Fired Up about Jesus – Part 2

Thank you for joining us on Living in the Light with Anne Graham Lotz. Oh, listen to me. Are you fired up to share the gospel?

Let me ask you something. When was the last time you shared the gospel? When was the last time you told somebody about Jesus who doesn't know Jesus? That's what I'm talking about.

This is Living in the Light with Anne Graham Lotz. Today you'll hear part two of Anne's message titled Fired Up About Jesus. And that's exactly what happened to the Apostle Peter. Peter was fired up when he reflected on the gospel of God from the Old Testament saints.

Let's hear Anne explain what this is all about from the book of First Peter. Peter was confronted, experiencing the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the thrill of the living hope of the resurrection? Peter, facing his own execution, meeting Jesus alive after death, was confirmed to the fact that there is life after death. This life is not all there is. The best is yet to come.

Now, that's thrilling. It's thrilling, even when we're not facing it, just to know. And at this stage in my life, I know it sooner than later, but I know that I'm going home, that I have eternal life. And because of the resurrection of Jesus, He has opened heaven for me and for you.

And not only that, but I think the resurrection, the living hope of the resurrection means that failure is not final, that God gives a second chance. Peter, beside Galilee, do you remember when Jesus came to him after the resurrection? And Jesus fixed his breakfast for him, and then he asked him three times, Peter, do you love me? Allowing Peter to confess his love since he had denied him three times. And then Jesus said, Peter, if you love me, do something about it. I want you to serve me. And Peter, I wonder if you thought, me? You want me after what I've done, after all my failures, and after I've denied you, and Lord, you want me to serve you?

Oh, yes, I want to serve you. And then I think there was something else, because the cross had to have been the worst nightmare that anybody could witness. It was horror in living color. It was the worst thing that hell could come up with. Evil just masked there on that execution mountain, and the demons having victory temporarily, at least they thought they did. And it was horror, it was obscene, almost unthinkable. And then Sunday came, and Jesus came out of that tomb, and he stomped on the head of that old serpent, and he broke the devil's power, and he took the sting away from death, and robbed the grave of its victory.

And I don't know what the worst thing is that's ever happened in your life, but if God could bring glory out of the crucifixion, if he could bring blessing from that broken body of Jesus, why do you think he can't do that for you? Mother used to tell a wonderful story that I love to tell. It was a true story that was told to her by the man who witnessed it, but in the highlands of Scotland, these fishermen had gone out fishing all day, and they came into the pub to order their drinks that night, and while the little maid was getting their drinks, one fisherman was talking about his fish that got away, and he threw out his arms like this, and when he did, his hand hit the little maid with her tray of drinks, and she was bringing it to the table, and the tray came out of her hand, and the drink smashed up against the whitewashed wall, and everybody's just stunned, because there's the crackling glass, and the ugly brown stain from the drink as it stained the whitewashed wall, and before she could move or react, there's somebody in the corner jumped up, and he reached in his pocket, and he pulled out a piece of charcoal, and he began to sketch around the ugly brown stain, and then he signed it.

His name was Sir Lancere. He was Great Britain's foremost wildlife artist at the time, and the ugly brown stain was just a disaster, until a master artist sketched around it and turned it into a masterpiece, and what is the ugly brown stain in your life? Failure. Failure not just that hurt you, but hurt somebody else. Abuse. Betrayal. Something that you're so ashamed of.

It's hard to acknowledge it to yourself, and whatever it is, would you just tell the Lord about it and surrender it to him? Give him your ugly brown stain. He's the master artist, and he can turn it into a masterpiece of his grace, but you have to give it to him, but the living hope of the resurrection tells us if he can bring glory from the cross, he can transform your ugly brown stain into something beautiful, something that actually when you look back on it, you'll be glad that whatever, you can't really thank God for the experience, but thank God for the way he's used that experience in your life. Peter was fired up about Jesus when he reflected on the gifts that God had given him, the gift of a living hope and the gift of a lasting inheritance, and in verses four and five, he talks about lasting inheritance that's stored up for us, and he was thinking of this at a time when he'd been stripped of everything. He's in prison.

He has nothing. I'm assuming he has pen and paper because he's writing this letter, but other than that, he would have no worldly goods, maybe just a robe on his back, nowhere to lay his head except the stone floor of the prison, just nothing, and yet he was reflecting on the fact that he had an inheritance that was laid up for him that no thief could break through and steal and moths couldn't destroy and rust wouldn't corrupt, and it was being held for him. Years ago, my children were at home, and it was the first day out of school, so I took them downtown to get a hamburger, actually. We came back not more than an hour or two later and found the front door of our home broken down, and we had been robbed. All of my silver, all of my jewelry, all of the things my grandmother had left me, even small pieces of furniture that could be grabbed quickly, all the little silver baby cups and spoons that I had displayed that my children had used. So when the police came, they said, Mrs. Lotz, we need you to know that if somebody wants to get in your house, they can get in.

