(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We are honored that you are kicking off your new year here at Valorous Church with us today.

And we're in a teaching series that we started last weekend where we had some people step through the baptism waters to announce that they were followers of Jesus, that he was the king of their life, and they were gonna move forward, putting their past behind them and moving forward with the new life that he came to give them.

It was a great weekend, and we're gonna continue that teaching series that we have titled Thrive in 25 today, and we're gonna begin to learn exactly what it means to be the people of God, the people that he called us to be.

You know there is a calling on God's people, right?

There is a purpose, there is a plan, there is a reason that God delivers people from sin out of darkness into his wonderful light, and we're gonna learn a little bit about that today.

You know the Bible says something remarkable in Ephesians chapter two, verse 10.

It says we, everybody say we.

We.

That means more than one.

Come on somebody.

Says we are God's masterpiece.

Look at somebody and say you can't be a masterpiece by yourself, go ahead and tell them that.

You can't be a masterpiece by yourself.

Come on.

We are God's masterpiece.

Created anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good work that God created for us to do before the foundations of the earth.

The good work.

God created us to be a masterpiece and to do the good work that he created for us to do before the foundations of the world.

But how many of you know that God don't want you just to do the good work.

He wants you to thrive in doing the good work.

He wants you to be alive in doing the good work.

He wants you to be a bearer of his name in doing the good work.

In other words, you're a representative for the great God of the universe whenever he brings you out of darkness into the wonderful light.

And he has a purpose and a plan for you no matter what age you are, no matter what gender you are, no matter what background you come from.

God wants to do a good work in you and do a good work through you and he wants you to thrive while you're doing the good work.

And today we're gonna learn a little bit about how to thrive in 25 doing the good work that God called each of us to do.

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to open it up to 1 Peter.

And we're gonna start there in chapter two.

We're gonna read through some verses from 1 Peter chapter two, beginning with verse four.

And the writer here is reminding a group of people, a diverse group of people, Gentiles and Jews alike, who had been caught out of darkness into the wonderful light.

In other words, they had believed in what Jesus had done on a cross.

They had believed in his resurrection.

They had believed in his ascension.

They had put their faith in him on somebody, and they were believing that he was going to come again, that he was gonna return again.

We believe that same thing in our day and age.

And the writer reminds them of who they are in Christ.

He reminds them of what it really truly means to be a Christ follower.

He reminds them that they had some good work to do, to thrive in doing that good work.

And so we begin with verse four in chapter two, and this is what it says.

You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple.

In other words, he is the thing that you are to build your life on, and he's the thing that you are to align your life with.

He was rejected by people in his day and age, was chosen by God for great honor.

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple, into his dwelling place.

God dwelled in a tent.

He dwelled in the temple, and now he dwells in his people.

What's more, he says, you are his holy priest.

Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.

As the scriptures say, I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.

Yes, you who trust in him recognize the honor God has given him.

But for those who reject him, the stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.

And he is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.

They stumble because they do not obey God's word.

They stumble because they don't pay attention and obey what God has said.

They don't obey God's word.

They don't trust in God's word.

So they meet their fate that was planned for them.

But you, he says, you are not like that.

He says, for you are a chosen people, using Old Testament language that Hebrew people would have known that they were the chosen people.

But now he's speaking to a diverse group of people, many people who weren't from the Hebrew background, the Jewish background, and he says something remarkable, even though Peter here is a Jew himself.

He tells the people, now you are a chosen people by the hand of an all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-at-one-time God.

This would have been radical in the day that he wrote this.

And he goes on to say, you are royal priests.

You are a holy nation, a set-apart nation.

God's very own possession.

Other translations say God's treasured possession.

A people that God highly cares for and works in and works through.

As a result, he says, now you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of darkness into the wonderful light.

Once you had no identity as a people, now you are God's people.

Once you received no mercy, but now you have received God's mercy.

He says, dear friends, I warn you as temporary residents and foreigners here in this earth, to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.

Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors.

That's the assignment.

To live properly among your unbelieving neighbors.

Bearing God's name among your unbelieving neighbors.

And then, even if they accuse you for doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

Again, this is a remarkable letter that Peter writes a diverse group of people.

And as he writes this diverse group of people, he uses a lot of Hebrew old language as the people that God chose and brought out of Egypt into something called the promised land in the Exodus.

The whole book of Exodus is about God rescuing a group of people that had been in bondage and slavery for 400 years.

And by his mighty hand, he goes into Egypt and he casts plagues on Pharaoh, on the Egyptians that were holding him captive and they were released from captivity.

