Home Away From Home | Carl Kuhl

Well, hello, Pando Southeast family. We are thrilled that you are worshiping right now, wherever you are. It's a big deal to us that you're joining in because you are part of the Southeast family. Regardless of your location or situation, we want you to know that we really do care about you. And we love hearing from you. As a matter of fact, if you head to the description, we put our address there. We get letters every single week from folks that are in prison and incarcerated. And we love hearing your story. We love hearing how God's at work in your life and love knowing the ways that we can pray for you. We have a few volunteers that might even write you back. We do our best to do that, to write some encouragement. And we are encouraged from hearing you. So make sure you connect. The other way that I wanna remind you to connect is join the 21,000. We just crossed 21,000 folks in Pando that have hit that subscribe button because we try to put out content from stories to Bible studies, to worship songs, to all the ways of putting engaging content together for you. And so the best way to stay in the know is to hit that subscribe button because we wanna keep it fresh and relevant

and supportive for you. And make sure you tune around to the very end today because I'll be back up and I'll talk about a brand new Bible study just for you. And I'll share about that after service. This weekend, we are starting a brand new series. It's called Temporary Residence. It's with our executive pastor. His name is Carl Kuhl. And he's got a challenging message in the book of 1 Peter. And Peter wrote this. It's actually a letter. I don't know if you know this. It really wasn't a book. It was written as a letter. And he wrote it to the church back 2000 years ago. He wrote it to the church that was scattered throughout the Roman empire. And in this place, it was in modern day Turkey in what they called Asia Minor. And he wrote that to encourage them that they may be in a world that's increasingly not welcoming to Christian belief. And that may be the situation you find yourself in where being a Christian in the situation you're in might be very, very difficult. And so he answers that question. So what do we do? How do I live in that moment?

That's what our series is all about. And Carl has got a great message for you. So stick around to the very end. I'll have some next step for you. But right now, let's head in, let's worship together and be prepared to hear a word from God today. Let's worship. ♪ Amen, church, there's joy in the house of the Lord today ♪ Let's give Him all of our praise this morning. ♪ Sometimes you've gotta dance through the darkness ♪ ♪ Sing through the fire, praise when it don't make sense ♪ ♪ Sometimes you've gotta stand on the giant ♪ ♪ Worship from the lion's den ♪ ♪ Sometimes you've gotta shout it from the mountain ♪ ♪ Louder in the valley, trusting that He's gonna get you there ♪ ♪ Sometimes you've gotta welcome the wonder ♪ ♪ Wait for the answer, worship with your hands in the air ♪ ♪ I'll praise you anywhere, praise, give Him praise, give Him praise ♪ ♪ In the highest praise, give Him praise, give Him praise ♪ ♪ In the highest, He is worthy, yes He is worthy of all of the praise ♪ ♪ Sometimes you've gotta praise in the prison, cry out to heaven ♪ ♪ Shout till the doors swing wide ♪ ♪ Sometimes you've gotta stand on your shackles, brave it in the battle ♪ ♪ With your hands held high, I'll praise you anywhere, praise, give Him praise, give Him praise ♪ You sing it out. ♪ In the highest praise, give Him praise, give Him praise ♪ ♪ In the highest, He is worthy, yes He is worthy of all of the praise ♪ ♪ Praise, give Him praise, give Him praise, in the highest, we lift our voices to you, Lord ♪ ♪ He is worthy, yes He is worthy of all of the praise ♪ ♪ Yes, you are, yes you are ♪

♪ Faithful all my life, blessings day and night ♪ ♪ Countless reasons why, I'll praise you anywhere ♪ ♪ Every promise kept, won't you lift your voices today, this is the truth ♪ ♪ We believe it, I'll praise you anywhere, praise, give Him praise, give Him praise, give Him praise ♪ ♪ Fulfill all my life, blessings day and night ♪ ♪ Countless reasons why, I'll praise you anyway ♪ ♪ Every promise, step, goodness every step ♪ ♪ Each and every breath, I'll praise you anyway ♪ ♪ Praise, give Him praise, give Him praise, you sing ♪ ♪ Praise, give Him praise, give Him praise, in the highest He is worthy ♪ ♪ Yes, He is worthy of all of the praise, give Him praise, give Him praise ♪ ♪ What have you in this place today? He is worthy, yes He is worthy of all of the praise, give Him praise, give Him praise ♪ ♪ He is worthy of all of the praise, hallelujah, yes you are Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, He is worthy, yes He is worthy of all of the praise, we believe that this morning church, He is worthy ♪ Is anybody's hoping Jesus this morning church? Come on, you shout it out, hey! Let's sing that hope of His resurrection power, come on, oh, oh! Sing the gospel of Jesus. ♪ The gospel of Jesus is the hope of the ages, burning brighter and brighter, standing forever ♪ ♪ The church He is building, no nothing can stop it, it's a city that's shining, a light in the darkness ♪ Come on, you let it rise, lift your voice. ♪ All praise belongs to Him, oh yeah, all praise belongs to Him, give Him praise, hey! ♪ ♪ Oh, we worship You God, oh, His Word, His Word is the answer ♪ ♪ For all generations, it will never be tainted, it will never be broken ♪ ♪ Oh, this is our confession, this is our conviction, we believe what is written, we believe what is spoken, oh, oh, hey! ♪ ♪ Oh, Christ was dead, now surely He's risen, oh yeah, He's coming back again ♪ ♪ May Christ be the reign, in triumph forever, oh yeah, all praise belongs to Him, sing all praise, yeah, all praise belongs to Jesus ♪ ♪ All praise, all praise, oh, it's Yours, it's Yours, oh sing, Hallelujah, Christ is our Redeemer ♪ ♪ We shout, Hallelujah! ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Jesus holds our future ♪

