A Pursuit Of Holiness

Good morning.

Today the scripture reading comes from 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 13 to 21.

1 Peter 1:13–21

My name is Carrie Oswald, and I serve on the Connections team, and I am privileged to be here reading God's word today at our gathering.

Again, the scripture reading is from 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 13 to 21.

1 Peter 1:13–21

Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

But as he who called you is holy, you will also be holy in your conduct.

Since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.

And if you call on him as Father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks, Carrie.

All right, good morning, church.

All right, I am excited to be back with you guys.

Uh my name is Ryan again.

I have the privilege of preaching God's word with you.

I had the privilege of taking a few weeks off uh over the summer.

And uh my family and I uh escaped to the wonderful lands of Minnesota where we uh caught some fish, built some sand castles, swam in the lake, and of course ate a lot of ice cream.

What's family vacation without ice cream?

Um but seriously, eagerly and thankfully to be back with you guys uh behind the pulpit.

And uh I've been eager, uh honestly, just because this text in general, it's kind of grabbed me this week.

Uh it's humbled me and it's exposed things in my own heart.

Uh, and at the same time, it's reminded me of how good and how gracious is the God we serve.

And uh also I feel a very deep pastoral burden for us this morning.

Not because I think this passage is gonna like beat us up, but because I honestly believe that God intends to lovingly shape us this morning.

And I particularly believe that a few of you, or maybe more of you, are actually gonna walk out of here changed.

I mean that.

I'm not just saying that half-heartedly.

I really believe that there is a burden that, not just because of what I say, but because of what God has prepared in this text for us to hear that the Holy Spirit is going to do a miraculous and beautiful work.

So if you want to depend on him with me, will you join me again in prayer?

Father, what a joy, what a privilege it is to be with your people.

And at the same time, Father, your word is good and glorious, and it's true.

Which means we want to live truly uh under it and with it, and uh, most importantly, uh through your spirit.

And so, Father, I pray that you would ask, uh, that you would help us ask what we should learn, uh, but what should we do differently?

As James says, help us not just be hearers, but help us be doers of the word and help us to love your word.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, there's something you should know about me.

Uh, I have six beautiful kids, and I love to spend individual one-on-one time.

And as you can imagine, with six and in the life of church planning, uh, you have to fight uh for your right to no, not that song.

You have to fight for individual time with your kids.

And so our family's just kind of agreed.

My wife has been gracious enough on Sunday afternoons, steal away for about an hour or so after the gathering to take one of them uh just out to lunch and some simple board games.

It's nothing crazy.

We go to Chipotle because the kids' meal is$5, and you get a drink.

That's a big deal to my family, uh to my kids, and uh we love doing that.

But just a few weeks ago, I was with my oldest daughter Emma, and we were at Chipotle, and I was filling up her uh drink and filling up my water.

I usually get water, and she's getting that fancy lemonade, and I threw a splash of that lemonade into my water.

I don't know if I was like extra thirsty that morning or whatever, but we sit down and it only took about 30 seconds, and the Holy Spirit just started bothering me.

And I'm like, hey, Emma, I gotta get up and I gotta go to the counter.

She's like, she's like, why?

And and I'm like, well, because I didn't pay for that.

She's like, so?

Uh she's just thinking, like, you know, as probably some of us often think, like, who will know?

And I say, well, Emma, like, God knows.

All know.

And see, we don't just ask, what can I get away with as Christians?

We should be asking as Christians, how do I honor Jesus?

So I walked to the counter, and you know, Gigi, who we've met and uh been uh hanging out there for a while, is like, it's fine, don't worry about it.

And I got some free lemonade.

So moral of the story, there you go.

Uh no, I didn't even have to pay.

But I don't tell you that story because I'm like some awesome moral example.

Uh trust me, you can ask Kelsey, my wife, and my kids.

I have a lot of rough edges still being worked out.

But I tell you that story uh because it reminded me of something this week.

That holiness is formed in the smallest moments.

It's in the smallest decisions that no one ever sees.

It's those small compromises that no one ever notices.

