Living Like Strangers

You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller.

It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk.

Now, here's Pastor Miller.

This morning to 1 Peter chapter number 2, and we're going to look at a couple of verses this morning in 1 Peter.

1 Peter chapter 2, we're preaching about how to have a life that is rock solid.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

As we go through the life of Peter, Peter was given the name Peter by the Lord Jesus.

His name was Simon, and Jesus gave him the name Peter, which means a stone or a rock, Petrus, but he was not the rock.

Christ was the rock.

And we saw that last week.

But we're going to talk about this this morning.

How many of you ever been in a place where you just did not belong?

How many ever been in a place where you didn't?

I'm not talking about illegally that you were like somewhere that you weren't supposed to be.

I mean just like some of you are like that today.

Maybe this is your first time in our church and you just feel like, man, I don't know what's going on.

Uh when do we stand?

I don't know these songs.

Who is that guy?

Who is that guy talking?

Who's that person singing?

Uh and we we just, if you've ever been in a place you're just very unfamiliar with, and you don't know uh anything about uh the custom or the language or the culture, that's an uncomfortable feeling.

I remember I've had the privilege of traveling around the world and preaching the gospel, but we were starting a church in northern Iraq many years ago, and we flew into Erbil uh in uh the northern part of Iraq, and we were going up into Kurdistan.

But uh we flew into Erbil and we we came in, and I remember the pilot, we were on a German airline, and the pilot said something to everybody in German, and it sounded like he was just yelling at us.

He sounded very angry.

And um, he was saying, and then he said it in English, and all he said in English was Um uh This landing procedure is a normal landing procedure.

And it was everything but normal.

We were 40,000 feet in the air, we came over the airfield in Erbil, the plane just turned left and he just started spiraling to the ground.

We came in really hot, really fast.

We landed uh as we were getting off the plane, we saw the F-16s coming back in, we saw the Black Hawk helicopters coming back in, and I realized we are not in America anymore.

And I remember uh going into the bathroom after that landing, I needed to use the men's room, and so I went into the bathroom and I just remember looking at the commode, and I didn't know how to work the commode.

Um and and so I grabbed a handle that I thought was gonna flush it.

Well, there was a hose that when I turned that handle just sprayed me right in the face.

Now, we're in a foreign country, you're not supposed to drink the water, especially the commode water, but I I um did all the things I wasn't supposed to do in one second.

I came out of there and I was soaking wet, and I remember the man looking at me and saying, Um, is everything okay?

And I said, Uh, I don't know how to work the commode.

Well, uh, I didn't know anything about that country and the language and the customs, and we went over to somebody's house to eat, and you take your shoes off when you go in the house, and you go in and you lay down on the floor, and uh it's kind of weird when you're eating and you're laying on your side and you're eating with your hands and someone's feet are right in your face, and it's kind of hard to eat like that.

And uh and then at the end of the meal, you kind of sit up and you prop yourself against these little pillows, and they bring you this tea, which was delightful, and man, we drank this tea, and then a little bit later they brought out the dessert, and man, we just fellowshipped and we ate dessert, and they brought out more tea, and we drank more tea, and they had a little bit more dessert, a little more tea.

And we sat around this table for what seemed like two hours, just fellowshipping and and enjoying it.

And I I'm you know, I don't know the customs, and then all of a sudden, this lady walked in with a fruit tray.

And as soon as she walked in with the platter fruit, everybody stood up and they started going to the door, and people were putting their shoes on, and they grabbed a piece of fruit and they left.

And I found out later that uh in Kurdistan, you're welcome to stay as long as you want until they bring out the fruit.

When they bring out the fruit, it is time to go home.

And I thought, we need a custom like that in America.

I've had a lot of people in my house before, and I thought, man, I got them here.

I don't know how to get rid of them.

Get the fruit.

And so uh they brought the fruit out, and everybody left.

And I was a foreigner in that land.

I did not know the customs of that land.

