Prepare For Sunday | July 5th, 2026
Don't just show up on Sunday. Be prepared to meet with God.
Our desire for each worship service is for you to enter into the presence of the living God through Christ by His Spirit with His people.
The goal of this entry is to help prepare you to do that.
Incompatible Realities | 1 Peter 1:3-12
In 1 Peter 1:1, Peter specifically addresses believers who have been scattered across modern-day Turkey. He is issuing them a letter of encouragement and comfort in the midst of severe persecution and displacement.
Have you ever had an experience that seemed incompatible with your expectations? This often happens in Christianity. Many people often decide to follow Jesus hoping that this decision will improve our circumstances. We find ourselves expecting to experience Heaven while we are still living in a fallen world. Eventually, the realities of a world filled with sin, brokenness, and death begin to rattle those who simply wanted a life with joy that was found in Jesus.
Peter writes this letter of encouragement to a group of believers who have been scattered across Asia. They have been displaced from their homes in the midst of severe persecution. However, Peter writes them this letter to not only acknowledge the realities they are facing, but to also remind them of what is true for them in Christ.
The realities of 1 Peter 1 tell us that the healthy believer is compelled to live a life filled with complexities that seem almost contradictory. They are elect exiles. They are to live lives marked by joy and grief. Their citizenship is in Heaven, but they are living in a fallen world.
Join us this Sunday as we examine the spiritual realities that Peter uses to encourage suffering believers and consider what it means for us today!
The Sermon- Three Movements
1) The Christian's Hope
a) Our Salvation
b) Our Inheritance
c) Our Preservation
2) The Christian's Sufferings
a) Our Trials
b) Our Testing
c) Our Goals
3) The Christian's Privilege
a) The Gospel - Prophesied
b) The Gospel - Received
c) The Gospel - Admired
Call To Worship:
"You turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, so that I can sing to you and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever."
— Psalm 30:11–12 CSB
Songs of Worship
(Music Pending)
Corporate Confession of Sin
Leader:
Merciful Father,
You have given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and have promised us an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Yet we confess that we often live as though our greatest treasures are found in this world.
All:
We have placed our confidence in temporary comforts instead of your eternal promises. We have allowed present trials to produce fear, anxiety, and grumbling rather than steadfast faith and joyful hope.
Leader:
Forgive us for loving the things of this world more than Christ himself. We confess that our love for him has often grown cold and our joy in him has faded. We have forgotten the greatness of the salvation that prophets longed to understand, that angels long to behold, and that has now been proclaimed to us through the gospel.
All:
Refine our faith through every trial. Fix our hearts on our risen Savior and renew in us a deeper love for Christ, a stronger confidence in your promises, and a greater joy in the salvation you have freely given us. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our living hope. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news. Our hope is not in our circumstances or our own strength. Our hope is found in God's mercy. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been born again into a living hope, secured an eternal inheritance that cannot be lost, and are being guarded by God's power until our faith is made sight.
