Three Marks of Being Different Than the World

[Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] good morning [Music] foreign thank you [Music] see you [Music] again foreign okay thank you test can everybody hear me can you hear me out there test one two can you hear me I can hear myself good morning church it's good to see y'all here this morning we are celebrating baptism today woohoo so we got the heater going on Friday and it turned off and got it going yesterday and it turned off and we got it going this morning and it's turned off and so we're gonna get a feeding trough heater for next time which Speaking of which we got another baptism that we're going to be celebrating on March 26th so praise the Lord for that amen yeah I want to introduce to you guys a friend of mine and a brother in Christ his name is Zach Malone why don't you come over here yeah that's that's the toughest part right there praise the Lord we'll do this quick so you have professed faith in Jesus Christ and you're you believe that diamond across from your sins yes rose again from the dead yes and you are committing to Faithfully follow him all the days of your life yes

Zach it's my privilege as your brother and the Lord and as your pastor to baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit buried in the likeness of his death and raise the law all right and I'm actually going to invite Tim battalotto with his daughter Sophia to come and celebrate baptism thank you okay give me take care out of your lungs all right Sophie and I got some questions for Stuff all right Sophie do you do you conf sorry I'm losing everything all right do you confess that you are a sinner in need of the grace of God yes do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins yes and rose again do you commit to follow Jesus for the rest of your life regard no matter the cost yes all right then it's my privilege my daughter and sister in Christ to baptize you in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit bearing [Music] [Applause] [ __ ] [Applause] hello I'm so grateful for you and your pastor your church was one of the top Cooperative program giving churches in Missouri in 2022. Thank you do you know what that means it means you're leading Missouri Baptist in the support of foster care adoption care and rescue from Human Trafficking through the ministries of our Missouri Baptist Children's Home

It means you're getting the Gospel into the hands of unreached people groups that have come to live right here in our state of Missouri it means you're supporting missionaries on 30 college campuses all across our great state it means that you're sending disaster relief volunteers to offer help and hope and eating to places marred by earthquakes and hurricanes and floods and many other natural disasters it means at the same time that you're providing Christian higher education on three University campuses in Missouri and at the same time they're caring for the elderly at our Baptist homes and health care and you're securing estate planning for families through the Missouri Baptist Foundation and it's just in Missouri your Cooperative program gifts also help keep 9 000 full-time missionaries on the field around the world and at the same time you train more than fifteen thousand students every year at our six Southern Baptist seminaries give Southern Baptists a voice in the halls of Congress and in the courtrooms of our country and so much more none of these amazing Ministries could be sustained without you giving faithfully and without your church sharing is Financial Resources with other churches through the Cooperative program thank you through the Cooperative program you have skin in the game with what God is doing in Missouri across North America around the thank you praise the Lord amen I mean top 100 giving us Church in the state of Missouri that's pretty significant for a church of our size amen well be together in the house of the Lord

Amen it is so good to be here a couple of things that are coming up this week and if you have a bulletin open them up firstly we got our John 3 16 celebration that's with we care that's happening this upcoming Thursday and so if you have if you care about young families that is our key Outreach to minister to families and so some of you y'all very familiar with it y'all been through it we got we're going to have a turkey dinner we're going to have noodles we're gonna have chili we've got all sorts of things that are happening that night you're welcome to come and the primary purpose in that is to build relationships with people to get to know them to let them know that they're welcome in our church and so be here that starts at 6 p.m on March 16th hope that you'll make it a priority also April 2nd we're having our youth camp fundraiser it's a potluck scoop and so what we do is we have a whole bunch of people bring soup you can donate you can give to that and you know or not but we also have a huge dessert auction right after that and we got pies that go for like 200 bucks right and so we want to we want to give and give and give so that way money is not an obstacle for our kids our teens that want to go to summer camp this year they're going to be going to Kansas City to do a Work summer camp they're going to go and be the hands and feet of Christ by building wheelchair ramps by replacing windows by doing Roofing projects by doing all these different things to low-income or senior adults that are there in the Kansas City area they're working with a local church there and so it's through an organization called World Changers which many of you know about there's all sorts of things that are happening and probably the next most important thing is that there are no Wednesday