♪ Oh, we sing hallelujah, oh, Christ is our redeemer ♪ ♪ Won't you shout to Him, shout hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, oh, Jesus holds our future ♪ ♪ He holds, Jesus holds our future ♪ ♪ Though Christ was dead, now surely He's risen ♪ ♪ Oh yeah, He's coming back again ♪ ♪ Oh, Christ will reign in triumph forever, yeah ♪ ♪ All praise belongs to Him, all the praise, yeah ♪ ♪ All praise belongs to Jesus, all the praise belongs to You ♪ ♪ The one who was burned, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ Come on, if that's true, you lift Him high. Amen. You guys can grab a seat. Well, we're gonna continue in our service as we take communion together as a church family. You know, something that we're in currently as a church, it's called move. It's a unique season of our church where we've been praying, God, would you move in us and through us? Specifically, we've been praying, God, would you move our church forward? What we mean by that is we are just praying that the Lord would use us as a church to reach the world. And so every now and then we get the opportunity to share with you how God is using this church to partner with amazing, amazing ministries. And so I have a dear friend of Southeast, Dr. Florence here with Life in Abundance. Dr. Florence, would you share with us

what God is doing around the world? Thank you. So 30 years ago, I can't believe it's that long, we were sent as missionaries, my husband and I and our two little ones, to go to Ethiopia to work with a leprosy affected community there. And the Lord just began to do an incredible work in partnership with Southeast. We saw churches and grassroots churches beginning to be empowered. In fact, that's where Life in Abundance was born. And today we are serving in 12 countries in Africa, in two countries in the Caribbean, we've grown to be a family of 150 members of staff. And the amazing thing, which is the offering, is the fruit that has come out of this partnership with you all. We are celebrating 75,000 people have come to know Christ as Lord and Savior. And yes, we will have eternity with the least of these widows, orphans, the destitute, as they have experienced transformation in their lives to be whole, both physically, spiritually, and found a place in the church. We've also seen across the nations, more than 2.4 million people have been served by Life in Abundance to their place where they've experienced sustainable livelihood,

both in the spiritual and in the physical. And what a joy, what a joy that the Lord allows us to do these things, praise the Lord. And we are just so, so amazed that the Lord would even use us, use us in partnership with you, that the nations may know Him. Thank you for being part of this. Amen, amen. Yeah. Well, I don't know if you heard it, but they are in their 30th year anniversary. And so, church family, would you guys just give them a southeast? Yeah. Yeah, we're praising God for that. Well, Dr. Florence, would you pray for us, pray for our church, pray for the work of God around the world? Amen. Shall we pray? Father, in Jesus' name we come to you united as a people you have commissioned to go serve you in the nations. Lord, I thank you that we can come today to bring an offering of the fruit that has come from your work. We honor you, we celebrate you, we enthrone you, Lord. How beautiful it is when we can see your handiwork. Thank you, Father, for this church that in obedience and in generosity they've given not just to Life in Abundance but to the partners that they carry from here. Thank you, Lord, that they've strengthened the hands of people in the front lines. Thank you, Lord, that this is our joint heritage. The Lord, we celebrate you today because your people have been faithful. May you bless them. As they have given, give them back. Watch over them, protect them, guard them, Lord, lead them well. We pray for their leadership, we pray for all that happens around them. Lord, may it be excellent and unto you. Lord, watch over their going out, their coming in. May the presence of the Lord, may the joy of the Lord be

their strength. Lord, we just give you thanks. We've come to say thank you for it has honored you for us to walk in partnership this way. To you be all honor and all glory. And God's people said, amen. Come on, church family, one more time. Thank you so much, Dr. Florence. We appreciate you. Well, like I said, we're going to continue as we take communion together. Maybe you're new here and that's a new tradition for you. We essentially just look to the scriptures and we see where Jesus really kind of set that example as he was leading his disciples. He took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. And so quite literally, we slow down in our services and we take the elements which serve as a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus. So that little piece of bread, it describes the body of Christ that was broken for us. And that little cup of juice, it represents the blood of Jesus that was poured out for us. As you continue to follow Jesus, one of the things you're going to realize really quickly is that in this book, there's all kinds of truths, truths that will better your life, truths that will cause your life to flourish and you'll gain wisdom. But the reason why we take communion every single week is because there is one truth that remains. There's one truth that we hang all of our confidence on and it's Christ and him crucified. It's the sacrifice of Jesus. It's the gospel that Jesus came, lived a humble life. He lived a sinless life and he died, but he didn't stay dead, but he rose again. And because he rose, we can have life. And so as we take communion together, if you're a follower of Jesus, I would encourage you to push out the distraction, to take this moment to realign your heart with grace. But if you've yet to put your faith in Jesus Christ, I want to encourage you to take this moment and to consider the great love that Jesus has for you. Let's take communion together. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ This is my confession ♪ ♪ Of sinners shine the worst ♪ ♪ I know my need for saving grace ♪ ♪ A life not built on words ♪ ♪ Oh, this is my repentance ♪ ♪ From all that I've done wrong ♪ ♪ I walk away from who I was ♪ ♪ And daily lift my cross ♪ ♪ Oh, I believe Jesus is the Christ ♪ ♪ Oh, I believe that he's the Son of God ♪ ♪ He's my Lord, my Savior, my confidence ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm born again ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm born again ♪ ♪ Oh, this is my salvation ♪ ♪ Made righteous in this time ♪ ♪ Holy through the death of Christ ♪ ♪ I am raised to life, oh, we believe ♪ ♪ I believe Jesus is the Christ ♪ ♪ Oh, I believe that he's the Son of God ♪ ♪ He's my Lord, my Savior, my confidence ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, I'm born again ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm born again ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm born again ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm born again, I'm born again ♪ ♪ In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit ♪ ♪ I've been given new life, come on, been given new life ♪ ♪ No death doesn't own me, I'm chosen, I am the child of God ♪