And this is what Peter is saying to us today.

He's been building all through this book a solid foundation on Christ.

You are saved, you are elect, you are the foreknowledge of God, you've been you've been born again to a lively hope.

You're kept by the power of God through faith.

You have all these wonderful things that he has given us, a foundation.

Um, our identity is in Jesus Christ.

All of these things that are ours.

We didn't have to earn them, we didn't have to work for them.

They were given to us when we got saved.

But now Peter's gonna turn the corner and he's gonna say, Now, because of your identity in Jesus Christ, I want you to live a rock solid life.

I want you to live this out.

I want you to live like it.

You're you you belong to Christ.

Now live like it.

Look at 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11.

1 Peter 2:11

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they also may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

What Peter is saying here is your identity is in Christ, and because of that, I want you to live like it.

And if you're gonna live a life that is rock solid in this world, there's three things that Peter's gonna call our attention to.

Number one, he wants you to remember your pilgrim identity.

He wants you to remember your pilgrim identity.

Now, I'll I'm I'll on the screen this morning, you're gonna see where Peter's gonna say, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims.

And I want you to put both of those little subpoints up underneath that point today because Peter's gonna call us two things.

He's gonna call us pilgrims, and he's gonna call us strangers.

Now, why does he do that?

Well, a stranger is somebody who is a foreigner.

A stranger is somebody who is living in a place that is not home.

And he wants you to know as a believer, you're not living at home.

This world is not your home.

This world is uh this world is a strange land.

Now, now, I love how Peter starts this.

He starts it with a tender appeal.

Dearly beloved, I beseech you.

He doesn't scold them, he's not wagging a finger in their face.

Peter's just saying, now listen, dearly beloved, this is who we are.

We're a family in Christ.

Now understand that the reason why you're having so many problems in this world is you're a foreigner here.

You're a stranger here.

This world is not your home.

You're a pilgrim in this world.

What is he talking about?

Uh, listen, we we live here in this world.

We we love the people here, we love our neighbors, we we go to work, we have family here, but listen, we're not from here.

The Bible clearly says in Philippians chapter 3 and verse number 20, the Bible says that our citizenship is in heaven.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

We are from another place.

We are strangers in here.

This world is not our final home.

And so, because of that, we are strangers, but we're pilgrims.

Now, what does he mean by this?

Strangers emphasizes where we belong.

If I'm a stranger, it means I don't belong here, I belong somewhere else.

My citizenship is in heaven.

So stranger emphasizes where we belong.

A pilgrim emphasizes where we are headed.

So stranger says, you're away from home.

Pilgrim says you're heading home.

Uh Abraham understood this.

The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11, verse number 9, that by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as a stranger in a strange country.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And verse 10 of Hebrews 11 explains why he was a stranger in that land.

For he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God.

What was Abraham doing?

He was walking around in this world and he was a stranger here because he was looking for a city that was built by God.

Listen, that's me and you.

We are here in this world and we're strangers here because we belong somewhere else, and we're pilgrims looking for a city that was built by God.

We are going to heaven.

By the way, this changes how you live.

This pilgrim identity changes how you live.

When I went to D.C.

on Monday, I flew to Washington, D.C.

to speak at the American Association of Christian Schools Leadership Conference.

And when I got to D.C., I stayed at the Double Tree Hotel.

It was a very cheap price.

I booked it online, and when I got there, I realized why it was cheap.

Um, it was a terribly uncomfortable bed.

When I turned on the shower, more water came out from behind the handle than came out of the spigot.

And uh I just kind of had to throw water on me.

Now they had delicious chocolate chip cookies at the counter.

Um, they were wonderful, but it was terrible.

But let me tell you what I didn't do.

I wished I could have done it, but I didn't do it.

But when I checked into that hotel on Monday, I did not I did not bring my bed.

I didn't put my pictures on the wall.

I didn't move into a hotel room.

You know why?

I was only there for one night.

