September 1, 2024 | Unworried Worship

Transcription

We're going to continue in first Peter chapter three. But before we do, I want to tell you a a quick story from Isaiah, because this passage is what is on Peter's mind when he writes this text. At this point in Isaiah chapter eight, God comes to Isaiah, and he tells him that in the next few years the nation of Assyria will come and conquer Israel, because Israel had rejected God's grace and chased after idolatry.

God uses this picture that says, I'll bring Assyria like a raging river up over its banks, and it will wash over Israel. It will wash all the way up to Judah and not quite overcome Judah. But it's this scary prophecy for Isaiah. Hearing that a foreign nation, which, by the way, Assyria was known for its brutality, was going to come.

And was going to bring God's judgment. And God tells Isaiah, no solution Israel can devise on their own is going to save him.

And so his message in Isaiah chapter eight, paraphrasing 1213, God tells Isaiah, don't act like all the people around you in Israel when this happens. He says, don't call conspiracy what this people calls conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread, but instead honor the Lord of hosts as holy. Let him be your fear and he will be your sanctuary.

Many around you will stumble, but you will be safe.

I think that's the text Peter had in his mind as he thinks about God's people who belong to God and are deeply loved, but who are living on this earth as strangers.

He recalls Isaiah knowing that opposition was coming and yet being called to trust. And Peter writes in First Peter chapter three, beginning in verse 13, now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may

be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. Father, this is your perfect and authoritative word. Help us to hear your voice in your word today. Amen. Peter has just reminded his readers, God has not called you to a miserable life. He's called you actually to a blessed life.

He called you that you may obtain a blessing, and he tells them, one day you're going to experience the fullness of this blessing. From the very beginning of the book, he's talked about it over and over. You have this great living hope and an inheritance that will never fade, and that is kept and guarded in heaven for you.

So he says, you'll have these great blessings in the verses right before what we read. He tells them, here's how you should live on this earth in order to experience the first foreshadowing of those blessings. Now he told them things like live with unity of mind, sympathy, love, humility, honesty, encouraging words. And as you do that, you find the God's blessings of peace and comfort and joy and satisfaction really the deepest blessings of your inner being.

He says. You can have those by God's Spirit. Now, and that's what sets up his first question who is there to harm you? If you are zealous for what is good, if you can have the fullness of God's blessings in the future, and you can have God's peace and joy and comfort and all of those blessings through His Spirit, now.

Who can really harm you? What ultimate harm could come to you? Now you might say, Peter, you might be a little naive here. I there's a lot of Christians who live that way, who experience a lot of harm. Well, he's not naive. We know that because he goes on into the next verse and says, even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, so he knows you could suffer because you live in a fallen world, that's one thing.

But he's not even naive enough to think that's the only suffering. He says. You could do exactly the right thing.

And suffer for it. Suffer because of what you did. So when he says, who is there to harm you? And the implication is, well, no one can really harm you when he says, who is there to harm you? If you're zealous for what is good? He knows that physical suffering could come. He says, here's what can't happen. No one could ever take heaven's future blessings from you.

And no one could take the present experience of those blessings from you. See, Satan wants to lie to you and tell you that your suffering can make it so that you can't have God's peace right now, that your suffering is bad enough, that you can't really experience the comfort that God gives right now.

Or that your circumstances can actually be bad enough that you can't have God's joy. Now.

Peter says, no, none of those things are true. No one can take those blessings from you, and no circumstance can take those blessings from you. And I am grateful for a body of believers here all the way from really young to not as young. And we could go around the room and say, tell me about how you found God's peace and joy and comfort and satisfaction in moments when, humanly speaking, you shouldn't have been peaceful or joyful.

And we could have story after story. I could just stop and we could go the rest of the day. That way.

Because your circumstances can never take God's peace from you. They can never take God's joy from you. Peter says, who can harm you? Who can take away these blessings from you? No one.

It's because throughout the book, God looks at his people and he rewards his people. I'm going to say this phrase this way a couple times this morning. God rewards his people with the inheritance that Jesus earned.

God blesses his people with the inheritance that Jesus won throughout Peter. This is crucial for understanding him. Chapter one. He says, we're born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, not through you, not through your good works, not through anything you do through the resurrection of Jesus. Every reward and blessing that you get, you receive because Jesus earned it.

And if that's true, if the blessings you get aren't because I did so many good things, so therefore I get them. If they're based on what Jesus has already accomplished, who can take away from you what Jesus accomplished? No one. What circumstance can make it so that Jesus didn't earn peace for his people? Nothing. That's where Peter starts.