♪ Been given new life, we sing, been given new life, oh ♪ ♪ In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, I'm alive ♪ ♪ Been given new life, we declare, been given new life, oh ♪ ♪ No death doesn't own me, I'm chosen, I am the child of God ♪ ♪ Been given new life, hallelujah, been given new life ♪ ♪ I've been given new life, oh, been given new life, oh, come on ♪ ♪ I believe Jesus is the Christ, oh, I believe He's the Son of God ♪ ♪ He's my Lord, my Savior, my Comforter, hallelujah, I'm born again ♪ ♪ I believe Jesus is the Christ, oh, I believe He's the Son of God ♪ He's the Son of God, He's my Lord, my Saviour, my Comforter Hallelujah, I'm born again We've been redeemed, I'm born again Oh, I'm born again Thank you, Jesus, we're born again I'm born again, I'm born again And Father, we believe that, that You are the Son of God That You came down to earth so that we might be saved Father, any righteousness that we think we own, it's You Father, thank You, Jesus, for the cross Thank You, Lord, for a way to eternity with You, Lord You are good, You are faithful, You are on time And we love You, Lord, we thank You for this time We thank You for the opportunity to worship You And to remember what You've done for us That You rose again so that we might live It's in Your precious Son, Christ Jesus' name, we pray, Amen Y'all can grab a seat Imagine that you get shipwrecked on a deserted island How you respond depends on what you know about when you will be rescued If you know you're going to be rescued in a few hours

You're going to lay out, get a tan, enjoy yourself If you know you're going to get rescued in a few days You'll maybe construct some place to sleep, look for some fresh fruit But it's going to be a little mini vacation or retreat But if you don't know when you're going to be rescued It changes everything You'll have to build shelter, look for fresh water Learn how to fish, find a volleyball, name it Wilson Make it your best friend You're going to make that deserted island your home And that, as Christians, is the tension in which we live Scriptures say our citizenship is in heaven Meaning this is not our home, we are waiting to be rescued We know Jesus is returning one day But we don't know when It could be today, it could be years from now Our challenge is to not grow comfortable and make this world our home Nor become calloused where we don't care about the world around us Jesus uses the phrases be in the world but not of the world But how do we do that? How do we enjoy entertainment without sacrificing our purity? How do we provide for our families well without becoming greedy? How do we pursue holiness without alienating non-believers? How do we be faithful without getting discouraged? This is why the Apostle Peter writes two letters that become part of our Bible called 1 and 2 Peter in the New Testament In fact, he opens his letters this way in 1 Peter chapter 1 This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ I am writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Paunus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia

Now the footnote in your Bible says that these are just Roman provinces in what is modern-day Turkey But I love the meaning of this word foreigners because it communicates that we're exiles, that we're pilgrims, that we're sojourners It's people who are here but who belong elsewhere because our heart, our soul, our mind, our allegiance belongs somewhere else And 1 Peter is written to those who live in this culture in this time, in this place in which God has placed us but who want to figure out how do we live on mission here while keeping our loyalty there How do we live and exist and feed ourselves and manage relationships and raise a family and go to school and go to work and have fun and enjoy entertainment and take care of our bodies here and now without this world having our allegiance because we're looking forward to something better A big challenge with this has been articulated by an author named Aaron Wren He wrote this book I found helpful called Life in the Negative World I think this is really helpful reading for anyone who is a thinking Christian influencer in this cultural moment And he kind of details what he sees as having happened in American Christianity and the culture around us over really the last 50 years He says up until the 1960s we lived as a country not as a Christian nation but with kind of a Christian ethos where maybe everybody wasn't a Christian but they kind of felt like they had to act like it So you maybe heard people from back then say well I'm not going to get divorced just because you're not supposed to But then it started to change and he dubs from that point up till 1994 is what he calls a positive world.