A soldier, when he goes off to fight in a war, he doesn't forget the nation that he's fighting for.

He doesn't forget the family that is back home.

He's in that other country, but his heart is at home.

An ambassador goes to another country to represent his nation.

But when that ambassador gets there, that ambassador does not move in and just make that new nation his home.

He's a representative to that country.

And so this is what the Bible says.

When we when we are in this world, we're not to be conformed to this world.

We become so accustomed in this world, sometimes we make the world our home.

I want you to think about Daniel and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

You remember those guys?

We we remember them as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abandigo.

Now they were taken away from their home when they were young.

Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans captured Jerusalem and they they came in and they took these young men captive.

I believe they were pre-pubescent.

They took them off to Babylon, 800 miles away.

When they got to Babylon, they were put under the prince of the eunuchs.

I believe that they were made to be eunuchs, and and that Babylon was doing some very, very horrendous things to these young people that were the captives of a foreign nation.

And they brought these kids in and they did terrible things to them, and then they then they took them to their schools and they taught them in the learning of the Chaldeans.

They tried to teach them their language, they taught them their sciences, they taught them all the things about Chaldea.

You know why?

Because Nebuchadnezzar didn't just want them living in Babylon, he wanted them thinking like Babylon.

And then what he did was he changed their names.

He changed their names and gave them a new identity.

He took them away from their primary sources of influence, their parents and their temple and their God, and took them away from home, put them under the influence of Babylon.

And he wanted them to think like Babylon.

But here's something that he did, that was very devious.

Nebuchadnezzar did not take these boys, even though he had done horrendous things to them.

He did not put them in a dungeon or in prison.

You know what he did?

He put them at his table.

And he gave them the king's meat and he gave them the king's wine.

And he wined them and he dined them.

You know why?

He didn't want them just living in Babylon.

He didn't just want them thinking like Babylon.

He wanted them to love Babylon.

He wanted them to taste the meat, to drink the wine, and to walk around Babylon and to see the hanging gardens, one of the wonders of the world, and to say, wow, why would we ever go back to Jerusalem when we have all of this here?

This is exactly what the devil does with us.

And by the way, there's a lot of Christians who belly up to Nebuchadnezzar's table and they say, Wow, isn't grace wonderful?

And we call what Satan is giving us the grace of God, and it's not grace.

Grace doesn't belly up to the table, grace pushes away from the table because this is not my home, that's not my food, this is not where my heart is.

My affections are not on things below, my affections are on things above.

I belong to somewhere else.

That's why Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's meat.

You see, you can't live a rock solid life until you settle into this identity that I belong to Jesus Christ, my identity is in Christ, my morality is in Christ, my values are in Christ, my destination is in Christ.

None of those things, my identity, my values, my morality, none of those are defined by the culture.

I don't get my values from Hollywood, I don't get my morals from this world.

My morals are defined by Jesus Christ.

It's a whole new life in him.

And so I want to say, remember your pilgrim identity.

You're a stranger here, but you're traveling home.

Number two, recognize your personal battle.

Recognize your personal battle.

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims.

That's your identity.

Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

That is your personal battle.

Now it's interesting here that Peter did not say, hey guys, let's fight against the wickedness that's all around us.

Peter did not point out the wickedness that was in the world.

Peter pointed out the war that was in ourselves.

You know, the world has always been wicked.

How many of you believe that?

Somebody said, you know, man, things are just getting so bad.

Well, can I tell you?

They've always been bad.

Wow, man, the world's getting so violent.

They've always been violent.

The fourth guy was killed by the third guy.

There was Adam, there was Eve.

They had two kids.

The third guy was Cain.

The fourth guy was Abel.

And Cain did what to Abel?

He killed him.

It got so violent by Genesis.

We're only six chapters into the Bible.

It was so violent, God had to flood it.

See, the world has always been wicked.

And our battle is not necessarily with all the wickedness around us, it's with the war inside of us.

It's with the flesh.

