Living Testimony

Well, I am Pastor Ryan.

I look different if you came last week for the first time because Pastor John was up here filling in for me while I was at a wedding.

Now Pastor John's in Turkey or on his way to Turkey, and I get to be here with all of you today.

And so we're going to be continuing in our series called Kingdom Witness.

Last year I prayed and I said, Lord, last fall, you know, I had just started here.

I was excited and I was like, all right, God, what where are we going to go?

Where are we going to go next year?

Where are you leading us?

And I just felt like the Lord put it on my heart, kingdom, like let's be a kingdom-minded church.

And so I was like, what does that look like?

And so I began to just study and pray and put these little kind of series together, all built around this idea of being a kingdom-minded church.

And we come to the fall, and now it's about being a kingdom witness.

And so we're going through the letter of 1 Peter.

So this is Peter's letter written to a number of churches through Asia Minor.

And in this letter, he's writing to Christians who are learning what it meant to live out their relationship with Jesus in a world where they no longer fit in.

Because that's what happens when your life is changed by Jesus.

All of a sudden, you start learning about the ways he calls you to live, about the things we're called to give up.

And all of a sudden, we stopped doing some of the things we were doing.

All of a sudden, we're not in the same crowds that we were once hanging out with.

And then people notice.

And so what happens was these Christians were spread out and they weren't living the way they used to.

And people started to notice.

And so Peter said, Don't get discouraged.

I want to tell you how to live and how you can do this so that you could be an effective witness wherever God calls you.

But before Peter ever tells them how they should live, he starts with, Let me tell you who you are.

You see, when I was growing up and I didn't grow up in the church, my perception of the church was that's a place with a lot of rules.

That was it.

I just thought that's a place where there's some angry people that like things to go a certain way, and if you don't follow the rules, they're gonna kick you out.

That's a story I told myself.

But what I didn't know is what the church really was, who they were.

And so when I gave my life to Jesus and everything changed, and all of a sudden I realized, oh, it's not about this list of rules.

Yes, God gives us a pathway for how we can live our lives effectively.

But before any of that, God calls us out and says, I know you, I've loved you, and I have a plan and a purpose for your life.

So Peter uh does that in his letter.

So before we get into today's text, uh, I want to talk about something that all of us are familiar with.

Every single one of us, I know without shadow of a doubt, have been to a new restaurant before.

I'm just gonna take a stab in the dark.

If you didn't, we'll talk afterwards.

But if you've ever been to a new restaurant, right, you don't just show up.

A lot of times now we we like to go online, we like to read reviews, we like to kind of see what people are saying about it.

Uh, we want to scan the menu.

Is there gluten-free options for those of you suffering?

Uh we want to know, is this gonna be a place I want to go to?

And sometimes uh we go to a restaurant and they have signage up, right?

Like they have something like everyone welcome, or uh the customer's always right, you know.

And so imagine, if you will, you went to one of these new restaurants and you walk up and you see a sign that says, Hey, the customer's always right.

And so you're thinking, Yeah, that sounds good.

All right, they know what's up, they know who's in charge here.

And you walk in, and all of a sudden you're there, but no one, no one greets you.

And so you you're standing there kind of at this podium, and you're just like, hello, and you see two employees, they're wearing name tags, and they're hanging out, but they're just chatting with each other, and you're like, We're here, and then over there you see other employees kind of yelling at each other and fighting and bickering, and you're just kind of standing like, what is going on?

And then all of a sudden, someone makes eye contact with you and is like, oh my god, more.

Okay, come follow me, sit there, and all of a sudden you're like, your sign says one thing, but my experience is telling me a different story.

What do I trust?

Do I trust the sign that says I'm always right, that I'm the most important part of your business, or am I gonna trust the experience that it doesn't seem like you care about me very much?

So bring that to the church, right?

We put statements on our website.

You walk through our halls, you see these cute little signs that we ordered.

You belong here.

Man, Jesus loves you.

All these things, right?

We can tell our community that, hey, all of you, anyone who's who's in our community is welcome to come in.

We can tell them that Jesus changes lives, his grace makes us new, and that his people, man, they love each other.