Meaning, if you as a Christian interacted with the world around you, you got a positive, in general, response. And typically it would sound something like if you said, I believe, they would say, well, that's great, I don't believe, but we need people who believe. Belief is a good thing. And you got a positive response in our world. Then around 1994, we moved into what he calls a neutral world where the tone of the day was not so much positive, but it was, hey, you can believe whatever you want to believe, just keep it to yourself. Everybody can believe whatever they want, just live and let live, and as long as you keep it to yourself, don't force on anybody else, then we're all good. But then he says, around 2014, we moved into what he calls a negative world. And he dates at 2014, which you could argue over the date, simply because that's when the Supreme Court of our country legalized so-called gay marriage. But he says, since then, in general, in our culture, if you tell someone, I am a Christian, meaning I believe the Bible is our authority and is our rule for life, and I believe that Jesus is God's son and he alone can save us and give us grace for eternal life, that you're not looked upon with positivity

or even neutrality, but rather people view you as evil. You're the problem. You're the thing, well, your belief is the thing that needs to be eradicated from our world. You are bringing evil into this world, and it is a negative response to us. And Aaron Wren writes about how telling people about Jesus looks differently today than it did 10, 20, 30 years ago. When I was growing up, because it was a positive world, you could kinda spoon-feed people off in Christianity. Hey, just take this morsel, take this morsel, and it would taste good to them, and they'd buy it and buy it, and then months or years down the road, they'd realize, I'm a completely sold-out Jesus follower now. And that just doesn't work in a negative world. People don't put up with short answers or gonna be spoon-fed Jesus for a couple different reasons. One is they're used to deep thinking, mainly through podcasts. Most everybody you know, most of us, willingly listen to a three-hour podcast where they have a world's expert on a topic going very deep for an extended conversation to give you an overview of that subject accurately, so people are used to that. They expect that from us.

And the second reason that it's difficult today is our world is so extreme that they're looking for people who really believe something, that waffling on things isn't gonna cut it. And if you either don't have an answer for a controversial subject or a misunderstood theology or you try to avoid it because you're uncomfortable with it, then the world's just gonna balk at it because they say either it's not worth believing or you can't believe it, so I can't trust you anyway. And Aaron Renn's whole point is that we need to approach our world with the right mindset. If you wanna think of it biblically, we don't live as David did in a God-centered culture. We live as Daniel did in a God-less culture. And you recognize this in the news. You heard maybe a few years ago when pastor and author Tim Keller was set to receive an award recognition from Princeton Theological Seminary, but it went viral because of some old comment on a biblical view of gender and Princeton rescinded the award before he could receive it. It was a seminary that chastised him for believing the Bible. There was a Colorado woman, Lori Smith,

who when she refused to make a website for someone who was promoting an anti-biblical thing, she was prosecuted and her case went all the way to the Supreme Court or maybe you even remember in 2022 when there was lots of protests nationwide against Chick-fil-A because their leadership believed in biblical marriage. Listen, there is more opposition to Christian faith today than at any point in our nation's history. And it's not just in the news. You experience this, right? It's when people roll their eyes at you and you say, well, I don't follow that person on social. I don't watch that entertainment because it's just gonna drag me astray from the values I want. It's you were passed over for the promotion at work because you don't put pronouns in your email signature. It's the family member for a whole lot of you who this past Thanksgiving wouldn't even come to your house because they assumed they knew how you voted based on your biblical values and they said, you're not even worth eating with. I won't even share a table with you. How do you live in a culture like that? How do you keep joy when the world spews hate? How do you keep your hope in the right things? How do you not go crazy from discouragement? Maybe most important, how do you resist the temptation

to completely withdraw so you're only around Christians all the time and end up completely disobeying Jesus' command to be salt and light in the world? And then, once you're in the world, how do you influence the nonbelievers around you when it seems most? I don't think you're evil for believing what you believe. These are essential questions. If you want the Christian faith to not just survive in our world, but to grow into the next generation, we have to know these answers. If you wanna get through hard times, we gotta figure this out. And if you wanna be the one that Jesus describes as being faithful, when he returns by surprise in the middle of the night, we've gotta get this right. It just so happens, those Christians in those Roman provinces in the first century were facing these exact questions. And the Apostle Peter writes them two letters and says, hey, I'm gonna equip you to live as foreigners in a negative world. And so we're gonna start a series today going through Peter, and today specifically, we're gonna learn three ways to be resilient in a negative world. We'll start in verse two. God the Father knew you and chose you long ago. His spirit made you holy.

As a result, you've obeyed him and been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. So you see the Trinity, the full Godhead here. You are saved by the blood of Jesus. You are made holy by the Holy Spirit, and this is according to the plan of God the Father. May God give you more and more grace and peace. I love that phrase. Don't you want more and more grace? Don't you want more and more peace? That sounds good. All praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's by his great mercy we've been born again because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure, undefiled, beyond the reach of change or decay. I like these three words. I showed you different ways they could be translated because they kind of helped me understand what the verse is saying a little bit more. It says this inheritance is unstained. That makes me think of the beginning of baseball season. A lot of you parents are buying new baseball pants for your kids right now, and when you buy those things, they're just lightning bright white, and they can blind you. What's gonna happen in a month?