So what Peter's going to say is a couple things about this personal battle.

First of all, there are desires that we must deny.

Notice what he said.

Abstain from fleshly lusts.

Now that word lust, when we think of that, we usually think of sexual indulgence, but it includes that, but it's more than that.

It's self-indulgence.

The word lust means desire, it means craving, self-indulgences.

There are things that our our old nature desires.

Our old nature desires all the wrong things.

It desires as many possessions as it can get.

Sometimes it desires revenge against somebody else.

Sometimes it desires control over somebody else's life.

Sometimes it just desires so much comfort that we don't want to go to work.

It desires sexual gratification.

It desires everything.

Our flesh has a whole bunch of things that it wants, and not everything that it wants it's supposed to have.

And we were born that way, by the way.

Like you were born with things that you wanted that you weren't supposed to have.

That's why your parents had to tell you no so much.

Most of us, I don't know about you, but when I was a little kid, I actually thought my name was no.

My parents used that word so much.

No, no.

Somebody said, What's your name?

No.

I mean, listen, I came into this world, nobody had to teach me how to disobey.

Nobody had to teach me how to lie.

Nobody had to teach me how to steal.

I took my cute little chubby hands, put them on my cute little hip, put my little chubby finger in my mom's face, and said, No.

I was a brat.

I had chocolate all over my face, and my dad said, Did you eat that?

Mm-mm.

I was a liar.

I was a rebel.

It was all in me.

As parents, we teach our kids how to walk and talk and spend the rest of our life telling them to sit down and shut up.

And we just, it's just in us.

Our flesh wants what we're not supposed to have.

Listen, you want to start a war?

Go in that nursery and tell those kids, nobody touch that.

You know what the one thing that all those kids are going to go touch?

That.

I mean, think about it.

God gave Adam and Eve every tree of the garden to freely eat.

And he just said, hey, there's one over here, I don't want you to touch it.

You know what one they wanted?

That one.

If we were to put a sign on the wall over here that says, wet paint, don't touch, I guarantee you there'd be a lot of little white fingerprints all over this room.

Everybody would want to touch it.

If you put a sign on it that says, grass, don't walk.

You're going to walk on the grass.

You say, I would never do that.

Yeah, but you did 45 and a 35.

Look at all these little halos that pop up in the church.

Yeah, but your halos are held up by horns.

I can see the horns too.

Peter's saying, listen, your flesh is at war.

You know what the flesh says?

You know what my old nature says?

My old nature says, I want what I want when I want it, no matter the consequence.

This is why we're in debt up to our eyeballs.

We want what we want, and man, we have it, we've made it easy.

We used to have little plastic cards, now we just have tap.

You can double-click a phone and then tap.

I got it.

Yeah.

And we get what we want when we want it.

And then a little envelope shows up with a little window in it.

At 26% interest with a bill.

Listen, we've already sold that couch on Facebook Marketplace for$10.

At the risk of our life.

While we're still paying off the debt for buying it.

Anybody with me so far?

How many of you know what some of you are saying, preacher, you're meddling now?

Look, our flesh has desires.

And you know what Peter says of that?

Abstain from that.

Don't feed that.

Don't negotiate with it.

Paul said it this way in Romans chapter 13 and verse 14.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

He said, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's your identity.

Put on him.

And make not provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lust thereof.

Don't give in to the desires and the cravings.

Listen, don't manage it, mortify it.

There's a war that you have to wage.

That's the second thing.

There's a desire you have to deny.

There's a war you have to wage.

He's going to use military language here.

You cannot be casual about this because if you're casual, you'll be a casualty.

So he said, I want you to go to war.

Don't call a weakness what God calls warfare.

Genesis chapter, or Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

The spirit lusts against the flesh, the flesh lusts against the spirit.

So the spirit desires to have you, and the flesh desires to have you.

One of the ways that I know that I'm saved is because I know that battle in my heart.

There's what I want, and then there's what the Spirit of God wants.