And now all of those things, they are true, those are true statements.

You belong here.

God loves you, Jesus loves you.

But what happens when someone who's new walks through our doors for the first time?

What do they experience?

What are the conversations that they're hearing?

How do they see the church treating each other?

How do we respond when we church members walk in and you're coming to your seat and you're like, oh, someone sitting?

Not in my seat, because we would never say that.

But someone sitting where I always usually sit.

What do people see when they encounter us outside the walls of this building?

You see, our words, they tell people what we believe about Jesus, but our lives, they show what we believe about following Jesus.

So you can use your words all you want and say, oh yeah, Jesus King, he's my Lord, I'm a Christian.

But how you live will declare who you're following.

And that is what Peter's gonna teach us today in his letter.

He's not asking the church to become some impressive group of people so others will admire them.

No, he's calling them to become the people that God has created them to be so that others can see Jesus through their life.

And this will be our guiding truth this morning as we go through the text.

Our lives should make Jesus visible.

Meaning that people should be able to look at you and say, there's something different about them.

Man, they're a Christian.

I knew it.

I knew they were Christian.

I knew it.

I could see it in their life.

I could see how they talked, how they how they walked, how they how they did things.

So if you're able this morning, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

We're in 1 Peter chapter 2, beginning in verse 1.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Peter says, So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ, through Jesus Christ.

For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Peter's a lengthy writer, and so twelve verses can feel like a long time standing up.

But if you've been reading your Bible in a year, last week we read how King Josiah, when he found the law, declared that all the people in Judah had to come to the temple and sit while he read the entire Torah to them.

So you think twelve verses is long.

Imagine the first five books of the Bible.

That's a long, that's a long reading.

So it just puts it into perspective for you.

Peter begins verse 1 with a command.

He says, put away all malice, all deceit, and hypocrisy and envy and slander.

So Peter's connecting this command to what uh Pastor John talked about last week, where Peter in verse 1, in chapter 1, verse 23 says, uh he tells believers that they have been born again through the living and enduring word of God.

So Peter has just told them, listen, you were not your same selves when you have Christ.

You've been born again, you're a new creation.

So because of the word of God that is now in you, you don't live that old life.

So he's reminding them, God has given you this new life.

Now you have to put away the behaviors that belong to that old life.

And notice the order.

Peter doesn't say, hey, first get rid of your sins, get your life in order, get perfect, and then God will love you, then he'll accept you.

No, he doesn't do that.

He says, Man, God loves you and he's given you this gift of grace.

So now that you've been redeemed, you actually become a new person.

But now that you are that new person, you have to live like you've been made new.

Believers in the room.

This is something all of us can relate to.

When we've made that confession of following Christ, it wasn't like we woke up that next morning, we're like, oh perfection.

I'm sinless.

This is amazing.

I should walk on water.

No, what happens is the struggle because you wake up and you're like, I don't feel different.

I'm still, I still remember the old me.

But I'm new, I've been born again, but I'm still me.

How does this work?

And that's what we call sanctification.

It's a process, a journey.

It doesn't happen in an instant.

Justification happens in an instant.

Your salvation happens in a moment.

When you come to that authentic confession of Christ, where you go, Jesus, you are Lord, I need you, I believe in you, and you accept Him, you're justified.

And God says, You are now righteous in my eyes, not because of anything you did, but because of what I did for you.

But this journey of becoming holy, that's what sanctification is, that's a journey.

That's a lifetime.

That's us day in and day out having to live into the new creation that we are and not continue to put on the old ways.

And look at what the what Peter names malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander.

What do all these things have in common?

Every single one of them has the potential to damage relationships.

So this list is specific.

Peter didn't just pull five random things, he picked five things that destroy relationships.

And so he's calling the church, these Christians, he's saying, hey, listen, you have to make sure you're not doing this.

Because malice, it desires harm rather than another person's good.

Deceit destroys trust.

Hypocrisy hides what really is happening behind a false appearance.

Envy resents the good someone else receives.

Slander tears down another person's reputation.

So Peter is calling out the way people treat one another, especially Christians.

