1 Peter 1:1-2

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hey everybody my name is Coley Waataja i
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am the director of women’s ministry at
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antioch community church in northeast
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minneapolis
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and i want to bring you a word of
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encouragement today from the book of
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first peter
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i started to read this book this morning
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and i got stuck
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on the first two verses and so i wanted
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to talk to you about the first two
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so often in these letters in the new
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testament we skip over the introduction
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it’s like the
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envelope of a letter and have you ever
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thrown away an envelope that you
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realized later
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that you actually needed i’ve done that
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multiple times whether it’s wedding
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invites
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where i didn’t know until after i threw
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it away if this was
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just for me or for me and guests or if
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kids were invited or something
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or one time i threw away an envelope
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that
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had contact info on it that i had no
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other way of getting and i
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still have not reached out to that
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person since because i lost the envelope
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so when we overlook these greetings in
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these letters in the new testament we
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can really miss a lot
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so let’s start in first peter chapter
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one i want to read verses one and two
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peter an apostle of jesus christ
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to those who are elect exiles in the
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dispersion
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in pontus galatia cappadocia asia
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and bithynia according to the
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foreknowledge of god
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the father in the sanctification of the
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spirit for obedience to jesus christ and
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forth sprinkling with his blood
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may grace and peace be multiplied to you
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now this could just be really
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superfluous and unnecessary of peter to
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put in all of this stuff before he gets
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into like the meat
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so to speak of his letter but i think
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everything he says here is really
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important
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one way that uh can be really helpful is
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to think about the
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the w’s the who where what why how
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and uh so in this case if we look at
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that you see
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the who is whose writing is peter uh
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to whom is he writing to the elect
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exiles of the dispersion now that also
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tells us a little bit about the where
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the dispersion was an idea uh
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of originally the jewish people being
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spread out all over the world after the
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babylonian exile
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because they never all fully got back to
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jerusalem but here
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peter is using it in an even greater
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sense for jewish and gentile
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non-jewish believers in jesus who are
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spread out throughout the world
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and here he highlights several regions
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that are now kind of in modern-day
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turkey
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but it’s really for believers in the
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entire world
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and he identifies them as elect exiles
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and it is according to the foreknowledge
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of god the father
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in the sanctification of the spirit
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that’s the how the spirit
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does his sanctifying work in us and
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makes us
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more and more into the image of god who
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is our father
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and it’s for something this is the why
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for obedience to jesus christ
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and for sprinkling with his blood which
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is a reference to his crucifixion and
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how his sacrifice
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covers us and then finally he ends with
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the what
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may grace and peace be multiplied to you
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that’s what he wants for us
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and if you look at this just from the
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circumstances
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i think this this desire that peter has
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in chapter
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in verse 2 that grace and peace would be
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multiplied
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that could seem like a really
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frustrating
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desire because if you just look at the
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circumstance and
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a listener may say hey i’m in exile i’m
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not in my home
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i’m not where i’m supposed to be how can
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i possibly
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have grace and peace in this moment
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but i think peter answers that in all of
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the other things he says
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because if he if you don’t just look at
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circumstances but if you look to god
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instead of all of those things you see
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of what you don’t have
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instead you see an all-powerful god who
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is my
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father and you see that his spirit
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is refining and and ridding me of the
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things
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that i don’t need in the first place and
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i get to look more and more like my
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father
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as time goes on as his sanctifying work
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continues
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i also see that he has a purpose and a
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plan for me
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all of this even the dispersion is in
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accordance with the foreknowledge of god
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god knows what he’s doing and he has a
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plan in it
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well if i am covered in all of these
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ways
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and if i’m covered by the sprinkling of
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his blood
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if god has a purpose for me and i get to
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call him father
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how can i not have grace and peace and
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i cannot just have it but i can have it
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in ever increasing measure
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what does he say may grace and peace be
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multiplied to you
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folks the grace and peace that we have
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whatever grace
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we experience whatever peace we feel
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it is not based on our circumstance it’s
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based
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on our identity in who we are it’s based
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on
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the fact that god the father has loved
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us first
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and he is the one who is sanctifying us
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and covering us with the blood of jesus
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and because of that we can have
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immeasurable amounts
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of grace and peace so no matter what
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your circumstances look like today
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the world can be really scary and maybe
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you feel like an exile right now
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even just in circumstantial uh the state
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of your life
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feels like you’re in exile from your
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former life life before all the
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craziness of these days
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i pray that you would not just look at
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circumstances but that you would turn
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and look to god and to see what he has
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to say
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about who you are about what you’re
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called to right now
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and about what he has for you so for you
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and for me may grace and peace be
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multiplied to you
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god bless