Pastor Nate continues our study through the New Testament Book of 1 Peter.
[00:00:00] Well, many years ago, a young man who was, I think, 19 years old when he came to Monterey,
[00:00:08] arrived to our church. He was from Denmark and he came to the Monterey Peninsula to stay with an aunt
[00:00:17] and an uncle to intern here for a year and to sort of experience American life before he went back
[00:00:25] to Denmark to continue his studies. And because his family members were part of Calvary, he began
[00:00:35] attending church and I don't know how seriously he'd really considered the gospel well in Denmark,
[00:00:43] but while he was here God impacted him in a major way and he submitted his life to Jesus.
[00:00:51] And he was just one of these guys who began devouring the Bible, began devouring Christian
[00:00:58] teaching very quickly and soon he was a solid Christian man. And during his time here he and I
[00:01:07] developed a friendship together and after he extended his stay as much as he or as long as
[00:01:14] he could he ended up going back to Denmark and we maintained our relationship. In fact,
[00:01:20] early on in my pastoral life, back when I was the young adult pastor here in the church and the youth
[00:01:26] pastor as well, Christina and I in the first year of our marriage actually prayed about moving to
[00:01:33] Denmark to start a church with this young man. We loved him and loved what God was doing in
[00:01:41] his life. But that door didn't open for us, but after a few years of him being away
[00:01:48] in Denmark, he reached out to me to ask if I would come out to a conference
[00:01:55] to speak to Christians from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. He didn't have to ask twice
[00:02:02] and after 10 years of going there many different times to minister to this small group of precious
[00:02:10] believers, I began to really learn what God was doing. It wasn't just that I was going there to
[00:02:18] teach them, they were teaching me. You see what I discovered there was a small contingent of
[00:02:25] committed Christians who were most certainly the religious minority in their communities.
[00:02:33] Their love for Jesus was sincere and they all realized their intense need for one another.
[00:02:41] They really had no expectation that their Christianity would have a heavy influence on
[00:02:48] their societies. They didn't expect laws or curriculums or morals or priorities
[00:02:55] around them to reflect biblical standards. Instead what I discovered is that these people
[00:03:01] just expected to be different. They expected to stand out from the crowd.
[00:03:06] And I mentioned this beautiful little group that I got to interact with for about a decade because
[00:03:12] they to me are like the exiles that Peter wrote to in his first letter. I learned a lot from them.
[00:03:20] Some Christians of course live where Christianity is socially accepted, but Christianity I think
[00:03:27] in Northern California or on the Central Coast is trending towards looking like Christianity
[00:03:33] in secularized Europe. You know, we can still vote, litigate, teach and contribute to society
[00:03:39] according to our biblical convictions. Praise God and we should do that. But those Scandinavian
[00:03:45] believers gave me a glimpse I think into the future unless God intervenes in a massive way.
[00:03:53] Many parts of the United States are heading in the direction of Europe. Perhaps it's time for
[00:03:57] us to learn more from the church's experience there. And the believers that Peter wrote to
[00:04:05] also found themselves as the religious minority. Slanderous accusations were cast
[00:04:12] against them. They believed and behaved differently than their society and they were beginning to
[00:04:17] feel the pressure. And they likely wondered what should we do? Should we angrily fight and
[00:04:23] ridicule our society? Should we flee town for more welcoming communities? Should we conform
[00:04:30] our views and our behaviors to look just like the culture around us? Now as I pointed out
[00:04:38] last week, Peter will show them all through his letter that the answer is not to fight,
[00:04:43] flee or conform. Not to fight, flee or conform. You see fighting in the wrong sense of the word with
[00:04:52] unrighteous anger, feelings of superiority or an expectation that an unconverted world will
[00:04:59] somehow miraculously behave as if they are converted. That's what institutional Christianity
[00:05:05] does. Institutional Christianity thinks there are Christian nations that should reflect Christian
[00:05:13] teachings. Another word for institutional Christianity is Christendom. But Christendom was a mistake
[00:05:20] because Jesus goes after individuals who make up nations, not nations made up of individuals.