He's like, Christians, man, if you if nothing changes, because again, many of these people were Gentiles, he goes, if you go to these Gentile areas and nothing's different, they'll never see Christ in you.

So we cannot show the world the new way of life while clinging to the habits of our old one.

We cannot proclaim that Jesus has made us a family while allowing jealousy and slander to tear that family apart.

We talk about God's grace while refusing to extend grace to each other.

Church, this is what hurts churches.

This is why the term church split is a thing.

We, you know, you hear stories about a church that that became two, and you're like, why did you guys split?

Was it theological?

Like, did they stop declaring Christ as Lord?

And they're like, no, they put the hat hooks on the other side.

Excuse me?

Yeah, we used to walk in the doors and the hat hooks were on the left, and now they're on the right.

I can't worship here.

There are legitimate reasons why a church can become unhealthy, why you shouldn't be a part of that body anymore.

But I'll say there are many more less important reasons that people choose to leave a church.

Our relationships are a part of our witness.

And that's why this truth still matters for us.

Our community does not only encounter Jesus through sermons, it's not just about what I'm doing up here, it's not just about what the worship uh leads us into, the songs.

No, it's it's the witness of how we treat each other.

People who come into this building, they're looking like, are we friendly?

Right?

Because the world wants to say the church is not friendly.

Again, I grew up with that belief.

The church is uh is a scary, angry place.

So when they walk through a new person, maybe for the first time, are they experiencing that?

Did anybody welcome them?

Did anybody say hello?

Did someone make an effort to come and greet them?

Did someone uh invite them to coffee or lunch or anything like that?

And and not just not just that, but how are they treating each other?

Do they even like each other?

People are are watching.

So if we're not intentional about our relationship with Jesus, those old ways, they will start to find their home in our lives again.

So Peter is warning them, hey, look, they're habits for a reason, right?

Because you did them for so long, they just became a normal rhythm of your life.

He's saying, but don't let them become that again.

Develop the new habits that we're called to.

So for Peter, it's not just about removing these bad things, but it's about also what we need to do.

So, verse two, he tells us, like newborn infants long for pure spiritual milk, that by it they may grow up into salvation.

So, think about a newborn baby.

I love that Peter uses this illustration here.

He says, You don't have to convince, you don't have to convince a newborn, right, to that nourishment matters.

So you don't have to sit there and give them a lecture when the baby is born.

This is why you want to eat.

I'm not saying that all babies naturally eat easily.

It sometimes is a challenge.

But when a baby is hungry, you know.

They're not just sitting back like, I'm really hungry.

They're like, ah, I either went to the bathroom, need a nap, or I'm hungry.

And as a previous baby, hunger was my number one.

And it really stuck with me.

So Peter uses this imagery because we can all relate to it.

He's like, you Christians are like that child.

You need nourishment, you just need it, and you have to have it.

And that's what's going to happen if you're gonna mature in your relationship.

You need that kind of urgency, that desire.

You need to pursue God with that same kind of like, oh, I have to have it.

Now he's not telling us to remain spiritually immature because other places in scripture, Paul uses the example of milk as a sign of immaturity.

That's not what Peter's doing here.

He's using it to recognize our dependence.

Just as a newborn cannot grow without nourishment, a follower of Jesus cannot grow without being nourished by God.

So in this immediate context, it points us back to God's living and enduring word.

So, church, we need scripture.

We need to hear the gospel, we need worship and prayer and instruction.

We are filling our lives every single day.

We're filling it with stuff.

And a lot of us we're filling it with what?

Our phones.

We're just scrolling.

And we're just filling our ourselves.

Are we filling ourselves with the word of God?

Really, if we were to say this is the most important thing.

And I know that some of you are like, I try, I really do try.

But it's like the Nyquel of books.

I start reading, and then it's just like I get it.

It is hard.

If you just were to like, oh, I'm just gonna start, oh, Ezekiel 41, you're doomed.

Not saying that God's word is not living in that, it is powerful.

You could randomly open it up, and a verse could speak to you and change your life.

