Note: Transcriptions are done by software. Errors may occur.
His People Proclaim Praises | David Fisher
It’s an honor to be here today. I want to remind you all of what our mission statement is here. “Changing lives and making disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
You may want to wonder why all these notebooks and pens are up here. It’s because I want you to start learning to listen so that you can reproduce. How many of you have listened to a sermon and by the time you get home that evening, you have no idea what the preacher talked about? Man, I’ve been, I’m offended. That’s just horrible.
That’s just true. I mean, I’ve listened to, you know, great speakers and people. It’s just the way we are. And if you hadn’t forgotten by that evening, you will have forgotten by the next day or by the next week. It’s just true. It’s just, isn’t it? Isn’t it just true? I use that excuse from my wife all the time. She, you just can’t, I just forget, you know, she, she’s not here today, so I can say it. She’s back with the kids. But we just forget.
And if we’re going to be about making disciples, you need to know what to tell people. And if you don’t remember what to tell people, you don’t know what to tell them. And so I’m going to ask y’all to all come up and I want you to get a notebook and a pen right now. If, and if you can’t, there’s up here, if, and if, if you’re not able, take some back to some people who may not be able to stand up and walk up here. I want y’all to have notebooks and pens, every one of you. Hey, Ben, y’all go back to that first slide if you would, please.
Everybody have one. We’re not going to start until everybody’s got one. Everybody get a notebook. And if there’s pens here, if you don’t have a pen, they’re in the seat back, but these are your pens. So don’t be taking the pens in the back seats. Skyler would be upset if y’all start taking all the pens. So we bought you pens. So we got pens. Y’all got, y’all got, okay.
Everybody hold up the notebooks. I’ll make sure everybody got them. The one is slackers out here. Okay. I should have done better distributing. I thought about having a plan so people would give it to you orderly. I want you to remember having to get up in the chaos and get in the notebook. Okay. And we’re going to, we’re going to keep these up. We’re going to keep these here. If you, if you forget one and lose one, then, oh, you’re going, we’re going to be trouble. But I want to start doing this and giving these to people.
It’s, these aren’t anything, you know, fancy, but it’s something that first thing I want you to do, see how well you do assignments. I want you to write your name in it right now, because it’ll say, oh, I had that blue one. You know, we have come in here and say, I left mine in here. It’s that blue one. And we’ve got a bunch of blue ones. Write your name.
Everybody’s everybody have a notebook. Everybody. I see some folks who don’t have notebooks. I can’t make you do it, but I’m just asking you to write your name. Everybody got the name. Number two, go to that first slide. I want you to have in front of you. And the very first thing I want you to write on the top of your notebook, your new journey notebook. So you can start keeping notes, learning to reproduce. I want you to write down with your own handwriting, our mission statement. If you don’t have glasses and you can’t see so well, I’ll read it. Changing lives and making disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And every day when you open that and you see it, I want you to remember what our purpose and our mission here is at Journey. We’re going to be about making disciples. Y’all agree with that? Well, we got to be about making disciples. We’ve got to be about making disciples. Everybody, I don’t want to, when all your eyes look up here, I’ll know you’re through writing. Changing lives and making disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I know I’m kind of being a little silly, but I think this is important. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to sermons. And the truth is, I don’t care. There’ll be very few sermons that I can think of a certain preacher that I remember exactly what he preached on. You just don’t. It’s not a reflection of how good or how bad the person is who’s preaching. I don’t care who it is. You are not going to remember what they say after a few days. You may have internalized it and may be part of your knowledge base, but you will forget.
And so I’m going to want you to start writing down the verses that we mentioned, at least the numbers and the name and the book and the chapter. You can take this back and you can study yourself. You can think through the week and start studying it. I’m hoping that we’re going to start moving back again to our small groups where people have, who are willing to have home groups and that you can, during that week, talk about what the lesson was in the sermon. Talk about how does it apply to you? Not just information, but how does it apply to you? And I believe that God will honor that as we start approaching it a little bit differently. Are y’all willing to do this? I want to try this for at least a few months or a year.
