Grace Under Fire - Gospel Motivated Behaviors

In 1998, there was a blockbuster movie that came out starring the actor Tom Hanks, called Saving Private Ryan.

And Saving Private Ryan was a war movie and it was centered around the primary character which was played by Tom Hanks, a guy named Captain John Miller, a guy named Captain John Miller and it starts out with the invasion of Normandy, the D-Day invasion.

And pretty graphic.

If some of you remember that movie, it was pretty powerful.

Some powerful scenes there Just made you so sad for those people who had to die that way.

But Captain Miller and his platoon, after taking heavy casualties they're part of the success, of course, of taking the beachhead and then he's called in and given a special assignment, and that special assignment is to go find James Patrick Ryan Patrick or a private James Patrick Ryan and to bring him back.

And the reason being is because this soldier was the last surviving son of four sons that the other three had already died and it was determined that they were going to do everything in their power to bring this one boy back to his mother.

It's powerful and he and his platoon do that.

They go, try to find him.

Of course, as many of you, if you've done any following of history, you know that that invasion, a lot of things went crazy, and Private Ryan was part of the parachuters that came in and he got separated from his group.

They finally find him.

He's in this little town trying to protect a bridge.

He's with a bunch of other soldiers that all found each other and they were trying to protect this bridge from the Germans destroying it.

And so when Captain Miller finds him and says we're bringing you home, your three brothers have died, private Ryan goes no way.

I'm staying right here because that's where my brothers would want me to be, right here, serving side by side with my other brothers.

And Captain Miller says okay, then we're going to stay too.

And so they defend this bridge.

And if you remember the movie, captain Miller says you stay right at my side.

Well, the battle is terrible.

They are greatly outnumbered.

They fight bravely.

In the end, just before it looks like the Germans are going to blow the bridge up, the American fighters come in and they save them.

But in all that happening, in all that fighting, captain Miller is mortally wounded and he's sitting down leaning against a half track and he's dying.

And, of course, private Ryan's hunched down in front of him and Captain Miller grabs him by his uniform and he pulls him close.

He just looks at him and he says in his last breath, he says earn this, earn this.

The very final scene of the movie is a now older Private Ryan.

He's an old man now and he's at one of the it's actually the American cemetery there in Normandy, where over 9,000 gravestones stand to honor those people that died, those soldiers that died, those American soldiers.

And he's walking along his family's behind him, his wife and his children and some grandchildren.

And he walks up to that one monument for Captain Miller.

And as he's standing there, his wife comes up and looks and she squints and she said Captain John Miller.

And you realize immediately he never told his wife about what happened.

And he turns to his wife and he says in almost desperation tell me I lived a good life, tell me I'm a good man.

Well, if you're just joining us, we're in a series on 1 Peter and two weeks ago Mark Medley kicked it off by talking about who is Peter and I thought it was really good because it helped us understand the man who wrote this epistle.

And then last week Kelly kicked us off by walking us through the first 12 verses of 1 Peter, chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

And he talked about the sermon that was called Living Well in a Culture of Chaos, and it was really a great message because he really showed us how Peter's words established that, what had already been done for us.

He basically talked about our identity in Christ.

He talked about the gospel it was all through that section, and I like to think he was really talking about who we are in Christ, our identity in Christ.

He was laying out the gospel.

And now we come to the second half of 1 Peter, chapter 1, where Peter's going to talk about certain behaviors that should be evident in the life of a Christian.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Now you might say okay, scott, why did you talk to us about the movie Saving Private Ryan?

Well, it's because I wanted something that would be a direct contrast to what Peter tells us in these last few verses in chapter 1.

You see, in the movie, private Ryan lived the rest of his life trying to earn what was given to him by Captain Miller and the other men of his platoon.

He spent his whole life trying to be a good man, trying to live a good life, to earn what was given for him.

And what we're going to read about today in 1 Peter contains a principle that's the exact opposite of what Private Ryan set out to do ever since that day when Captain Miller was killed.

We're going to read about in Peter is him telling Christians that there are behaviors behaviors that are supposed to be a part of the Christian life and their actions that Christians should do not to earn salvation, but rather because of the outflow of a redeemed life inside of them.

And it's so important, when we go into these quote how-to sermons where the writer has written us steps and things that should be in our lives, that we all understand we're not earning something, that it's something that comes from within.

So I want you to keep that in your mind as we go through this section.

So this morning I'm going to look at six clear, gospel-informed, motivated behaviors all Christians should exhibit in their lives because of what's already been done.

So let's start in verse 13.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn to 1 Peter 1, verse 13.

1 Peter 1:13

The first word.

We're going to stop right there.

It says therefore Therefore, now I think most of you have been around the kingdom for a while and have done any kind of Bible study or been taught how to study God's word there's a really important thing you're supposed to do when you see a word that says therefore, you ask a question.

Right, what is the therefore, therefore?

Well, it's important and, by the way, if you didn't hear Kelly's sermon last week, you should go back and listen to it, because everything I'm about to talk about today was established by what he exposited about those first 12 verses.

