Somebody’s Watching Us
Living – Hope part 6
1 Peter 2:11, 12, 24, 25
You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. – Matthew 5:14-16
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
– Phil 2:14-16
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. – 1 Peter 2:11,12
Prayer
2,000 years ago…
PETER - you know the guy who left everything to follow Jesus.
PETER – the guy who walked on water and made the great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God…
PETER – the guy who preached boldly to thousands at the Temple on the day of Pentecost – telling the convicted crowd to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins and the guy who sank into the crashing waves when he took his eyes off Jesus.
PETER - the guy who loved Jesus so much and loved the church so much – that he literally gave his life - crucified upside down.
YEAH…
2000 years ago
PETER - the guy who had a knowledge of, a relationship with and access to Jesus that is unparallel in all of human history…
GRABBED - a pen and paper and wrote a letter to a bunch of believers who were taking some major hits in their lives…
A LETTER - (of living-hope) to men, women and children who were suffering greatly under the Roman empire, and who were finding it hard to hang on under the weight of their present circumstances…
A LETTER – that contained God-breathed words that every Jesus-follower need to hear.
MGCC/Fellow Jesus-followers
IF PETER – were in this room today, he would look each of us in the eye and say…
God the Father chose you
God the Son died for you
God the Spirit lives in you
AND BECAUSE – of His great mercy…
• You have been a new birth into a living-hope
• You have an inheritance in heaven
• The power of the star breathing God is protecting you
• You are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy as you receive the salvation of your souls.
YES
PETER – would look us each in the eye and that because of God’s great mercy we have (as Mark and Bob shared last week, wow they did an awesome job)… we have a new identity… once we were not a people NOW we are the people of God.
PEOPLE – who have been brought out of darkness into His wonderful light.
PEOPLE – who have built their lives on Christ… the solid, sure, eternal, living and enduring cornerstone….
YES PETER – would look each of us in the eye (with a gleam in His own) and say, “Man, I hope you are as pumped as I am about being the people of God.
PEOPLE – called and empowered to (be, look, and live) like Him.
PEOPLE – called to be holy – to swim upstream.
And Pete would say… because of all this you NOW have an incredible opportunity… which brings us to where the Word will take us today. THIS MORNING – (June 1… day 151 of the year 2014, which means we still have 214 days left) we will begin looking at a section of 1 Peter (1 Peter 2:11-3:22) that I am calling…
Somebody’s Watching Us
AND - the theme verse for this section is 1 Peter 2:12 – where Peter says to me and to you…
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. – 1 Peter 2:12
UNDERSTAND – what Peter is telling us – (exiles on a mission for Christ in a world that is not our home)… is that somebody is watching us.
Remember as our Savior King said - we are the salt of the earth – we are the light of the world… we are like stars shining in the sky as we LIVE OUT the word of life.
AND LISTEN – whether people like it or not… salt and light have a way of attracting attention…
This needs more salt
This has too much salt
Who turned on/off the light
TIM/LAURIE - somebody’s watching us!
HEY - tell the person sitting next to you… “somebody is watching you…”
QUESTION
Who is watching us?
The unbelieving world.
AND WHY – are they watching?
BECAUSE…
• They are hungry
• They are thirsty
• They are made in God’s image, create to live in relationship with Him
• They know that there has to be more then this…
AND SO – they are watching us…TO SEE - if our walk matches our talk… TO SEE - if there is alignment-agreement, between what we say and what we do.
YES - the world is watching us,
they’re watching you,
they’re watching me
they’re watching The Grove
and they’re wondering…
• Do we make difference?
• Do we hold out hope?
• Do we spread the gospel of Jesus Christ?
• Do we feed the hungry?
• Do we clothe the poor?
• Do we take care of the less fortunate?
• Do we administer first aid to wounded souls?
• Do we do CPR on broken hearts?
• Do we give w/o agendas
• Do we serve gladly with the joy of the Master?
• Do we walk with integrity?
• Are we clothed with humility?
• Do we live out what they claim to believe?
• Do we leak at the seams with an inexpressible, glorious and contagious joy?
• Do we love the unlovely
• Do we love our families?
• Do we love each other?
• Do our love our God?
• Do we love them?
Are we for real!
MAPLE GROVE…
Somebody’s watching us….
AND – what they see…
AND MAKE – no mistake about it, they will see…
IN FACT – go ahead and CIRCLE those 3 words in your notes…
they will see…
NOW - the word translated see is from a Greek word that means; to look upon, to be an eye witness of; to observe intently…
BOTTOM LINE - the world sees our light
The world notices our salt
The world is watching us…
AND – what they see when they look at us…
HAS - the potential.