Okay. That’s only 12 months. That’s just, that’s a few months. I really do. I want us to try this. I want you to try it. I want you to write down prayer requests. How many times somebody gives you a prayer need and you say, I’ll do it. And what happens? You forget, right? Write it down.
I’m not ashamed to say that I’m getting older and I have to write things down. I have to write things down. If I don’t, it just, it leaves my brain. It just does. And it does yours too, if you’re going to be honest. So I want to start writing those things down. And I want you to start writing down your prayers, answers to prayer. When you know somebody has been healed, when you’ve had an issue that you’ve brought before the Lord, start using this as a journal of your spiritual journey. Y’all start doing this. Some of you already do it already, but I think you may already have your own notebook. Feel free to use your own notebook if you don’t like this one, but this is Walmart and it was good. And, um, okay.
Y’all ready to study the scriptures together today? There’s nothing more that makes us more vulnerable than forgetting who we are. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what my purpose is. I don’t know who I am. Before I would go out as a teenager, my father would almost always tell me if he was there, he almost always told me, don’t forget who you are.
What did he mean by that? He meant everything you do is a reflection on us, on me. Everything we do is a reflection of our father. It’s how do we really believe about Jesus and what’s our faith really like? How, who are we? The truth is we get muddled. We get caught up in the, the conflicts of life. We get caught up in the, the irritations of life. We get caught up in the pressures of life and we start forget who we are. We start forgetting. There’s a song that I was going to mention it last week. Um, when we were quoting from, uh, from the prophet Haggai three times, he said, be strong, be strong, be strong. There’s a song by a Christian group called the news boys. And he’s got a phrase that I just think is a marvelous phrase. And it’s, it’s also a song talking about your, they’re falling, they’re failing. Don’t give up, but you know, be strong, don’t give up, be strong, don’t give up. Even though you’re, you feel like you’re failing and you feel like you’re muddling. And it has a phrase in one of the verses says, have you forgotten who you are? Did you forget whose trip you’re on? Stay strong, stay strong. I just think it’s a marvelous, marvelous song. And it reminds us sometimes we lose our way. We’re going to be talking about, um, if you have your Bible, go to the book of first Peter, we’re going to be studying from chapter two.
Y’all remember two weeks ago, uh, we started this, uh, this identity of who are we? Paul would say in first Corinthians third chapter, he says, you, you, you are the temple of God. Don’t you know, don’t you know that you’re the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you. We picked that up a little bit in the second chapter of first Peter, where Peter, the apostle Peter is speaking, saying the same things.
We last week, we talked about second first Peter chapter two, verse five, talking about you are living stones of this Holy temple that God is building up for spiritual sacrifice of sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. That’s who we are. Who are we? We are the temple of God. Who are we? We are living stones. And I want to continue with what Peter has to say. If we turn to first Peter chapter two, verse nine, first Peter chapter two, verse nine, you are a, what a chosen generation, a Royal priesthood, a Holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim.
Why? That you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. Y’all hear what he’s saying there? He’s saying, this is who you are. You’re somebody that God, the father chose. You are somebody that God, the father picked. You are somebody that God, the father gathered together and says, I want you to be my people. Not because of your value, but because I love you. Not because you’ve done everything right, but because you haven’t. And I want you to be my people. I want you to be the redeemed. I want you to be my people. And I want to focus today really upon that. You may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
We wonder and we struggle with what to tell people. What do we, what do you say? You hit them with a verse, you hit them with that, you hit them with a tract. I think Peter’s tells exactly how you approach people. You start learning to proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Did God call you out of darkness? If he didn’t, man, start listening because he wants to call you out of darkness. The man, he wants you to be in the light. He wants you to be in the light. And he wants you to tell people and praise him for it. I’m going to ask y’all to do another challenge.
How many of y’all are on social media, Facebook of any kind whatsoever? That’s a good many of you. A lot of you aren’t. I don’t blame you because there’s a lot of junk on there, but I’m going to tell you, it does give us a good, a good place to start proclaiming the praises of him who called you out of darkness into the marvelous light. I would love to see the flood of people that every single day you’re posting something great about the God who you praise, who took you out of darkness and put you into his marvelous light. Talk about changing the atmosphere. Man, it does.