If you think about those first 12 verses, he talked about concepts like being born again, talked about our living hope, the imperishable inheritance, sanctification of the Spirit and all these different phrases.

They all tie in to what Christ has done within us and the transformation that's happened into us, the gospel that's in us, and so you can't read these things without being informed by that.

And that's why it's so important that when we read Scripture, we read it all the way through, and that's why it's so important when we read Scripture, we read it all the way through.

So the first three behaviors are really all mentioned in the first verse, believe it or not, of 1 Peter 1, verse 13.

1 Peter 1:13

Let's read that first verse.

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.

The first point is preparing your minds for action.

Now, I don't know if you're a fan of the King James Version.

If you go back to the King James Version, it says something pretty interesting.

It says gird up the loins of your mind.

Gird up the loins of your mind.

That's a phrase you've used this week.

Right, hey, gird up your loins.

Excuse me, call a policeman over.

Right.

Peter is talking metaphorically about something that they would have recognized immediately what it meant.

He's really referencing an act of a person.

You know they wore robes back then, right, and he's referencing the act of taking that robe.

And there's a specific action that you would do to gird it up so that you would have the ability to move.

And I actually found online an instruction manual for how to gird up your loins.

It's funny, but it's true.

This is really what they did.

If you notice, he takes the tunic, he lifts it up, gathers it in front, puts it between his legs, comes around, tucks it in.

Then he grabs a sword and he starts kicking butt.

But this is literally what it meant to gird up your loins.

And, of course, the ESV puts this in language we can understand.

You know the concept of preparing your minds.

But that's what he's saying.

He's not metaphorically saying wrap your robe around, you'd start running around.

He's saying you need to prepare your mind, prepare your mind, you know and it's interesting, by the way, if this is a soldier in battle, did he do this in the middle of the battle?

No, he did it before the battle.

And that's what we need to do because we're getting into a battle.

You know, peter's using this as a metaphor to help believers understand that we're in a war against a great adversary.

A great adversary, and they needed to ready their minds, prepare their minds.

You notice he said prepare your mind, not your heart.

Prepare your mind.

I think it seems clear.

Peter wanted them to be ready for action, ready to engage a powerful spiritual enemy that was going to come against them.

And there's many scriptures, by the way, that talk about preparing your mind for these battles, and it's a common theme all the way through the New Testament 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3-5,.

2 Corinthians 10:3–5

This same metaphor is being used by Paul, and not specifically about girding up your loins, but this battle.

2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-5, it says For, though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

2 Corinthians 10:3–5

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they, of course, these weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments and every pretense that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We are in a war, whether you want to believe it or not.

We're in a war and we have to prepare our minds for that war so that we can do exactly this demolish all those strongholds, excuse me, and that means we have to train our minds.

Okay, scott, how do you train your mind?

Well, think about that If you're preparing for something I'm going to.

There's a conference.

It's a little get-together for this motorcycle group I'm with and we're going to be in a talent show and I'm playing the mandolin in the talent show and I had to learn this tune right.

When I first picked up my mandolin and started playing, my fingers hurt Bad, but I kept playing and my wife was playing the guitar with me and she's like honey.

My fingers hurt.

I said I know, but keep playing, keep playing.

And now my fingers.

I've got these calluses on there.

I had to train that and I was able to finally get.

So I can play it without crying right.

But it's a training that you go through, that you have to, and the training of our mind is a similar way.

You have to do it by repetition and doing things that will constantly remind us about this.

You know, apostle Paul also talks about this preparing of our mind in Romans 12, which is just a wonderful chapter, by the way.

If you ever want to just be encouraged and exhorted at the same time, read chapter 12 of Romans.

But this is what he says in the first two verses.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

And look what he says in verse 2.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that, by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Being a Christian involves using both our minds and walking with the Holy Spirit.

I remember Neil said one time I laughed.

He said I was a part of a church early on.

He said that they told us to park our minds at the door and then come in Because it was all about emotion and all that stuff and he was saying listen, that's not what it's supposed to be.

We're supposed to be together, using our minds right and couple that with the Holy Spirit.

You need to prepare yourself and we need to be prepared to battle the enemy.

And one of the biggest questions when I say, well, how do I prepare my mind?

And my question back to you is do you know why you believe what you believe?

A long time ago in my other church I started a read the Bible in a year thing and I took a survey and I just asked people in the church how many of you have read the Bible from cover to cover?

I bet you less than 20% put their hands up.

We base everything we believe on this word.

We should have read it through cover to cover, not just to check a box.

We should know what's in it.

We should know why we believe what we believe.

You want to know why so many of our young people go and when they go out to college and they leave the house, that suddenly they start to give in to all these things Because they don't know why they believe what they believe.

It's that handoff of faith that has to come from the parent to the child and it's so difficult, but you've got to know what you've got to know.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Hey, this is too cold, I'm just kidding.

Thank you very much, but you prepare your mind in ways, in actual ways and exercises, just like you would prepare anything else.