[00:05:28] Now fleeing, that's what escapist Christianity does. Escapist Christianity thinks we just need
[00:05:37] hold on until Jesus gets us out of this place. But escapist Christianity rejects and neglects
[00:05:46] Jesus' mission. And conforming, you know just reshaping yourself to fit in with society,
[00:05:56] that's what progressive Christianity does. Progressive or liberal Christianity bends
[00:06:02] doctrines and warps scriptures to become more palatable to society. But society isn't interested
[00:06:11] in watered down Christianity, and progressive Christianity is not Christianity anyways.
[00:06:18] Now instead of angrily fighting, fleeing or conforming, Peter is going to show us in this
[00:06:26] letter, as I told you last week, how to stand firm. He said in 1 Peter 5 verse 12,
[00:06:32] I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.
[00:06:37] Stand firm in it. Now after everything I've said up to this point, you know going to Scandinavia,
[00:06:46] seeing the way that believers there were treated and the way they treated one another,
[00:06:51] their urgency for gathering because they were such a small contingent,
[00:06:55] you might think that I'm a despairing pastor and a depressed Christian. But not at all,
[00:07:02] I have great hope in God. I'm excited about what God is doing on earth today. I personally
[00:07:10] never expected to be in the majority. I've always known that if Christianity was ever the majority,
[00:07:18] it would not be the historical norm. Some say they are shocked at the rapid rejection of Christianity
[00:07:27] in our society today. And I'm shocked also that it's not quicker, that it's not worse. No, the
[00:07:35] normal Christian experience is one on the margins. One day when Jesus returns, we will be done
[00:07:41] with the margin life because our Lord will be at the center of all things. But right now,
[00:07:46] we get to live the exciting and hope filled life of Jesus' followers. But where do we get this hope?
[00:07:56] I'm calling it today, exile hope. Peter told these believers that they were exiles who'd been dispersed
[00:08:03] through that region. And so I'm calling this exile hope. Where do we get this hope? Where does
[00:08:09] it come from? Well, let's look at our short text for today. Verse three and five of First
[00:08:14] Peter chapter one. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to
[00:08:22] His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
[00:08:30] Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading,
[00:08:37] kept in heaven for you. Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation
[00:08:45] ready to be revealed in the last time. All right, now the first thing I want you to see from this
[00:08:53] beautiful sentence from Peter, the opening really part of his letter, is that exile hope
[00:09:02] starts with praise. Exile hope starts with praise. Peter, here he is writing to a dispersed and
[00:09:11] exiled group of believers, many of whom had experienced economic persecution, verbal assaults
[00:09:18] and social rejection for their beliefs. He pivots his letter right here. He shifts
[00:09:24] from his introduction, which we saw last week, to praise. Peter was praising God and urging
[00:09:32] his readers to praise God when he said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
[00:09:39] there in verse three. To bless God is to praise God. So Peter is worshiping and he is
[00:09:47] commending, commanding even them to be a worshiping people. Now think about this. You know the thing
[00:09:56] about being a dispersed and exilic Christian is that I think you often at times feel homeless. Now
[00:10:05] I understand that homelessness is a real and serious issue. So I don't mean to make light of
[00:10:11] it by using the term to describe the feelings that Christians might have. So go with me if you will.
[00:10:18] You know, we live in a society that gravitates towards stark and simple polarized views, but
[00:10:25] a lot of times I think believers take their Bibles out, read them, study them and really feel
[00:10:32] out of place. We feel without a home. And there have been so many times in my life as a Christian
[00:10:43] man that I have felt that proverbial homelessness because of who I am in Jesus. You know, I've felt
[00:10:52] homeless for instance when I've watched in modern times the secular or sexual revolution
[00:11:00] run its full course into what it is today. But I've also felt homeless watching people
[00:11:10] resist that sexual revolution with vitriol instead of resisting with reason and with love.
[00:11:19] I've felt homeless every time I've seen a parent who seems incapable of telling their child
[00:11:25] no and setting some form of boundaries. But on the other hand, I've also felt homeless when I've seen
[00:11:31] those harsh and uncaring parents who have no relationship with their children, but their
[00:11:38] word is the law of the home. I've felt homeless when trying to find something
[00:11:45] that won't degrade me on Netflix. And I've felt homeless when someone's told me I should
[00:11:51] never watch TV in the first place. I've felt homeless when the left does its super left things and
[00:11:58] when the right does its super right things. You know, I've felt homeless when trying to find decent
[00:12:03] music to work out to. And I've felt homeless when someone suggests I should just listen
[00:12:09] to worship music when pumping iron. You know, I've felt homeless so many different times.