Night activities this year or this year this week I'm still recovering from that shock of that water no those guys got a lot worse than I did I had waiters on so but it's spring break this week so there's no Wednesday night activities this week so enjoy that time with your family rest and then we will get started back up with everything the following week church I love you so much I want you to stand and find a neighbor shake their hand say welcome to First Baptist Church thank you very much thank you [Music] thank you again well good morning church you've already heard good morning like three times but I'll say it again good morning eat a little bit extra good morning on daylight savings Sunday well I'm glad to see all of you here this morning now it's time as we've made our habit for the last several months to prepare our hearts and our minds for worship so at this time I'd invite you to just bow your heads and close your eyes and ask God to help you prepare for worship today I don't even have to guess I know you had trouble getting out of bed this morning there there may have been arguments there may have been just tiredness take this time to ask God to help you to put off those distractions to focus on him Lord this morning we camp before you and we ask that you help us to worship Lord help us to pour out praise because of who you are and what you've done Lord remind us of your greatness and your

Goodness remind us of the cross remind us of the resurrection and Lord let us pour out our joy and our love for you because you first loved us Lord our worship Finds Its perfection in Christ and we know that it's through Christ that we can come before you this morning Lord help us to worship in Jesus name we pray amen I'd invite you to stand with us and join us as we sing of the attributes the greatness of God [Music] the Ancient of Days [Music] thank you I missed you now Hasting and Silent eyes [Music] the Ancient of Days [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you great father of Glory your father [Music] of Grace [Music] Victorious Your Great Name we Most Holy must glorious the Ancient of Days Your Great Name [Music] he is Almighty and glorious amen continue to praise His name [Music] Come All You sinners [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] Praise Him for the wonders of his life

[Applause] [Music] forever [Music] hell forever [Music] failures restrictions come lay them down [Music] you can be seated and I'd like to invite our ushers out as we prepare to take the office I want to spray Father in heaven we thank you for this morning and we thank you Father for the opportunity that we get to gather together as your body as your people father and Lord as we come before you at this time of the worship worshiping you with our offerings God we pray that you would use these to bring strength to your church and as we saw in the video earlier that you will continue to use it for the Ministries that you have in Jesus name amen [Music] you to worship this morning you can feel free to remain seated you can feel free to stand you can kneel in prayer if you need to I only ask that you be engaged in worship because he is worthy amen [Music] praise the Lord [Applause] his Mercy is [Music] Mercy is he is more [Music] our sins they are men [Applause] praise the Lord his Mercy is [Music] [Applause] [Music] Mercy is [Music] so tender is [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

More praise the Lord [Applause] his Mercy is stronger Darkness his Mercy is more what Riches of kindness his blood was the payment his life was the cause [Music] since they are many Mercy is more praise the Lord [Applause] his Mercy is born [Music] to every Lord [Music] praise the Lord heart his Mercy is born stronger than Darkness [Music] Mercy is Mercy is more [Music] thank you last week we talked about how those who are in Christ were once we were not a people and now we are a how he's made us a kingdom under in this week we're going to talk a little bit about that again how we are sojourners in this world how we're passing through onto the kingdom that we actually get to call our own and that's how we open with this song Deliver us from evil Lord we sojourn in a broken world though evil heads give rise to war remind us this is not our home [Music] does this is [Music] in your strength we will do [Music] Deliver Us [Music] turn us [Music] thank you