HAS – the power…to move them to believe and surrender their lives to God and come home to Him…
they will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us
UNDERSTAND – the point God wants each of us to get this morning (I mean it’s why He brought us here)
is that since people are watching us
(and understand they have been, they are and they will continue to watch us - and there is nothing we can do about it)…
WE NEED - to use it as an opportunity to influence them to: believe in God – accept His message – come to His Son – receive His Forgiveness… SO THAT - they will not have to face a Christ-less eternity. AND LISTEN – nothing brings God more Glory than that!
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. – 1 Peter 2:12
QUESTION…
MGCC
Does it matter how we live?
Does it matter what the unbelieving world sees as the watch us/you?
ANSWER
MORE - than we know.
Checkout what God had Paul write to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16…
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Watch what?
Why?
Tim/Laurie – somebody’s watching us…
AND – in this God breathed section of first Peter that we are going to begin looking at today (1 Peter 2:11-3:22), we will see that…
They are watching us TO SEE, how we…
1. Handle temptation and sin
2. React to authority
3. Behave in our marriages
4. Respond to suffering
5. Deal with conflict and to see
6. Where we have placed our hope…
NOW THIS MORNING - we are only going to tackle the first one, which is - the world is watching us to see how we handle temptation and sin…
UNDERSTAND – the way we live out our faith outside of these 4 walls as Jesus followers can either advance or severely hinder the spread of the Gospel…
IN FACT – they way we live out our faith can cause people to reject, and not even consider the message of Christ or His church to begin with?
IN - his book (‘the unstoppable force, daring to be the church God had in mind) Erwin McManus writes;
“The diminishing influence of the American church in American society is not simply because fewer people are going to church, BUT fewer people are going to church because of the diminishing influence of Christ on the church itself… We accuse them of not being willing to surrender to God; they accuse us of not knowing Him. People are rejecting Christ because of the church! Once we were called Christians by an unbelieving world, and now we call ourselves Christians and the world calls us hypocrites..”
Man, the stings a little, doesn’t it?
BUT LISTEN – beginning today June 1, 2014…
GOD – through the Words of His servant Peter, is going to reverse that flow at His Church that meets at 3210 Proffit Rd.
YOU SEE – Peter is going to tell us how we can turn the reality that we are being watched into an INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY to lead people back to The Father.
SURE – the unbelieving word may want to call us hypocrites, hate-mongers and unloving…
HOWEVER – as they see us live our lives… as they see
1. Handle temptation and sin
2. React to authority
3. Behave in our marriages
4. Respond to suffering
5. Deal with conflict
6. AND - where we have placed your hope…
YEAH – but those people at The Grove sure live some pretty good and awesome lives…
OKAY – let me read our text again… and it is 1 Peter 2:11,12 and 23-25…
AND LISTEN – in these 5 verses Peter gives us 5 guys to overcoming sin and temptation…
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. – 1 Peter 2:11,12
He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds! Once you were wandering like lost sheep. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Overseer of your souls.”
- 1 Peter 2:24,25
OKAY – MGCC let’s do this.
IF – we want to overcome sin and temptation we need to…
#1…
I. Remember Who We Are
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires…
Dear friends…
Actually what we have here is a form of the word ‘agape’
Beloved…
Loved by who? By Peter, and by…
God the Father, who chose and adopted you,
God the Son, who died for you
God the Spirit, who lives in you
I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires…
NOW - this is the 3rd time in this letter that Peter reminds his readers and us that we are not of this world – that our citizenship, our home, our country is in a different place, is in heaven.
YOU SEE - we are just passing through.
NOW – I have not traveled much, but I have been to a few other countries…
Portugal, England, Mexico, China, Bangladesh… (West Virginia)
AND – I gotta to tell it was probably pretty obvious that I was not from any of those places.
AND – it was obvious to me that those places were not my home.
• IN ENGLAND – they drive on the other side of the road (almost got killed crossing the street).
• IN CHINA and BANGLEDESH – they use squatty potties.
• IN MEXICO – they did not flush the toilet paper but put it in a trash can…
BUT LISTEN – if you watch me today…
You will not see me driving on the left side of the road
Or using a squatty potty… and I am proud to say that I flushed all of my toilet paper this morning.
MGCC – if we are to overcome temptation and sin.
We must remember who we are.
We are loved by God and we are citizens of another Kingdom, the Kingdom of God…
This world is NOT our home…
AND LISTEN – since we are only visitors to this world - we are not to adopt the customs, habits or the lifestyles of those of the world.
YOU SEE- our lives are supposed to show that we are from a different place.