It's in the decisions that nobody else will even understand.

See, because holiness isn't about avoiding just those really big sins.

It's actually forged in those really small moments.

It's about belonging fully to Jesus.

And that's exactly where Peter's gonna take us today.

We're in a sermon series uh titled Authentic Christianity.

And uh, if you didn't listen to Trevor's sermon last week, you need to go back and listen because he did a fantastic job of starting us off thinking about having a Godward orientation.

When you start to follow Jesus, you start to realize that like everything is his, and that your whole life, your money, your life, your vocation, your relationships should be pointed towards Jesus.

And this morning, Peter's gonna show us our next mark.

And that next mark is this authentic Christians pursue holiness.

Authentic Christians pursue holiness.

Now, for some of you, I know the moment I say the word holiness, you instantly are like, oh.

Or you're like, hey, I came here to get encouraged, and you ultimately are thinking, man, this is just gonna be a lecture on fundamentalism or legalism.

Maybe you picture like, you know, some sterile environment or like monks in monasteries or just rules or a book.

But stay with me, because biblical holiness is about not something like becoming legalistic, it's actually about belonging and becoming like Jesus.

See, the word holy just means like set apart.

It's belonging to God and reflecting his character, living differently, because now you're his.

And here's what I want you to hear before we even get into the text.

Your holiness, it matters.

It matters for your vocation, it matters for your relationships, it matters for your marriage, your parenting, it matters for your joy and your intimacy with Christ.

There's a subtle lie that the culture is actually kind of whispering to you that actually like happiness comes from like just following your deepest or that fastest desire.

But see, Peter tells us that joy comes from something totally different.

It comes from your savior, following your savior.

And so you see, many of us assume our greatest danger as a Christian is like out there.

It's politics or secularism or threats against the church.

And certainly those things, those things are real and true.

But Peter wants believers to realize that sometimes the biggest threat is actually in here.

Not simply what's happening to them, but what could be happening within them.

Peter is writing to what he calls elect exiles.

They're people that have been scattered from their home.

They're men and women like you living under social pressure, social outsiders, and they're totally tempted by their coworkers or their people that they're grabbing food with at Chipotle or whatever they had back then to be just blended, blending in to look like them, to compromise.

And Peter's burden is this don't let the pressure around you change the person within you.

Don't let the pressure around you change the person within you.

Church, that's my burden for us this morning, too.

Like God cares deeply about who you are becoming, and Trevor and I, your leaders, they care.

We care about who you are becoming.

Authentic Christians pursue holiness.

That's our big idea.

And uh, we're just gonna walk through this in four movements because that's what Peter does.

So we just want to follow his movements.

We're gonna walk through it with hopefully, live differently, fear rightly, and remember the cost.

Couldn't come up with something to fit that last one, you know, okay?

Remember the cost.

Okay, the first one is hopefully, verse 13.

If you got your Bibles where you can follow along with me.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Notice that word, therefore.

When you see the word therefore, you know what you should do?

Yeah, you should ask what it's there for.

Like you should just stop and think, like, what came before?

And what we read in this chapter is actually like Peter just revealed to us what's true of us if we're in Christ.

He's celebrating everything that God has done in his mercy.

He has saved you, he's given you a new name, he's purchased you, he's given you an imperishable inheritance, and he's filled you with his Holy Spirit.

And then he says, therefore, because God has actually saved you, pursue holiness.

But I want you not to like miss the order here.

We don't pursue holiness to earn God's grace.

We pursue holiness because we've already received God's grace.

We don't become holy so that God will save us, but rather we pursue holiness because by grace God already has.

And Peter says this in this pursuit of holiness.

It actually requires like preparation.

Look at the first part of the verse.

He says, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded.

It's always fun to like check out like the original language in this.

Like in the Greek and in actually in the King James Version, it actually says, like, gird your loins, okay?

Uh in Peter's day, men wore like raw long robes, like kilts.

So if you've ever seen Braveheart, imagine this.

So before they'd like get ready for battle or work, they would literally like tuck their skirt into their belt.