Foreign [Music] you coming in his Earthly way we love to you we Look to You Lord Deliver Us [Music] [Applause] [Music] today foreign [Music] we look to you we look together [Music] Lord help us to look to you God as we continue to worship you today through hearing from your word help us to put aside the distractions to recognize the things of this world are not what belongs to us but Lord you have guaranteed us a place with you and your kingdom if only we'll believe in Jesus name we pray amen well if you have your Bible and I hope that you do please turn with me over to First Peter chapter 2. First Peter chapter 2 we are in the middle of a series that we're calling called to be different remember different not just for the sake of being different but that Christ ought to make a difference in our lives amen since the mid 1500s there has not been such a Time that Christianity in general has just been opposed and vilified it's interesting so I've never never played this game or watched this show but there's a show on HBO Max called The Last of Us anyone ever heard of that all right if you're probably under 25 you probably have or if you're a nerd like me you probably have but it's interesting because one of the one of the biggest villains in that entire series is a self-proclaimed Christian right of course surprise

Surprise right it's not like we're gonna be shocked by Hollywood but this is Ray and Wilson who played Dwight Schrute on the office anybody ever heard of the office okay yeah all right here's what he said yesterday I was thought how timely I do think there is an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood as soon as the David character in The Last of Us started reading from the Bible I knew that he was going to be a horrific villain could there be a Bible reading preacher on a show who is actually loving and kind that's a really great question I mean this is not as he's not a self-proclaimed Christian not that I know of at least but it's funny that even the lost people are kind of kind of noticing hey like I know some Christians that aren't like this dude so what's going on why is there such an anti-Christian bias not just you know in Hollywood but perhaps even your neighbors that's even your family perhaps they don't love Christ they don't know Christ they want nothing to do with Christianity Christianity in general because of the lifestyle of Christians can't say Amen you better say what ouch I mean we just I did a quick Google search I wrote this down but I deleted it and I thought I'm not going to do that but I'm going to do it anyways but I did a quick Google search of which is totally not like an official way to do research by the way but I just thought I'm just going to see how many hits come up of just pastors arrested yeah so you would that's bad news oh there are over 33.3 million hits because of that you know when you start putting the quotation marks around it and you start really kind of digging it's a little

Less than that but still that's a shocking number 33.3 million hits just on Google on you know just pastors arrested some of you your pillows out your phones and you're like well I gotta see this the fact is that we've got a lot of so-called pastors who are leading so-called Christians and it's no wonder that a lost and Dying World wants nothing to do with Christianity when you have ungodly men and ungodly people proclaiming the name of Christ I mean we got all these people that are leading the local church they're leading in seminaries and in Christian Ministries and so when Christians see their leaders doing this they think well these are acceptable sins therefore if I do it's not that big of a deal and therefore the name of Christ becomes blasphemed among the lost I don't need anything to do with Jesus I'm a lot better than that person today we're going to talk about some difficult things and my motive today is not to hurt you okay I do not want to wound you I do not want you to walk out of here going man I stink okay that's not my goal at all my goal is for you to behold the glory of God and in light of how good God is for you to change how you live your life and so today we're going to talk about three marks of being different than the world and if you would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read First Peter chapter two we're going to be looking at verses 11 and 12. God's word says this beloved I urge you as sojourners and Exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the

Day of visitation let's pray Lord we just pray that your word would Pierce our hearts today that the your Holy Spirit would just push us to repent of the hidden sins or maybe sins that are known I don't but Lord You've you've dealt with me this week on many different things and so I pray that you would deal with this congregation as well we are your people you are our God and we profess that today not just merely to say it but because of that's what we believe and I pray that every person whether they're online or over the radio or even here in our congregation what would every person that hears this would be prompted to adjust their life not just for the sake of adjusting it but for the glory of Jesus Christ we ask that you would just be glorified today in Jesus name amen I think it'd be good for us to remind ourselves who is it that Peter is writing to here remember that Peter he is writing to a group of Christians sorry I thought I had the title slider he was writing to a group of Christians that are in modern day Turkey Asia Minor right and so they're they're in places like bithynia and Cappadocia and all those type of places and they are beginning to experience persecution they are the ones who are grieved by various trials they've been relegated to the fringes of Roman society these are our brothers and sisters in the Lord although they have passed on they are ones that are our relatives in Christ and Peter is reminding them of the first Mark that we're going to talk about which is our relationship to the world okay our relationship to the world when we become Christians Everything Changes