And then God takes them on a journey and he takes them to something called the promised land.

But before they get to the promised land, God wanted to build them into the people that would be the people that he desired for them to be.

And so he takes them on an amazing, amazing journey.

In other words, God saves them, come on somebody, and then he calls them to a holy calling to be enlightened to the nations.

He says, I'm gonna bless you so you can be a blessing.

I'm gonna make you into a great nation so my name can be put on you and you can bear my name to the other nations and they may know who I am.

In other words, you're a special people.

You're a treasured people.

You're my own possession.

And I wanna put my DNA deep in you so when you get into the promised land, into this land I'm gonna provide for you, you will know who I am and you will represent me well.

Sounds a lot like the Christian life, doesn't it?

God rescues us from bondage, from slavery, from sin, missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

God takes us on a journey.

God teaches us who he is and who we are so that we can live in this world and be a light unto the people around us so that they may see who our heavenly father is.

May we be good representatives of who God says that we are.

But if we're gonna do that, what we have to do is we have to remember the powerful hand that rescued us.

We have to remember that through the blood of Jesus Christ, we were rescued from our sin.

We have to remember what Christ did on that cross.

He paid for humanity missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

We have to remember this deeply in our hearts that it's God who is rescuing us.

We don't rescue ourself, but it's God's love for us that he rescues us through Christ Jesus.

It's his powerful arm.

It's his powerful hand.

And the Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20.

It says, don't you realize that your body now is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the living God.

The presence of God lives in you.

And he was given to you by God.

You do not belong to yourself for God bought you with a high price.

So you must honor God with your body.

My friends, if we're gonna thrive in 25 and be the people that God called us to be and thrive in the good work that he calls us to do, we have to remember the rescue.

It's the whole reason we do this ordinance called communion.

It's to remember what Christ did for us on a cross.

It's to remember the sacrifice he made on that cross.

It's to remember his body and the blood that he shed of a new covenant with God's people, a new agreement with people.

And we couldn't have that agreement and that covenant to be the good people of God, to do the good work of God without the blood of Christ.

And so we take communion here on a regular basis.

The Lord's a table.

We do it as a community of believers, why?

To remember what Christ has done for us.

Just like in the Old Testament, God told the people to do a festival, to do a celebration on a regular basis, to remember a God who came into Egypt to rescue them.

He passed over their house.

He protected their house.

He told them to put blood on their doorposts and the death angel would come visit everything in Egypt, but their houses and that death angel didn't visit their houses.

God protect them.

When the death angel visited and he says, you know what, you're to do this Passover festival every single year when you get in the promised land.

Why?

To remember, to remember who I am.

It's amazing, isn't it?

We sometimes remember the things we shouldn't remember and we forget the things that we should forget.

And the cross of Christ is a love sign from God to remind you of God's goodness.

You should remember that deeply.

But you know what?

The cross of Christ is also telling us is to put our past behind us and move forward with the future that God has for us.

In other words, we've been saved from the penalty of sin.

Now, begin to let God move into your life so you can overcome the power of sin, so you don't keep going back.

And we're to remember this over and over.

But what we tend to do whenever we come to Christ is we keep remembering who we used to be instead of who we're becoming.

I hear people talk all the time about who they used to be.

And the reality of this is you're gonna keep relapsing and going back to who you used to be if you keep talking about who you used to be, hanging around with what you used to be, doing the things about what you used to be.

You need to forget about who you used to be and you need to know who you're becoming in Christ Jesus.

Come on, somebody.

And again, God calls us to remember His power.

He wants us to remember His strong hand.

He wants us to thrive in this journey.

And He tells these people, you know what?

Don't ever forget who I am.

Don't ever ignore my kindness.

Continually celebrate who I am as I brought a group of people out of slavery into the wonderful light.

You do it forever and ever and ever.

You celebrate the Passover to remember who God is.

My friends, we as a community of believers, Jesus told us to take the Lord's Supper and do it in remembrance of Him.

He gave His life's blood on a cross so you and I could be in communion in a covenant relationship with the great God.

That means that two of us, God has an agreement and we have an agreement.

And we're coming together in God's agreement and saying, I am new in Christ Jesus.

I'm a masterpiece.

I'm created anew in Christ Jesus so I can do the good work that God created for me to do before the foundations of the world.

The writer in 2 Corinthians 6, verse one says this.

He says, now as God's partners, we beg you not to accept the marvelous gift of God's kindness and then ignore it.