You know, short of a shotgun blast to the face, you really can't keep them out. So that night when I went to bed and I had to fold back my bed, they had taken the pillowcases off of my pillows in which to put my things so they could take them off, and I laid in bed and I felt myself going into shock because I was thinking, what do I have that can't be taken away? And I thought, they could come back for my children.

I thought I would pass out in the bed when I thought of that. My husband could be taken as he was, and I could lose my health, which I have. My house could burn to the ground, which it hasn't.

And, you know, friends can slam you and lose your reputation. Your education is outdated tomorrow because things are happening so fast. You know, what do we have we can't lose? And so I was getting stiffer and colder, and I thought, I'm absolutely going to go into Never Never Land. And the Spirit seemed to whisper in my ear, and count your blessings. And I'd just been in Ephesians. And so I began in my mind going back through Ephesians 1 and 2 and listed my blessings. There were so many of them, I put them to the alphabet, in that I'm accepted by God, I'm beloved of God, I'm chosen by God to belong to the Son, I'm delivered from empty, meaningless way of life. I'm enlightened to think the thoughts of God.

I can have a mind of Christ. I'm forgiven of all of my sin. I have His grace. I have hope. I have an inheritance with the saints.

I'm justified. I have knowledge of God. I have His mercy, His nearness.

I'm made one with Him. I have His peace and His power. I'm quickened by the Spirit into new life.

I'm redeemed. I'm sealed by His Spirit. I'm His treasure. I'm united with other believers in the body of Christ. I'm validated as being authentic by His Spirit that's within me.

I have His wisdom. And XYZ, I'm exalted one day to live with Him in His heavenly home. So I'm blessed.

Praise God. That's an inheritance. And I think when we get to heaven, the Lord's going to greet us, and He'll wipe the tears from our face, and He'll take us by the hand, not only do we have spiritual blessings here and now, but we have blessings in heaven.

And I wonder if there are also things that He's collected for us and placed in our individual mansions so that when we walk in, we'll know we're expected and we're welcomed and we've come home because we're the Father's child. So what have you lost? What's been taken from you? Praise God for our lasting inheritance. No one can take it from you.

It's kept in heaven reserved for you until you can come get it. When Peter reflected on the gifts of God, he was fired up about Jesus, the living hope of the resurrection, the lasting inheritance that was laid up for him. And then thirdly, he was fired up about God's glory.

And I'm going to read this again. They're beautiful verses. Verse 6, in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer in all kinds of trials.

These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. And what kinds of trials are you going through? So have you been in a variety of them, like I've listed in my last seven years, and there's been many more than that, I can assure you, but those are the ones that stand out. And I'm sure if we compared notes, there are people here that could just talk me right under the table with all the things that you've been through.

Various kinds of trials. But you know, the interesting thing is that God allows these trials to come into our life. They're sort of a platform, because when everything is going good, when we have no trials, when we've got money in the bank, we can pay our bills, when our husband or our spouse always speaks well of us, and our children obey us, and our neighbors talk well about us, and jobs are going good, and then we're kind and gracious and thoughtful.

Nobody cares. Anybody can do that. It's when our spouse walks out, and our children rebel, and we lose our health, and we don't have enough money to pay the bills this month, and when our neighbor is slandering us behind our back, and we're still thoughtful and kind and compassionate, and people say, whoa, wait a minute, that's not natural. That's supernatural. And they see the glory of Jesus revealed in us.

Do you see that? I took Mara and Rachel Ruth some time ago to the Tower of London, and we saw the crown jewels, and you stand on a moving sidewalk, and you pass these glass cases, and they have jewels, and they're like, they don't look real. You know, they have diamonds the size of eggs, and emeralds the size of golf balls, and all the gold, and they're all set against black velvet, because the contrast between the jewel and the black velvet makes the jewel more spectacular, and God allows you and me to have black velvet in our lives, because it makes his glory greater, and people can see the glory of God when it's contrasted with the darkness. Great illustration in the Old Testament when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were told by Nebuchadnezzar to bow down to an image of gold, and they said, you know, Nebuchadnezzar, oh, king, live forever. We don't even have to think about this.

We don't have to discuss it among ourselves. We believe our God is able to deliver us, but if he doesn't, we're still not going to bow down to your statue. So the king heated the furnace seven times hotter, and he had men throw them in. The fire was so hot it burned up the men that threw them in. The three young men, Hebrew children, got inside the furnace, and not a hair on their head was singed.