That's what we talked about all last week we talked about how we are a chosen race a royal priesthood people of his own possession that she may proclaim the excellent seeds of him who called you out of darkness and Into His Marvelous Light once you were not a people but now you are God's people once you had not received Mercy but now you have received mercy and it is it is Who We Are because of what God has done in our hearts through the proclamation of the Gospel through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ because of what he has done that he calls us beloved you are beloved and I want you to know that Peter he is going to shift from our relationship with God not a people not having Mercy now we have had mercy now we are people we are beloved over to our relationship to a lost world which is at best suspicious of Christians or at worst hostile this past summer I had the privilege of going up to the square where there was that Roe versus Wade protest on the Square and people were naturally suspicious people were naturally hostile and why is that well they think I'm there to fight they think that I'm there to make them feel bad they think that I'm there to judge them and tell them how awful they are well yeah I got called some bad names and things like that you know they gave me the your bad signal you know what I'm talking about but you know there are worse things to suffer the mean called names they're far worse things Peter he's going to deal with that topic of how we

Are to live our lives but I think that we do need to Mark down what our relationship to the world is and firstly we are beloved in Christ and you need to know that God loves okay as a Christian you are in him he has purchased you he has such a tremendous overwhelming love for you are a recipient of God's mercy you are counted among God's Own people you have been set free from sin and when God called you out of darkness and Into His Marvelous Light he did so because of his great love for you not because you're so awesome not because you're so good it's in spite of your Badness it's in spite of your sin in spite of your Rebellion that God had mercy on you and so Peter he urges his audience that means that he's calling for people to listen for this he's urging them and sometimes when like I'm talking to my kids and I want to tell them something encouraging I tell them look me in the eye look me in the eye do you know why because I want them to know that I mean that and so Peter is urging his listeners for this to listen up look him in the eye and receive this encouragement and he tells them and he describes them as sojourners and Exiles and that word Sojourner it means to be a stranger in the land it means a foreigner you and I we are Americans right and we have rights and Liberties As Americans get that are guaranteed to us they are called inalienable rights and we celebrate those things but guess what those rights do not extend into bordering countries do that now we like to think that they do but they don't it's the same thing with foreigners that come to America they don't have the same constitutional rights that we have that

Are afforded To Us by our constitution and so we as Christians are to consider ourselves strangers to this world with rights and privileges of Heaven but we are in a foreign land that does not share our culture doesn't share our values doesn't share our language we're also described as exiles this means that we're only passing through Earth this is not our home this is not where we belong amen and that becomes increasingly so we look around at our culture where you start to realize wow we really don't belong here do we and Paul he elaborates on this in Philippians chapter 3 verse 20. He tells us but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ actually he goes into much more detail in the book of Ephesians here's what he says Ephesians 2 verses 12-19 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise that is who you were before you came to know Christ don't you forget it you were not saved because of your righteousness you weren't saved because you were born in the land of the free you weren't saved because you were born into a Christian family you're not saved because you're baptized you're not saved because you give money to a church you're not saved because your name is on a roll at a church you know why you're saved through the body and blood of Jesus Christ proclaiming your faith in him being born again to that Living Hope knowing God that's how you know that you're saved having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who

Has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of Commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two so making peace it might reconcile us both to God and one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near for through him we both have access from one Spirit to the father so then you are no longer strangers aliens but your fellow citizens with the Saints and members to the household of God Amen that's what the Scripture said and it is only because of what Christ has done that we are counted as people of God and when we read this passage we should be thinking back to the Old Testament we should be thinking back to how God worked through his covenants even in the ancient days I mean The Book of Leviticus there's all these different laws about about the Sabbath and the Sabbath years and the Year of Jubilee and all of these different things and then in Leviticus 25 I want you to remember okay what we've talked about here in Ephesians okay that we are his people we've been brought nearby the blood of Christ we're no longer strangers and aliens to him okay but I want you to listen to what it says in Leviticus chapter 25 verse 23 it says the land shall not be sold in perpetuity for the land is mine okay that's God talking the land is his for you are strangers and sojourners with me now this is the people of God in the Old Testament that God is saying to them you are still strangers in sojourners with me I want you to note that massive change in relationship the Old Testament God says in his own

