Lectionary Year A
April 7, 2002
1 Peter 1:3-9
Step VI: Contemporary Address
(JFC) Thesis statement:God knows us, acts for us and saves us.

INTRODUCTION - "You've got mail". A letter addressed to the believers in the pews of wherever it is preached. Here, it's a small town Presbyterian Church.

I. Grace and Peace come to this congregation via God's foreknowledge, the Spirit's sanctification and Jesus' sacrificial death. Careful of modalism!

II. God's mercy gives us new life full of hope based on Christ's resurrection. Easter was just a week ago. Review some of Easter's sermon's salient points. God's mercy was a major theme in the pre-Easter Gospel lessons.

III. God's power protects us even through life's various momentary and distressing tensions. Keenly observing life surely could reveal some examples of distressing stresses some currently suffer and could prove effectively illustrative if we vigilantly avoid betraying any confidences, etc.

IV. These divine acts and ideas God has of us, move us to worship, praise, honor, love and believe in Christ, as invisible as He is. Let's show Him.

Conclusion: Belief leads to concluding the sermon with suggesting how to live up to God's evaluations and expectations as we go and share this Good News.



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