[00:12:14] It's homeless when surveying the political options at my disposal, when watching what
[00:12:19] people spend their money on, felt homeless when refusing Sunday sports for my children,
[00:12:24] felt homeless tithing being faithful to my wife or spending so much time studying a book that is
[00:12:30] thousands of years old. It's a different feeling. You just feel like this world is not my home.
[00:12:37] And that's just me. Those are just my experiences. I'm sure you've had thousands of experiences
[00:12:42] as a believer that might cause you to feel without a home. And the believers that Peter wrote to
[00:12:47] had similar experiences. They were exiled, they felt homeless, yet Peter did not do what so many
[00:12:54] preachers do today. He did not stoke their anger and tell them to condescendingly fight.
[00:13:01] He did not play on their fear and tell them to flee. And he did not question their wavering
[00:13:09] convictions and tell them to conform or change their minds. Instead, he directed them to God.
[00:13:16] He wanted them to praise God. You see, when you are feeling unmoored without a home, without
[00:13:24] a position in society, you got to pause to praise God. You know, as Peter said,
[00:13:32] God is the majestic being both the father and the son. He came to die for us is what he
[00:13:40] is alluding to there in verse three. And setting our eyes on him in worship can help us with anger
[00:13:46] and fear and wavering. Worshiping him can bring you home, in other words. In worship, you confront
[00:13:55] a God who is angry with sin but also angry without sinning. In worship, you confront a God who fears
[00:14:02] nothing. And in worship, you confront a God who is unchangeable and will not bend to popular
[00:14:10] opinion. So I encourage you to pursue God when you feel alone and without a home because of your
[00:14:20] Christianity. You know, the nature of your beliefs and your lifestyle is lived out because of your
[00:14:26] Christian convictions. Your biblical convictions will put you on the fringe of society in many
[00:14:32] ways. And on the fringe, you might feel lonely but your father in heaven is there for you. He wants
[00:14:40] you to engage with him. He wants to befriend and guide you. He wants to satisfy your heart. He
[00:14:47] wants to give you hope and exile hope. It begins with praising God, getting your mind and heart
[00:14:58] upward, vertical towards him. But the second thing I want you to see in these verses is that exile
[00:15:08] hope is alive. Peter told us to praise God. That's what we've looked at in the first line of verse
[00:15:15] three. But he went on to say in the second part of verse three, according to his great mercy,
[00:15:22] he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
[00:15:29] from the dead. Now this is astounding news for the exiled Christians that Peter wrote is simple.
[00:15:38] God caused them, verse three, to be born again just as he caused us, if you're a believer
[00:15:45] today, to be born again. Now in the introduction in verse one that we looked at last week, we saw
[00:15:52] how these people by extension us were the elect of God. Here we see another reason
[00:16:00] for their new birth. He says in verse three that they were born again because of God's
[00:16:05] compassionate mercy or according to God's great mercy, they're in verse three. And this new
[00:16:13] birth is secured by nothing other, Peter says, than the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
[00:16:21] Since Jesus is alive, believers in Jesus are alive. We have been born again. But why did Peter feel
[00:16:32] that it was necessary to tell these beleaguered and rejected Christians that they were born again?
[00:16:40] Okay, think of it like this. Your birth story, it says a lot about you. You know for me, I was born
[00:16:50] with a mother and father who were in the first year of planting a church the year that I was born.
[00:16:58] I was born at Chomp, the community hospital of the Monterey Peninsula for those of you
[00:17:04] who don't know. I was born into a home that provided the basic necessities and not much more.
[00:17:13] I was born into a gospel loving home, a Bible loving home. And all these realities impacted me
[00:17:22] in one way or another. That's just the way that it works for us as human beings. People receive
[00:17:27] things like ethnic identity, national citizenship and socioeconomic class from their parents.