Law that we his people are strangers and sojourners with him but in the New Covenant in Christ God says that we are no longer separated from him rather we are strangers and Exiles to the world and we are united with God in Christ Jesus praise God for that and now in light of this New Covenant and this relationship Peter he continues to give more instruction gives us a second Mark he tells us about how we are to conduct ourselves in the world that's his word not mine and Peter he gives two general instructions one a positive one in a negative we're going to start with the negative persons that's what he starts with the first thing is look at what the passage says to abstain from the passions of the flesh now that word abstain it means to avoid it means to refrain from doing it's a it's a command for us to abstain from something don't touch that remember one time I touched a kerosene heater in my house that's always a mistake I made it once you learn from those things we are to refrain from the passions of the flesh now it'll be helpful for us to Define what on the earth does passions of the flesh even mean some people take it to me and that passion itself is bad like the stoic philosophers of Greece they would they would be inclined to agree with that however this word passion is used by Jesus Christ himself talking about how he's looking forward with so much excitement he's excited he's passionate about celebrating that last supper with his disciples and so it's not passion itself that's bad it's what you are passionate about what gets you excited what grabs your attention is it God and the Gospel and are you

Passionate about Mission work and honoring the Lord are you passionate about baptism are you passionate about young people coming to know Jesus Christ and this is the second time that Peter used this word passions in his letter I'd probably turn back a page in your copy of God's word if you look at First Peter chapter 1 verse 14 it says this I don't have it up there it says as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance so Peter he shows us that there's a correlation between the Flesh and being of the Flesh and ignorance if a professing Christian is living for their own passions for their own desires then it's either because I should say professing Christians the professing Christian is passionate about their own desires and their own wants and their own kingdom then either they are unregenerate or they are in Rebellion either way is dangerous and so gotta gotta ask this question and the Lord was dealing with me about this a lot of this week are there areas in your life where you're gratifying that sinful nature you know where you kind of kind of maybe play with it a little bit it's like a pet that you keep tucked away or something avoid them Paul he instructs Us in Romans chapter 6 verse 12. To oh I did have that there sorry let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions don't let sin reign in your mortal body how do we do this we must put to death the creeping sin that we have been set free from I remember I was in high school and I was raising money for a mission trip and I was working in this single mom's backyard and so me and some friends of mine we were taking our Labor Day

Weekend okay so you're talking Friday afternoon all the way through Monday and we busted our humps right we went out there and we were tearing up weeds we're cutting down some small trees put taking out bushes putting in mulch we were we were working so hard we were repairing her patio mending fences things like that it was it was a lot of work right and by the time that was all done it looked really good we were very proud of it and I was very excited a couple years later I was there with one of the pastors at the church we were just visiting her and so I just kind of looked back in the backyard you know what I saw it was all overgrown I mean there were there were things that were back there I mean like it looked like someone had just taken like a dumpster and was throwing stuff in it but then just left all the debris just scattered everywhere it looked like no one had mowed it at all there was all the flower beds that we had put in were all overgrown you know and that was a little bit frustrating to me right like Carol West that did all that stuff all of that stuff to help her and they became overgrown you know all you got to do to get weeds in your garden is nothing you don't you don't have to do anything and I wonder how much of an effort how much of I want to say effort but you know that's really the best word for it but how much time are you dedicating to your walk with Christ I mean are you what are you putting into it there's probably a reason why you see so much bad fruit in your life it's probably because you're neglecting the grace that comes with knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and just letting the weeds take over you're not doing that hard work of saying God I need some help right now