I’m going to tell you, it’s hard sometimes because, you know, Stacey was mentioning earlier, sometimes you feel like you’re surrounded with all this negative stuff or you’re filled with doubt or you’re filled with the pressures or just the struggles of life. And sometimes it’s hard to find that good thing that you, but you need to find that good thing. And if we’re really going to spend some time, if we’re going to be disciple makers, we’ve got to learn to be people who are known as those who proclaim the praises of God, not using the Bible to beat people up, just show them where you were and where you are now. Talk about how good God is and how God has been, what he’s done for you, what he’s done for your family, what he’s done for your friends, what he’s done for your heart, what he’s done for your soul. How about just saying, God, you made a beautiful day today. We take a picture of a flower and say, isn’t God good? Y’all understand what I’m saying? If we’re going to start being disciple makers, we need the fruit of our lips to be proclaiming the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
That’s what we start doing. You wonder how to start making disciples? We start right there. Really, we start by knowing who we are. You are the temple. You are living stones. You are a chosen generation. You’re a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are God’s special people. Why? So that you can proclaim. So that you can proclaim his praises. Man, just start saying good things about God.
Maybe you don’t have Facebook. How about just saying it to somebody you meet at McDonald’s in the line? You hear somebody complaining. You hear somebody saying something negative about what’s going on and you turn it right around and say, you know, but God sure is good. Maybe they’re bringing a hurt to you and you say, you know what, I’ve been in that kind of hurt position myself. Let me tell you what God did for me. We’re going to start making disciples and this is where we start. We start proclaiming with our lips and the things we say, proclaiming his praises. We don’t have to worry about indoctrinating people and making sure that they are following all the rules. That’ll come later because as you start seeing how wonderful and good God is, you will want to change your life. Quit beating them on the head. Let’s start proclaiming the praises of God. Y’all with me? Man, this is so important.
Let’s go for the next verse. Who are you? It says, once you were once not a people, but now you’re the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now you’ve obtained mercy. I want to give kind of a little of the background on this because you’re going to see some verses. This didn’t all start with Jesus. God started choosing his people thousands of years beforehand. They were called the Jewish people and these people that Peter’s writing to, these were not necessarily Jewish people. These were a lot of Gentile people, people who were not Jews. He actually writes in the very first verse, 1 Peter, he’s talking to the pilgrims, the sojourners, the people who live in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. That’s the whole area on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea all the way north to the Black Sea.
This was not a Jewish area. This is a Gentile area. And Jews who had become followers of Christ were moving and leaving because of persecution. Paul and other apostles were going and other disciples were coming and spreading, proclaiming, proclaiming the praises of God in all of these areas. And it wasn’t easy for him. Peter’s writing to a people who were frustrated. He’s writing to a people who were suffering. He’s writing to people who, because of that suffering, they were starting to struggle on even who they were. Because they’d heard about these, the proclaiming of God’s greatness and His goodness, but yet they’re suffering. And they seem to be hated by both kinds of people. It’s all of their family members who they’ve grown up, who raised them, all the Gentiles, who seem now not to hold them in high esteem because they’re not worshiping the false idols that they grew up and were taught to worship. They’re not participating in the religious sacrifices of the temples in these pagan religions.
And so they’ve become kind of strange. They’ve become kind of weird. They’re not always accepted by the Jewish people either, because these Jewish people who did not accept Jesus thought that the Christians were really almost leading a cult. They were leading something that was strange, that was wrong. And so they were getting persecuted from both ends. They were in no man’s land.
And I’m going to tell you when you’re in no man’s land and you have people who are complaining and arguing at you from both sides, you start wondering who you are. And that’s when it’s most important to know exactly who you are. An epistle is just a letter. This is just a letter that Paul, I’m sorry, Peter’s not writing to one individual. He’s writing to a whole territory of Christians and expecting this letter to be taken from church to church to church to church. And he’s trying to give some words of wisdom inspired by the Holy Spirit of how are they going to handle the stress and the strain of being a group of people who are outsiders, a group of people who are considered strange, a group of people who are being persecuted from the outside.