And so Peter is saying, like, you should do that with your mind.

You should get ready, you should think clearly, you should dress for battle.

Holiness doesn't happen accidentally.

You don't drift into holiness, you drift into conformity.

See, we often allow the culture around us to actually just disciple us without actually ever just stopping and comparing it to God's word.

Like, just because Instagram influencers that you follow stress the importance of your outward appearance doesn't mean you should.

Just because other kids at school are smoking weed or drinking underage doesn't mean that you should.

Just because unmarried couples are actually just playing house before they're married doesn't mean you should.

Just because all the other guys at work use the company card on some like borderline purchases doesn't mean you should.

See, holiness starts in our heads before it actually reaches our hands.

But I want you to focus on the main command in verse 13.

Look at me.

Look at me, look at, no, don't look at me, look at your Bible, all right?

Or you can look up here.

It says, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Notice what Peter doesn't say.

Like he doesn't start by saying, be holy.

He he begins by saying hope fully.

He addresses your hope before he addresses your behavior, because what you ultimately hope in is actually what you'll actually conform your behavior to.

It'll determine how you live.

See, where your hope goes, your life will follow.

And I especially want you to notice this word, fully.

Just look at that in your Bible.

See, Peter does not merely say hope.

He says, set your hope fully, completely, entirely, without reservation, without divided allegiance, going back and forth.

Peter is saying, do not divide your hope.

Like, do not hope half in Jesus, half in your bank account.

Half in Jesus and half in the Huskers.

Man, never.

Like hope fully.

Most of us would never honestly verbally say that our hope is divided, though, right?

Like if I give you a multiple choice test, you wouldn't fill it in that way.

But functionally, we often say, hey, hey, Jesus is enough as long as I make a certain amount of money.

Jesus is enough as long as I don't have to enter into social awkwardness in my group or that family gathering again.

Jesus is enough as long as I look a certain way better than I did last year.

But see, Peter removes the qualification for you.

Set your hope fully on grace.

Here's the beautiful part.

He's talking about future grace, the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

See, when Christians speak about grace, we often talk about like grace back then.

Like it was by God's grace that I was saved, and that is so true.

But see, grace is not only behind you, it's actually present with you, and it's actually in front of you.

See, when Christ returns, your salvation will be complete.

Your battle with sin will actually be done.

Your chronic illness will no longer be.

That awkwardness you feel in social anxiety is gone.

Every tear will be wiped away.

And you're gonna see Christ face to face and be made like him.

And see, Peter says, put your hope fully there.

And so he's not promising these Christians that he's with like an easier present future or an easier present.

He's actually promising them a more glorious future.

And by fixing our eyes on that secure future, you're actually free to remain in the present.

I started this morning kind of telling you that our family went to Minnesota on a vacation.

Minnesota is known as the land of a 10,000 lakes, right?

Or which actually means like 10,000 boats, like per lake, it seems like.

And one of my favorite things to watch, even as a novice boater, is like watching people unload and dock their boat.

It's very entertaining and honestly very intimidating.

But every once in a while you'll see this person like unload their boat and then they're going to dock the boat.

And when they're going to dock, what they're what they usually do is they don't really trust themselves fully and they don't put their full weight onto the dock.

They do this one thing where they like keep one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock, and what usually happens?

Like an accidental split or something even worse, like the boat hits the dock and something else happens.

And what's interesting is like it seems like a good idea, but it usually ends up in something terrible.

And what's happening is they're keeping one foot on the dock and one foot on the boat.

And Peter is saying it's the same thing with our Christian lives.

See, we're trying to keep one foot on Christ and one foot in this world.

We're trying to keep one foot in the future grace and one foot in this present comfort.

See, you can't safely put your full weight on two different foundations.

Peter says, set your hope fully on Christ.

Christian, put your full weight on him.

Put your full confidence, your full future.

Hedge the bet on Christ and the grace that he's gonna give you when he returns.

However, one of the reasons I think uh a lot of Christians are just like spiritually exhausted is because you are trying to stand with feet in different worlds.

Like we want Christ, but we also want this world to feel like home.