The first thing is to saturate your mind with the Word of God.

Saturate your mind.

If your Bible reading is restricted only to the devotion, like we're reading the Bible through, if that's the only thing you do, then that's not enough.

That's not enough.

If someone says, take this sponge and get it wet, and you take a sponge and you just go, is that wet?

Well, technically it's kind of wet, but if you put it in there and you squeeze it and then you just let it go and all that water fills in it, now you've got something.

We used to do that in the pool, by the way.

We'd take those little balls and squish it and you'd throw it up.

It was so much fun, and you get it really heavy and wet.

I probably shouldn't confess to that.

It was so much fun and you get it really heavy and wet.

I probably shouldn't confess to that.

It was child abuse, I think, with my kids.

But you saturate your mind with the Word of God.

How do you do that?

You read it, you read it and you read it for yourself, and you read it and you pray on it and you meditate on it.

There's all kinds of things.

We know how to do it, we know what to do.

We just don't do it.

And Peter's saying prepare your minds, know what you know and secondly, control what goes into your mind.

Control what goes into your mind, man, that's so true.

You know, I got to admit I'm fasting social media and it's been really a good thing for me to do.

One of the things that Facebook does is it gets you in those little videos and you start watching the video and then you watch the next one, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one.

Maybe the next one will be better.

Oh, that made me laugh.

Half an hour goes by and what have you accomplished?

Nothing, you.

And what have you accomplished?

Nothing.

You have learned nothing.

You've accomplished nothing.

You've simply blown a half an hour letting garbage come into your mind.

Now, it might not be sin, but it's ridiculous stuff, right?

That's when the enemy does it.

He's not going to bombard you with things that you know are obvious sin.

He's just going to take you away from what you should be focusing on.

By the way, don't walk out of here and say Scott said every video on Facebook is sin.

It's not what I said.

I'm not saying that.

I am saying that if that's all you do, you're taking your mind away from where you need to receive truth.

You know it's really important that we do that.

And, by the way, one of the other things you can do is rehearse what you know.

One of the things I love to do when I pray is I pray God's plan of salvation back to him.

I mean, I'll literally rehearse.

You know, lord, from the very foundation of the earth, you had a plan to redeem me when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden.

You weren't taken by surprise From the very foundation and you had my name written down that book of life from the very foundation, god.

And then through Israel and through the promises to Abraham, and I'll just go through it and wow, what a perspective gaining thing it does for me.

It's really important that we do that.

And, lastly, there's so many more things.

But the other thing is don't get pulled into discussions or controversies or things that are just useless Useless.

You know, I've been fasting social media, so I wasn't on social media when the eclipse happened.

But I've heard, even in the church I've heard, what happened with this whole eclipse thing.

I mean, people were going crazy over it.

Oh, this eclipse is going to go across the country and it's going to split the country in half and something about rapture Indiana or whatever.

I missed it, folks.

And you know what?

The next day, the light bill still came in and I had to mow my lawn.

You get the idea I could spend all that time talking about stuff that doesn't matter.

What does matter is the gospel and the truth.

How are we preparing our minds?

Because, folks, it's going to get worse.

It's going to get worse.

We're going to have to know what we know and we're going to have to make sure we're saturating our mind with truth.

Now the second behavior is listed in the same sentence.

He says, therefore, preparing your minds for action Again, action, because we have to take.

You're not just preparing your mind, you're going to be ready to use it, he said, and being sober-minded, so he tells us, prepare our minds for action and then be sober-minded.

And they may sound like they're the same, but they're very different.

Our definition of sober, by the way, is a little skewed right.

When we think of sober-minded, some people think about someone who's just very serious.

I'm sober, I'm sober-minded.

That's not what it means at all.

I'm sober, I'm sober-minded.

That's not what it means at all.

He's metaphorically using a Greek word here, and that Greek word, by the way, is nephantes.

It's from the verb nepho, which means to be sober.

Literally means to not be drunk.

That's what it means.

But he's using it metaphorically here and I think it's important we understand.

It means to be free from every form of mental and spiritual drunkenness or excess.

That's what it means to be sober minded.

The connotation is that, rather than being controlled by the outside influences, believers should be directed from within through the Holy Spirit, directing our minds and our hearts and our actions.

That's what he's talking about.

You know, when you're physically drunk anybody who's been physically drunk before there's something that happens and that is suddenly you're open to a lot of things you weren't open to before.

My mother-in-law used to say a drunk man says what a sober man thinks, and I think it's true.

You watch people that get drunk and all of a sudden they're saying things that you know is in their heart or they're just allowing.

They have no control anymore.

You know the whole redneck thing.

You know, hold my beer and watch this.

You know, hold my beer and watch this.

You know it's fuel.

And I'll tell you in all seriousness, some of the worst mistakes I've ever made in my life were when I was drunk.

I'm so glad God brought me out of that.

I could hold my liquor with the rest of them, right, but I couldn't hold my liquor with the rest of them.

I compromised.

