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Okay, so who are we talking about in this sermon series? Peter, that’s right. We’re spending about 6 weeks talking about Peter and learning how his life as a disciple and his experience with Jesus can mirror our own faith journeys. So far, we talked about how God takes us however we come – broken, helpless, and in need of repair. We talked about how God loves us too much to leave us the way we are – so he molds and shapes us, sometimes painfully so. And today, we’ll be exploring why God molds and shapes us – the purpose that God has for our lives and why we are all here. I’m not sure if Peter himself struggled too much with what his purpose in life was after he met Jesus. I mean, last week we heard that Jesus told him 3 times, “Feed my sheep.” Peter’s purpose was pretty clear – his job was to take care of all of the new disciples – Jesus’ little sheeps and lambs. We catch a little more of Peter’s purpose in Matthew 28 with the Great Commission where Jesus speaks to all the disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded.” So, even though Peter was sometimes pretty dense, he was pretty clear about his purpose and on the basis of how quickly the church grew through the book of Acts, it sounds like he did his job pretty good. But does Jesus call each of us to give up our day jobs like Peter did? Does God call us all to be pastors and leaders in the church? Or to give up everything we own and travel around the country preaching and evangelizing – to become Christian rock stars? Probably not. If that was the case, we’d all become the poor people that we are trying to help. My guess is is that the early church also struggled with this. They probably saw Peter preaching and evangelizing and wanted to be a part of it, but they couldn’t all quit their day jobs like Peter and the other apostles. They had to figure out what their purpose was amidst daily life – how do you follow Jesus without really going anywhere? I know that many of you also struggle with this also. Where is the balance between how much money we give to church and how much we keep for ourselves so we can provide for our family? How much time can we spend doing church activities versus spending quality time with our families versus spending time at work? How does God’s purpose for my life fit with my spouse’s purpose for my life, my kids’ purpose for my life, and my boss’ purpose for my life? They can’t all possibly be the same, can they? What is the purpose of my life and to what end? These are tough questions, and thankfully, I think Peter has some good words and answers for us in his memoir, 1 Peter. In fact, this idea of purpose is what he spends his entire second chapter on. He wanted to give them some ways to be a disciple without giving up their day jobs. The first thing that Peter is very clear about is that the purpose of our lives is not to earn salvation. We don’t have to try to get to heaven or to do anything to be saved. That saving event and action has already happened. One of the hardest things for me to do is to go to the humane society or to some pet store where there are dogs waiting to be adopted. I hate going to places like that because of the faces on all of the captive dogs – just longing to be chosen and adopted. They just all seem so sad and lonely, waiting desperately to be picked out of the crowd and brought home to loving parents and a nice yard in which to run free. Peter’s main point in chapter 2 is that we have already been chosen, saved, and rescued. We are no longer cooped up in little cages. God has come into our lives, chosen us, and taken us home. We have been already been saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter’s clear that our purpose is NOT to try to get adopted or taken home – that has already happened. Instead he says in chapter 2, verse 2, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted tat the Lord is good.” The purpose God has for us is right there in the middle. Our purpose is to grow up in our salvation. Let’s think about that in terms of our little puppy from the humane society. A puppy that you bring home must learn how to live in his newfound salvation. He must learn how to not pee inside, what the signal is to be let outside. The new puppy must learn his new yard and the neighbor dogs, how to act when visitors come by, how to not bite the children. A new puppy has a lot to learn when he comes home for the first time. He has to grow up in his salvation. And eventually, once he gets that kind of stuff down, he can even learn some fun and neat tricks, what he has to do to get treats, and how to make his new owners happy. A puppy’s purpose is to bring his owners joy and he does that by growing up in his salvation. Our main purpose as Christians, is to grow up in our salvation – learn how to live as people of God, what God expects out of us, how to treat other people, what we should and should not do. And after we learn the basics of right and wrong, then we can really start working on the cool tricks – how to really use our gifts and talents, our time and our treasures to do some really cool things. Mostly, as we grow up in our salvation, we learn how to please our master and bring him joy rather than heartache. Like I said last week, this is sometimes a painful process and sometimes we must return to the anvil. I’ll never forget, our dog, Bear, was