The only thing burned were the ropes that bound them, but that wasn't the most stunning thing. The most stunning thing was Nebuchadnezzar looked, and he said, how many men did we throw in there? Three.

Then why is it I see four? And the fourth is like the Son of God. Jesus revealed when his children were thrown into the fire, and when you're in the fire, don't forget, people are watching you, and that's when the glory of Jesus was revealed. You know, in the Old Testament, when the glory of God came down on Mount Sinai, do you remember it was lightning and thunder and this big golden cloud at the top of the mountain glowed, and Moses went up there, and when he came back, his face glowed, and he put a veil over his face so people wouldn't see when the glory departed. And then when the priest sacrificed in the tabernacle in the temple, the glory cloud came down, and they couldn't go in because the glory was so thick. And then when they wandered through the wilderness, the glory led them in a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. And Peter is saying, the glory of God is no longer on Mount Sinai. It's no longer on a face to depart and be hidden behind a veil. It's no longer in the tabernacle temple when a sacrifice is made.

It's no longer in a cloudy pillar or a fiery pillar. The glory of God is in you. But people have a hard time seeing it unless we're under pressure and in the fire, going through problems and pain and persecution, and that's when the glory comes out.

I have a friend who enjoyed doing ceramics, and I know you've seen the clay on the potter's wheel, and it turns and just a gray blob of clay, and the potter molds it by just using the pressure of his hands, and he can mold it into a vase or a pot or a bowl, and then he takes it off the potter's wheel, and it's just gray clay, and he paints it, and it's dull colored, and it's soft, and he puts it in the kiln, heats it to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit, and when he takes it out, whatever he made was strong, and the colors are vibrant and beautiful, strengthened by the heat, and Malachi indicates that God puts us in the kiln, the refiner's fire, and he says we're like gold, our faith is like gold, and he puts the fire under us, and he turns up the heat, and God knows exactly what he's doing, so it's not going to be so hot you can't bear it, even though you think it's so hot you can't bear it, but he'll turn up the heat until you melt, and then the dross and the gold would float to the surface, and the refiner would skim the dross off to purify the gold, and God puts the heat underneath us to bring those impurities to the surface, those habits and those rough edges and those attitudes and the things we're not aware of, but as the heat comes on it brings it to the surface so we can fast it and we can be cleansed, and God keeps removing it from our lives until he can see his own face reflected in us, the face of Jesus, his glory revealed in you and me, and the glory of God, by the way, it's not just the golden shining cloud, but it's his character, so we see his character in verse 7, he says, These have come so that your faith, a greater worth in gold which perishes, even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine. We don't doubt him when hard things come or when there are questions that we can't answer or difficulties. We have faith, and in verse 8 he says, Though you have not seen him, you love him. Even though you do not see him, you believe in him. We have the hope that one day we're going to see him face to face and then we're filled with inexpressible and glorious joy.

Faith, love, hope, and joy coming out when the fire is the hottest. And we love him and we trust him and we believe in him and we have joy unspeakable. Can I just give a word of personal testimony? And I know it's an answer to prayer. Many of you have prayed for me this past year. I've never lost my joy. I've been aware every day of blessing after blessing after blessing.

I love the Lord more today than I do yesterday, more tomorrow than I do today. I don't doubt him. I just trust him. I just lay it all down, let him have his way. I'm not clinging to life, I'm going to tell you. I'm not clinging to life for me to die is game. I want to go home and be with my husband and my parents. But if I'm left here, Paul said, then it's because I have more fruitful labor to do.

So I'm willing to go or to stay, you know? But sometimes we don't see the glory until we're in the fire. Peter was fired up when he reflected on the grace of God and the gifts of God and the glory of God that he, Peter, can you imagine, would be filled with the glory of God. I think that's one reason he wasn't afraid of his execution, opportunity with his last breath to reveal the glory of God as he trusted his Savior.

And lastly, he was fired up when he reflected on the gospel of God. And in verses 10 and 11, talks about the saints who looked for this, the Old Testament saints. They looked for the gospel, they longed for the gospel, but it was just a promise for them. Going back to Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve, do you remember when they were sinned and they were removed from the garden and there was a prophecy that God gave them, there would come a seed of a woman?

And you know, women don't have seed. So this was the seed of a woman that would come and he would be wounded, his heel would be bruised, but he would crush the head of a serpent, he would break the power of the devil. And Adam and Eve were looking for and longing for the seed, for the Messiah, for the gospel.

They didn't know his name. They were looking for Jesus who would take away their sin and bring them back into a right relationship with God. And we come to Abraham, living in Ur, and God leans out of heaven and says, Abraham, if you'll follow me in a life of obedient faith, I'll send through you a seed through whom all the nations over the earth would be blessed.

