God chose you. God calls you to be born again. God is keeping an inheritance. God

raised Jesus from the dead. God is guarding you through faith. God is using fire

to refine you. God, God, God for 12 verses. Now here comes the command.

Hope in it. This is what makes Christianity Christianity. God first does we then

hope in what he has done. This is what John Piper considers in this episode of

Light and Truth. This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church

on November 28th, 1993.

Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope

completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That's the verse we focus on. Peter begins by saying, therefore, having

girded up the loins, the hips of your mind. It's an image of in those days people

wearing flowing clothes, not able to run easily in those clothes, reaching

down between their legs and pulling the back skirt up and tucking it in their

belt. That's the way you gird up your loins. So you turn a robe into running shorts,

in other words, okay? That's the way you do it. And you can move and you're not hindered

by this ordinary domestic way of dressing. That's his first image. Do that for your

mind. Your mind. The mind needs to move. It needs to be free. It needs to act. The

second image is and being sober. So he's talking about a mental spiritual

alertness, avoiding anything that numbs and intoxicates the mind to spiritual

things. So two images, girding up the mind, ready for action and avoiding mental

inebriation. And then the third thing, hope, fully. Fix your hope completely. Now this

is the first command in 13 verses. There's not been anything he's told you to do

...