And I wanna invite you today is, you know, again, if you're truly gonna thrive and be the people that God calls us to be, let's never ever forget what God has done for us.

It's a gift.

Salvation is a gift that comes from God.

Just like the strong arm of God rescued the Hebrew people, that was a gift.

But God didn't only give them that gift, God gives them more gifts on the journey to refine them to become the people he designed them to be.

And so we have this experience on the Hebrew journey called Mount Sinai.

It's where, you know, God gives the leader Moses the 10 commandments and a lot of other instructions in order for them to become this special people, this treasured people that he designed them to be.

And again, many people misinterpret what God gave Moses on that mountain as a bunch of rules and regulations in order to be in right relationship with God, where no, these were basically more like instructions so the people could become who God desired for them to become.

And again, these people were already saved when they got to the mountain.

They'd already been rescued, come on somebody, by the strong arm of God before the Ten Commandments were ever given.

And so again, the Ten Commandments couldn't save them, it was God's strong hand that saved them.

But God gives them these boundaries, let's call them, these instructions so that they could become who God said they could become, a treasured people, a holy nation, a set-apart people to make His name great.

In other words, His name was gonna be branded on them, and they were gonna be His representatives to all the other people groups in the world to show the goodness of God.

And God says, I'm gonna show you who I am through these laws, through these commandments, through these instructions.

As a matter of fact, the Ten Commandments would probably be a lot more received from us if we would begin to interpret them more as instructions rather than laws, because they're truly instructions to enhance and better our Christian life, to help us become who God's designed us to be, to help us become the representatives that He desires for us to be.

The law never saved anybody.

It was a strong arm of God that saved the Hebrew people.

Come on, somebody.

But He gave them the law to instruct them in who they were and who He was and who they were becoming.

So when they got in the promised land, come on, when they got in the land of provision, that's what the promised land is, they would live it out in such a way to be these treasured people, this treasured possession.

God says you and I are those same treasured people today if we come to Christ Jesus.

Look what it says here in 1 Peter 2, verses nine and 10.

It says you are not like those other people, you are a chosen people, you are a royal priest, you are a holy nation.

God's very own possession.

You're treasured by God.

God brought you out of slavery so that, you know what, you could be an instrument for Him, you're a trophy of His amazing mercy and His amazing grace.

He says, as a result, you can now show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of darkness into the wonderful light.

Look what he says, once you had no identity as a people, but he says, you are now God's people.

Once you had not received no mercy, but now you have received God's mercy.

That's a fascinating passage of scripture, because the reality of it is, is when God gives these 10 commandments, and He says, you know what?

You shall have no other gods before me.

You should worship me, you know, the one true God alone, all these kinds of things.

You should not bear my name or use my name in vain.

And He gives all of these rules.

What He's basically doing is giving rules to help them understand and give their heart, devote their heart towards Him, worship Him only, and become who He says that they are, which is a redeemed people.

It's fascinating because whenever we hear, do not use the Lord God's name in vain, we think about something somebody says.

Like they use God's name before a cuss word.

Like, you better not use God's name in vain.

But the reality, if you begin to really study this out a little bit, what using God's name in vain is, is really receiving the grace and the salvation that God offers you, but not properly living out who He says you can become.

In other words, using God's name in vain is saying, you know what, God saved me.

He brought me out of darkness into the wonderful light, but I'm choosing to use His name in vain.

I'm choosing not to live who He says I can be.

I'm choosing not to be a masterpiece.

I'm choosing not to be created anew in Christ Jesus to do the good work that He created for me to do before the foundations of the world.

In other words, I'm taking His name and I'm using it in vain because I'm not becoming who He says I can be.

And so these are instructions for people.

When you have God's name tattooed on you as the high priest would in these particular days on a type of hat, you know, when he had certain things tattooed, God's saying, you know what?

You have been tattooed by me.

You have been saved by me.

My strong arm is what brought you out of darkness.

This Jesus I gave on a cross is the terms of your salvation.

He is the mercy I showed.

Receive him in your life and I will deposit my spirit in you, my presence in you, and I will coach you all the days of your life to live out who I say you are.

Live out my name so you don't use my name in vain.

Come on, somebody.

We have more tools in our day and age than any time in history not to live God's name in vain.

Listen to me, we have the Holy Spirit, God's presence.

We are the temple is what the scripture says.

Where God's presence reside.

Yes, he resided in a tent when they moved out of Egypt.

He resided in a building, he resided in a temple.

But the Bible now says that you and I are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit of God lives in you and me to coach us to greatness.