[00:17:37] But Peter is saying that Christians have a new birth that gives them a new identity and a new
[00:17:45] citizenship that redefines everything for them. And this is really important when society rejects
[00:17:53] you as it had these early Christians that Peter wrote to. It's strengthening to know that you have a
[00:18:00] new identity, citizenship and future because of your new birth. And this new birth according to Peter
[00:18:08] produces a living hope. That's what he says in verse three if you'd look at it there in your
[00:18:13] Bibles. It produces a living hope. What does that mean? What is the phrase living hope mean?
[00:18:21] Well, living hope is not dead hope. You know I can say that I hope to pitch one day for the Los Angeles Dodgers,
[00:18:31] but I'm pretty sure that's not gonna happen. I'm still holding out a little bit of hope,
[00:18:37] but that might be a hope against hope kind of scenario. You see dead hope is just one
[00:18:44] of those things. It's an illusion. It's not real. Living hope is also not like natural hope. You see
[00:18:53] in Peter's mind our hope is connected to Jesus' resurrection. That's unnatural. Natural hope is
[00:19:01] limited by time and space and norms that govern our lives, but living hope has resurrected power
[00:19:09] attached to it. And living hope is the opposite of hopeless. You know, many people are toiling in
[00:19:21] hopelessness. You know, many of the philosophies and theories that explain human existence today give
[00:19:29] no hope but merely declare that we're a bucket of cells that one day will cease to exist.
[00:19:36] You might as well experience pleasure as much as you can because one day you will die. And this is a
[00:19:43] hopeless perspective about life, and it's led many into deep depression and despair,
[00:19:52] but the new birth gives the Christian a hope that is alive. That's what Peter said, a living hope.
[00:20:01] This means our hope is growing and progressing over time. It lives, it breathes, it develops,
[00:20:09] and it's alive because it's based on the realist reality, Jesus, his kingdom, his resurrection.
[00:20:18] We know what the universe is about. We know who made us, and we know what our ultimate
[00:20:24] future holds with him. Now, it's interesting to me that Peter started this whole letter
[00:20:32] to exiled and dispersed and suffering Christians with hope. You know, as I said, he did not pander
[00:20:41] to their experiences. To me, Peter is speaking to these Christians like a father, like a dad.
[00:20:48] He's telling them, praise God. Literally, do it. Praise God because you're born again.
[00:20:57] You have a hope that is alive. This is the reality that goes beyond what you're experiencing in your
[00:21:06] dimension right now. Some of his readers might have lost their jobs or social standing or even
[00:21:14] their families because of Jesus. Similar to the way that some in some cultures will
[00:21:19] disinherit a family member who comes to Christ, but amid all that loss, Peter directed his readers
[00:21:27] to hope. You know, in one sense, you could say it like this, believers ought to be the most hopeful
[00:21:35] people on earth. We ought to be the most hopeful people on earth. Now, when I say that,
[00:21:42] I don't mean that we are oblivious to the pains of this world, nor do I mean that we are eternally
[00:21:49] optimistic that everything will just get better. We believe really sobering doctrines as Christians.
[00:21:58] We believe in human depravity, for instance, that humanity is broken and lost without Jesus.
[00:22:04] We believe in eternal judgment. We believe sin has permeated everything. These are weighty,
[00:22:11] sobering, hard truths. So when I say that we're hopeful, I don't mean we have our heads in the clouds.
[00:22:19] What I mean is that we know our destiny as dark as it might get. We have a living hope,
[00:22:30] a solid conviction, a firm expectation of Christ's return for us. We know where all this is going.
[00:22:44] You know, in my house every once in a while, someone else's socks in my family will get into my sock
[00:22:52] bin. And I don't know if you know this about my family, but it's me, my wife, and three daughters.
[00:22:58] I am by far the biggest person in my home. So when this happens and I pull out one of their socks,
[00:23:06] if they're the same color as mine, they look like mine, I'll try to put them on. And it becomes
[00:23:10] obvious in two seconds that these are not my socks. Women size sevens just don't fit on men's
[00:23:20] size 13s. They just don't fit. I say that to say that despair does not fit a true Christian.