He says, you, if you have, are going to receive the inheritance that Jesus won, then nothing can ultimately harm you, because that inheritance is guarded in heaven. He said in chapter one, and you are guarded and kept by faith until the day you receive it in its fullest.

That means no one can really harm you. Yes, you can suffer. Yes, you can hurt physically. Yes you can feel emotional pain, extreme anguish. Yes, you can feel that suffering. But nothing will ultimately touch God's people because Jesus already won all of those blessings for us. Paul, the Apostle Paul is an incredible example of this. You think about what he says.

Philippians four. He says, I know how to be content. I know how to have a lot I know to how to have nothing. And right in that same context, right before it, he talks about a peace that passes understanding. He talks about rejoicing even when there's sufferings. So Paul knows how to have peace and joy, whether he has a lot or nothing, whether he's prosperous or suffering.

And Paul did suffer. You could tell me the stories. He was imprisoned, beaten, left for dead multiple times.

He was shipwrecked three times. And if you put yourself in Paul's shoes, you get shipwrecked the third time. Where you're a prisoner on this boat. To start with, you're like, God, why am I stuck here as a prisoner? And then you get shipwrecked. Like, really God, did we have to have the shipwreck on top of it? And then you get bitten by venomous snake.

After that, if Paul was trying to look at what he earned by then, I think he'd have had a conversation with God. You know, like I'm trying to do the right thing here. Why is all this happening? But if he acted like that, he wouldn't have had the peace that passes. Understanding in his soul. Instead, think about what what he says.

Throughout the New Testament, Paul's enemies couldn't really touch him. Yes, they hurt him physically. But they'd say, we're going to ignore you. He says, well, to live is Christ. If Jesus is preached, I don't care if you ignore me. You're not. They could say, we're going to kill you. Today's game. You see how he's just not bothered? I'm sure he felt angst when they were beating him.

I'm sure he felt pain. I'm sure, he said. I'd really rather not die at this moment, but no one could really harm him. You could tell him, we're going to hurt you. We're going to torture you. Well, he writes, the sufferings of this world aren't worth comparing to the glories that are to be revealed. You throw him in prison and he sings with Silas.

And the jailers converted. You put him in house arrest in Rome, and he says even some of Caesar's household come and hear the gospel, and they're saved. He knew he had blessings because he knew God of peace and joy and satisfaction that no circumstance could take from him. And so there was no one to harm him. Really.

So Peter calls his readers to that same kind of thinking who is there to harm you? No one. But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. The tense here is translated even if he's not trying to say, this is a super rare thing. What he's saying is you don't always suffer, so at every minute you don't suffer.

But in a fallen world, there's always a threat that you could suffer. So you could say when you suffer, but that would make it sound like you might suffer all the time. That's not what he means. So even if he's saying you will suffer sometimes when it happens, you don't know.

You might think, I'm going to really suffer this time and it might not be so bad. You might suffer more another time. But even if you suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. One of the things that happens in Greek is they'll put two words together, and in English we have to add words in the middle. Literally, it just says, even if you suffer for righteousness sake, you blessed and you have to decide what will be blessed or blessed have been blessed.

Like there's word you had to figure out what the word goes in the middle there. And if you look at the context, what he's telling you is you were called to obtain a blessing. So even if you suffer for righteousness, you have that blessing. Even if you suffer for righteousness sake, you equals blessed.

Our blessedness as God's people is untouched by enemies and untouchable by enemies. Because Jesus said, it is finished and he won it all. So if we take that idea, really a verse and a half, all right, I might suffer physically, but I'm not going to ultimately suffer harm, because my blessedness before God comes through Jesus and not me and not my circumstances.

Based on that, what do we go on to think? In other words, taking this idea, if we put this idea and we say, all right, I'm going to stand up on this idea from those verses, what's the next step that Peter takes us to? I was reminded of when my kids were younger. And, you know, kids figure out ways when there's a cabinet and they go, I'd like to get something on that cabinet, and I can't quite reach it.

They like, slide the stools over or the box over or all kinds of things they probably shouldn't stand on, but they try it. Or my youngest now climbs up the little handles of the drawers, just scales it like a mountain goat to reach up on the counter. What I want you to do is mentally take what we just said the untouchable blessedness of God's people.

Climb on top of that and then say, all right, what does that mean going forward? Peter takes us right there into verse 14, have no fear of them, nor be troubled. Just like Isaiah. He says the same thing don't be afraid. Don't be troubled. In Isaiah he says, Honor Yahweh as holy. Here he says, Honor Christ the Lord as holy.