And I wish he would leave me alone.

But sometimes I'm pulling on my end of the rope for what I want, and the Holy Spirit's pulling on the end of the rope for what he wants, and these two are contrary one to the other, so that I cannot have the things that I desire because the flesh is saying, get this, and the Holy Spirit's saying, No, get this.

And I have to go to war with that.

The greatest battlefield is in you.

Our old nature wants one thing, the Spirit of God wants the other thing, and we have to go to war with it.

You can't pet what will kill you.

I took my wife up to see some leaves yesterday, and we were up in the mountains, and I went out to check on something in the car, and I looked up and I saw something moving by a tree, and there was a bear.

And the bear had two little cubs.

And I made the mistake of saying, Oh, look at that bear.

Because these people that were terror uh terrorists, they were tourists, spoke a different language, they looked up and they were like, oh, and they saw the cub.

And they were in their language, they were saying it was little.

And I'm saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

And I'm like, hey, don't go over there.

And he's like, no, no, no, no, no.

And he's telling me in his language, little, it's little, it's little.

I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, mama is big.

Muy gwande.

You delicioso.

And and and you know what that guy did?

He went across this barrier and he's like, he has his phone.

He's like, he's gonna go take a picture of this little bear and he doesn't see the mom bear.

Now, you know what people are gonna say, oh, can I pet that dog?

That's not a dog, that's a bear.

And that's not a zoo, it's not a petting zoo, this is wildlife.

How many of you saw that guy the other day in Yellowstone National Park who went out to see the buffalo, and the buffalo let him get a really up-close picture of himself.

He saw that buffalo as he was flipping, he saw that buffalo six times as they flipped over it.

See, here's what happens a lot of times.

We treat sin like it is a pet.

When we ought to treat it like it's a rattlesnake.

And so he said there's a war.

There's a desire you must deny, there is a war that you must wage, because the goal is the soul.

The goal is a soul.

They wage against the soul.

That's what he says here.

This war is against your soul.

The word soul is where we get the word psyche.

Psyche in the Greek is where we get our word psyche, which means our psychological life, our mind, our will, our heart.

The Bible uses three words to describe the soul: soul, mind, and heart.

You know why?

Because the soul is the immaterial part of you that is the seat of your intellect, of your will, and your emotions.

So what Satan is after, he's after your mind.

He wants you to think this way.

He's after your heart.

He wants you to love this way.

He's after your will.

He wants you to put your state down and say, this is what I want, and to live by your will instead of God's will.

So the soul is the goal.

He wants your mind.

He wants your heart.

He wants your soul.

He wants all of you to follow.

This is why Satan will promise, and sin promises pleasure, but it produces bondage.

It promotes freedom, but produces slavery.

It promises satisfaction but produces emptiness.

It promises life but produces death.

James chapter 1 gives us a great picture of this.

James 1 · chapter mention

He said, a man is drawn away of his own desires, his own lust when he is tempted.

And then he gives into that temptation.

When he yields to that temptation, the temptation becomes sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

It's a picture of a pregnancy.

There's a conception.

When lust, a desire, meets a yieldedness, there's a conception that takes place.

It brings forth a sin.

And sin, eventually, you're going to go through labor and you're going to bring forth death.

There's a war, and you cannot make peace with that enemy.

Maybe the war in you, maybe that war in you is secret bitterness.

It's private fantasy.

It's an uncontrolled appetite.

It's a resentment against somebody else.

It's a materialism.

You think you can buy your way to happiness.

Maybe it's anger or jealousy or pride.

But let me just tell you this: every single seat in this room that has a human being in it, there's a war in that seat.

And the goal is your soul.

So Peter said, remember your pilgrim identity.

Recognize your private battle.

And then lastly, and we'll go home.

He said, I want you to remember your public testimony.

Peter said, I'm beseeching you, dearly beloved, as strangers and pilgrims.

Abstain from fleshly lust, which war against your soul.

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles.

