car.

27:50 Same model, same make, same color, three parking spots away. Uh-oh. So we have a promise here from Peter that God will keep you, guard you. Now that's not a promise that bad things won't happen to you. It's not necessarily saying you'll be perfectly safe from every harmful thing in life, but it is a promise that you'll be perfectly saved and God guarantees that you'll arrive safely in heaven. Here, this is a military term kept by the power of God. He'll assure your safe arrival to heaven. You see, when the Bible speaks about salvation, it speaks about it three different ways, past, present, future. Let me quickly explain.

28:53 If you're saved, you've been saved from the penalty of sin. That's the past. If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved. You are saved from the penalty of sin. But then you are being saved from the power of sin. That's a daily experience. He cleans you up. God loves you just the way you are. but he loves you too much to leave you the way you are. So when you come to him, he cleans you up. He always cleans the fish that he catches.

29:32 But then you will be saved in the future from the very presence of evil itself. So God has the power to save you and send you to heaven and secure you until you get to heaven. There was a Canadian scientist named G.B. Hardy.

29:53 And he said, when I look at religion, I have two questions. Number one, has anybody ever conquered death? And number two, if they did conquer death, did they make a way for me to conquer death as well? He said, I checked the tomb of Buddha. And it was occupied. I checked the tomb of Confucius. And it was occupied. I checked the tomb of Muhammad. And it was occupied.

30:30 But then I came to the tomb of Jesus. and it was empty. and then I said, there is one who conquered death. And so I asked the second question, did he make a way for me to conquer death? And I opened the Bible, and I discovered that he said, because I live, you also will live. that Canadian scientist, G.B. Hardy, discovered a living hope, a living hope. Have you been feeling overwhelmed by life? Have you been feeling anxious, even hopeless? Are you sensing that big hole in your heart? New life comes from new hope. New hope produces new life, and new life comes from a new birth.

31:36 Jesus said, you must be born again. Notice the word must. You must be born again. There's very few things in life you must do. You must breathe. You must eat. you must drink to survive. But if you want to go to heaven, you must be born again. And so there's a simple formula. Maybe you can remember this formula. If you're born once, you're going to die twice. But if you're born twice, you're going to die once. See, if you're just born physically once, you're going to die physically. We all die. But you're going to die spiritually and eternally. Born once, die twice. But if you're born twice physically and born again, born from above, touched by the power of God, you're only going to die once. You're going to die physically, but then you're going to live in the hope and in the presence of God. Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once. How's your hope? Is your hope dying?

33:02 Because the world will offer you hope, but the world only offers you dying hope. the hope the world offers you is temporary. It lasts as long as the experience lasts. It lasts as long as the career you're looking for lasts. It will last as long as the relationship you're in lasts. It lasts as long as your physical health lasts. But it's a dying hope. God offers you a living hope. It will last as long as God lasts. Your hope will stand as long as God stands. Forever. so this morning I'm going to ask you to do something, and it's something that I've seen thousands of people do over the years at these events, thousands of people, and that is make a decision to follow Jesus Christ, to give your life to Jesus, to do the same thing that Peter did when Jesus said to him, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. I'm going to ask you to make that decision. Only you can make it. The Bible says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will open the door, I will come in and have fellowship with him and he with me. You've got to open that door.

34:35 Nobody can do it for you. The doorknob is on the inside. You say, well, what do I have to do? You're asking me to make a decision. What do I have to do in this decision? Number one, you need to realize that you're a sinner. What do you mean I'm a sinner? Yep, you are. So am I. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Newsflash, you're not perfect. And if you don't know, if you're a little insulted that I just said you're not perfect, ask somebody who knows you really well, like your husband, wife, mom, dad, child. They'll tell you. Realize that you're not perfect. Realize that you're a sinner. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Second, you need to realize that Jesus died for you, for you personally, not just for the world, for you. If you were the only person on earth, He would have come and died for you.