They're gonna be covered with grass stains, never gonna come out, right? It says it's unfading. This makes me think of the 25-year-old guy who still wears his favorite college T-shirt, and it's almost falling apart. You can't even read what it says anymore. It's faded so much. He just likes it because it's comfortable, and it's imperishable. You ever move something in the fridge, and you find a piece of fruit in the back? It's got something growing on it. It's perishable. You need to throw that away? Our inheritance is not like any of those things. It is unstained, unfading, imperishable. Here's the point. I'd phrase what Peter says this way. Choose a realistic joy. Choose a realistic joy. You know, as a Christian, you shouldn't be a pessimist. A pessimist finds the bad in everything. They're negative. They're not fun to be around. I wonder if we all have something we're a pessimist about. For me, it's my sports teams. Like, when I'm watching any of my favorite sports teams, and they get down, the other team goes on a run,

we mess up, I just say, it's over, we're gonna lose. Like, this is a disaster. I don't know why I'm wasting my time here. My family does not enjoy watching games with me. I've actually banned myself from live tweeting during sports. I want to so bad, but it just doesn't end well. But the Christian is not a pessimist. But the Christian is also not an optimist. If a pessimist is somebody who thinks that everything's guaranteed in poorly every time, the optimist is the person who thinks everything's guaranteed to work out perfectly every single time. Lee Strobel shows the negatives in both extremes. He talks about this in a story in his book, A Case for Hope. He tells a parable about pessimism and optimism. There are these parents who had two boys, and one of them was an over-the-top pessimist, and one of them was an over-the-top optimist, and they said, this is just unhealthy. We gotta do something to break our boys of this. So they decided Christmas Eve would be the night to do it. When the boys had fallen asleep, they sneak into the pessimist's room, and they fill it with just dozens of toys. Way more presents than this kid's ever gotten for Christmas. Brand new stuff, stuff he's gonna want. They're so excited. They sneak in to the optimist's son's room,

and they fill it with horse manure. It's a parable, okay? Just go with it. Christmas morning comes. They wake up. They wanna check on their boys. They go check on the pessimist, and they say, hey, did you play with all your new toys? And he moans, nah. I saw them all, but the last toy I had broke, and I just know those will break, and I'll just even end up more disappointed. I'm gonna go watch a movie. He said, well, let's see if the optimist is doing better. They go check on that son. He's covered head to foot in filth. They say, what is going on? And he said, if I keep digging long enough, I know there's a pony here somewhere. And optimist blindly assumes everything's gonna work out, and Christians get in trouble when we assume that eternal hope means everything's gonna work out. single thing always works out. I've known Christians who faced intense illness and they said, we know this is gonna end great because we believe in Jesus. And it just didn't and their faith was rocked. That's not what Christian hope is. In that old leadership book, Good to Great by Jim Collins, he talks about the Stockdale paradox.

James Stockdale was an American POW for a long time in a Vietnamese prison war camp. And in interviewing, Collins asked him, who didn't make it out? And he said, oh, that's easy. The optimists. And Collins said, why the optimists? And Stockdale replied, well, the optimists would say, we'll be out by Easter and Easter would come and go. They'd say, we'll be out by Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving would come and go. And the optimists died of a broken heart. He said, the people who made it out were the people who were willing to confront the brutal facts. We're stuck here, it's miserable, we don't know when we're gonna get out and yet, they never lost hope that we would one day prevail in the end. The Christian's neither a pessimist, everything's wrong, nor a blind optimist. It's guaranteed to get better. First Peter says, the Christian is a realist. And look at the reason, verses three and four. We've been born again because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus being raised. Last week, Easter was a real event with a real person at a real place at a real time in history.

That is why we have a real hope. We didn't make it up. And because of that, it's joyful. Next phrase, now we live with great expectation. So it's a realistic joy. And realistic joy changes the way you live. In a hard marriage, pessimism gives up. Blind optimism says, it's fine. Realistic joy says, this is not what I want my marriage to be. But with God's strength, I can do the hard work of digging into my stuff and doing what I can to make this marriage better. When your kid's diagnosed as autistic, pessimism says, my life's over. Blind optimism says, it'll be easy. Realistic joy says, my parenting journey is gonna be different than I ever dreamed. It will have unique challenges, but God's gonna teach me things no one else can learn and I will love my kid well. When you make a move commitment and the next week your car breaks down, pessimism says, I knew I shouldn't have done that. Blind optimism says, oh, it'll be fine. Let's go lease a new car. Realistic joy says, I am thankful that when I look back, God has always provided and I'm gonna live on a budget. When you're a lazy dad and you see how it's affecting your kids,

pessimism says, my kids are doomed. Blind optimism says, eh, they'll be all right. Realistic joy says, my kids are ultimately in God's hands and I'm gonna open myself up to let God address the root of that so I can be a changed man. And realistic joy is what appeals to a negative world because it's rooted, it's not challenged, joyful, it's not depressing, people want that. Peter goes on, verse five, and through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There's wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It's being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. I like that imagery of fire testing and purifying gold. The way fire tests and purifies gold is complicated. First, you melt it down. Then you pour it in water to cool it. Next, you put nitric acid in it to pull off anything that's not gold. You have gold powder, but it's still not pure, so you add more acids to pull off lead and other metals. You filter out any solids. Then you have gold in powder form. You heat that up. You take the mold and heat it up,