And he starts telling them who they are. The letter is almost like listening to the one side of a telephone conversation. We don’t know exactly what he’s heard about them. He’s just telling you what he’s heard about them. The letter doesn’t tell you what he’s heard about them. It only tells you what he thinks they need to do in response to it. It’s like listening to one side of a conversation. But he’s not going to say things. I wouldn’t tell my son go fix the fence if there’s nothing wrong with the fence, right? You tell them and give them instructions because they’re having a problem.
They’re having an issue with it. And I want you this week to kind of read through the book of 1 Peter. They were having problems living in this world because they had forgotten who they are. Some were having problems submitting to the government because sometimes this was government pressure. Does that sound familiar? Got a lot of Christians all upset about submitting to the government. Peter says submit to the government.
Submit to masters. There were a lot of people who were servants and slaves. And they had servants, I guess they had slave masters who were not kind. And they had slave masters who were not Christians who were giving them a hard time and reviling them because of the religion that they had. He says, I don’t want you to do that. I don’t want you to revile and return to them.
I want you to be careful with what you say because you have an opportunity. If you will just, if you will just begin proclaiming the praises of him who called you, it’s going to start making a difference in their lives. They had a problem with wives submitting to husbands and husbands taking care of wives.
And then they had all this other suffering. The word suffering or trials or tribulation is used almost 20 times in this very short letter. They were suffering. They were hurting. And it’s so natural when you’re hurt that you hurt back. Right? Somebody punched you, I’ll punch you back. And I’ll punch you back three times. And if you hit me again, I’ll hit you three more times. Don’t you hear that kind of talk? And they were going through this.
They’re not any different than you are. They’re not any different. Want to retaliate? Want to get back? Who are you talking to? You’re not going to talk to me that way. I’m a Christian. You hear that kind of stuff being said? Let’s quit this kind of talk. We’re going to just proclaim the praises of God in the midst of people who were causing us strains and struggles in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our heartaches, in the midst of our troubles, we are going to proclaim the praises of Him who called you.
And I think there’s one thing that’s just so fascinating about this, how Peter shows this is not something new. Peter reaches back into the Old Testament. And you’re going to see some very similar language. Will you put the picture up? You got the picture of the Wailing Wall? Those are Jewish people. Those are the roots of our faith. Those are the people that God called His special people, His own holy nation, the people who He brought out of a pagan world and chose them not because they were so special, but because He loved them and He wanted to make a statement.
And He took them and He called them. This is where they still pray by the Wailing Wall. You all saw the picture last week of the this is the same exact wall. These are Jewish people who were coming where they come and pray. I’m going to tell you what, our roots, the roots of our faith don’t start, well they do start with Jesus before the world was ever created. But God then called a special people.
He started with Abraham and through Abraham’s family, later became his son, his grandson Jacob who had the 12 tribes who became the Israelites, the Jewish people. God has told His story through that group of people for centuries and centuries. We wonder why there’s disturbance in the Middle East. It’s all because of Abraham and his son, Ishmael, and the other son, Isaac. That fighting’s been going on for years and years and years. But I want to go back to the book now of Exodus.
I’m going to have the slides so you don’t have to turn there. Exodus chapter 19. I want you to listen to the language that God is speaking to the Jewish people, the Israelites when He first called them. He called them out of slavery. He called them out of bondage. In the same way that God calls us out of bondage and calls us out of darkness, He says, now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine.
Next verse. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.
Do those words sound a little like Peter? I wonder where Peter got the words. Don’t you? You know, somebody’s going to tell me the Old Testament doesn’t matter. The Old Testament matters. It’s a continuation of the calling that God has all for His people and for His decision to show mercy on a people who were not big and who were not great but they were small and they were loved and God operated through Him and His Spirit operated through them. Next let’s go to Deuteronomy. This is in Deuteronomy 7 verse 6. The other one was in Exodus 19 verses 5 and 6 if you’re writing it down in your new notebook.