But Peter says, just stop dividing your hope.

Put your full weight on Christ.

Authentic Christians pursue holiness because their hope is no longer divided.

Their hope is fully fixed on Christ.

And see, when you're when your hope changes, your life changes.

Therefore, you actually start to live differently.

Look with me at verses 14 through 16.

It says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

Again, to be holy means to be set apart.

Or you could say it actually in the original language, kind of like to be cut from a different cloth.

And we still use that phrase today, don't we?

Like when somebody's like very courageous or uniquely generous or remarkably honest, we're like, man, they're cut from a different cloth.

And that's Peter's point.

He's saying like Christians should look very different.

Not because you're naturally better than anybody else.

Let's get that clear.

It's actually because you've been made new, you have a new father.

So first, we actually need to leave the old life behind.

Peter says, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

See, before Christ, you just followed the desires of your heart, whatever felt right, whatever culture celebrated.

But Peter says, don't go back there.

See, sin always promises and it over or under-delivers.

It over-promises and under-delivers.

And Peter's, think with me about just being one of Peter's audience.

They were elect exiles.

The pressure around them was just like surrounding and like it was enormous.

And they just were tempted to blend in, like, hey, just keep your head down.

Don't, don't make a fuss.

Don't draw attention to yourself.

And he pleads with them.

He says, don't let the pressure around you determine the person within you.

Christian, you weren't saved to disappear in the crowd.

Now, I also need to say, like, that doesn't mean like all of us should have this dramatic testimony that gets shared on Instagram or just blown up that like you walked away from drugs or you're saved in and through prison.

Like some of you have loved and followed Jesus since you were a little child, and that is beautiful and to be worshipped.

Praise God for that.

But it does beg the question that, like, and tell us that like every authentic Christian should be able to say, there are areas where the Holy Spirit is actually making me more like Jesus.

Not perfectly, but genuinely.

So if there's no genuine desire to leave sin behind, like if you don't have a growing hatred for what dishonors Christ, or no increasing desire to become like Jesus, this passage just lovingly invites us to examine whether we've truly been made new.

But holiness also isn't just saying no.

It's also saying yes.

Peter continues, look at verse 15.

He says, But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

I love that little word.

All.

Don't skip the little words in Scripture.

I've been haunted this week by that little word.

All.

Not just Sunday morning, not just with your Christian friends.

Everywhere, with everyone in everything.

All your conduct, your texting, what you're listening to, your tone, your wandering eyes, your work ethic, the way you respond to the email, the way you talk to the waiter, the way you drive, the way you treat somebody that disagrees with you, how you present information.

Like I could go on.

These are just areas that came up in my own life.

Anyone else?

See, holiness is not just doing different things, it's also doing ordinary things differently.

And Peter tells us why.

He says, and he who called you is holy.

See, for a as a Christian, the standard isn't your neighbor or your best friend or even your pastor.

Your standard is your father.

See, children naturally start to look like their parents.

They pick up the same laugh, the same expressions, the same good or bad mannerism.

Some of you are cringing when I say that.

But Peter says, the longer you're actually with your father, the more you begin looking like him.

And authentic Christianity means that we're not merely just agreeing with Christian doctrine, it means that we're increasingly becoming like the Christ that we confess.

Augustine, one of the church fathers, uh, he pointed out something very striking that I think is very apparent for us today.

He said one of the most striking differences between the early church and the surrounding church.

Culture that he was doing ministry in was that Christians related to three things very distinctly and differently.

He said, sex, money, and power.

See, the surrounding culture was like remarkably permissive with sex.

Sound familiar?

But fiercely protective of money and status.

But Christians, they reversed it.

They were sexually faithful, saving sex for marriage and avoiding any thought or impression that would actually be they would be doing otherwise.

And then on the counter, they were radically generous, sacrificing not only their money, but like their time and their resources and possessions, maybe even their lives for people they didn't even know.

Why?

Because Christians believe that neither our bodies nor our possessions ultimately belong to us.

Like our beloved our bodies belong to Christ.