I told jokes I shouldn't have said, I said, but I couldn't hold my liquor with the rest of them.

I compromised.

I told jokes I shouldn't have said.

I said things I shouldn't have said.

I did things I shouldn't have done and I repented of that.

But that's the concept.

Have we allowed our minds to be controlled by things from the outside, rather from the things within, that's Christ in us?

You know, the Apostle Paul talks in 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 6-8, and he talks about the same concept of being sober-minded.

1 Thessalonians 5:6–8

He says so let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

Same word the fontes For those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

But since we belong to the day, metaphor, metaphor what is the difference between the day and the night Light?

We belong to the light.

Let us be sober.

Same word, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

It's a contrast.

Paul is showing between this same thing, the same concept.

Our mindset as Christians should be that we are going to be those who are mentally and spiritually alert and aware of what's going on.

And as we walk into a culture that's ever increasingly hostile to the truth, we have to ask ourselves are we being sober-minded?

Am I being sober-minded?

Are we free of this mental and spiritual drunkenness?

Are we addicted to things that take our mind off of God Because they can make us metaphorically drunk?

You know what?

If you want to assess how sober-minded you are, ask a couple questions.

How do I respond during trials when the quote proverbial wheels fall off?

Is my first response anger or despair?

Is it desperation or do we turn to God?

And, by the way, I'm not saying that if something hits you, there might be an initial reaction, but very soon after it you should be on your knees, because that's where the hope comes from.

What's in our daily thoughts and minds?

What do we think about every day?

We think about that 401k, we think about our next vacation.

Are we allowing the wrong thoughts to come in?

Are we being sober-minded?

And, by the way, the way you stay sober-minded is by keeping your focus on God and His Word and the truth.

And it really all ties into this next third behavior, in verse 13, where he says fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So, if you read this in context, it says therefore okay, everything that Kelly talked about last week, therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded because you're doing this.

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

You see how those flow together.

They're all part and parcel.

You can't do one without the other, and those two first actions lead to the second one.

And being able to do that, by the way, what's that grace to be brought to you?

Well, he says that it's Christ's return.

Do you realize.

I went back and read this.

This is the fourth time in this chapter that he's talked about the return of Jesus Christ.

The fourth time I see a theme.

I see a theme.

What's going on?

Why is he talking about that?

And he writes, by the way, to set our hope not just on the events surrounding it, but on the grace that will be brought to you.

The grace that will be brought to you.

You know, you could probably say there were three seasons of grace in the history of mankind.

Three times of grace.

There was grace passed.

That, of course, is at the very foundation of the earth.

God had already put a plan of grace in action.

You know, he wasn't like, oh man, I was hoping Adam and Eve wouldn't have sinned Shoot.

Now I got to come up with plan B.

He didn't do that.

He had it all together already.

He had a plan for grace for us from the very beginning.

And then the grace present, which is really what Peter and the church then and us are living in right now, and that, of course, is the grace that Jesus came and he died and he was resurrected and he took on the sins of the world, and we live under that grace every day.

Thank you, lord.

If there's anything to be praised, that's it right there.

You can praise that all day long, for the rest of your life.

That's the grace present.

But there is a grace future that Peter's talking about here.

And that's the grace present, but there is a grace future that Peter's talking about here, and that's the culmination of what Christ did.

When we will finally be with Christ and the enemy, that great serpent will be bound and cast into the bottomless pit.

I don't know about you, but I want a front row seat for that one.

Into the bottomless pit.

I don't know about you, but I want a front row seat for that one.

Just think of the pain and the death that being has brought to humanity.

Just think about it.

To see that evil finally, once and for all, completely cast away.

It won't even be a memory, won't that be the most beautiful thing?

I want a front row seat for that.

That's way better than the Super Bowl.

I'll tell you that, because you know who's going to win.

Grace future is something that Peter's talking about, and what he's saying is setting our hope on this.

Grace keeps our eyes fixed on that goal and helps us not stray, not stray off the path.

That's what we're focused on.

And, by the way, I understand there's a tendency for some to only think about the return of Christ and therefore not worry about what we're supposed to do here and now.

I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying that, but I am saying, as an ultimate goal, that's what we should focus on.

And people who are suffering greatly in this life, those that are suffering well and have strong faith you hear them talk.

What will they talk about?

They will talk about what's going to be in the future.

Talk to some of our saints.

Every time I talk to Jack Wright, I get encouraged to hear him talk about Jesus.

He's lived a life of following the Lord.

He's looking forward to being with his Lord, being reunited with his beautiful wife.

That's a part of our problem those of us that still don't have that many aches and pains and we're healthy and all that stuff.

We get focused on all kinds of things.

This isn't just for people that are over a certain age.

This is for all of us.

So for you, young people, I just want to encourage you.

I know you're not experiencing the pain, all the different things, like I get out of bed every morning.

I'm like, okay, I ain't like I used to be and I stretch my back a little bit.

Every year goes by, I get more of those pains, but guess what?

My focus is still on Jesus, because I don't live for this life.

I don't live for the things of this life.