But I'm saying, if you're looking to be consistently nourished and you have to develop a rhythm, start in the Gospels and read them.

Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And then guess what?

If you finish, read them again and do it again and again and again, and then all of a sudden you'll start gaining confidence.

You're like, okay, that's it.

I'm reading Acts.

And the next thing you know, you're just gonna keep going.

But fill yourself with this.

We need it.

We need the Holy Spirit to keep forming us.

He continues in verse 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, so he echoes Psalm 34:8, and he says, This is the motivation for believers.

Psalms 34:8

And notice the motivation is not guilt, like some of our parents did to us.

No, the motivation is grace.

He says, You have experienced the goodness of God by the grace of Jesus.

And so he says, that is the motivation.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, church.

As a non-believer who became a believer, I didn't realize I was starving until I encountered Jesus.

The Bible was just some holy book to me.

We owned one, it collected dust on a shelf, it balanced on a house of cards, but I never opened it, I never read it, I never desired it.

And then I gave my life to Jesus and I realized I'm starving for this.

I need it, I need it to fill my life.

I want to read it, I want to consume it, I want to understand it.

And that's what Peter says.

When you have that encounter with the living God, when Jesus comes to you, you realize you taste and see the goodness of who he is.

You know what mercy has done for you.

Now keep coming to him, keep receiving his word, keep allowing him to change the way you live.

And I understand the challenge that we all find ourselves in.

We all have things that we have to let go of.

And whatever it is, whatever that thing is for you, no matter how long you have been wrestling with it, bring it to Jesus.

Confess it, turn from it, receive his grace and let his word reshape your life.

Now, if you just said to yourself, well, I've already done that.

Because some of you have.

Some of you said, Pastor, that's not new.

I have something I've been struggling with for decades.

I don't know if I can ever get rid of it.

I don't know.

I'm sick and tired.

I feel like Jesus doesn't love me anymore because he's getting tired of me doing the same sin again and again.

I don't know what to do.

This is what you do.

You bring it to Jesus, you confess it, and you repent.

You turn from it.

I did that and I failed.

Let me tell you bring it to Jesus.

I confess it, I turn from it.

But I did that and then I failed.

Bring it to Jesus.

I confess it.

Turn you can't do it enough.

Because our God is faithful, his mercies are new every day.

Some

Of you are in a place where you're like, I'm just a disappointment to Jesus.

And our Jesus is saying, stop talking like that.

You're not.

You're my beloved.

I have made you righteous.

You didn't make yourself righteous.

My desire is for you to continue to be shaped into my likeness.

That means you have to bring your junk back to me again and again.

Keep bringing it.

Jesus' hands are never going to get full from us.

He's going to continue to give us that grace and mercy.

So don't stop.

Keep bringing it.

Keep allowing him to transform your life.

Because our lives should make Jesus visible.

And that begins with letting Jesus change us.

Peter shifts now from the individual life of the believer to the life of the whole church.

Verse 4.

He says, As you come to him, a living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious.

So Peter is describing Jesus here, and he uses unusual language.

He calls Jesus a living stone.

Now what's neat is the Greek word for stone here is stone.

So an ordinary stone.

The significance here is not some hidden meaning in the word itself.

He is not dead.

And so Peter says Jesus is the living foundation of what God is building.

So Jesus is this living stone, and the church is going to be built upon Jesus.

And Peter says, Jesus was rejected by people, but chosen and precious to God.

That sounds familiar because Peter in chapter one called us chosen exiles.

So now he shows us that the identity, this identity, comes from Jesus Himself.

So us as chosen ones come because Jesus Himself was chosen.

Jesus was rejected by people, yet chosen by God.

And as we come to him, we become part of the people God is building.

Verse 5 says, You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Notice how Peter doesn't say that every Christian is supposed to become their own separate little building.

He doesn't say, hey, you're going to be your own one stone church.

That's not what he says.

He says, you are living stones being built together into one spiritual house.

A single stone is not a whole house.

It has a place, it has a purpose, but it belongs in the building.

And in Peter's day, this image would have been powerful for them because there was a building that represented the presence and holiness of God, and that was the temple in Jerusalem.