Don't be afraid. Again, Peter is not naive. He knows, though, experience loss, Peter experienced loss. He knows they'll experience grief and anguish. But he says, don't be afraid. I want you to take just a minute and think about fear. In your mind, just think, what is fear really?

You probably had a specific example that came to your mind. I think most of us, we think of something we're afraid of and then say, okay, what does that mean to be afraid of it? Really, fear happens when you have something that you value. And you think I might lose it. Or it's an emotional response to say, this is important to me.

And if it's gone, if it's taken away, that would be bad for me. Therefore, I'm afraid that it might be taken away. Or maybe you say I value something I think I could get, and I'm afraid I won't get it either direction. There's something you say. This is really important. What would happen to me if I don't get it?

When you go to a doctor and you say I had something going on, I've got to get some tests and you go back and you kind of wait on the phone to ring. And there's a fear because you value health. And you think he may be about to tell me that my health isn't as good as I thought.

Maybe you have a difficult conversation coming up with somebody and you think I value that relationship. If this conversation doesn't go well, maybe the relationship won't be what I want it to be. So we have fear. Something we value. And you could either lose it or not get it. And we experience fear. It can make us do crazy things.

Sometimes as believers. Sometimes fear can make us stay silent about what we believe.

Teenagers in this room. Peer pressure is usually just fear in some way. Adults in this room. Peer pressure is just fear in some way.

With what Peter is pointing us to, we could be afraid of the suffering and the pain and say, my comfort is what I value, and I might lose it because I would hurt, so I'd be afraid or it might not be the actual pain. It might be that we've we've constructed this picture of our life that everybody sees, and we think, I've got it all put together.

And when I go through suffering and I have to ask for help and I struggle, they might see that my carefully crafted world is actually not totally true.

Maybe the suffering brings my crafted world and my mask crashing down on me. And I'm afraid of that loss of reputation, that loss of control, that loss of whatever it is. There's fear because I value something and I might lose it.

Now, he says, have no fear. But he takes another step because that fear creates things in us. There's a sense of fear, but then there's a response in our soul. Sometimes you can say, I'm kind of afraid, but I'm not really agitated and in too much turmoil. Maybe a simple example. If you get on a roller coaster and you go, this is not my favorite thing.

But I doubt most of us really are in agitated turmoil as we sit in the roller coaster seat. Like we feel a little fear. We go, hey, health is a good thing and I might lose it, but we kind of stop and go. Now, I know I really am probably not going to lose it. I might throw up afterwards or something like that.

So we can separate a little of that feeling of fear, which in that case can almost be fun from the fear that drives you to a real turmoil in your soul.

You says, have no fear of them, nor be troubled, nor be agitated. So there's all kinds of things that sit on top of fear. What we call worry is really just a fear that God might not get something right.

We might feel so uncertain. We feel turmoil that rests on top of I don't know what will happen. I'm afraid of the unknown. And so my soul is in all kinds of angst. Anger. Usually sits on top of a fear. You have something you value. You think you might lose it. And you think this person might make you lose it.

So you're angry.

So take all of those things. Worry, agitated soul turmoil in your soul. Anger, all of those things. Packed that into the word. Troubled. He says nobody can ultimately harm you. Even if you suffer. You are blessed as God's people. So stand on top of that. Have no fear of them, of people or circumstances that would harm you, nor be agitated, turmoil, angry, worried in your soul.

Now that's a tall order. If I sit here and say, don't be afraid, don't be angry, don't be worried. You're like, well, thank you very much. How?

That's where Peter goes. Because at the heart of fear is something you value. You have to have something important to you that you could lose. None of us really fear losing something you don't value. If I pulled out an old used gum wrapper out of my pocket, and I walk around and I drop it and we meet out in the lobby, I'm not going.

Oh, no, I'm so afraid. I lost my gum wrapper. Most of us are not afraid of losing something that's unimportant to us. Fear would be a weird response.

You really don't fear losing something if you have something far better either.

Maybe some of your kids in this room. If you lost a dollar. You might have a dollar. And you go, I'm going to hang on to that dollar because I'm afraid I might lose it. Now, I highly doubt any of us just throw dollars around for fun, but most of us adults aren't clenching the dollar in our hands, thinking, I'm so afraid I might lose it.

And if you have a million in the bank, you're certainly not clenching that dollar. So afraid you might lose it because you have something far better.