It doesn't bring me anywhere.

My focus should be on them.

So we need to keep our eyes on Christ's return and keep it there, and the trials you're going to go through will give you that perspective.

Some of the saints that are going through some of the most difficult times, like our brother Paul.

You know I pray for him a lot.

I hope you guys pray for Paul too, but he's going through a terrible trial.

But you know what?

Talk to Paul.

Ask him where his focus is.

It's on Jesus.

The fourth behavior is found in verse 15, and it's a directive to be holy in your conduct.

Verse 14 through 16 says as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance and that's what it was, ignorance, by the way, ignorance from the fact you didn't understand or know better.

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.

Now, what's interesting is all through these first verses in 1 Peter, peter's using a lot of familial metaphors.

Family metaphors, even the whole concept of being born again.

Who are we born again to?

We are born into the family of God, right?

So born again.

He talks about God as the father in verse 2.

He talks about that.

And in this verse he talks about being obedient children.

And now, obedient children, we obey our father and our parents, it's natural.

But the other thing is we kind of mimic our parents, don't we Right?

A lot of people when my dad was alive, a lot of people, because I moved down here from Canada when I was younger and he would come down to visit and I would introduce him to people who knew me but didn't know him, and after about 20, 30 minutes they'd say man, scott, you're a lot like your dad.

So one guy said you know, mr Weems, you're a lot like your son.

I thought, yeah, that's really funny, I'm like him.

You got it around reversed, but, by the way, it was interesting.

One time he tells my dad tells a story.

I was five years old, I was born in Saskatoon, saskatchewan, by the way, I'm a Canadian, by the way.

There'll be a test.

You'll get a free coffee if you can spell Saskatoon, saskatchewan.

Just take it up to the coffee bar.

Don't use your phone, no cheating.

My dad and I were walking down the back alley I was five years old, he's holding my hand and we're walking down and there's a fence.

You know, all these backyards had these fences and we couldn't see.

My dad tells the story.

I was too young to remember.

There was this fence.

We couldn't see what was on the other side.

It was like a privacy fence.

And all of a sudden there was this barking and this dog hit the fence and we both jumped and my dad said my little five-year-old mouth opened up and I said that dang dog, but I did not say dang.

He said that dang dog, but I did not say dang.

And my dad looked at me and of course he was going to correct me.

But then he realized where I learned that word.

It wasn't in kindergarten, I wasn't going to school yet.

I learned that from him.

We learn from our father, right?

But Peter is saying that we should be holy as our Father is holy.

What's that look like?

Now, if you expect me to unpack all of what holiness means in the next five minutes.

You're not going to get it.

That's for another 20 sermons.

But I want to just say there's some things that Peter says that actually informs that.

In fact, if we jump to 2 Peter 1, he talks about what this really is in different language, but powerful language.

2 Peter 1, verses 3 through 4, it says His divine power.

2 Peter 1:3–4

God has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, okay has granted us past tense.

These are some powerful words.

This is being transmitted to us so that, through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in this world because of sinful desire.

This is a great statement of reality.

Peter is saying the same thing.

He's saying in verse 15.

God has made us holy.

And how did he do that?

You earned it.

No, you didn't earn it.

I didn't earn it Because of what Christ did.

The righteousness of Christ is laid onto us, and when God looks at us, he looks at us through the lens of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Wow, by the way, being holy doesn't mean you're perfect, but there's something that's really important when it comes to identity.

Do you view yourself as a sinner.

You might say well, yes, scott, we're all sinners.

Okay, that's true, we're all sinners, but is that how you identify?

Are you a sinner?

Here's the problem.

When God opens our hearts and minds and when he resurrects us from the dead spiritually and we see our sin for what it did, which caused Christ to have to go to the cross and take that penalty that was due to us on him, we're broken, aren't we?

And we should be.

If you've never experienced brokenness over your sin, you might not be saved, but we're broken.

That's the most powerful spiritual experience we've had, probably up to that point in time.

We're brought to the foot of the cross, we repent, we receive the grace that we didn't earn, but unfortunately, too many of us try to stay there and we're identified as a sinner.

Did you know that?

Nowhere in the New Testament when God talks about or, of course, the writers, of course God breathing right, when any of the writers talk about those who have been redeemed, never once are they called sinners.

You know what they're called?

Saints, saints, you're a saint, you're a saint, andy's a saint, dennis is a saint, patty's a saint.

We're all saints.

Now, saints ain't perfect, but here's the problem.

If you identify as a sinner, what's going to happen is you'll have a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You know where I'm going with this, right?

If you have a child and every day that child comes out of the bedroom, you say, hey, stupid, nice to see you.

Get your breakfast, stupid.

Get ready for school, stupid.

It's terrible to think about that, right.

But if that's all you do is think about yourself as a sinner, guess what's going to happen?

You're going to sin, because, after all, that's who you are, but that's not who we are.

In Christ, we are made a new creation.

Galatians 2.20.

If any man is in Christ, we are made a new creation.