And so now Peter's using that imagery to say, that is you.

You are the holy place where God resides.

And so here are these Christians scattered across Asia Minor, many of whom had little status in their culture.

And he tells them that God is building them together into his own spiritual house.

In other words, God's presence, his purpose are not confined to one impressive building in one location.

But through Jesus, God is making his people into a living community devoted to him.

Oh, I hope this changes the way we perceive church.

Church is not simply a place where individuals come to worship and receive a service for an hour, then go home.

And many of us, we still hold to that because you're here right now sitting in a chair.

And you're like, TikTok, Pastor, lunch is coming.

This is not church.

This is us coming together as a community of believers, getting equipped in the word, filled with the Spirit, so we can go out and live the rest of the week, the calling that God has given us.

This church right here, this is a building.

You are the church.

Do you know if all of us left and never came back, this would just still be a building?

But we, we here, we're what will make the church a church.

We have the living spirit within us.

The church is a people that Jesus has joined together for his purpose and for his presence.

And Peter says this community is built on one foundation, and that's Jesus.

He'll continue on in verses 6 to 8, and he brings three Old Testament passages about a stone together.

From Isaiah 28, he says God establishes his chosen cornerstone.

From Psalm 118, the stone rejected by the builders becomes the chief stone.

And from Isaiah 8, the stone that becomes a stumbling stone to those who reject God's word.

So all three stones from the Old Testament point back to Jesus.

He is the decisive stone in God's building, meaning that if you go to a church and there's no Jesus, it's not a church.

Because Jesus is the stone, the cornerstone.

He's the thing that the church is built upon.

Now, if uh you happen to have an older translation of the scripture, uh, some Bibles will actually translate Psalm 118 22.

Instead of saying the word cornerstone, they'll say capstone.

And I know we have a Bible study here who met and were like, hey, what does my Bible say cornerstone, capstone?

Uh, and why is that difference here?

Um, the reason for that is that uh when they're translating that Hebrew word, it can be translated into two of the archle uh architectural stones that they have.

A cornerstone is a foundational stone that helps support the foundation of the whole building.

A capstone is a stone you put on top when you're finished.

Both can represent Christ.

Christ is the finishing stone that makes all things complete, and he's the foundation stone that all things are built upon.

So this the difference in translation was not to create some kind of division in the text.

Um, it's just a way for someone to try to say Jesus is the main part.

He is the one.

That is the point Peter's trying to make here.

He's not trying to come up with some division about the different stones.

What he's trying to say is Jesus is that stone.

He is the foundation that the church is built upon.

So the cornerstone image particularly emphasizes that Jesus is the foundation around whom God's people are being built.

So everything must be aligned with Jesus.

Our beliefs, our relationships, our leaderships, our priorities, our mission, our worship, how we treat others, all of that should be in alignment with Jesus.

Because Jesus is not simply one important part of the church, by the way.

Jesus is by whom the whole church is built upon.

And that's what Peter's entire command becomes about, is that we have to make sure that we don't lose Christ because these Gentiles are surrounded by Gentile worship and pagan worship, kind of like what we live today.

And so he's saying, if you're not careful, if Jesus is not the center of your life, it's easy to start to fill your life with these other things, to start to absorb and assimilate with those things.

And Peter's like, you can't do that.

The church has to remain together.

So we cannot allow our old selves to damage what God is building.

Then Peter tells us what living community has been made to do.

So verse 9, he says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own per possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light.

So Peter is using Old Testament covenant language here for the church.

See, in Exodus 19, uh, Israel was being delivered by God out of Egypt, and God calls his nation, and he tells them that you are my treasure possession, a kingdom of priests.

So that's what God said about the Israelites.

And now Peter applies that same calling to the Christian church.

And he says, You guys have been gathered around Jesus, not because you were superior, not because you earned it, but because God has shown us mercy.

Verse 10 says, Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Mercy is what made us a people for God.

And God gives his people a purpose.

Going back to the second half of verse 9, that said, You may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

What I love is this is an announcement, it's a declaration to make known.

Peter is telling us that God has made us his people so that we will make God known.