And Abraham left Ur and followed God in a life of obedient faith because he was looking for and longing for the seed, the Messiah, the gospel. He didn't know his name, but it's Jesus. Moses, who delivered the children of Israel from bondage to slavery, and God said, Moses, I'm going to raise up a prophet like you who will deliver my people not from bondage to slavery, but bondage to sin. And Moses began looking for and longing for the Messiah, the Savior, the gospel, the one whose name is Jesus. Isaiah, who said there would come a seed of a woman, virgin born. His name would be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He would be the Lamb by whose stripes we would be healed. And Isaiah didn't know his name, but he was looking for and longing for the Messiah, for the gospel, for Jesus. But in the Old Testament, they could look for him.

They could long for him. He was just a promise. Hebrews 11 said they never received the promise until Jesus came. And when Jesus came, all of those promises were fulfilled. And you and I living on this side of the cross, if you ever thank God, we don't have to go to a temple and slaughter some lamb and have blood spurting everywhere and walk away, never knowing for sure if our sins were forgiven. Hebrews said they sacrificed bulls and goats, but they never were sure their sins were forgiven. They just exercised their faith in God's word that said, if you do that, I will forgive your sin. And then he sent the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. It was a promise in the Old Testament for you and me. We possess that the gospel is ours. And so Peter was fired up on Pentecost to preach his heart out, preaching that sinners could be saved, failures could be redeemed, and those who were on their way to hell could go to heaven, and those living in darkness could come into the light, and the captives could be ransomed, God so loved the whole world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him, whosoever believes in him, whosoever, anybody who would place their faith in Jesus would not perish and would not go to hell, but they would have everlasting life, be brought into a right relationship with God now and have heaven when they die. Oh, listen to me, are you fired up to share the gospel?

Let me ask you something. When was the last time you shared the gospel? When was the last time you told somebody about Jesus who doesn't know Jesus?

That's what I'm talking about. If your heart's on fire, you may not say it right, you may not have all the right answers, you may not be able to enter into a theological discussion, you may not be into apologetics, but you can tell people what Jesus means to you, and you can tell them what he's done for you. He's taken away your sin, he's lifted the load of guilt, he's given you hope for the future. Listen, this world has no hope. The hope is not in politics, and it's not in the European Union, and it's not in the peace plan in the Middle East, and it's not in trade wars with China, and it's not in whatever's going on in North Korea, and it's, oh my goodness, our hope is in Jesus, and we know it. And if we're not on fire to share it, something's wrong. So I ask you to examine your heart. Could it be you've not shared the gospel recently because you're not fired up about it? You've lost that wonder in what God has done for you at the cross.

So I want to challenge you. Would you ask God to fire you up again? Would you ask him to reignite your heart and love for Jesus? Reflect on his grace in your life. You were chosen.

When was that? You were being sanctified, sprinkled with his blood every day, cleansed by the sun as you come to the cross, washing your feet. And you reflect on his gifts, the living hope of the resurrection.

We're going home. This life is not all there is. We're going to see Jesus and the gift of a lasting inheritance and his glory residing in you, Jesus living in you, revealing himself through you, especially when you're going through suffering in many kinds of trials and the gospel. Oh, my goodness. Praise God, it's not just a promise.

It's a reality when we possess it for ourselves. So would you ask God to reignite your heart for Jesus? Let me tell you something. I don't believe you can pass on a godly legacy in an ungodly world unless you're on fire. So ask God to set you on fire beginning tonight.

Pray with me, please. So, Father, I want to thank you. Thank you, thank you for your grace in my life, for your gifts, for your glory, for your gospel. And I thank you that for whatever reason, by your grace, I guess you've maintained that fire in my heart. And I thank you that you've brought every single one of these people sitting in front of me because I believe you've chosen them to belong to the Son and you want them to be fired up about him, not apathetic, not complacent, not leaving it to somebody else to share the gospel, not thinking that's for somebody else, but it's ours, ours to share. So, Lord, we thank you for Peter, thank you for his testimony, thank you that he was humble enough to write down all of these things that help us identify with him in such a way that if he can be transformed into the apostle that left a legacy, talk about a legacy 2,000 years later, still living a legacy, if you can do it using Peter, you can do it using me and each one of us. So I pray you take this message and you put it deep into our hearts until we can get along, sit down on our knees and talk to you about what you've said to us tonight. See what we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name and for his glory. You've been listening to Living in the Light and when you go to anngramlots.org there are free resources to help you in your study of God's Word. Anne's desire is that you embrace a God-filled life step by step, choice by choice. Living in the Light.