[00:23:32] We're born again to a living, alive, vibrant, real, exciting, tangible, truer than any reality
[00:23:44] you can see with your fleshly vision, reality and hope. That is ours in Christ Jesus. So living hope,
[00:23:54] that's what fits because exile hope is alive. But there's one more thing I want you to see
[00:24:04] from this passage. Not only have we been born again to a living hope, not only does this
[00:24:10] hope begin with God and is centered upon praising him, but he says that we've been born again to a
[00:24:18] living hope, but also to verse four and inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
[00:24:26] kept in heaven for you. He says there in verse four. Now when the Bible talks about
[00:24:33] in inheritance for God's people, there's always the Old Testament connection that the reader might make
[00:24:42] because much of the Old Testament was focused on giving the people of Israel an inheritance.
[00:24:50] And even after they received the land that God promised to them, it was about maintaining
[00:24:56] that inheritance and not neglecting what God had given to them. And when God delivered the people of
[00:25:03] Israel from four centuries of Egyptian slavery and took them to the land that he'd reserved for them,
[00:25:09] he began to make them promises. They were his people and he had specific things in mind for them.
[00:25:15] He had an inheritance for them. Now the interesting thing is that many of God's promises or the
[00:25:22] inheritance that he gave to ancient Israel, they were physical in nature. He gave them land,
[00:25:28] he gave them health, he gave them crops. If they walked with him, they would continue to receive
[00:25:34] God's prosperous blessings in those ways. Now when Jesus came along, he brought a new covenant
[00:25:41] filled with different promises, a different inheritance. You know, those watching his life
[00:25:48] might have guessed that his promises would be less physical in nature, at least at first. You know,
[00:25:54] when he came, he was poor, he lived in obscurity and often leaned on the care and provision of
[00:26:01] others. He even said, foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place
[00:26:07] to lay his head. This was all suggestive that his kingdom would be made of more than
[00:26:15] the physical realm. Something was shifting in God's inheritance for his people.
[00:26:21] And now Peter, he hops on the Jesus bus by proclaiming that we have an inheritance from
[00:26:27] God by our new birth. It is kept in heaven for us, he says in verse four. Clearly this is
[00:26:35] in line with the idea that the new covenant did not promise us wealth and health in this life.
[00:26:42] And most model Christians in the Bible at least, including Jesus, suffered much for the faith.
[00:26:49] But if we're honest, in the midst of society's rejection, believers might wish that God had a
[00:26:57] different plan. Wouldn't it be nice if walking with God secured our prosperity? Now I do think,
[00:27:07] by the way, that abiding in Christ and walking with God and obeying his dictates,
[00:27:15] I believe that it will lead to a wise life. And wisdom often leads to human flourishing.
[00:27:23] So it'd be wrong to suspect that every Christian will be impoverished. My point is that we might
[00:27:29] be disappointed that God doesn't value a physical inheritance as much as we do.
[00:27:36] But on the other hand, I believe that God in one sense values physical blessings more than we do.
[00:27:46] This is why he has reserved them for the eternal state. Everything here on earth has a temporary
[00:27:53] tinge to it, but his forever kingdom will be packed with spiritual and physical blessings.
[00:28:00] Health and prosperity will couple with spiritual fervor and joy. The internal and external,
[00:28:10] you will be perpetually delighted when you receive the fullness of that inheritance forever.
[00:28:19] Now God knows that a physical inheritance would be nice right now, but he's working hard to secure
[00:28:26] a people for an inheritance that according to Peter in verse four is imperishable, undefiled,
[00:28:34] and unfading. That's what our inheritance is. Now what do these descriptions mean?
[00:28:41] Well, our internal inheritance is imperishable because it's free of death and decay. You
[00:28:49] know everything in our physical realm is subject to decay. The new car always loses its new car smell,
[00:28:59] and over enough time turns into a beater. The first iPhone over time turns into a relic.