Notice what we are called to proclaim, by the way.

We proclaim the goodness of the one who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Our story is a testimony to his mercy.

Now, I've been in ministry a while now, and one thing I've encountered over and over is people say, Oh, Pastor, I love that you were called to this.

You you just you share in a way that makes sense for people.

I could never wrong.

Every single one of you, every single one of you have a calling, a testimony.

That's your story.

God's given it to you, and it's unique.

And now here's the power of that.

When you share your story, you are allowing for an opportunity for someone to be reached that maybe no one else could reach because you were willing to share.

And that's hard because oftentimes we feel like, well, I don't want to mess up.

What if they asked to follow Jesus?

How am I supposed to lead them in that?

I've never done that before.

That's why we do it here every week.

So you can absorb and learn.

And here's the thing: in the end, just trust the Spirit.

God says He'll give you the words.

But your testimony is powerful and it should point people to Jesus.

So we don't just proclaim Jesus with our words, we reflect Jesus through the way we live together and both matter.

Peter now brings everything together as he had told he has told believers to put away the habits of their old life.

He has told them that Jesus is building them together into his people, and he has reminded them that they have been called out of darkness and into light.

And now he says this in verse 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

He gets it.

You're living as aliens.

Man, and I want to encourage you to abstain from the passions of the flesh.

Their temptations are going to be everywhere.

And they're going to wage war against your soul.

So I want to remind you who you are.

Your identity is in Jesus.

And because of that, Peter urges them to resist sinful desires that wage war against them.

So, church, we can resist.

And I know some of you you're just like, oh, but it's really hard.

It is really hard.

And yet God says, I will provide a way for you.

Now, Peter doesn't end there.

He gives us verse 12, which gives us this public purpose of our lives.

He says, Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

So Peter is saying, Hey, listen, you have to live honorably.

And here's why, because the world is going to look at your life and then they're going to they're going to speak evil against you.

They're going to do and say things that are not true.

But if you're living honorably, your life will be your defense.

And it'll actually point people to the glory of God.

How amazing is that that your faithfulness, your daily obedience, your commitment to following Jesus could be the thing that when someone comes to accuse you or speak evil against you, becomes the actual thing that points them to the goodness of God.

And notice what Peter says here.

Peter does not tell Christians to disappear from the world.

He does not tell them to isolate themselves from everyone who thinks differently.

He tells them to live honorably, honorably among their neighbors.

So that means, church, we're not just called to get in our car, drive home, and lock our door.

And be like, whoo, made it.

The world didn't get me today.

We're called to be in this world, but he says, But while you're in it, live honorably.

No, so they can know who God is through your life at home, at work, at school, in our neighborhoods, in our community, among people who may not believe what we believe, among people who may not understand why we follow Jesus.

So why do we do this?

Again, so that when they speak evil against you as evildoers, you may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

So these Christians are spread around, living in these Gentile communities, and it would be very easy for them to just assimilate.

It'd be very easy for them just to do what everyone else is doing.

And who's going to know?

Probably not Peter.

He's not going to be traveling around Asia Minor, checking in all the time.

So they very easily could do this.

But Peter knows and warns them and gives him this instruction because he knows what good can come of it.

So he does not promise them that honorable conduct will eliminate every accusation.

Instead, he says Jesus himself was accused.

But guess what?

We get to live in a way where people can see.

So, in other words, the world may not agree with what you believe, but it should be able to see the goodness of the one that you believe in.

Now, this is not a call to perform for people, it's a call to live faithfully before God.

Jesus taught us this same principle in Matthew 5.16.

Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Now, notice where the glory goes.

To the Father in heaven, not to us.

I don't know about you, but I like glory.

It feels good.

Church, we don't do this so people will recognize us.

We do it because we want to make God visible in our lives.

So live out your testimony because you never know when someone's going to see your life and say, there's something different there.

I want to know more.

It's not always going to happen through a sermon or through a worship song.

Sometimes it's going to happen in your sphere of influence.

So before we wrap this up, I also want to say, don't get caught up in the idea of perfection either.

Because some of you you're like, if I'm not perfect, I'm not good.

