Anchoring Ourselves Between Here and There

As a kid, I exchanged letters back and forth with my grandmother who lived several hours away (how old fashioned, right?).

We've lost the art of hand-writing letters over the years, with the speed of email and text messages. 

But, there was just something about receiving a little envelope in the mail with my name on it. 

It felt so personal...a gift...and through those letters I carried on a conversation with my gramma, that went on and on, until she could no longer write. 

In those letters, I received, not just words, or advice, or comfort depending on what I'd talked about in my previous letter; but, she sent me a piece of her heart.

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It feels like we've been in a conversation that has kept us focused on Peter's first epistle.

Sometimes in the middle of a long conversation we need to pause and remember where we’ve been. 

So, you’re going to see a bit of review today from the last two weeks, because I don't want us to miss receiving a piece of Peter's heart for those he loves.

And, those people Peter loves? Well, they feel like they don’t quite belong anywhere (!!) — and honestly, that should be every one of us who claim to be a follower of Jesus.

It's simple, this world is NOT our home.

We’ve said it a few ways already:

• We are pilgrims, not settlers
• We will feel different (holy oddballs… social misfits)
• God never intended for us to fit in
• Our identity is exile — and strangely — that’s worth celebrating

Peter wrote to people living normal daily lives while carrying an abnormal identity: citizens of another Kingdom.

So, this will be our end goal: 

How do we keep walking through an ordinary world when we belong to an eternal one?

Thus far, Peter has instructed us to ANCHOR ourselves in three realities:

Our salvation
Our future home (obviously, heaven)
Our true identity

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Our Salvation

                                                                                                                                                                  

What a gift God has given us!

So massive the prophets strained to understand it.
They searched, studied, and inquired… but were told the fullness of grace wasn’t for them — it was for us.

Grace was their mystery; but it became our reality!

The mystery came to earth for us!

I honestly don’t think we’ll grasp the magnitude of salvation until we see Jesus face-to-face; but it’s important in the HERE, until we get THERE, to ponder it often.

Our Future Home

Heaven is not wishful thinking; it is a living hope.

And it’s not the gold streets or the pearly-white-gates that stir my heart with longing...

Two things do:

I will see Jesus — the One who stood in my place — and worship Him in person.

And every wrong in this world will finally be made right… and stay right forever.

Our True Identity

Salvation didn’t just rescue me — it redeemed me, transformed me, and renamed me -- 

beloved, chosen, restored, set free, daughter of the King...

But, as mentioned, MORE:

Set apart.
Different.
Holy.

(Which is why, we will never feel fully at home, because we live in an unholy world).

But, Peter tell us our immediate response to this is one that doesn't come naturally to any of us (and yet, it's something we can work on in the transition).

When we don't fit in: Rejoice. Jump for joy. Let it show...

Then he goes on with a P.S. 

“Oh, and by the way…

Don’t at all be surprised by suffering and hurt that comes from your new identity as EXILES, HOLY ODDBALLS…

…Trials will come at you in every size and color” 

So the real question —

How do we live with joy when life hurts because we don’t belong here?

Peter's going to answer that next.

But first, sit together with me as we examine this central, key thought of Peter’s letter that will become our ANCHOR in this world-thats-not our home. He’s telling us to get ready to employ these things:

Prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be revealed in Jesus Christ… and be holy in all your conduct. (1 Peter 1:13–14)

Next week we begin there, because to endure hardship, we have to cultivate our conduct…and that starts in the mind.

In the meantime…

Look closely at the words in those two verses.

Define them.

Turn them over in your mind.

What do you think Peter's trying to tell us? 

We’re about to learn how exiles actually live.