I see these things in my life I see growing unforgiveness I see bitterness in my life I see resentment I see growing lust in my life I see a hate I see myself being more concerned with conservatism rather than the kingdom of God and so you got all these different things and maybe those things bother you but you don't know what to do let me tell you what you do you go to Jesus about it you can't be better by doing that's not the Gospel the Gospel is come to Christ the Gospel is let him deal with you the Gospel is you come to Jesus and he will make you new even you Christian not that he restaves you but he does clean you up through that process of sanctification maybe it's been a while since you've done with done you know anything with the Lord I would ask you to consider on going to God and saying can you help me tear up these weeds of pride can you help me to sow seeds of contentment can you help me to plant flowers of obedience as Christians we must make it our regular work to tend to our hearts Peter he says that the passions of the flesh they wage war against your soul those are his words the passions of the flesh remember that sin is a cruel master and we are very prone to forgetting that remember sin it will take you further than you ever thought that you'd go it'll make you do things that you never thought that you would do it'll keep you there far longer than you ever intended to stay and we see this even in the Old Testament see God he takes the nation of Israel out of Egypt he delivers them from their hard and their bitter oppression they were slaves there for 400 years they served and they were so crushed and so oppressed and so despised by the Egyptians that they

Even required for the Hebrews to take their their their infant children and killed him thankfully they disobeyed that's righteous disobedience but still can you imagine being in that culture where you had to take your son kill them God he delivered them from that and they followed him in a pillar of Fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day all the way to the mountain of Sinai and God he established a covenant with him he forgave them he gave them his laws and told him exactly what they were to do and God said I'm not just going to do that for you I'm going to give you a tabernacle a place for you to worship me forever I'm not just going to do that but I'm going to lead you to the land of Canaan I'm not just going to do that but I'm going to lead you to the land of Canaan and I'm going to drive out the inhabitants from before you all you got to do is go in and take it and they get up there and they get to that land of Canaan and they're standing there on the border they send in spies and all those spies came back except for Caleb and Joshua and what happens is that the people they start to freak out they're like we it would have been better for us to actually let's read what they said Numbers Chapter 14 verses one through four then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night and all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron the whole congregation said to them would that we have had died in the land of Egypt or with that we had died in this Wilderness why is the Lord bringing us into this land to Fall by the sword our wives and our little ones will become a prey would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt and they said to one another let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt they're wanting to go back to their sin oppression they're going to go back because sin is a cruel master and we

Forget how cruel it is if you were giving in to the passions of the flesh remember that you're doing exactly what the Israelites in the Old Testament did you return like a dog to its vomit you're partaking in the Sin which is a poison which kills it wages war and listen there's always casualties in War but there's hope remember let's say that you've been gratifying the passions of the flesh let's say that you have that sin that you have things keeping as a pet I will repeat this for you repentance is available doesn't matter how far you go repentance is only one step away God he calls you to think differently about that sin he calls you to be broken over that Rebellion that you've committed listen to what Paul says and this is a little bit of encouragement for you and I read this quite often in my personal war against sin and I hope that you do in your personal war in Romans chapter 7 he says this for I do not understand my own actions because he'll connect with that I don't know what I'm doing for I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate now if I do what I do not want I agree with the law that it is good so now it is no longer I would do it but sin that dwells within me for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out for I do not unders oh for I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing now if I do what I do not want it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right evil lies close at hand for I Delight in the law

Of God in my inner being that I see in my members another law Waging War against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members this is the right attitude to have Wretched Man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord so then I myself serve the law of God with my mind but with my flesh I serve the law of sin your conscience cannot be alleviated by doing better you cannot be justified by doing better you cannot be Sanctified by doing better in obeying the law you have to remind yourself of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because we never outgrow the Gospel we come to the Lord we ask him to help us conform us into the image of Christ he will give you that ability to Will and to work for his good pleasure ask him to renew your mind ask you to think ask him to help you think rightly about that sin about your Rebellion ask him to Grant you repentance tell him ask him break my heart God I need you to break my heart over this because I want you more than I want that sin ask for help overcoming it plead for him to work secondly Peter he tells us positively how we are to be attractive to the Lost Peter says this way keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable that command it's it's pretty clear that we are to live in an honorable way among lost and when we think of Honor oh we might think of that in a very cultural context or personal preferences this is what I think is Honorable this is what I think is dishonorable we don't get to do that as Christians we have to go back to what God's word tells us is Honorable or dishonorable command is pretty clear live in an honorable way I'm unblocked and a couple of things that we need to know firstly