Galatians 2.20.

If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation.

All things have been passed away.

All things become new.

You are a new creation and, by the way, that actually means creature like a brand new creature.

Don't identify as a sinner or you will continue to sin.

Paul says this beautifully in Romans 6, verse 16 through 18.

Romans 6:16–18

He says do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one to whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God.

This is a statement of truth.

Y'all Catch this.

But thanks be to God that you, who were once slaves of sin you used to be a sinner, that was your identity have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and, having been set free from sin, you have now become slaves of righteousness.

That's wonderful news, folks.

You're not sinners.

Yes, you sin, but that's not who you are.

It's so important we understand this.

It's so important we understand this.

I want to comment quickly, by the way, on this one concept of holiness and that is a problem that Christians have.

Saying holiness equals morality.

You know, you might have a neighbor say he's a good man, he's really a good man.

He helps me out, lends me his mower, he does all that stuff.

He's probably a Christian.

He's a Christian because he lends you his mower.

Wait a second.

That's Christianity, just being good, doing good things.

I would say that's a part of being a true believer, but that's not what it means.

There's a lot of reasons for people to act in moral ways.

People can act in moral ways because of duty, a sense of duty, a sense of community.

I want to be a good member of my community.

I want to be a good citizen of my country.

I'm going to do these things.

Maybe I'm a business owner and I'm known because I'm fair and honest.

Oh, I must be a Christian.

No, he's moral.

You see, the word holy, if you think about it.

I'm going to take you back to Leviticus.

In the book of Leviticus, the word holy is used all over the place and a lot of times it's attributed to God.

He's holy.

It's attributed to God, he's holy.

But sometimes it's attributed to bowls and utensils and tables.

They're called holy.

Why are they moral?

No, because they've been set apart for serving God.

You and I are holy because we have been number one, made holy by the sacrifice of Christ, and we've received that righteousness.

We do act morally, or at least we should, but because we've been set apart for God's purposes.

You see the difference.

Your next door neighbor, who might be the nicest guy in the world to give you the shirt off his back and everything else, if he's not transformed by the blood of Christ, if he's not walking with God, if he's not experienced what you have, he's not holy, he's just moral.

By the way, that's not bad.

A lot of times people can follow the moral laws of God and benefit from it, because these laws work.

But that's not what holiness means.

It means to be set apart.

In 1 Peter 3.15, I'm going to steal part of someone's sermon in the future Probably mine, if I'm lucky.

1 Peter 3.15, he says but in your hearts, honor Christ, the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for this hope that's in you, the hope that's in you.

You see, god changed you, and I used to say this all the time.

God didn't save you just for you.

He saved you so you could be his hands and feet and share the gospel.

The great commission, right, that's what we're called to do, and I think this is a little bit of a problem we have, and I know I have this problem.

I think I'm just going to be a really good guy, I'm going to be nice to people and eventually someone's going to say, well, why are you so nice?

But if I never talk about why I've been transformed, I'm just another moral guy.

That wasn't in my notes.

I think that was for me.

I'm serious.

You see, what we're supposed to do, the Great Commission is being carried out by people.

God has transformed so you can be holy like he is holy and you can go and spread that gospel to others.

That's why he made it, that's why he said it.

We've been set apart and the evidence of holiness of God is us living not just moral lives but also sharing that gospel.

That's so important.

Number five conduct yourselves with fear.

We're going to read verses 17 through 21.

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 futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of the lamb, without spot or blemish.

He was foreknown before the foundations of the earth.

That was the grace past, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, that's you and me who, through him, are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him the glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

You know the NLT translates verse 17.

It says so you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as temporary residents temporary residents, foreigners, by the way.

When I came down from Canada to go to school, I had a student visa and then, when I, of course, married my wife right after college, she applied for me and I eventually got this card and it said temporary resident alien.

So I was an alien for a long time, just in full disclosure, and I eventually became a citizen.

But I love the way he says this.

He says temporary residence, that's what we were, that's what we are.

But he says you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as temporary residence.

You know it's interesting.

The fear of God is your time here as temporary residents.

You know it's interesting.

The fear of God is not something that's talked a lot from pulpits in the church anymore.

Fearing God, I don't want to fear God.

Well, you should, you should.

A lot of people, a lot of churches, talk about God just being this kind of this grandfather.

He's just up there and he's, you know, he's trying to give you all the good things in your life.

If you just do good things for him.

Oh, and, by the way, if you sin, he just goes.

Oh, come on, you can do better than that.

No, that's not God, I'll tell you.

At the great white throne judgment.

Neither you or I are going to walk up to the throne and kind of go like this and say hey, god, listen, I know you got a whole list of sins I've committed, but listen, here's my salvation card.

Happened back in 85.

I was saved, I was baptized.

So you just save your breath.

You know what position you'll be in.

You'll be flat on your face in front of a holy God.

Everybody will be flat on their face before a holy God.

We don't understand, you know, when people say I'm a friend of God, because Scripture says that.

But the problem is we then take that too far.