So Peter says, have no fear of them, nor be troubled. Verse 15, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Now this is an interesting change from Isaiah. I mentioned it while ago in Isaiah he says, Honor Yahweh as holy, honor the Lord. But it's the covenant name for the Lord in the Old Testament. Honor the Lord as holy.

Here Peter says, Honor Christ the Lord as holy Isaiah was told, your confidence finds is found in seeing Yahweh and trusting in him. Peter says, yes. And now we have an even clearer picture of what that means, because Yahweh took on flesh and lived among us, and died for us. So you say, honor Christ. The Lord has holy.

I want to encourage you. Don't let that phrase just be a Sunday school answer that rolls past your ears like yes, yes, honor. Christ the Lord is holy. Now tell me how to do it. No, we need to pause at that phrase and say, what does it really mean to honor Christ as holy?

You can't separate honor and holy. There really one word underneath that you can't dishonor something as holy. It doesn't work like that to to honor something as holy is just to treat it as holy. That's how you treat something that you really view as holy. You show it. Honor. The opposite of holy is common or profane. So if something is common, you might not show it honor.

But if something is unique, rare, valuable, holy, you show it honor.

So to honor Jesus as holy is to treat him not as common, but as rare and immensely valuable. It's to treasure him. It's to worship him, to see him not just as a treasure, but the best treasure. To see him not just as one goal of your life, but the best goal of your life. To see him as not just a good blessing, but the highest blessing.

So if Jesus is what he's telling you to do, here is if you look at Jesus and say he should be. He is my best treasure. He is my highest goal. He's the best blessing I could have. Then honor him as holy. Don't treat him as common.

We can sit with the phrase a little bit more and say it says Honor Christ the Lord as Holy, not.

Treasure him as Christ, the butler who gives me the things I want, not treasure him as Christ, the genie that I rub the lamp and pray, and he just fixes my circumstances. Not even treasure him as Christ the the shield, although he is a shield for his people. But that's not what Peter points to that he protects me.

Treasure him as Christ, the sovereign ruler of everything.

And we could see it now. Remember the context. When you suffer for righteousness sake. At that moment treasure Him as Christ, the sovereign ruler of everything. That's the moment I'm the most tempted to treasure him as Christ, the heavenly butler, who will give me some good gifts, or Christ, the circumstance fixer who will make my life better. That's the moment I'm the most tempted to treasure him as something else.

He says no, even if you suffer for righteousness sake, don't be afraid. Don't have the turmoil in your soul, because instead you're going to honor Christ. The Lord. Treasure him as the sovereign ruler of the universe. There is nothing common about being the ruler of everything, and there's something very valuable about being the ruler of everything, and for us, about being loved by the ruler of everything, even when we suffer.

Honor Christ the Lord as holy. Not just in name, not just with your words. Do you notice in this phrase, verse 15, in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, all the way to the bottom of who you are. Treasure him and love him as the best treasure of the highest good you could ever have. Worship God from your core.

Now I hope. I hope that inside you there's something that says, I want to do that. I hope there's also something inside you that says. I can't just make that happen myself.

It's not something you can force, because only God's Spirit can work that in our hearts.

You can check all the boxes and you. You've all done it before, and I've done it before. Where we showed up in church doing all the right things. We might have been kind throughout the week, in kind in our speech. We might have done a lot of stuff, but not really because we treasure Jesus as Lord.

So if I can't make that happen in me, what can I do? Because I certainly don't want to leave you with treasure. Jesus, you can't do it. Amen. Let's go. You know. What can we do? I'm going to give you four things. Really? It broadens out to more four categories. First, cry out to God for his help. I think sometimes we forget to pray and ask God to help us to worship him.

Sometimes I'm too busy telling God like God, I love you. And I tell him all these good things about him because I'm half trying to convince myself at that moment and maybe trying to convince him, which is silly because he knows my heart. Anyway, but instead stop. Like we did this morning before we sang.

Not God, I'm going to worship you wholeheartedly, and I hope that means you'll make the rest of my week better. We usually don't say that part, we just imply it. Not that, but God help me to really treasure you like that.

If you're going to obey what Peter says, honor Christ the Lord as holy, you need God to work that in your soul that you would treasure him like that. So pray and ask him to.

Second category find examples of people who walk with God like that and who treasure him, and you walk alongside them.

Some of the people who have influenced my life the most were just people who really loved God, and my life was alongside theirs. You can find examples of really loving God in Peter. He loved God in Paul. We talked about that earlier. He loved God. You can go to the Psalms and find David and he loved God. You can find biblical examples.