almost 6 months old and we thought we had trained him pretty good. We’d spent a lot of time working with him, potty-training him, and he had progressed so far that we had even started on some tricks. Well, one night, in the middle of the night, I wake up to this psssssssssss sound. I’m like, what is that? I turn the light on and there is Bear, standing on the end of our bed, looking right at me and taking the biggest pee you’ve ever seen, right over our feet and on our comforter. Six-month-old dogs have a lot of pee. It was a total mess and he was disciplined for it – back to the anvil for him. But he never did it again. His mess up was part of growing up. Now, obviously, as Christians, we can learn how to do more than not pee in the house and to sit, rollover, and beg. After Peter tells us that our purpose is to grow up in our salvation, the rest of chapter 2 is dedicated to giving us very specific examples for how to do this. And what I think is cool about these is that they are universal principles that can be applied to whatever lifestyle, job, or situation we happen to be in. Whether you are a carpenter, engineer, stay-at-home mom, or pizza delivery guy - however you growing up in your salvation, you can work on these three things. First of all, Peter talks about being a living stone. Back in Bible times, whenever something cool happened in a place, they would take a big stone and stand it upright so that it stood out from all the rest. They called these standing stones because each one had a story to tell. When travelers would come by, they would see this stone standing up and ask, “Hmmm, I wonder what happened here.” And then you could tell them. We do the same thing today with our monuments and historical markers. We have our Gateway Arch to remember that St. Louis was the gateway to the West and where Lewis & Clark took off from. So Peter says, the first way to grow up in our salvation is to be a witness – to have other people look at us and say, “Hmmm, I wonder what happened to them.” And when they ask, like a living stone, we can tell them the story of how Jesus has influenced our life. We can be a witness. The second way we can grow up in our salvation is by becoming a royal priesthood and a holy people. This means living in community, as part of the church, so that we can, as Peter says, “declare the praises of God.” We grow in our salvation by loving other people and giving praise to God in all that we do. This can be tough in such a negative world, but the more we recognize how God has saved and rescued us, the more we have to be thankful for. Next week we’ll talk a lot more about community, but no matter who you are, you can lead a life of praise and thanksgiving. And finally, the third example Peter gives for how to grow up in our salvation is to be an alien in the world. He says in verse 12, “As aliens and strangers in the world, live such good lives among the pagans that they may see your good deeds and glorify God…” In our world that is very self-centered, selfish, and materialistic, God calls us to live for others, to do things differently than the world, and to do it so dramatically that people take notice…kind of like those standing stones. God calls us to service. Our purpose as Christians is to grow in our salvation by witnessing, loving and praising God, and serving others. No matter who we are, no matter where we are in our faith journey, no matter how many demands there are on our time, money, or energy – all of us can do these three things WHILE we do all the rest of the stuff in our lives. Witnessing, loving, serving – this is what it looks like to be a Christian. And since none of us do this all of the time, since none of us have found that perfect balance in our lives or have it completely figured out, we all have room for growth. We can all stand to grow up a little more in our salvation. Don’t be like an old dog who doesn’t learn any new tricks. Our reason for existence is to experience the salvation of Jesus Christ, to grow up in that salvation, and as we do this, we will bring great joy to our master. LIFT ONLY – to begin, I’d like to show a video about the lead singer for a band called Mercy Me. We have a couple passages that we are looking at today, and they both shed a little bit different light on this issue of purpose. The first passage is one of the most famous passages in all of scripture. In Matthew 28, as one of the last things Jesus says to his disciples, he says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” So, according to this, our role as Christians is to make other disciples, baptizing them & teaching them. So, how many of you feel like you could lead & teach a Bible study or lead our new members class or stand up here and baptize somebody? Hmmm…that’s interesting. (looks like we have our new small group leaders right there.) Alright, so maybe . Last week I ended my message by sharing with you one of my favorite verses of all time: Romans 8:28. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” I shared that verse because we were talking about what God can do with the suffering in our lives – the good news about how no matter what, God can make good come out of the bad. The second half of this verse is what we’re going to be focusing on today – the part that talks about those who are called according to his purpose.
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