Well, god's my BFF, my best friend, forever.

No, kelly and I are friends.

I don't revere him, he doesn't revere me.

We're equals, we're friends.

We talk, share all that stuff.

That's not.

You don't have that kind of friendship with God.

Yes, you can share everything and he loves you more than you'll ever know.

He loves you deeper than any love that you've ever experienced in this world.

That is true.

But he's still a holy God and he deserves our reverent fear.

And you have to break away from this whole thing of well, I don't want to fear God.

That's wrong.

No, it's right to fear God.

It's right to fear God, not to be in terror of God, but to fear him in that reverent way that you know that he is God and he will always be God.

And yes, he wants a relationship with you which really should scramble your eggs.

He wants a relationship with me.

Yeah, he does, but don't ever get so familiar that you think he can just be your best friend.

Proverbs 9.10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

It's important that we understand that.

When I think about God and I think about the fact that God, the Son, came to this earth, was born into this corrupt world, lived a perfect life in spite of everything that came at him, was persecuted, was tortured, hung on a cross and had to take on the penalty of my sin, I am in reverent fear of that, and what I mean by that is I can't even grasp the love that that took and I'm never going to be God.

That's why some people there's a false doctrine out there so we're going to be like God, we're going to be divine like God.

We're going to be like God.

That's a heresy.

You will never be like God.

You will be spirit, you and I will be spirit beings, but we will never be like God.

The price was far too high for us to nonchalantly just thank God for what he did and go back to our regular scheduled programming.

Six behavior Peter mentions is in verse 22, and that is to love one another earnestly with a pure heart.

So in verse 22 it says having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, with sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

Peter states that in order to be able to love one another, we must have experienced this purification process.

In order to love one another correctly, you have to have gone through this purification process.

You know, just as trials define faith, so does obedience to God's truth define our character.

Essentially, peter's saying that because our souls have been purified by obeying the truth, as a result we have the capability and the capacity to love one another.

Okay, love one another.

Only being transformed in Christ can we truly love one another.

Oh, you can fake it for a while, you can.

You can fake it for a while, but it won't be for long.

It will finally be revealed in conflict.

Typically, john 13, 34 through 35 says this.

This is Jesus talking A new commandment I give to you.

Hang on.

This is important.

If he's saying this is a commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

Ooh, that's a high bar.

By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

Wow, you know, loving one another is a difficult thing to do if you're not transformed by the love of God inside of you.

It's hard to do and you know, what's sad about our society Is if you'll notice those little videos and things.

They now have categories of these videos.

There's road rage videos.

There's the smash and grab of all these people that come in and these were the girls shoplifting mobs, you know.

There is there's karma videos.

Right, you see people oh, you got his.

You see conflict, people fighting.

There's all these videos and the reason they're so popular is because people want to watch it.

They want to see it.

We want to see conflict all the time.

You know Jessica, our daughter with autism.

She's such a good reminder to us.

We're watching a movie and the actors go through a conflict.

She gets upset and we got to go, jessica.

They're just acting and we explain the whole thing, but she gets upset.

You know what?

Maybe I should get upset too.

Maybe I shouldn't be so callous as to that.

You know, by the way, if your name is Karen.

I apologize for the fact that they have Karen videos now.

Karen videos Women that are going off on something.

You know I've just been.

Why, karen?

What happened to Karen?

You know this is wrong.

I just why, karen?

What happened to Karen?

You know this is wrong.

But in all seriousness, you guys, when it comes to loving one another, we can't be influenced by our society, which tells us conflict is the norm.

Conflict is not the norm.

It shouldn't be in the life of those that are transformed by Christ.

You want to evaluate if you're truly loving your brother.

Maybe ask yourself these questions Am I loving even those that are hard to love?

And, by the way, don't think of one type of person that's hard to love.

Sometimes it's just people that are different from us.

I tend to be an outgoing kind of joke around guy.

Sometimes it's just people that are different from us.

You know, I tend to be an outgoing kind of joke around guy.

Sometimes it's hard for people to love me because I might say something I shouldn't have said or whatever.

It's hard to love me.

I might have a harder time loving someone who's the opposite of me, but we're still supposed to love one another and those that we find more difficult to love.

Am I always seeking my way and being selfish, or am I unselfishly sharing with others?

You love people by sharing with them and, by the way, this one do I grieve when I have a conflict with my brother and desire to be reconciled, or do I just hold a grudge?

You know, when Hedy and I argue and we rarely argue anymore I really mean it.

I'm so blessed I have a most amazing wife.

But I remember early on in our marriage, if we had a conflict of some time and we were on opposite ends, I would literally just get sick to my stomach until I could reconcile with her.

That's the way we should be.

When we have something between us and a brother or sister in Christ, we should want to be reconciled to them, not gathering other people and go did you see what Harry did?

Yeah, harry did this to me.

Let me tell you all about it.

Are you on my side?

Okay, let's go get somebody else on my side and you build all these people up and they pat you on the back.

This is one of the reasons I have a problem with some of these men's.

