As I thought about thee three official mottos I thought of one word that could correspond to each motto:
Always Faithful. -- Willing
Always Ready. -- Ready
This we’ll defend. -- Able
Willing, Ready, Able, this could also be the motto for the church according to Peter. If we look at the passage from 1 Peter 3, I think we hear these three ideas articulated pretty well. 1 Peter 3:13 says who will harm you if you are eager to do good? Are we eager to do good for God? Are we willing to live for God and serve God?
1 Peter 3:15 says, always be ready to make your defense… Are we ready, equipped and trained to always give a defense for why we have hope and why we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ?
And then 1 Peter 3:15 says, do it – with gentleness and reverence. It’s not enough to be ready, we have to be willing to act – able to serve God when he calls us to. So willing, ready and able could be our motto, but are we living this out. Are we willing, read & able? Are we willing to live for God and serve God and bet he people God is calling us to be? Are we ready to give a defense for why we have hope and faith and trust? Are we ready to tell people how God has led us out of darkness and into the light of his life? And are we able to act today, tomorrow and in all the days to come? Can we leave here today and just do it? If you aren’t feeling willing or ready or able, it’s ok because Peter doesn’t just give us mottos or commands and then send us on our way. Peter gives us guidance on how to become willing, ready and able.
Let’s start with willing, are we willing to live for God? Are we willing to share with others what God has done in our lives and give a defense for our faith? Are we willing to suffer for doing the good work God has for us? It’s ok to answer this question honestly and say, no I’m not real willing to suffer or sacrifice. It’s ok to be honest and tell God where we are, but then the question becomes do we want to be willing? Do we want to have a fire and passion for God? There is a way to develop this passion and become more willing and eager if we want it, look at 1 Peter 3:15. In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. What makes us not only willing to serve God but eager to is when we begin to realize just who Jesus is, not as Savior and Lord but as OUR Savior and Lord. When we begin to understand the fullness of who Jesus is and what God has done for us, our passion and love for God will grow and our willingness and desire to live for God will also grow. So let’s take a moment and just remember who Jesus is and what he has done for us.
Look with me at Colossians 1:15-20 because this tells us so clearly who Jesus is and what he has done.
So Jesus is the fullness of God, he is the power of God, he is the love of God, he is all the goodness of God and the full force of God’s creative power and grace. So Jesus is God, and because he is, he is the only one who is able to reconciled the world to God. It is through Jesus and Jesus alone that the world has been brought back into a relationship with God. While sin severs our relationship with God – Jesus works to restore it.
The death of Jesus paid the price for our sin and the resurrection of Jesus shows us that the power of sin and death have been overcome and so now all of creation can step back into that relationship with God. Now the reason God sent Jesus to reconcile the world to himself is simply this - God loves us. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish – shall not be separated from God forever, but have eternal life – live with God forever. So in love and grace and with great power God forgives us and restores our broken relationship with him and really with all of creation. But that’s not the end, look at Colossians 1:21-22.
God doesn’t just reconcile the world, God reconciles us. God forgives me, God forgives you and God restores us into a lasting eternal relationship with Him. It is this reality of a personal forgiveness and grace that I believe helps develop a willingness and eagerness on our part to live for God. If God has done all this for us when we didn’t deserve it and when we can’t repay it, if God loves us so much that he is willing to lay down his own life for us –how can that not touch our hearts and make us eager to live for him.
I know in my own life, it was when I finally began to understand the reality of God’s forgiveness, grace and love that my heart became more willing to live for Him. I was in college when this happened and I have to say that my whole perspective on life and dreams and goals changed and it suddenly became more important to me to share this good news than to simply get an education, find a job or make a lot of money. I felt like my life had a greater purpose which was to help others understand the fullness of God’s love for them. If you want to be more willing to live for God and if you want to experience that eager excitement about living fully - then revere Christ as Lord, honor Jesus in your heart and life. Maybe that step starts today by simply accepting Jesus as savior and lord and asking God to forgive you and open you eyes and the eyes of your heart to exactly who Jesus is and how his death and resurrection really does bring forgiveness and life.
Once we are willing we can them move on to ready - 1 Peter 3:15. Are we ready to tell people why our lives are different? Are we ready to share with them why we have hope and why we trust in Jesus and how God’s grace and love has changed our lives? We talked about this last week, and I hope you have spent some time thinking or writing down how God has brought you out of darkness and into light. How does Jesus give us hope day after day? Are we ready to answer that question? If we can’t aren’t then we need to prepare ourselves and last week we saw that we prepare ourselves by coming to Christ and craving the pure spiritual milk which is the word of God.
It does take some energy, time and effort to prepare ourselves. Think back to our armed forces again, when men and women join the army, navy, air force, marines or coast guard they are willing to serve and sacrifice but they aren’t ready to at that moment. They have to go through some kind of basic training or boot camp, and if you have ever gone through that experience then you know that the process of training is rigorous. It takes energy, effort, commitment and courage to get ready for military service and the same is true for training ourselves in the faith. Growing in our faith doesn’t just happen, we have to commit ourselves to it, we have to be courageous and take that first step or the next step to growing stronger and we have to give it some energy and effort. Sometimes I’m afraid that we simply settle for an ordinary faith and trust in God instead of going all the way to extraordinary. We are satisfied with just a little bit of God instead of going for all the fullness of life and joy that God has to offer. When we step out in faith and begin to learn how to really trust God and live for God – God will more than meet us in return. When we step out in faith, God will surprise us, God will overwhelm us, and God will fill us to overflowing.
Sometimes I think of God as having this huge storehouse of life and power that he just wants to give us, but we never ask – or we never open our hands or hearts to receive. God has so much he wants to give us, he has some much he wants us to experience if we would just be willing to stop trusting in ourselves and trust in him. The more we open ourselves up to God, the more we ready we become to live for God and make a difference in this world.
Willing, ready and able. All the preparation means nothing unless we act when the time comes, but let’s be clear that putting our faith into action will not be easy. Both at the beginning and the end of this passage, Peter tells us that suffering will come when we step out to do God’s work which is why he specifically says, do not fear the suffering that will come and do not be intimidated by the forces that will work against God. Many times obstacles and even persecution comes when we start to live for God. We can’t let these hard times keep us from moving on. People may not understand our new outlook, they may question our hope and joy, they may just think we are crazy – that’s ok, Jesus family thought he was crazy so we would be in good company. We can’t let our fear of what people might say about us keep us from doing what God is calling us to do. With boldness and courage we need to step out in faith and act.
We are able to live for God. The spirit of God is in us and so we are able to live for God and make a difference in our world, so with gentleness and humility let us live for God and allow the world to see the light of Jesus burning within us.
This weekend I hope we will take time to remember the heroes who have fought for our freedom and those heroes who continue to serve and protect people around the world, but I also hope that we will wrestle with this idea that God is calling us to live as heroes of faith as well. May we be willing and ready and able to serve God and even sacrifice and suffer for him.