Now, Gentiles as unbelievers, and I love that the Old English uses the word conversation.

I love that.

Some people don't like that.

Some people like, I don't like the Old English.

I love that.

The King James uses that word conversation.

You know why?

Because the word conversation is the Old English word which means behavior.

It means your lifestyle.

It means your conduct.

And I like that it uses the word conversation because in our world today, how do we use the word conversation?

It's something that we're talking, we're having a conversation.

We're talking to each other, right?

Well, he uses conversation about your conduct.

You know why?

Because your talk talks.

And your walk talks.

But your walk talks louder than your talk talks.

Can you say that?

Your talk talks.

I mean you can say whatever you want to say.

But your walk talks.

What you do talks.

And what you do talks louder than your talk talks.

So the Bible says having your conversation, having your dep your deportment, having your behavior, your conversation, your conduct, having it honest.

I love that word honest because it means honorable.

It means beautiful.

It means something that is becoming.

Something that is something that just makes it enhanced.

That's what the word becoming is.

I remember using that word when my wife and I first got married.

We were getting ready and she said, Does this look okay?

And I said, That's very becoming on you.

I didn't realize that's an ancient word.

But becoming just means it enhances you.

I mean, it takes it takes your beauty and just.

And this is what the Bible says.

The Bible says that we are to live in a way that is becoming the gospel.

In other words, it enhances the gospel.

How you live makes the gospel glow.

This is why the Bible says that the world is watching your conduct, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, among the unsaved.

That whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they shall behold your good works.

The world is watching your conduct.

So what Peter is saying here is live an unmistakably Christ-like life so that people who don't know what you believe cannot ignore how you behave.

See, the world is watching, and I want to tell you something.

Many people, many Christians don't think that anybody's really noticing.

Well, I want to tell you, they are noticing.

Our coworkers are noticing.

I remember years ago.

My dad and I, I was a teenager.

My dad and I were at the mall.

My dad hated the mall.

We were Christmas shopping or something.

And we walked into a store, and there was a man in our church who was the manager of that store.

We walked in that store, and my dad asked somebody if Brother So-and-so was there.

Is Mr.

So-and-so here?

And they said, Yeah, he's in the back room.

And uh, who's who are you?

And he said, I'm his pastor.

And they were like, Oh, yeah, I didn't even know he went to church.

And they went back and got him, and they got him and he came out, and everybody was like, You go to church?

We didn't know you go to church.

This is your pastor.

Why did you tell you?

What church do you go to?

All his co-workers, he was the manager, and all the co-workers were amazed that he went to church.

But I'm gonna tell you something, what he didn't know is his co-workers were watching.

Our neighbors are watching, our children are watching.

Your unbelieving family members are watching, and people who disagree with Christianity are watching Christians, and a lot of times the Christians that they're watching are self-fulfilling prophecies.

You know, Christians are hypocrites, and then the unbelieving world watches and they are.

Christians are angry, and then the unbelieving world watches Christians and they're angry.

See, but we forget that they're watching, but Jesus told us they're watching.

In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

This is what Peter said.

Peter said, and they'll speak against you as evildoers, but they shall by your good works, which they shall behold.

Glify God in the day of visitation.

He said, The world is watching your conduct.

See, our good works don't save us.

We're not saved by good works.

I don't live, I don't want to live good works because I want to be saved.

I'm living good works so that people will see the one in me who will save them.

Everybody get that right now?

I'm not living a good life so that I can be saved.

I want to live a good life so that people around me can see the person who will save them.

They'll see Christ in me.

So Peter said, first of all, the world is watching your conduct.

Second of all, the world's gonna criticize you because of your conduct.

So it's it's not popular.

They will call you evildoers.

Christian living will not make you popular.

Let me tell you, if you go to work and start telling everybody, hey, I'm a Christian, they are not gonna go, oh, good for you.

They're gonna feel sorry for you.