Our money belongs to Christ.

Your influence belongs to Christ.

And see, the joy is like we're just simply stewards of it all.

And that changes everything.

It changes the questions we ask.

Trevor and I uh have had the privilege of serving in ministry for a long time together in different assets or uh facets.

And we uh used to do college ministry.

So you get a lot of opportunity to like counsel people dating and think about marriage.

We still do premarital ministry.

And one of my one of my favorite, but like the most apparent question we get all the time is like, how far is too far?

You know?

Like, can we kiss?

Can we touch?

Can we live together?

The closer I get to the wedding date, can we get a little farther?

I'm like, no.

Like, see, I want you to see that.

Like, how far is too far?

That's a worldly question.

See, Christians should ask, like, how do I honor Christ physically in my relationship?

How do I put biblical boundaries up that like honor Christ with our bodies?

Or let's go a little further.

Like, what about when it comes to money?

The world asks, like, how much money you gotta give to your church?

How much money do I gotta give to help those in need?

The Christian should ask, like, how do I leverage everything in my life?

How is everything that's been entrusted to me, how do I, how do I make a display of God's glory?

See, one question is actually just looking to toe or cross the line.

The other is looking for ways to honor Jesus.

Nominal Christianity asks, what's the minimum?

Authentic Christianity asks, what pleases my father?

But Harbor, this this applies more than just to those obvious three, like sex, money, and power.

Those temptations are rather easy to identify.

But let's go a little bit deeper.

Like, what about the subtle stuff?

What about like pursuing promotions that actually come at a cost to your parenting or your family?

What about spending money on activities that you probably don't necessarily need, or you're probably just doing them to impress people that you don't actually even like?

Or buying more house than you actually need, or buying more house than you actually can afford, just because we want to live comfortably.

There's not necessarily inherently things wrong with that, but it begs the question, we need to start to ask as Christians, why am I doing the things I'm doing them?

Like, why am I doing them?

Is it to actually please others and please myself, or is it to please my father?

So I'm just begging as one of your pastors, can we just start to ask those questions?

See, that's the difference.

One is trying to stay as close to the world with still just like being named a Christian.

The other is wanting to stay as close to Jesus as possible, with perhaps actually starting to forsake parts of the world.

Authentic Christians pursue holiness.

Not to earn the Father's love, but because through grace they already have it.

And that leads Peter then into our third movement.

If we're gonna live differently, we also have to fear rightly.

Look with me at verse 17.

It says, and if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear through the time of your exile.

Y'all, there's a lot packed into this verse, okay?

Notice where Peter begins.

He begins with relationship.

He says, if you call on him as father, and just a few verses earlier it said he just addresses them, he names them, he calls them the identity as obedient children.

And now he reminds them that they have a father.

So Christianity, first and foremost, is not about following rules of some distant deity.

Through Jesus, you've been brought into a covenant family relationship with your father in heaven.

And so we call God father, but then Peter doesn't stop there.

He says this also he says, judges impartially according to each one's deeds.

Hope you caught actually how Pastor Trevor even just prayed.

He called God our judge.

See, God is father and God is judge.

We often usually pit them against each other.

Or we emphasize or neglect one another.

See, God is a tender father.

But he's also a righteous judge, a holy judge.

One commentator said it so well.

He said, kind of balancing this, he said, the intimacy of calling God father never removes the reverence owed to his holiness.

Man, God's love is intimate, but it is never casual.

His grace welcomes us, but it never makes holiness, quote unquote, optional.

See, Peter says the father judges impartially.

Which means like God doesn't show favoritism.

That's good for me.

I don't know if like some of you are like, darn, uh, it doesn't matter if you grew up in the church, it doesn't matter if you know all the Iwana Bible verses, it doesn't know if, it doesn't matter if like what family you came from.

Like it doesn't matter if even though you're a member or not of a local church.

Like God sees fully and judges each person rightly.

Now, also, Peter is not judging or not saying that you can earn your salvation by works.

This entire chapter has already made very clear.

This is why he sets the stage for us.

Like that salvation comes through God's mercy, God's grace alone.