I've had a lot of friends in business and every once in a while you'll be talking and it's interesting to hear someone will start complaining about their wife or something, and what's interesting, it's sad, but what's interesting is the other guy's like oh yeah, she sounds like you're totally justified man.

She's like wrong and all that stuff.

They don't have a clue but they're just going to blindly support them.

They're going to blindly support them because, well, that's what I'm doing to be a friend.

No one, a true friend, would say look at you and say, joe, you're being a jerk, you're not loving your wife like Christ loved the church.

We grow when we are with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and conflict brings us closer together.

It's the test for how you handle it.

I had a brother call me up the other day and he said hey, you said something.

I just want to clarify what you meant, and I'm so glad he did, because I explained to him what my name was.

He said well, that's cool.

I just want to make sure I thanked him for it.

You want to know why that's important.

It's because, if not, there could have been a seed there that would have caused a division in our friendship or relationship.

You see how important that is.

You also see the guts it takes to call somebody and talk to them about that, or to come to them and say, hey, have I done something?

I just feel like there's something between us.

If we can't love one another, how are we going to love a fallen world?

How are we going to love a fallen world?

You want people.

We pray about wanting people to come in these doors that don't know Jesus.

Maybe we should learn to love one another first so we can fulfill this commandment and then, when people come in, they can see us love one another.

One of the early sermons I gave here I found a list I kid you, not A list of the most ridiculous reasons churches have split.

I remember one of them was there was a fight over the color of the new carpet that was going in the sanctuary.

Split the church right down the middle.

Who cares?

Lime green, who cares?

Let's worship Jesus.

Let's worship Jesus.

I've gone over time, I apologize, so listen to recap Peter's telling us about these six behaviors that should be evident in all of our lives Preparing our minds, being sober-minded, fixing our hope on Jesus Christ, being holy as he is, holy in our behaviors, conducting our lives with the right fear of the Lord and loving one another earnestly, from a pure heart.

There's two things I do not want you to take away from today's sermon.

You're like, oh, this is a twist.

Normally you're told I want you to take these things away.

There's two things I don't want you to take away from here.

The first one is condemnation.

Don't take condemnation away from here.

Now, if you're convicted about something that's different I'm convicted about some things in here that's okay.

It's okay to be convicted but not condemned.

If you're hearing a voice of condemnation, it's not from the Lord, it's from the enemy.

The second thing I don't want you to take away from here is behavior modification.

Let me explain that.

If you set your jaw and say you know what Scott said was true, I'm going to love people better, I'm going to love people better, I'm going to prepare my mind and you just set your resolve to do that, that's called behavior modification.

If it's not informed by the gospel and it's not performed by what's changing in your heart.

It will be temporary.

When I was first preaching a long time ago, I preached just the way I learned in my church behavior modification.

I'd come up and I'd preach these how-to sermons, never once addressing the fact that the heart had to be changed first.

If you're convicted about anything we've talked about, here's what you should do Go home, get on your knees and say, lord, give me the heart.

Go home, get on your knees and say, lord, give me the heart, give me the heart to want to prepare my mind.

Give me the heart to be sober minded.

Give me the heart that I'm focusing on, on your return, jesus, and not on all the things around me.

Give me the heart to love my brother like you, jesus love.

Give me that heart.

And here's what he'll do, because I know he's a good God.

He'll answer that prayer.

He will answer that prayer and it won't be behavior modification.

It's going to be because you're changed inside.

I don't know if there's anyone in here that has not yet given their life to Christ and they have not submitted themselves no longer to sin but to Jesus.

If you haven't done that, we're going to have people up here that will be available for you to pray for, To pray for you, excuse me.

You can pray for them too, but these people that we have up here, people that we trust, people that know the Lord, have genuine relationships with the Lord, and if you just want to share and talk to them or you need prayer, they're here.

But if you haven't begun this journey, this is what's ahead for you.

What's ahead for you is transformation, and maybe you've been trying your whole life to be good and be moral.

God can give you a transformation where all that's going to fall in place because of what happens inside.

That's available to you today.

If you want that, or if you're feeling convicted and you want someone to pray for you, if you're a believer, you can come up for that too.

But please realize that God is transforming you so you can be more like him, and that we can share this good news with people that so desperately need it.

These are gospel-motivated behaviors.

Please stand to your feet and let's pray of yours.

Please stand to your feet and let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as we bow our heads before you, your great and powerful throne, the mighty God who we revere.

Father, we humbly come before your throne to say that we're imperfect.

Every one of us has not been doing these things to the level that we should.

But, father, convict us and, most importantly, change our hearts.

Lord, we want to be like you, we want to be holy like you, we want our behaviors to reflect you, just like Peter said.

And, father, I pray that, as we continue through this sanctification, that we listen to you, we hear from you that you change our hearts, that we might be looking to you.

And, father, protect us from those things of the world that would take our eyes off you.

And we love you, we trust you and we know that everything you do in our life you do for our good, and so we pray that, father, in the powerful name of Jesus, amen.