They're gonna, they're gonna, the Peter, and by the way, the people that Peter is writing to in this book understood this because people were slandering them, accusing them, uh, they were they were persecuting them.

And Peter was not saying to them, okay, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to attack them.

Or, hey, hey, hey, listen, uh win every argument with them.

Just argue them to death.

No, no, no, no.

He said, no, no, just let them see your good works.

See, in a courtroom, in a courtroom, there are three main players in a courtroom: there's a judge, there are attorneys, and there's a witness.

You know who God called you and I to be?

Not the judge.

We're not going around condemning and judging everybody and sentencing everybody.

And we're not the attorneys.

We're not going around trying to win arguments.

You know what we are?

Witnesses.

We're just gonna say, hey, all I know is I was one way and I met that man and I'm a different way.

I was blind, now I see.

I was dead, now I live.

I was in chains, but now I'm free.

And all I know, all I can give is my testimony and my witness to this case.

And the world will criticize you.

But let me tell you what Peter's saying.

Peter's saying, live so well that the accusations don't fit.

I remember years ago in Mississippi, we had a husband and wife that had children that were wayward that didn't know the Lord, and they were burdened for their kids.

We prayed for them for years.

And I remember meeting with them on many occasions and I said, listen, love your kids.

Accept them.

You don't have to accept what they're doing, but accept them.

Love them unconditionally.

Show them the love of Christ.

Just continue to live godly in front of them.

Don't dip your values for them, but just they know what you believe, but just live it.

And I remember when that man died and I preached his funeral.

But actually the truth is I didn't preach his funeral.

He laid right there in that casket in front of me.

He had preached his funeral.

I just got to tell the story.

But I watched his children get saved.

And you know what won those kids?

What won those kids was dad's testimony.

There is power in a godly life.

And that's the third thing I want you to see right here is that your testimony will vindicate you.

The Bible says they will glorify God on the day of visitation.

Do you know what that means, the day of visitation?

What does it mean that they will glorify God on the day of visitation?

The day of visitation simply means this.

The phrase means the day that God visits.

Or the day that God intervenes, or the day that God reveals himself.

There are people, this is where Peter is filled with hope right here.

Peter is riding with hope.

He said, Hey, live as pilgrims.

You're strangers in this world.

Remember where you belong.

You're not home yet.

You're on your way home.

But, but, but live in such a way that men will glorify God by your life.

They're going to call you all kinds of evil things, but in the day that God visits them, in the day that God intervenes, in the day that God reveals himself, they may glorify God because of your testimony.

See, this is my dad, my dad's testimony.

Bill Wickham came to work every day as a Grease monkey.

Bill Wickham came in to change oil and to fix spark plugs and to rebuild motors, and he came to that Chevrolet garage to turn wrenches every day.

But he was a Christian.

He was a godly man.

He lived for God every day.

He witnessed to my dad.

He gave my dad gospel tracts.

He wanted my dad to get saved.

My dad would tear those gospel tracts up.

My dad would curse Bill Wickham to his face.

I don't want your garbage.

I don't want this kind of stuff.

Listen, he did it all the time.

But there came a day in my dad's life that God intervened.

Now you know how God intervened with my mom and dad?

They had a baby that was born with a hole in his heart.

He lived a month and a half and he died.

And my mother and father buried that baby.

And they didn't know God.

But that baby went to be with the Lord.

And God intervened in their life.

And in a moment of God visiting my dad, in a moment of God stepping into their life and doing something to get their attention, there was Bill Wickham with a tear in his eye.

And a gospel track and a witness.

And he shared the gospel with my dad.

And my dad got saved.

And my mom got saved.

And for 63 years, what used to be, I'm calling you an evildoer, those lips now glorify God.

How many of you were adversaries to the gospel?

How many of you rejected and had an attitude against the gospel and then you got saved?

How many of you in this room were that way?

There are numbers of you.

We had scores of hands in the first service of people who said, I used to be, I used to be antagonistic to the gospel, and then I got saved.