God saves us, but our lives reveal what's true and what we truly believe.

See, our deeds don't purchase salvation, but our deeds do reveal salvation.

They do expose the authenticity of our faith.

And so Peter says, verse 17, he says, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

Now, that word fear can make a lot of us uncomfortable.

We often, you know, want to justify and just say, like, hey, but what about like that verse, like perfect love casts out fear?

Hey, the scripture does say that, but it's important to know that like the fear that Peter is talking about here is not the terror of like a criminal awaiting judgment or punishment.

It's the reverence of a child who actually just knows the greatness of his father.

It's awe, it's like deep respect, seeing his dad as a superhero.

It's realizing like a holy awareness that we live every single moment before the face of God.

Ray Ortland, which is like a spiritual grandpa to me, even though I don't like know him face to face, but like through his readings and his content, it says this.

It's been so helpful for me on the fear of the Lord.

This is his quote.

Listen to this.

He says, The fear of the Lord is a tender sensitivity to anything that grieves him.

A tender sensitivity.

Is that how you walk through your day?

A tender sensitivity to the Father in heaven?

I love that.

That means like waking up every single morning and actually just praying, saying, like, God, I don't want to treat your grace casually.

I don't want to fear my boss or my sister or my friends more than I fear you.

See, the fear of the Lord isn't running away from God.

It's just living carefully before God because you love him.

It's not walking on eggshells, it's actually just like longing to tell him everything you've done and then asking him for his help in everything that you do.

In preparing this week, I was reminded of this kind of this old story.

Maybe some of you have probably heard it.

Uh, it's an old vignette about a young boy who's playing in an upstairs room with his father and doing what young boys do.

They're wrestling uh on like a mat and they're playing with toy trucks, and they're just they're just enjoying the father-son relationship.

And to that boy, this man is simply dad.

But after a while, the father stands and he kind of like dusts off his pants and he straightens his shirt and he fixes his collar and he walks through a door and he's on a balcony.

And all of a sudden, that little toddle that little boy toddles behind him, and what he notices is when his dad walks out that door, there's a thousand soldiers standing, and all the shoulders straighten up, and every eye is on their dad.

Everyone is looking at his father.

And upon reflection, years later, it was in that moment that this boy realized that this man is still my father.

But he's not only my father.

He carries authority, he carries responsibility and greatness far beyond what I actually see every single day in my living room.

This little boy was David Eisenhower, son of the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during the World War II, and later would become the 34th president of the United States.

This is something of what Peter wants us to understand, church.

God invites us close.

We call him Father, we receive his affection.

But familiarity should never remove his majesty.

Familiarity should never make us forget his majesty.

Guys, the angels long to look.

They bow in submission to him, in awe of him.

There's no one like our God in wisdom, in power, and glory, in justice.

So we fear him rightly.

And Peter's audience, like us today, we need this reminder.

They were living under Roman authority.

They've probably feared social rejection.

They fear losing relationships, opportunities, reputation, maybe even potentially their safety or their well-being.

And Peter doesn't pretend those pressures aren't imaginary.

He simply tells them, do not fear losing your reputation more than grieving your father.

Do not organize your life around fear of man.

Organize your life around fear of the Lord.

I am just like you in this.

I struggle with this often.

Honestly, I struggle with like fear of man more often than I would like to admit.

One of the verses that I've just tried to just commit and lodge into my head is Proverbs 29, 25.

It says, The fear of man lays a snare, but the fear of the Lord is safe.

See, fear of people traps you.

It makes you passive, it controls you, it makes you compromise, makes us say yes when faithfulness tells us to say no.

But the fear of the Lord frees us because one verdict is ultimately ultimate.

So as your pastor, let me just ask you, where do you need to reorder your fears this week?

Maybe your boss is asking you to do something that affects your conscience.

Maybe people on your team or your association drink underage, or they're tempting you to bend your views on sexuality, or maybe even just to laugh subtly at something that you know would dishonor Christ.

Maybe you're afraid to have an honest conversation you've been avoiding because you can't actually control how that other person is going to respond.