Next is Deuteronomy 7:6. For you are a holy… this is Moses speaking to all the people before they move into the promised land. He’s giving them kind of a recap of what their 40 years have been like. He says, for you’re a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has what? He has chosen who? You to be a people for who? For Himself. A special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. Doesn’t that sound a whole lot like what Peter had to say? Flip back over to 1 Peter again.
I wanted you all to see the continuity of this. God has been calling His people. This is who you are. And so when Peter is speaking to these Gentiles, he’s telling them in the same language that God spoke to the Jews, you are His special people. And it was mind boggling. It was paradigm changing that these Gentiles were now brought into the people of God.
And if you’ll understand now it says in verse 10, He’s chosen you who were not a chosen people. He says, I’m choosing you who were not chosen a long time ago, but I have chosen you now. Through Jesus Christ, I have chosen you to be my people. You hadn’t obtained mercy back in the past when I was dealing with the Israelites. You Gentiles, you were not receiving mercy back then, but through the blood of Jesus Christ, you now have mercy. And He’s bringing them all together.
He’s bringing them all together so that they will begin to proclaim the separation between Jew and Gentile has been destroyed. It’s been completely abolished. And that’s always the way that God intended to do it. But in the fullness of time says you are a chosen generation. He’s speaking to the generation of Peter’s day. They were a chosen generation, but I believe He’s still speaking to us in this generation.
You are a chosen generation. And He’s choosing you to proclaim His praises of how He’s delivered you from bondage, how He’s delivered you from darkness, how He’s delivered you from sin, how He’s delivered you from ways that are unholy, and He’s brought you to His marvelous light. I’m going to tell you when we start doing that, we’re going to start making disciples.
I don’t know about you, but I look out in our society and I see a lot of people living in darkness. How about you? I see family members living in darkness. I see neighbors who are living in darkness. They’re just blinded. That’s what the devil does. He blinds people. He blinds people. They’re living in darkness. And God has chosen you to help bring deliverance to these people.
He’s looking for people who are willing to go into the darkness with the light that God has placed inside of them and start bringing people out. And you’re bringing them out because you’re giving them hope. And they see the changes that God has made in you, and they say, if God can change you, and you tell them, if God can change me, He can change you.
I want to know if we’re busy, if we’re really serious about making disciples. It’s not about going to a class. It’s not going through a course. I’m going to tell you, it’s right here in the Bible in the Word of God. It says, I want you to start proclaiming the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Amen? Amen.
I hope and pray that y’all will have made some notes. I’m going to do a test. If you come next week, I’m going to ask you to look in… I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to look in your notebook. This is your notebook. It is only your notebook. No one’s going to come check your notebook. I may kid you about it, but I’m not going to really check your notebook. It’s for you to write things that God’s saying to you during the week.
I know God’s moving, and I know God’s moving upon the hearts of people, and I pray that this will help stir you up today. We’re going to have a baptism here in a moment, and that’s part of making disciples. It’s the appeal to God for a clean conscience.
There’s a lot of people who still need to be baptized, not only in this place, but in our communities. Dallas, will you come on up. I’m going to spend some time right here. I’d like for y’all to… I’m not going to have an altar call or anything. I want y’all to spend some time praying yourself that God will start reminding you. I am going to ask for the prayer partners to come over here to this area over here. I’m going to ask the elders who are here to pray for those who need physical healings.
I believe in prayer, don’t you? And I believe that God’s going to change hearts, and I believe God’s going to change minds, and I believe God’s going to make this a disciple-making bunch of folks. Y’all agree? We’re going to hope together with that. Well, if you do, let’s stand, and I’m going to ask you, if you feel led, to come pray.
Turn the lights down. We’re going to spend a little time while they’re getting ready for a baptism, and pray that God will bless you, that God will take you, if you’re in the darkness, that God will show you the way of light. But most of all, those of you who are in the light, remember who you are. You are his temple. You are his living stones. You are his chosen people. You are his holy nation. You are his special treasure. You are important to him. You are important to him. And don’t you ever let the devil tell you different. You are important to him. Amen.