[00:29:09] The new wardrobe eventually will become a laughing stock, and then if you hang onto it
[00:29:15] long enough, it'll be in style again. And don't get me started on our bodies, perishable,
[00:29:22] but God's inheritance according to Peter is forever. But he also says that our eternal
[00:29:28] inheritance is undefiled and the reason that he says that is because what God is going to give us
[00:29:34] is free from uncleanness and evil. It's unstained by evil. You know, it feels like you can't
[00:29:41] even buy a t-shirt these days that isn't stained by evil somehow along the line,
[00:29:48] but the eternal inheritance will be untouched by death and evil. But Peter says, lastly, that our
[00:29:55] eternal inheritance is unfading because it cannot be impaired by time. Beauty fades
[00:30:04] and newness evaporates, but not in the eternal kingdom of God. There the natural ravages of time
[00:30:14] reverse and beauty transcends as we forever go from glory to glory. It is unfading, it is
[00:30:23] undefiled, and it is imperishable. Now as Peter said, this inheritance will be, he said in verse 4,
[00:30:31] kept in heaven for us. God is guarding that inheritance, reserving it for our forever life
[00:30:40] with him. Okay, but the knowledge of our future inheritance, it might raise a question in your
[00:30:47] mind. If God is keeping that inheritance for me, if he's reserved it for me, if he's guarding it for
[00:30:58] me, that's great, but what if I fail? You know, persecution is hard. Rejection is difficult. What
[00:31:07] if I am not kept for that inheritance? But Peter answers that question in our final verse today.
[00:31:15] He said in verse 5, that we are those who by God's power are being guarded through faith
[00:31:23] for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. Okay, what this means is that while God
[00:31:30] is guarding our inheritance, he is also guarding us. He takes our little mustard seed of faith
[00:31:39] in his gospel and uses it as a pipeline for his power to keep us for our future salvation.
[00:31:49] And God's power is now unleashed to guard his elect, his children, those who've trusted in Christ
[00:31:57] and his gospel until he says in verse 5, their salvation is revealed. You know, the Bible teaches
[00:32:05] that God's children are saved, that we are being saved as we grow in him and that we one day will
[00:32:14] be saved. In the future, we will be delivered from all the brokenness of our time. Jesus will return
[00:32:22] and his kingdom will reign forever. Now Peter knew that it would be easy for his readers
[00:32:28] to fixate on what they could see, what they felt or their daily experience. So he tried from the outset
[00:32:36] of his letter to get them to focus on their heavenly inheritance. And brothers and sisters, I really
[00:32:44] believe this is of immense importance. I think that's why he put it first in his letter.
[00:32:50] It's not an escapist way of doing the Christian life, to be thinking of the future inheritance.
[00:33:00] I think what it is is, well if I put it like this, it's easy in our 24-hour news cycle world
[00:33:08] to think a lot, to think often about our physical country, our tangible world and what's happening
[00:33:18] inside of it. It's easy to think often about our finances, our situation, our future, our struggle
[00:33:25] here on earth. And it is so much harder to see heaven. But when we do, we become better for life today.
[00:33:36] Last week I told you that when Peter wrote this letter my understanding of it is that it seems
[00:33:42] like he took the attitude of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah wrote to ancient Israelite exiles
[00:33:53] way before the time of Christ. When he wrote to them, they were in a country far away living in
[00:34:00] the city of Babylon. And he said to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
[00:34:05] to all the exiles whom I've sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in
[00:34:13] them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives
[00:34:18] for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters,
[00:34:22] multiply there and do not decrease but seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you
[00:34:28] into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
[00:34:37] Now one of the men that heard Jeremiah's prophecies that was targeted by Jeremiah's words was Daniel.
[00:34:48] Only a teenager when he was carried off to Babylon, Daniel did not fight,
[00:34:53] did not flee and did not conform. Instead, he stood firm in the true grace of God.
[00:35:03] Though he couldn't get the whole Babylonian society to live like he did, he insisted on
[00:35:10] personally keeping God's law. He refused to defile himself by consuming things that God had
[00:35:18] forbidden for his people. He would not refrain from praying when God told him to pray and he also
[00:35:26] served various kings who came and went throughout his 70 years of exile. He had taken Jeremiah's
[00:35:35] words to heart and the Babylonians and Daniel were blessed as a result. And the more conscious you
[00:35:44] are of your better and secure and future inheritance, the better you'll be at blessing your community
[00:35:52] though you are far different from it. Like Daniel, you will enjoy God and his benefits in the midst
[00:35:59] of a world that doesn't know him. You will feel the pleasure and privilege of being close with him
[00:36:05] and you will do the exilic Christian life without anger, fear or wavering because exile hope
[00:36:14] enjoys God's inheritance already. So maybe we would be a group of believers whose hope is alive
[00:36:24] because of what Christ has done for us.