Pastor James will post his Sermon Study Questions every Tuesday with the previous Sunday’s sermon. Our hope is for these study questions to promote deeper personal study and further edify our church body.
Sermon Study Questions – November 1, 2026
1. Read 1 Peter 1:12.
2. How does the opening illustration speak to us about the importance of having hope?
3. What is the difference between the hope that Scripture speaks of and what people often mean by having hope?
4. Why should Peter’s reminder of divine election encourage us as believers?
5. How does the immediate context of Peter’s audience speak to us of the greatness of our hope?
6. Where is our hope and how does Peter describe it?
7. How does our hope transcend our present circumstances?
8. How does the certainty of our future help us in the present?
9. How can we cultivate biblical hope?
10. Pray.
Reading of the Law
Matthew 5:43-45 – You have heard that it was said, v‘You shall wlove your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, xLove your enemies and ypray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
Prayer of Confession
Heavenly Father, You are great and greatly to be praised. Your ways are higher than our ways and Your thoughts than our thoughts. Your word calls us to love as You have loved us. Though we were Your enemies, You sent Christ to live and die for us. In calling us to be Christlike in our love, we confess that we fall far short of Your glory.
Rather than pray for our enemies, we often neglect to follow Your example of love. We often wish to see those we dislike fail rather than pray for them and seek to love them as You have loved us. Father, please forgive us and grant to us growth in grace that we may seek the well being of those who persecute Your church and do not follow Your ways. Please expand our hearts that we would pray especially for our leaders who often neglect Your ways. Help us to remember them and to pray for them as we would for our selves and those we love. Please grant us these things in Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Proclamation of Forgiveness
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world,9 wthat he gave his only xSon, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Westminster Shorter Catechism Q & A 20.
Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
Eph. 1:4; Rom. 3:20-22; Gal. 3:21-22.
OT Reading – Daniel 12
At that time shall arise bMichael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, csuch as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, deveryone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of ethose who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, fsome to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And gthose who are wise hshall shine like the brightness of the sky above;1 and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and iseal the book, until the jtime of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. 6 And someone said to the kman clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream,2 l“How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” 7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; mhe raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be nfor a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished. 8 I heard, but oI did not understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” 9 He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many shall ppurify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but qthe wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. 11 And from the time that the rregular burnt offering is taken away and the sabomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. 13 But go your way till the end. And you shall trest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”