and you end up with a pure gold bar. You know what I'd wanna do if I had gold jewelry? I'd wanna make it into pure gold in one step. Doesn't work like that. I thought it did. It actually takes a master craftsman with the right tools, at the right temperatures, with the right timing, in the right steps, with the right order, with the right science, in order to make something that's beautiful and pure. I even wonder if Peter had seen that process take place when he writes, these trials will show that your faith is genuine. It's being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold, so when your faith remains strong through many trials, it'll bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Isn't that interesting? We think of us giving honor and praise to Jesus when he returns, but it says when you endure the test, the fiery test, you. will also get praise and honor. One of the things Aaron Ren talks about in a negative world is you have to be more concerned with what's going on in here than what's going on out there. It is so easy to get consumed with the negative world, but he argues that if we're to change culture, it has to first start with you asking God to change you,

and then occasionally, as he does that, some other people will follow your example, and occasionally, when that happens, it'll influence culture at large. But here's how I think you sum up what Peter said. See fires as training. Now, if you're thinking, no way, fire hurts. I don't wanna do that. I'm with ya. Me too. When I face a fire, I complain about the fire. I say I don't deserve the fire. I try to run from the fire. I whine while I'm in the fire. I get mad and resentful and apathetic because of the fire. In fact, I have a fire in my life right now that I've literally prayed, Jesus, you got me in this fire. This fire is your fault. Good job, Jesus. And what Peter tells me is Jesus says back, that's right. I brought you in a fire because I love you. And the question simply is, well, I see fires as training. See, in the writings of Peter, fire could be something else. I wanna skip ahead to 2 Peter real quick. It says the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They're being kept for the day of judgment when ungodly people will be destroyed. The very elements themselves will disappear in fire

and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. So in Peter's writings, there's two different types of fire. The question is, will I face the fire of judgment or the fire of testing? Will I go through the fire of reckoning or the fire of refinement? Will I see fires as trials or will I see fires as training? And listen, this is advanced level Christian stuff. I don't wanna go through a fire. I wanna ask whose fault is the fire. And scripture tells me to instead ask, who do I wanna become in the fire? And I hate that question because the last thing I wanna do when I'm in a fire is grow. But Peter says when I go through a fire, when you go through a fire, he is making you into someone praiseworthy and honorable and good. So we're learning how to act in a negative world. We're gonna choose realistic joy. We're gonna see fires as training. Peter's gonna give us one more thing. And as his illustration, he's gonna do a callback to the prophets who said prophecies about Jesus

hundreds of years before Jesus came. Look at this. This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory afterward. They were told that their messages were not for themselves but for you. They were told, hey, this isn't gonna make sense now. And now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is also wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen. I love this image of the prophets not completely understanding the words that they were saying. When any of my kids wants to get baptized, I go through a process with them that a wise mentor of mine taught me, I don't know, 10 years ago maybe. When they say, I wanna get baptized, I say, okay, here's your homework. You gotta read the biographies of Jesus, the Gospels in the Bible by Luke and John. I need you to write down every question that occurs to you and then we'll discuss. And we can discuss as you go

or we can discuss them all at the end. And I do that for two reasons. One is because I have baptized way too many adults who have said, yeah, I was baptized as a kid but that was just getting wet. I didn't know what I was doing and I need to make sure my kids understand what baptism means and the depth of that commitment. In addition, if they're not willing to read two Gospels, they are not ready to follow Christ in a negative world. So I need to make sure they know what they're signing up for. So I kept a picture of one of my kids' questions and I love these questions. He wrote down, why was Jesus so old when he started preaching? What does the Bible mean? He spoke with authority. Why are people mad at Jesus? And then this is my favorite. Why does Jesus say rude things? And those are great questions. Here's the problem for him is my answer to most of them was, I don't know, and nobody else does either. And on about the fourth or fifth, I don't know, I could see this look of disillusionment come over his face. saying, man, this Christian thing's a joke. Even my pastor dad doesn't even know half the stuff I want to know about it. So verse 10 is encouraging to me when it says,

even the prophets wanted to know more about what they prophesied. They didn't understand the Bible, which is both encouraging and depressing, but they stood on it anyway, and they stood on it in the face of not understanding, in the face of a negative world around them, in the face of extreme persecution, even if you read Jeremiah's story from his own family. The question for us in a negative world when we live as foreigners is, do I stand on unpopular truth? See, in a positive world, you don't really have to stand on unpopular truth because the world just thinks belief is good. Some may disagree with your beliefs, but like, it's okay, we can agree to disagree. In a negative world, this will get you persecuted, and lots of truth will be unpopular. In fact, it's worth asking from time to time if there is not some belief that some group of people I'm around regularly do not judge me for and think I'm evil for because I'm standing on the Bible, am I really standing on the Bible? You know what makes us not want to stand on truth? Close relationships. I want to let our Franklin campus in on how things work at our broadcast location, just so you understand this metaphor I'm going to give you.