Maybe you've made a commitment to your spouse or your family, but you fear disappointing maybe that mother-in-law or someone more than remaining faithful to that commitment.

We have to be willing to ask, who am I more willing to disappoint?

Whose approval actually gets my decisions?

Authentic Christians fear rightly.

Not because we're terrified of our Father in heaven, like he's gonna cast us away, but because we actually have a tender sensitivity to anything that would give or grieve the Father who loves us.

See, Peter knows that this reverence, guys, like this reverence needs fuel.

He reminds us what it actually costs for us to become children.

Authentic Christians hopefully, they live differently, they fear rightly, and fourth, they remember the cost.

Look with me at verse 18.

See, Peter knows something, before we look at this text, Peter knows something about humanity.

He knows something about you, he knows something about me.

He knows that we forget, that we drift, that we actually often treat grace casually.

And so Peter's gonna do something that I hope every single Christian brother and sister does to one another, and that your pastor should be doing.

He's gonna bring them back to the cross.

This is what he says, verse 18.

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Guys, did you notice?

Peter does not like heap burning coals on their head.

Another command.

He just pours grace on them.

He gives them a reminder of the cost.

Because Peter knows something.

Peter knows that the greatest fuel for your holiness is not guilt.

You cannot guilt or like fear-trip anyone into holiness.

He knows the actual greatest fear is gratitude.

It isn't fear alone.

It's remembering what it cost to actually make you God's child.

See, that word ransomed actually just means to purchase someone's freedom, to pay the price so a captive can go free.

And Peter's readers in that time would actually instantly start to think about their story, their forefathers, Exodus.

They would think about like when Israel, their family, was enslaved in Egypt, and they knew that their freedom wasn't purchased with like gold or silver, it was purchased with what?

It was purchased with blood, if you remember the story of a spotless lamb, one of the last plagues, was spread over the doorposts as the Lord passed over their homes.

And so Peter says that that was always pointing somewhere.

It was pointing forward to something.

It was pointing to Jesus Christ, the perfect Passover lamb, the true and better Passover lamb, the only one who is perfectly holy, the only one who really hoped fully, the only one who lived distinctly and differently, the only one who perfectly feared his Father.

See, the holy life that we failed to live, Jesus lived.

The death we deserve to die, he died.

But see, Peter doesn't stop there.

He says something incredibly hopeful.

This is a quick side note here.

This is worth it.

This is what he says.

He says, You were ransomed from the futile ways that you inherited from your forefathers.

We gotta stop here for a second.

Some of you know exactly what he's talking about here.

Sin runs through your family.

Maybe it's anger.

Maybe it's patterns of addiction.

Maybe it's generations of just broken relationships and marriages and way you relate to people.

But Peter says something that's very powerful.

He says, the gospel doesn't just forgive your past, it breaks the chains of your past.

See, in Christ, your family history is no longer your destiny.

Your family history is no longer your destiny.

You have a new spiritual family, Harbor.

Because you've been ransomed, you've been bought, you've been set free.

Not because you're stronger, but because Christ's blood is stronger.

I was thinking about my first car this week.

You guys ever do that?

Uh you like see a car on the road and you're like, man, I remember those days, you know?

Uh my first car was in 1998.

Picture it, 1998, Toyote, Toyote, Toyota, it's a new car.

No, Toyota, black Camry, tinted windows, had a spoiler in the back, had a 10 CD changer in the back.

Some of you don't even know what that is, okay?

My parents bought it for me, and I appreciated it.

But if on if I'm honest, I really didn't appreciate it like what it actually cost them.

Like I drove it hard.

I filled it with large college buddies and high school buddies, and I cleaned it only when actually necessary.

And then a few years later, something happened.

I had to buy my second vehicle.

And my bat my dad told me, like, this one's on you.

And so, like every wise 20-year-old, I traded in my dependable car that got 30 miles to the gallon, and I bought a 1999 Dodge Ram that got nine miles to the gallon and burned oil.

Some of you are like, Yeah.

Okay, you'll find out that's not a good idea.