You can find flesh and blood, examples of people who really treasure God in this room. You can read books from other people who really loved God, but find people who truly walked and treasured him as holy. And look at that and again ask God, help me love God like that. Help me love you like this brother does. Help me love you like this.

Sister does. You know some brothers and sisters in this room who are suffering right now or have suffered right now. And they say Jesus is my treasure. Put your life alongside them and say, God, help me to be like that.

We can learn more about Scripture, about Jesus if you're going to treasure him as holy, you need to know more about him. Does that mean you definitely treasure him as holy? No. You can learn all kinds of facts about Jesus without loving them. But it will deepen your love for him if you know more about him.

Really, we could take a fourth category of just spiritual disciplines. Maybe not. Depending on your circles. It's either a really popular term now or not at all.

But when you read your Bible, why do you read it? I hope you read it so that you can worship God through what you find there, so that you can know him more and love him more. Can you read your Bible without loving him more? Yes, of course. But that's why we do it to pray. God help me to worship Jesus more.

But I don't want to know anything about who he is. I read the Bible. I'd like to not pray. That's not really going to work for you. So that's the means. God says, I'm going to work by my spirit through my word. There are many things we don't talk often about fasting, but there's something that you can do.

Is it commanded for New Testament believers? No, I don't think so. But Jesus expected his disciples would fast. And why did they to say I treasure you more than food? That was the point. So honor Christ. The Lord is holy. One of the things you can do is say, here's something I'm tempted to love, and I'm going to give it up for a time to remind myself.

I love Jesus more. That could be food. That could be a whole lot of other things. You could give up.

That has to do with the way we steward our money.

With the way we are generous with money. One of the things we say around here often is giving is a means of worship. Which means when I. When I give, when I say I don't have to cling to this thing that I love, I'm going to give that generously. I'm reminding myself that, no, I need to honor Christ as holy.

I need to treasure Christ, not my checkbook.

We could go on and on and talk about all the different ways God would use. And there are tons of them to help us treasure Christ. But the main point is all of those things. If God doesn't work by His Spirit in your heart, they won't really help you treasure Jesus. So Peter says, honor Christ the Lord as holy.

And when you worship him like that, when you truly honor him, you find the answer for a fearful and troubled heart.

It may seem impossible to you, but it is possible, brothers and sisters, for you to be fearless and undisturbed in your soul. But it's only possible if you have if you worship one who is worthy of worship. Because remember, fears built on values, I value this. It can be taken from me. If the thing you treasure more than anything else is Jesus, he can't be taken from you and his gifts can't be taken from you.

When you truly worship Christ, you can find the answer to fear and agitation and worry and turmoil in your soul. And you can have peace, joy, comfort, satisfaction. Because Jesus is worthy.

When you truly, truly worship Christ, your hope has an anchor. If you worship like this, he goes on, he says, always being prepared to make a difference to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you. You have a reason for that hope.

I was reminded of a time I was at Florida State working on a master's degree in music there, and a guy came who played trumpet with the New York Philharmonic, one of the best trumpet players in the world. He came and did a masterclass and he starts talking. He played some and he talks with people. I'm sitting there in a group of probably 50, 60 musicians sitting next to a trumpet player.

We get to a great time and that trumpet player looks at me and he says, this guy has something I don't have. He's calm. He's not worried. He's got a piece. He only heard him talk in a public setting for an hour. What? He didn't know that I knew was that this trumpet player, Phil Smith, was an outspoken Christian.

You could go on his website and you could find basically a gospel tract in About Me section. And this atheist trumpet player sitting next to me says, I don't know what it is about this guy. I've heard him talk for an hour about trumpet. He's got something I don't have.

So I said, go look at his website. He'll tell you.

If you really worship Christ, you really honor him as holy. And that transforms the fears, the turmoils, the worries in your soul. Some people are going to look at that and say, what is with you? You're not like me. People are going to say things like, you know, they won't say it. They'll think it. My hope is really found in my money and you just seem to lose a whole lot of money.

But you're okay. But you have peace. Why? My hope is found in my ability to reason and talk my way through things in my sharp tongue. I can get people back when they hurt me, but they just attacked you. And you didn't mock them back. Why?

My hope is found in the way I control my life and make everything look like I've got it all together. But your life seems to be falling apart right now. And you have peace and joy. Why?

People will see that. And they will respond and say, there's a hope you have that has changed your life. What is it they might actually ask you? They might not come out and ask because they might not know how to phrase it.