Is that Peter he calls lost people gentiles but what's interesting here is that all the Christians that are in Asia Minor I shouldn't say all but most of the Christians that are in Asia Minor bithynia and Cappadocia that whole area they were primarily gentiles so what does he mean there it means that these Gentiles that he is writing to are members of God's covenant people they are his chosen people his royal priesthood that people of his own possession but he had already included them as part of it so he's in this Gentile phrase is in reference to those who do not know God it's in reference to those who do not know the Gospel regardless of their heritage Peter he also tells us that our conduct is to be honorable and we're getting back to what honorable means it's that Greek word Kalos which actually appears just a little later and it's translated as good deeds honor is not subject to what you feel is right and wrong or good and evil it's according to what God says see put yourself back in the first century these people are about to experience heavy persecution they're about to go through a tremendous suffering they're about to experience under many Roman emperors for the next several hundred years heavy heavy oppression Christians will be rounded up they will be tossed to beasts they will be crucified Peter he will be crucified upside down Paul will be beheaded there's all sorts of awful things that will happen to these Believers and I want you to note that it's not because of their evil that they're persecuted and it's not even because of their good works that they're persecuted they are persecuted because they profess belief

In Jesus Christ the son of God that is why they refused to cater to the culture they said Christ Alone Christ Alone is Our Hope Christ Alone is the only means of salvation and they weren't condemned because of their evil the third Mark is the final Judgment of the world you see lost people they will speak about Christians like they are some of the most evil and wicked people on the face of the planet yet we are to live our lives in such a way that the persecution that we that we get is not tied to our sin or are evil we are to live in such a way where if they speak against us they have to actually slander us Peter he reiterates this point later on and we'll get there in a few weeks in First Peter chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 it says having a good conscience so that when you are slandered those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame for it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than for doing evil the world it hates Christians and Christianity because it hates God it is diametrically opposed to Christianity the Gospel Jesus Christ and yet we as Christians we do not get to live our lives with hate we get to live it with love and with Grace and with mercy and Truth we live our lives so that way when people see our Good Deeds are honorable words what happens they glorify God on the day of visitation this isn't an original thought from Peter here he's probably thinking back to The Sermon on the Mount Jesus is standing there with the thousands around him preaching the best sermon that's ever been preached in the history of the world and here's what Christ himself said in Matthew 5 you are the light of the world a city on a

Hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven see there is a direct connection between your good works and the lost glorifying God listen to me we have a world that desperately needs the Gospel it needs it needs Christians that live like it needs Christians that are authentic not fake the world's tired of fake I'm tired of fake you're tired of fake I know that you are need a world that has the hope of Christ and we live our lives in such a way that we're pleasing to God and that helps people be receptive to the Gospel message and trusting in Christ and yet this passage also points to a coming judgment as well that day of visitation because one day Believers and unbelievers will stand before God and here's what it says in Philippians chapter 2 that therefore God has a highly exalted Jesus him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Christ he is King and he will have full submission of all creation he demands it and he will receive it you dear brother or sister are called to live your life in such a way that is Honorable and will draw people to Bow their knee before Christ and receive him as Lord before it is too late what will you do when you have to give an account before

God on how you lived or squandered your life God Is Not An overbearing abusive Lord he's The Sovereign King who purchased you at the price of his own son won't you won't you listen to the Lord in his commands don't you see how much he loves you and how much he wants you to minister to those who don't know him remember that you who are beloved by God you are a Sojourner you are an exile to this world you are to live like a stranger and so we are called to abstain from the passions of the flesh because they wage war against our own soul passions of our old nature they are opposed to the Lord Jesus in God's Will and so now we're to conduct our lives in an honorable way so that when people speak against us as evildoers they may see God or they may see our good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation John McArthur he told a story of the missionary family back in before World War II that was living in the Philippines and they were there and they were serving and Japan invaded and took over and rounded up everyone and put them into concentration camps now as they were there this family it was the klingens they were working there and they were serving in the camp director his name was kamishi and kenishi he was a man that would you know people thought would would be a great leader for that camp because he was very devious in what he did he actually upped the people's rations that were in the camp but they were unhauled grains of rice and unhauled rice you know rice itself if you eat it raw can actually stab your gastrointestinal system and cause you to