35:37 Paul the Apostle said, he loves me and he gave himself for me. He personalized it. Third thing you need to do is you need to repent. I know that's a Bible preacher sounding kind of a word. Repent just means turn around. Turn around. Do an about face. You're going one direction. Now stop and go the other direction. Go the right direction. Go God's way. The Bible says repent and believe. So you need to realize you're a sinner, realize Jesus died for you, decide you're going to turn around and repent, and then you need to receive Jesus Christ into your life as Lord and as Savior. I'm not asking you to believe a creed. I'm asking you to believe and receive a person, Receive him, the person of Jesus.

36:34 If he rose from the dead, then that means he's alive. And if he's alive, if he can conquer death, he can change your life. But you've got to let him. You have to invite him in. He's standing at the door of your heart. You've been invited by friends and relatives. And you've decided to come. And we're so glad you came. but don't leave without receiving the greatest gift of all. And he will change your life if you let him. So I'm going to ask you to do something. As we sing this song, I'm going to ask you to come down the aisle all the way from the top, all the way through this stadium in the corners and come down the aisle and you'll be admitted through these gates. I know the gate says no admittance unless you have the right credentials. You have the right credentials. You just come on down and come stand right up here in the front. And when you've all come down together, I'm going to lead you in a prayer right here. We're going to pray right here to receive Jesus and receive forgiveness, living hope, living hope. So as we sing this song, you begin to come. Come on down right here.

37:49 Don't wait. If you're over there in the far corner, in the far section or up on top, make your way down here. I'm asking everybody here not to leave early. We're witnessing new birth. This is the holiest moment of all. Yeah, let's stand to your feet, make room for those who are trying to find the aisles. Your love never runs out Never runs out Never runs out Your goodness has no bounds It never runs out, it never runs out again Oh, your love never runs out Never runs out, never runs out Your goodness has no doubt It never runs out, it never runs out on me

39:09 Over and over and over again Your love like an ocean Time keeps rolling Again and again.

39:29 Wave after wave of grace upon grace. You make the fearful strong and the prodigal afraid. Day after day. Now and forever. Your love never runs out, never runs out, never runs out. Your goodness has no bounds, never runs out, never runs out on me.

40:08 Where once was a canyon, you built a bridge. Your grand invitation will rest and hope begin Oh, again and again We're going to give it a little more time.

40:30 I see people coming all the way from over here. Still coming down. So many of you have been invited by friends, and you're wondering, why did they invite me to this thing? Well, I'll tell you right now, I'll be honest with you, we had ulterior motives. yeah we had ulterior motives and here it is we don't want you to go to hell we want you to go to heaven We want you to enjoy God's mercy and love forever. We want your life to be changed.

41:26 We want to see you have hope. We want you to live with hope. make that decision only you can make it we're not asking you to come to a church or come to a system but to a person and some of you are saying well how do I know this really works you'll never know unless you come you'll never know unless you come and try and surrender your life to him You but you will know, you will know. Come on, make your way this way, all the way over. Let's squeeze in a little bit and make room for those. Anybody else?

42:26 You may be in the top row. We'll wait for you, but come down. Come now. today is the day the bible says now is the time today is the day of salvation don't put it off another day don't wait for another sunrise service don't let another year pass come come to him Oh, never run. Oh, your love never runs out. Never runs out. Never runs out. Yes, yes.

43:14 Come on down. Yes. There's room for you. There's room at the cross for you. God has made a place in heaven for you. Is your name written in God's book of life? Are you sure? Are you certain that if you were to die today, that you would stand in God's presence forever? If you're not sure, be sure. Be sure. We have more coming. Okay.

44:22 All right. So happy you have come and are standing here right now. I'm going to get down on this grass here. This is actually real grass. Not that that matters at all.

44:46 Okay, I'm going to lead you who have come in a prayer. I'm going to pray this prayer out loud. I want you to pray it out loud after me. It's not a formula. You're just talking to God. but I want you to mean this from your heart as you pray it. You ready? Say, Lord, I give you my life.

45:09 I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus, that he died for me, that he shed his blood for me, that he rose again. I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to live for him as my Lord.

45:39 Help me. Fill me with your Spirit. Help me to live a life that pleases