We are broadcasting from Louisville, Kentucky, and here, you are either a University of Louisville fan or a University of Kentucky fan. You are one or the other, you are not both, and if you meet someone ever who says, I cheer for both teams, they're insane or stupid because you just can't do that. They don't follow sports. It's just true. And so I was even talking with somebody recently who I just met, it's literally 30 seconds in the conversation of me meeting this person, somehow sports comes up, he says he's a diehard UK fan, and then I said, I'm a Louisville fan, and he looks at me and says, I hate Louisville, I despise Louisville. And my answer back to him was, I respect that, I respect that, because you can be wrong, but at least you have integrity about the beliefs you choose. So I was talking to another friend recently that I've known for several years, and I've never talked sports with him, and this topic comes up, and he says, well, I'm a diehard Kentucky fan, and we're talking as couples, his wife's there, my wife's there, and he says, but I used to be a diehard Louisville fan. I'm like, no, no, see, now you're lying, and that's just not possible.

But then he goes on to talk in depth about his Louisville fandom, and how 10 or 15 years ago he was into it, he starts naming all of these players in various sports and describing moments in big games, both wins and losses over a multi-year period, and I'm realizing, like, he's saying things that only a diehard would know, and as I'm listening to him talk, I'm looking at his wife, who went to UK, and as I'm listening to him talk more, I see her grinning ear to ear, and I realize he was a Louisville fan until he met her. He sold his soul for a woman. I'm gonna miss that friend. He was... Here's the truth. It is hard to stand on unpopular truth when a relationship is involved. It's really easy to say, God made the male and female genesis of the universe, until your son comes home from college, and he said, Dad, I started taking hormones. It's really easy to say, yeah, God hates divorce, Malachi 2, until your best friend tells you how her husband treats her in private, and you think, well, God doesn't hate that, too? It's easy to say repentance is paired with baptism, Acts 2, until that person you've been praying desperately for and walking with says, hey, I wanna get baptized,

I want grace, I wanna give my life to Jesus, and then they add, but I wanna keep my only fans show going. And there comes this moment for the Christian, just like the prophets had before Jesus was ever born, where we have to decide, do I stand on scripture when it's easy, or do I really believe his word leads to true life? Verse nine kind of sums up everything we've talked about. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. If your citizenship is in this world, you are stranded on a deserted island. And we wanna let you know, Jesus is coming, so you can get ready. And the good news is he's prepared it for you. Maybe you're like Caden. Caden's a sophomore in high school, showed up last weekend, wasn't expecting too much, but something hit him in the service, baptized on Easter. Maybe you're like Bob, 82 years old, just stopped the chemo treatment because it's not working, baptized on Easter. Maybe you're like Sandy, 70 years old, was diagnosed with stage four cancer, told she has six months, made her dig deep into questions about faith, baptized on Easter. Maybe you're like Olivia, college student, home for Easter, Kyle in his sermon said, I've been praying for somebody named Olivia,

baptized on Easter. We do need to warn you. We do need to warn you. It's not like it used to be. It used to be years, I don't know, a couple decades ago, maybe even, that if you got baptized, the world wouldn't hate you. In some social circles, it may even elevate you. It's not like that anymore. They'll hate you. And Jesus said they would, and he said they will hate you because they hated me too. But after the fire tests your faith, when Jesus returns, it will bring you glory and honor and praise when he returns. When we close, I'm gonna pray over you the words Jesus prayed over his disciples before he went to the cross. I have one more illustration I wanna share with you before we get there that I think really gives me the picture, gives us the picture of what living as foreigners means. Last Easter, I got to preach in Kenya. I got to preach at a small church in the slums and it was a fantastic experience, so much joy in this church. They taught me more than I was teaching them, for sure. After the service, Pastor Felix came up to me and as we were talking, he said, how is my church different from your church? And I did not think of our nice buildings

compared to their building made out of tin. I did not think of the thousands of people we have versus 80 people. I didn't think of how casual we are compared to how dressed up they all were. I said, well, Pastor Felix, in my church, we don't dance. And I have to explain this because in their worship, their worship was very much like ours, like they'd have upbeat songs, they had people on stage, microphones, leading worship, everybody's into it. But the difference was in the middle of their four or five minute song, there was an interlude for about eight or 10 minutes during which everybody danced. And you didn't have a choice to participate and the kids danced and the women in their heels danced and the men danced and everybody was just full of the joy of the Lord dancing in worship. And I looked at Pastor Felix, I said, in my church, we don't dance. And he thought I was kidding. He said, you don't dance in your church. I said, we don't dance in our church. He goes, you don't dance? I said, we don't dance. He goes, well, how do people show joy? I said, if we get really excited, we do this. We even went out to lunch afterwards with about a dozen other pastors

and everyone he'd introduced me. He said, this is Pastor Carl from Kentucky, USA. In his church, they do not dance. And he asked me, what would happen if I came to your church and started dancing? I said, we would love to have you. But sometimes when we're in worship in our church, whatever campus I'm at, I kind of get an image of Pastor Felix being there with me and dancing. And let me add here, we're not changing today how we worship, don't take it upon yourself to do this. We have a fantastic security team. That's all I'll say about that. But if he did it, this is what 1 Peter means. It would be as a foreigner living unashamed, full of joy, in a culture that considered him a little bit crazy. And that's what Peter's talking about, is you're foreigners. Called to live unashamed because of the Easter-rooted joy that you have in a culture that thinks you're crazy, if not evil. You know, some people would look at the fact that we live in a negative world and say, that's a bad thing, that's a hard thing. But Jesus was born in a negative world. He's born in a world where if you said, there's one God and I'm it, they killed you. But he persevered. And our call, however hard it gets, is to follow his example.

