This sermon emphasizes the responsibility of Christians to prepare their hearts and live ready to share the hope they have in Christ with gentleness and respect.
Welcome back, church, for another wonderful weekend of worship. Whether you are with us in person or watching online, I want you to know that God has something to say to each one of us today as we continue in our series, Live Ready.
Last week we talked about how we must be ready for some tough things to come our way in life. Jesus even promises that we will face “trouble” in John 16:33, so we know it’s coming. However, we also know that He has overcome all this trouble, pain, and suffering, so we too can overcome by His strength. We are overcomers through Christ who empowers us for each and every situation life may bring our way!
We also talked a bit about what it looks like to prepare and ready our souls. Not just for the bad things, but also for Christ’s return. As we know, Jesus didn’t just come once to this earth, but He promises to return for the eternal establishment of His church. We don’t know when His return will be, so we’ve all got to get serious about eternity and salvation. We’ve got to make sure our souls are ready for eternity, but also that our hearts are ready for the day to day struggles and triumphs of life.
And the heart of mankind is not easily tamed or understood, so we’ve got a tall task. As the prophet Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9) Let’s get started…
To help guide our time we’ll be consulting several passages, but this first one gives us a great jumpstart. Read 1 Peter 3:15
First and foremost, if we’re to live ready in our hearts, we’ve got to hold Jesus Christ as Lord. There will always be other things battling for our affections, looking to dethrone Jesus from His rightful place as King. But we’ve got to hold fast in our faith, and revere Christ as Lord in our hearts.
These struggles are very normal for all who believe. We will go through seasons of mountaintop faith and deep discouragement. It’s all part of the process and in the end, the goal is that we would be mature believers, lacking nothing… This process is called sanctification and it’s a long one. Actually, it will take our entire life, through a continual process of renewal and redemption as God works in our hearts. One of the reasons this process is so important is because from the overflow of our hearts, we speak. And speaking, using words, is the primary way we share the gospel of Christ with others.
Going back to our passage from 1 Peter 15, we read this; Re-read 1 Peter 15, with a focus on the latter half ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
The heart is the wellspring of life. It’s too important to ignore or kick down the road for a different time.
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