But are you listening to the Spirit?

The Spirit is a tool.

The Spirit of God is a gift.

The Spirit of the living God, the presence of God in you is a gift to you to become all he's designed you to be.

Listen to what the scripture says.

It says, the Spirit of God, Romans 8 verse 11, who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, Christ follower.

And just as God raised Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within, living within you.

In other words, God's not just hanging around with us.

God's in us.

His presence, his name.

I don't wanna use his name in vain.

When I walk in a room, his presence just walked in the room.

I wanna be a good representation of the one who saved me.

And his Spirit within me will help me do that if I'll pay attention.

He is never going to ask you to go against what his word has said, which is another tool God's given us in our day.

A great playbook, it's called the Bible.

I wanna read to you what it says in 2 Timothy 3, or chapter three, verses 16 and 17.

It says, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.

It corrects us when we were wrong and it teaches us to do what is right.

God uses it to prepare and equip his people, what it says, to do every good work.

So you thrive in the good work.

God uses his word to equip you and me to thrive in the good work he's called us to.

We are God's masterpiece.

Everybody say we.

We.

That means more than one.

We are God's masterpiece, created anew by our belief in Christ Jesus to do the good work he created for us to do before the foundations of the world.

And so God has a good work for us, for wes to do together in the world, to be a nation, to be a group of people, to be people caught out of darkness into the wonderful light.

And he places us in community to bear his name, to not use his name in vain, to know what his word says, to know what his spirit says, and walk in his spirit, not in the flesh, not contrary to the spirit, so that you and I don't use his name in vain.

Come on.

God's given you the spirit, he's given you the word.

Oh, but he's even greater than that.

He's given you a position on the team.

Look what it says in 1 Corinthians 12, verse seven.

It says, a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

So he's given me a special gift, and he's also put me with a team of people who have special gifts, so together we can become who he's designed us to be.

I invite you to step into what God's doing in the world through the local church.

There is no plan B. It's God's plan.

It's his design.

It's how he's working in the world.

He calls people out of darkness through the blood of Christ Jesus, through the resurrection of Jesus, and when you put your faith, your belief, that he rescued you with his strong arm, God deposits his presence, his spirit in you.

He gives you a special gift to connect with other special gifts and go to work in this world and thrive and do great things.

Come on, church.

He does all of this to refine you.

Some people say, well, I don't like the people in the church.

Well, maybe God's knocking some rough edges off of you.

Maybe he's put some people around you that's gonna poke you a little bit, that's gonna knock some rough edges off.

So together, come on, we together can become great in the eyes of the Lord.

God's not calling me to be a holy nation, he's calling us to be a holy nation.

So if you're not thriving in Christ Jesus, I gotta ask you the question, what part of his refining process are you not participating in?

Are you not listening to the spirit of the living God?

Because my Bible says he lives in you.

Are you not paying attention to his playbook?

You don't know what he said to do in the world.

I'm telling you right now, the Bible says he's gonna do it through the local church.

Oh, there's miracles, there's all kinds of crazy stuff in the Bible.

But what God is talking to his people today in his word about, it's a being a part of this masterpiece and bringing the light of Christ in this world.

So are you participating?

What part of God's refining process are you rejecting?

Because the reality of it is, God calls us to thrive in Christ Jesus.

He calls us to do a good work, he calls us to be a masterpiece, but we have to embrace the reality of who God is.

He's a rescuer and he's a refiner.

But one last thing to help encourage you to keep on keeping on whenever life comes at you.

Because I'm telling you right now, it's coming at you.

And these scriptures make no promises that you're not gonna have difficult moments, you're not gonna have valleys, you're not gonna have trouble.

The scripture doesn't communicate that at all, but what it does communicate there in that passage of scripture is, you know what?

All of this is just temporary.

Let me read it to you again.

First Peter chapter two, 11 and 12.

It says, dear friends, he says, I warn you as temporary residents and foreigners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.

Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors, be that light.

And then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

God don't want us just to thrive or just to survive and get through life.

God wants us to thrive with who he says that we are and become this special people, this prized possession.

The Hebrew word for it is segola and he wants you to become his segola.

Let that get on your hearts.

God sees you as a prized possession, as a treasured possession, a trophy.

And he says, I'm gonna put you with my other trophies, those who have been caught out of darkness into the wonderful light.

And I'm gonna spit shine you.

I'm gonna put my word on you.

I'm gonna shine you up in such a way that everybody in the world wants to come see my trophy case.

And guess what?

You know what, the world is going crazy.