So although some would say, when looking at a negative world, what a disaster, we as believers rooted in the Scriptures can look at a negative world and say, what an opportunity. What an opportunity to get to work for the sake of the gospel. Let me pray over you. Father in heaven, I pray the words of John 17. Father, the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as Jesus did not belong to the world. I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They don't belong in this world any more than Jesus did. Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent Jesus into the world, Father, you're sending us into the world. And Father, we know from Acts 17 that you designed the exact times and places that every human in history should live so that everyone would have an opportunity to find you, which means you've put us in this place, in this culture, at this time, with these fires, with these relationships, with these daily struggles, with these blessings, so we can use all of that to lead someone to you. So may we be unashamed, living as foreigners in a culture that thinks we're crazy. Give us power to do that, Jesus,

until you return to rescue us from this island we find ourselves stranded on. It's in your name that we pray, amen. I listed for you some of those. All right. I listed for you some of those people who got baptized last week, and we made a very soft, gentle push for baptisms, and it was very overwhelming to see the response at all of our campuses. But here's what I know, is in a room like this, there's somebody who held out. And you're here last week, and you felt the pull, and the gospel was clear, and you heard the call to action, and you said, I think I'm just emotional because it's Easter. And can I tell you that God was trying to use that emotion to draw you to him, and he's still waiting. So don't miss your opportunity because you have an opportunity today to confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And if you need to follow him and become a foreigner in this world, we want you to go on the first floor of the Next Step room right over here, and we have some folks who would love to walk through scripture with you to help you repent,

place your faith in Christ, be baptized, and join his church to find community and mission. Let's all stand right now. Let's worship our great king. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ This world is sifting sand ♪ ♪ It's not my solid rock ♪ ♪ When nations rise and fall ♪ ♪ Lord, you're still my heart ♪ ♪ When tomorrow's on my mind ♪ ♪ And worry has my sign ♪ ♪ This place is not my home ♪ ♪ You're with me through the night ♪ ♪ I know you chose me because you love me ♪ ♪ No powers of hell can stand against your word ♪ ♪ And I know you're for me, you'll never forsake me ♪ ♪ No matter the cost, I'm forever yours, I'm forever yours ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ When the world breaks around me ♪ ♪ I know who's in control ♪ ♪ If you set it all in motion ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Sing the song forever and amen ♪ ♪ And the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, all creation rise ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Hear people sing holy to the kingdom peace ♪ ♪ Holy, you will always be holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominion ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus, your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominion ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪

♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Let the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, all creation rise ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Hear people sing, holy to the king of kings ♪ ♪ You are holy, you will always be ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ You will always be holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ You're worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You're worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from you are all things, to you are all things ♪ ♪ You deserve the glory ♪ ♪ You're worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You're worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from you are all things, to you are all things ♪ ♪ You deserve the glory ♪ Can we sing that together one more time? Lift your voice. ♪ You're worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You're worthy of it all, so worthy God ♪ ♪ For from you are all things, to you are all things ♪ ♪ You deserve the glory, we believe, thank you Lord. ♪ Well, thank you so much for being on the Pando app and engaging in an hour of worship. That is a very, very big deal and love that you have taken that step. I love the message from Carl this week in challenging us from that book of the Bible in the New Testament called First Peter,

where he reminded us of what we need to do to live in this world. We don't need to be pessimistic, but we don't want to be unrealistically optimistic. We have to stand in confident faith, knowing that one day Jesus will return and in when. He returns, He will make all the things that are wrong in the world right again. And for those that can stand in and remain strong in the faith, there is a reward coming where we will be made new again. And that is a place of confident hope that we can live in right here and right now. And I hope that word challenged you to be confident and bold in your faith with whatever the situation you find yourself in is knowing that Jesus can change everything. And I don't know about you, but when I watch people get baptized and I see grown men crying in a baptistry, it reminds me of what happens when we surrender ourselves and humble ourselves before God and allow that transformation to enter into us. Well, we're starting a brand new Bible study just for you, Pando Crew. It's called Stand. It goes through the book of the Bible called 1 Thessalonians. And it's all about standing in your faith

and what that looks like to do. And that's gonna be released on Wednesdays beginning this week. And we would love for you to join in. There's even a section where you can do some personal Bible study with some reflection questions, as well as a video to go along with it each and every week. You're gonna wanna do both. And I hope on Wednesdays, you'll find that time to get the tablet out, to settle in and to focus in on what God's trying to do to remind you of how do I stand in my faith right here and right now as a temporary resident. I think those two books are gonna go together really, really well. The other thing I wanted you to do so you don't miss anything if you haven't, join the over 21,000 people. Hit the subscribe button inside the app because we wanna be able to support you and give you fresh content that's helpful and challenging in your faith. Well, y'all, thank you so much for being a part of service. On behalf of Southeast, we're located in Louisville, Kentucky. We are glad that you joined in from wherever you are. Make sure you stay apart, say hello, and be a part of what God's doing through Southeast through the Pando app.

Bye.