Bleed internally unhauled rice does the same thing and so these people that received more rice they could either try to unhull them which would burn more calories and they would die a slow painful death through starvation or they would eat the whole rice and it would stab their insides and they would bleed internally very quickly and so this missionary family that served there they live Faithfully kindly they didn't know that this was going to happen and lo and behold they found themselves in a camp and so they served very Faithfully until the Allies liberated that camp a couple of years later kenishi was found serving as a groundskeeper in Manila and he was tried and convicted of his war crimes and before he was hanged he they he professed faith in Jesus Christ of course everyone scoffed at him and said no there's no way he said let me tell you about some missionaries The klingens Who lived in that concentration camp with such character in such beauty that when they spoke about Christ I could see the hope within them and I knew that I didn't have that hope and I needed that and while I did atrocious Deeds Christ has saved me in the same way that he saved them by his grace I wonder if that could be said about me I wonder if that could be said about you is your life can is your conduct what you do in such a way that a lost world is attracted to the beauty of Jesus head hand heart had I want you to know that people they will speak evil about you as a Christian it's going to happen make sure that's all false that they slander you

And if there's things that you've done where you're like listen Cody they can slander me all over about all sorts of things that's where you confess it confess it to Christ confess it to your brothers and sisters so that way if someone does come oh yeah we know about that Christ redeemed you Christ loves you and I want you to consider if a lost person will glorify God because of your life will that happen or are people turned off to the Gospel because of how you live Hearts I want you to believe that you are at war with your flesh and there are casualties more your flesh will be subversive it will try to ensnare you so take care not to become allies with let's pray Lord we just thank you so much for this beautiful day that you've given to us we thank you for the glory of the Gospel and Lord you are so good Lord we know our own Deeds that we've done but Lord you even know the secret motives of our heart the things that are even hidden to ourselves and I pray that if there's someone here that maybe they don't know you that today would be that day of salvation I pray for I pray for us as believers who maybe are living our lives in such a way where Christ may be blasphemed among our family our friends our co-workers our neighbors God I pray that you would deal with us Lord help us help me Lord that you would continually work and conform each of us into the image of your son Jesus Christ Lord we want him to rule we want him to Reign we want him to

We want Jesus to be the King of Everything not just because he says it and not just because he really says it and does it but that it's a visible thing in our life where people could look at us and go that person knows God Lord I pray that I pray that for every person that's in here that we would fall deeper in love with you God we love you as we all stand and Worship You Lord we respond with gratitude that you have saved us thank you Lord in Jesus name amen Deliver Us [Music] you we have to look to you in your strength we will end [Music] up in your strength we will [Music] Deliver Us from Evil our hearts temptation of gravity at the door to turn us [Music] to you Christ the concrete Son of God we look to you we Lord you Lord complete what you've begun Deliver Us from Evil [Music] the devil seeking to do with trembling Hearts we hear his Roar but your son I will push his powers [Music] Look to You Lord Deliver Us [Music] to you will come against [Music] thank you [Music] let's close our service in prayer Our Father in heaven we do look to you and we thank you Father that you have delivered us through your son Jesus Christ and that you've made us your

People your priesthood your nation and we thank you Father for that and Lord as we are sojourners we're aliens we're strangers in this world Lord help us to live like that help us to cling to our Heavenly citizenship and our Heavenly culture while we live in this Earthly culture in place and though that as we live like you want us to live through the power of your spirit that others would be drawn to you will help us to think through this as we go out in this week in Jesus name amen this is