Uh, but for one of the first times in my life, I understood what money cost.

I began thinking differently about that first car.

Not because it suddenly became more valuable, but because I finally understood what my dad had sacrificed to give it to me.

The cost changed my appreciation.

Peter says something to you and I.

He says, do that with the cross.

Do not rush past it.

Sit in it, think about it, rehearse it, marinate it, stare at it.

Remember what your freedom cost.

Not silver, not gold, not money.

A life.

A bloody, precious, perfect life.

See, the greatest expression of love isn't giving someone your possessions, it's giving someone your life.

That's exactly what Jesus Christ did for you.

And here's the beautiful truth.

You know this.

It's not duty that ultimately produces holiness, it's love.

The more you deeply grasp God's love for you, the less attractive sin actually even just becomes.

But see, nominal Christianity treats the cross as just the way into Christianity, but authentic Christianity never leaves the cross.

It buys real estate on the cross, it stays on the cross.

And so, Christians, we don't simply just start there.

We remain there.

We rehearse there and we preach the gospel to ourselves over and over and over again.

And I love Peter because he doesn't stop there.

He actually finishes with something beautiful.

He actually tells you that this was never God's backup plan.

Look at verse 20 and 21.

He says, He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

See, before sin, there was a savior.

Before there was a fall, there was a plan.

Before you ever failed, God determined to send his son for you.

So that through him, it says your faith and hope would actually be fully in God.

See, authentic Christianity church isn't about trying harder.

It's just about treasuring Christ more deeply.

And so the more we actually remember the cost, the more you're actually going to be able to hope fully.

And the more you actually hope fully, you're going to be able to live differently.

And when you actually live differently, you realize you're fearing rightly.

Because you never get over the price that Jesus paid to make us his own.

And so today, if you're sitting here, like, man, I hope you're asking the question, like, if you've never trusted Christ, I want you to know, like, well, how do I do that?

The invitation is very apparent.

It's just surrender, bow the knee.

Say, hey, I could never be holy on my own.

It's only through your holiness can I actually be seen as holy.

It's not to become a better person, it's actually to be linked to the best person.

It's to come to the one who actually gave his life as a ransom for yours.

And if you belong to Christ, stop drifting from the cross.

Keep returning to it.

Keep remembering it.

Keep remembering that cost.

Because the blood of Jesus isn't merely what began your Christian life, it is what is going to sustain you until the day you will see him face to face.

Think about it.

Later on the scriptures, we don't have time to unpack this, but we're told that actually upon faith in Christ, you're given what?

You are given a person, the Holy Spirit.

How do we become holy?

We just submit over and over and over again, asking the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit reveals the ways in which you're not holy.

But then here's the beauty.

Here's the beauty in the fullness of the gospel.

He enables you by his spirit to become more holy.

Not to just convict you, but to empower you, to bring you rest, to bring you assurance so that you can be holy as he is holy.

And the holy one is in you.

Harbor, authentic Christians that pursue holiness.

Let's pray.

Father, we come to you as a holy father, recognizing we are unholy.

As Isaiah 6 even says, we are of unclean lips.

Father, it's kind of overwhelming sometimes to just think about your holiness.

Forgive us for the ways that we actually don't really just ponder that and understand that.

And at the same time, thank you for your grace that you meet us exactly where we're at, wherever we're in this journey.

And you long for us to actually be ambassadors, to be markers of genuine Christianity, of authentic Christianity.

But you don't leave us to ourselves, you give us the Holy Spirit.

So, Father, I ask that you would, just even as the lyrics that we sung earlier, that you would make us holy in our heart.

In the deepest parts of our soul, the last one and 10%, the parts we haven't shared, would you purify us?

Would you give us freedom without guilt, without shame, to put that at the altar this morning?

Would we tell somebody?

Would we share honestly?

Would we also know and would your spirit apply the truth that there's no sin that's not forgivable?

There's no pattern or unhealthy thing in our family that you haven't paid for, that you haven't set us free from.

So good to be with your people.

Help us to pursue holiness through your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.