But keep in mind, it's just, you're a temporary foreigner, just passing through this earth.

And there is a great reward for you becoming who I say you are.

And guess what?

He says, you will be blessed in a tremendous way, in all eternity.

God's a rewarder of our faith.

Don't forget this, you're saved by God's mercy and God's good grace.

You're refined by the good law that God gave at Mount Sinai.

He is refining you with his word, with his spirit.

But God also wants you to get through life, he wants you to thrive through life, and he wants you to hear these words one day.

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

Come on in and receive all I have for you.

The Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 11-15.

It says, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we've already have, which is Jesus Christ.

Jesus is his name, Christ is his title.

Other than the one Jesus, one who says, the Messiah, the title, the one who liberates, nobody else can be laid other than him.

He's the one that does the rescuing.

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw, but on judgment day, the fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done, each believer has done, each one who has trusted Christ has done.

The fire will show if a person's work has any value.

If the work survives, the builder will receive a reward, but if the work is burned up, the builder, the believer will suffer great loss.

The builder will be saved, the believer will be saved, will be saved, will continue to be rescued, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

See, the Bible teaches that we can't save ourself.

That's why God gave this gift named Jesus.

God saves, His strong arm is what liberates us from the penalty of sin and the power of sin.

You can't do anything to buy, you know what?

God saved you, you can't give enough in the offering plate for God to save you, you can't do any of these things, but the Bible says that what you do with what God has given you does matter and you can build heavenly deposits or heavenly rewards with what God has given you as a believer.

In other words, some people are just gonna barely get saved because they trusted the work of Christ, but they didn't trust the work that Christ was doing in them.

See, Christ comes and does a work in you to build you into a special possession, a treasured possession, for God to use as an instrument in this world.

And the Bible says how you begin to use those gifts determines, you know what, a lot about your eternal life.

I don't know about you, but I don't wanna just escape the flames and get into eternal life.

I wanna hear you used everything I gave you on purpose, with a purpose, to reflect my name in this world to help other people know my greatness.

Come on, somebody.

The Bible says we're gonna hear great is that reward.

See, the problem is, is some of us are sitting stagnant, and we think eternity is gonna be the same for everybody.

No, those who haven't believed in Jesus Christ will be separated.

They're gonna spend eternity apart from God in a real place called hell.

Those who have believed in the finished work of Christ and trust the gift of salvation are gonna spend eternity with God in a real place called heaven.

But in heaven, there's gonna be assignments.

There's gonna be rewards.

There's gonna be a life to live.

In other words, we're not all just gonna be floating around singing hallelujah with angel wings.

It's a kingdom.

It's amazing.

It's gonna be incredible.

But the Bible says if you're responsible with the little I've entrusted to you here, then you'll be entrusted with more there.

And so the whole thing is, what do I really believe about the scripture?

What do I really believe about God?

What do I really believe about the gifts he gave me?

What do I believe about the work that God's doing in the world through the local church?

And I'm gonna participate.

Because truly it's our participation with the heart of God that really matters for eternity.

So my friend, we all have the opportunity to thrive in a 20 of five.

But it's up to you to do what God, do the work that God has placed in your hands.

And God has all given us things to trust him with and entrust him with.

And so again, how are you gonna do the work that God called you to do in this world?

Are you gonna begin to do it because Christ Jesus has saved you and called you to a good work?

Are you doing it to try to work your way in?

Because there is no work in your way in, but there is a way to work what's in you.

Let me pray for you today.

God, I thank you for salvation through Christ Jesus.

I thank you for these teachings that you've called us to a good work.

You say that we are a masterpiece created anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good work you created for us to do before the foundations of the world.

And God, I pray we wouldn't just go through the motions and do the good work, but we would thrive in the good work.

We would begin to pay attention to your word, to your spirit, to the gift that you gave us, to the team you gave us to participate with.

And God, may we be a city on a hill, a light into the world and truly change lives, bring people out of darkness into the wonderful light.

God, I believe today that you wanna touch people's heart.

And there's people here that's never received the gift of salvation that Christ Jesus offered on that cross.

God, I thank you for that gift.

I thank you for the blood shed.

I thank you for his body given.

I thank you for the resurrection.

And God, if there's one here today that hasn't trusted Christ, may it be the day of their salvation and they trust him.

But God, for the rest of us, may we get on with the good work.

May we truly understand what it means to be your treasured possession, a holy nation, a set-apart people, a group of people in this world to magnify your name.

Today, Jesus, we pray this in your name.

Amen.