Your repentance is a part of your testimony.

Your failure can be the thing that brings someone in.

Now, is that an excuse?

Pastor said we can go fail.

No.

What I'm saying is God will use every part of your life, even the thing you think I'm ashamed of that.

God can use it to bring someone in to see his goodness.

Because imagine the person who doesn't have the hope of Christ, who's struggling with that very sin, going, There's no hope for me, there's no life for me, there's no purpose for me, and then they meet you and you go, I too struggled with that.

But here it is, here's where God has brought me.

You too can have that hope.

It's powerful.

So I want to leave you with this question.

If someone watched the way you live this past week, would they have learned about Jesus?

Or another way to rephrase that is this if you were put on trial for being a follower of Jesus, would they have enough evidence to convict you?

If someone encountered Eagle Hills Church for the first time, what would they learn about Jesus from the way we live together?

Our goal is not to make people say, What an impressive church.

Woo, stained glass, we've been missing that.

No, our hope is that they would see the love and goodness of Jesus and they would see it through his people.

So we started with the illustration of a restaurant.

Right?

What's your sign say?

And is it backed up by the way you live?

Can people look at your life and see the God of goodness and grace through you and how you're living?

So this week ask yourself, what do I need to put away?

What do I need to grow and how can I help build the people up that God has placed around me?

Ultimately, we want to make Jesus visible in our lives.

So this morning, I want to give an opportunity for those of you who maybe you came here and you've heard this name Jesus repeated from my mouth over and over, but you've never surrendered to him as Lord and Savior.

Because there's a difference.

You can know about Jesus, right?

You could have facts about Jesus.

Guess what?

You could even kind of believe Jesus existed.

Those were all things Satan believes, by the way.

Satan believes in Jesus.

Satan believes that he's the Son of God.

Satan knows that he lived and died and rose again.

You know the difference?

Satan will never surrender his life to him.

He'll never bow down.

He'll never receive him as Lord.

But this morning, if you're here and you've never done that, you can.

You can say yes.

You can come and see.

You can taste and see that the Lord is good this morning.

And here's the hope I want to give you.

It's not about you being perfect.

It's not about you getting your life together.

It's about you responding to the spirit that's working inside of you.

Because if you were like me, sitting there hearing the good news that there's a God who loves you, who gave his son as a sacrifice so you could be made righteous in in front of a holy God, and something's turning in you're like, whoa, I feel it, but I'm not gonna say anything.

That means God is inviting you to respond to him.

I felt it and I said, I have to say yes to this.

So right here, right now, right as you are in your seat, not before you get perfect, right now, you can say yes to Jesus and receive his free gift of grace.

And what that does, the Bible says, you are now a new creation.

You're born again.

You are now part of the family of God, you've been justified.

It says this in scripture, you've been imputed with the righteousness of Christ.

That means you're wrapped.

So let me paint this picture.

That means if you were to die this moment and you're now standing before holy God, he's not gonna look at your life and be like, uh, well, let's see here.

Sin, sin, sin, sin, sin.

Oh, you did a good thing for your grandma, okay, that's good.

He's not, it's just he's like, hey, you're guilty, you're sinful, but you have the righteousness of my son around you.

Welcome in, good and faithful servant.

Not based off of anything you did, but what Christ did for you.

You accepted it, you received it, so now you have it for eternity.

And now the journey begins.

So if that's you today, there's no magical prayer.

You just receive in your heart, you say yes to Jesus, you believe that he was God, that he lived and died and rose again, and that's it.

Then you begin this journey of living life as a part of the family of God.

Let's pray.

Jesus, I thank you for the the sacrifice of your son, Lord, that you loved us so much.

You gave everything so that we could be in right relationship with you.

And now, God, we have an opportunity to live out that response, to be transformed by that grace in our lives.

And so, Jesus, I I repent from where we fail, God.

I say, Lord, forgive us over and over again.

And yet, Lord, I pray that people would see this body and see your son.

Lord, we just thank you for the continued mercies that are new on us every day.

Thank you for loving us, thank you for transforming our lives, and we pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.