You were against it, and then God used it in your life.

Somehow God intervened, visited you, and you got saved.

So what Peter's saying here is this is the message of hope.

This is the very same people who slandered you will be the day who glorified God.

This, by the way, this is the Peter who denied Jesus, who's now proclaiming him.

What he's saying is, let them see something real in your life.

Grace without compromise, courage without hate, joy through suffering.

Here's the whole message today.

Remember, believer, that you're not home yet.

Live like a stranger in this world so that people through your life can see Jesus.

That's Peter's message.

And in that, we find fulfillment in Christ.

I don't understand all that, but it's true.

We can live like strangers in this world.

And through that, we can bring many people to Christ.

Father, I pray today that you would take this message to every heart.

That we would remember our pilgrim identity, that we would be fighting our personal battle every day.

And that, Lord, we would remember our public testimony that others are watching.

They're watching.

And I pray that they would see you in us.

Our heads above, our eyes are closed for just a moment.

How many of us with an honest heart would say, Pastor, I want to be that person who lives in such a way that people can see Christ in me, that others can know Jesus Christ through my life.

That's who I want to be.

I want to live that way as a pilgrim and a stranger.

Would you slip your hand way up high?

I want God to use my life.

Well, Christian, put down the things of this world and pick up your walking stick and be a pilgrim.

You may lower your hands.

I want you to pray about that this morning.

Who's here today would say this?

Pastor, if I die today, I don't know for sure that I'm going to heaven.

I don't know that Christ is my Savior.

I don't know that my sins are forgiven, but if I could know that, I want to know that today.

I want to know that today.

I want to know that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.

I'm ready for that step.

I need to be saved.

I need to have my sins forgiven.

I want eternal life.

Pray for me.

Would you slip your hand way up high if that's you today?

I don't know it for sure, but I want to know it.

God bless you.

Who else?

Just slip your hand way up high and say, I don't know it, but I want to know it.

God bless you.

Would you stand with me all over this room?

Our heads are about, our eyes are closed.

If you want to know what it means to be saved, would you step out?

We have Pastor Luke and we have others down here in the front that'll pray with you and encourage you.

Take the Bible and show you how to be saved.

But if you raised your hand a moment ago and God spoke to your heart in some way, this said, This is the battle I need to be fighting.

I've forgotten my identity.

I've not been waging this warfare.

And God dealt with you.

I don't know how God spoke to you, but God dealt with you.

I want you to pray about that right now.

Just bow your heart to the Lord.

You pray about what God talked to you about today.

We're going to take just a minute, let everybody pray.

You pray about what God talked to you about.

We look around this weary world and we look at all that is in this world.

If our hope was in Washington, Lord, we would have no hope.

If our pleasure was in Hollywood, we would have no true pleasure if we if we were only satisfied by the things this world could give us.

We're destined for an empty life.

But Lord, our citizenship belongs in heaven.

It is eternal.

It is in a place where there are pleasures forevermore and joy at your right hand.

Everything that can that can satisfy, everything that can give us what we were made to have is found where we're going.

But we're not there yet.

We're strangers down here.

I pray, like Daniel, we would purpose in our heart to live that way.

And Lord, it was through Daniel's testimony and through the three Hebrew children, their testimony that Nebuchadnezzar saw you in the fire.

Nebuchadnezzar said, There's no God like that God.

Those who called us evildoers glorified God in the day of visitation.

Lord, I pray that it would be true in our life.

That we would live in such a way that others would know you.

Lord, we've got to be in that battle.

We have to remember our identity.

And Lord, steward that public testimony.

I pray that we would be faithful.

In this world, it's so hard, Lord, and I pray that we would be like the Apostle Paul, that we would not be weary in well-doing.

It often becomes so wearisome.

Give us strength by your Holy Spirit.

Help us to maintain a life that is faithful so that when we see you one day, we'll hear from you.

Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Thank you for your word, Lord.

Use it in Jesus' name.

And all God's people said.