But if true worship of Jesus transforms you like that, they'll see it. And they will want that. They'll want to know why on earth can you have that kind of strength? Why do you have strength when, humanly speaking, you ought to be weak? Why do you have peace when you ought to be disturbed? Why do you have joy when you ought to be in despair?

Why you have comfort when people attack you, and when you have difficulties? Why? And you can point and say, God promised to give me the blessings that Jesus earned. That's all I need. Because he's my treasure.

And you might think I'll sound crazy if I say that. Yes you will. Different value systems always sound crazy, right? Maybe you really love Cruise Farms ice cream. And you say, I'm going to drive all the way across town, past 45 other ice cream shops to get cruise farms. And I'm going to pay more maybe, than some of those other ice cream shops.

Somebody else who doesn't know cruise farms goes, why crazy? But if you really love cruise farms, you go, that's okay. You can think I'm crazy, but it really is better. And people may say, God promises to give you blessings. Jesus earned. What on earth is that all about? Your hopes found in Jesus being your treasure. And you can say yes.

Because I know who my Jesus is. How do you give that answer? He tells you with gentleness, you don't go, yeah, I can tell you what Jesus and all that stuff you're pursuing, you're just an idiot. No, you respond with gentleness, with respect. Word for respect. Here is the same word as fear. Really. It's what his theme has been for chapters, which has been your ultimate fear is of God.

Your respect is of God. He's. He's saying not show gentleness and respect to the person who asks, but show gentleness to them out of fear of God. So when someone comes and says, how do you have this hope? How are you strong when you should be weak? You say gently, you are a safe person for them to come ask that question to I'm not going to pounce on you, but I'm going to tell you about a wonderful hope that you could have.

You treasure Christ, and you tell them with gentleness and your ultimate allegiance to God. This is who he is. And so Peter concludes in verse 17, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. Don't let that if that should be God's will phrase trip you up. Don't let yourself say, wait, can it really be God's will that we suffer for doing good?

Yes, it was for Jesus.

Not ultimate suffering, not eternal suffering. But yes, it was for Jesus. And so we honor Christ the Lord as holy. We honor him as Lord. We say, even when I suffer. He is still sovereign over all of it.

I want to ask you one question to end. Really, I want you to take these thoughts and say, how do I put this into my soul? We could academically talk through these verses and you could check the box with some facts. How do I put it in my soul? Here's a diagnostic question for you to fill in the blank question.

If I don't have, and you can fill in the blank with whatever you want to put their money, things, approval, health, reputation, power, control. Take your pick. If I don't have this right now.

What can give me peace, comfort and joy? If I don't have health, what can still give me peace, comfort and joy? Now some questions you'll find him to be very easy to answer, depending on what you put in that blank.

If I don't have this now, what can give me peace, comfort and joy? Oh, Jesus. No problem. I'd ask you this week, put different things in that blank. Until you find the ones where you go. Jesus.

And then sit there with God's Spirit.

Because what Peter tells you is honor. Christ the Lord is holy. And that blessing is a great enough treasure for you. And if that doesn't feel sufficient, if you sit here and say, really, Jesus is going to solve it, if I don't have health or wealth or reputation or whatever you put in that line, is Jesus really going to be the answer?

If that doesn't feel sufficient, make sure you really know Jesus. Go back to who he is, the one who perfectly glorified the father in his life, the one who made absolute everything, the one who perfectly obeyed the law in every area that you fail, the one who modeled humility and didn't stay in his throne but but said, I'm not going to grasp that.

I'm going to come and be a servant and serve you the one who has compassion on the weak and the suffering, the one who heals the sick, the one who carried his cross, the one who took all of your guilt and all of the shame that you feel. And he took that on himself on the cross because he loves you.

The one who conquered death. So you don't have to fear it anymore. The one who earned the blessings of salvation that you get for free. The one who answers prayers and strengthens the weak and preserves his people. The one who will return and bring perfect justice. The one who gives eternal joy. And John says, if you had all this library full of books, you still wouldn't have everything that could be written about Jesus.

Go back and think of all Jesus is, and then go back to your question where you struggle a little and say, if I don't have this, what can give me peace, comfort, and joy and keep doing that until you see Jesus as the treasure that really is the answer to that question. And bow before him in worship and say, yes, you are holy.

And fear and turmoil in our soul melts away. Because Jesus is worthy. I invite you to just take a moment and bow before God. Ask him to help you to treasure Jesus. Ask him to show you the lies and the pretenders that can take Jesus place in your mind.

And then we'll pray together.