I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires…
Abstain - ‘keep a far distant from’
That is what Moses told God’s people in Dt 18…
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. – Dt 18:9
AND – what Paul told us in Rm 6…
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind… - Romans 12:1
UNDERSTAND – the people of this world live according to a different pattern. AND – because of this pattern, our world not only does not keep away from evil desires. INSTEAD - they embrace them, fed them and are controlled by them.
In Galatians 5 Paul paints a pretty graphic picture of how people live when they embrace evil desires…
“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
- Gal 5:19-21 (NLT)
MGCC…
THAT - is how the natives of this world live…
BUT AGAIN – we are from a different place…
HEY – have you ever heard the expression;
“when in Rome do as the Romans do.”
I think Peter would say it a little differently;
“when in Rome don’t do as the Romans do
because you’re not from Rome!”
I love how the message bible words 1 Peter 2:11…
“Friends, this world is not your home,
so don’t make yourself cozy in it…”
QUESTION…
How cozy are you in this world?
How cozy is the world with you?
Do fit – do you blend right in?
Do you do the same things those in the world do?
AND IF – our answers to those questions, leaned a little more to the left… checkout what Peter say a few verses later in this letter…
For you have spent enough time in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.
– 1 Peter 4:3
To overcome temptation and sin…
We need to
#1 – Remember who we are.
And #2
II. Remember Who Sin Is? Sin Is Your Enemy
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
CIRCLE - which wage war against your soul.
‘war’ – carries the idea of a military campaign. Understand we do not win one battle and the war is over… It is constant warfare and we must be always on guard.
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
MGCC
UNDERSTAND…
Regardless of how much we want to do it (and we do want to do it).
Regardless of how good it feels or how much fun it is.
SIN - is not our friend.
SIN - is our enemy.
SIN - is waging a war… and it’s target is our very soul…
NOW - God’s goal is the salvation of our soul…
(a salvation that gives us life and fills us with a glorious and inexpressible joy)…
The enemies goal is the destruction of your soul (which fills you with fear…
Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death.
- James 1:14,15
QUESTION – temptation comes from what? the lure of our own evil desires…
LISTEN – our real battle is not with the people around us, but with the passions within us…
“I have more trouble with D.L. Moody that with any man I know.”
- D.L. Moody
AGAIN – temptation comes from, the lure of our own evil desires…
AND – these evil desires lead to evil actions.
Which lead to what? They lead to death. Spiritual death. Separation from God forever…
AND GUYS – that’s a very ‘huge’ deal.
AGAIN – sin is our enemy… and it is waging war on our very souls…
The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it. – John Eldredge
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
AND – here’s the problem… some of us rather then keeping away from those evil desires… embrace them, run to them, fed them, water them… then we wonder why they are so big… and have such a strong hold over us…
NOW – Our King tried to warn us about this in John 8…
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. – John 8:34
BUT LISTEN…
WE NEED - to understand that temptation and sin do not tell us upfront that they are trying to destroy our soul when we first hook up…
I MEAN - they don’t shake our hand, give us a business card and say, “hey, nice to meet you, (Tim), I’m temptation this is my associate sin and we are here to mess you up… and destroy your soul…”
NO – they don’t work that way…
INSTEAD – they are cunning… sometimes quiet and unassuming by still very dangerous…
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour…
- 1 Peter 5:8
To overcome temptation and sin…
We need to
#1 – Remember who we are.
#2 – Remember who sin is.
And #3
III. Remember Our Purpose
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. – 1 Peter 2:11,12
QUESTION – what is our purpose as Jesus-followers…?
ANSWER – to live lives that bring glory to God and draw lost people to Him…
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your good deeds and glorify God
let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light…. – 1 Peter 2:9
NOW – we all know that the lives that many ‘Christians’ live… actually do the opposite… they don’t lead people to glorify God and surrender to him…
I have never forgotten the quote that is at the beginning of a song… by DC Talk called – ‘What If I Stumble, What if I Fall…’
“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and then walk out the door and deny Him with their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
BUT LISTEN – the opposite is also true…
UNDERSTAND – one the greatest causes of Jesus-followers
To overcome temptation and sin…
We need to
#1 – Remember who we are
#2 – Remember who sin is
#3 – Remember our purpose
YES – somebody’s watching you…
BUT – there is something else I need to tell you this morning as we wrap up and it is HUGE…
LOOK UP – Tim/Laurie – not only is somebody watching you… but somebody is watching over you…
A FEW – verses later in this letter Peter writes…
He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds! Once you were wandering like lost sheep. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Overseer of your souls.”
- 1 Peter 2:24,25
which brings us to the final key to overcoming sin and temptation
IV. Rely On His Grace and His Spirit
QUESTION – what can wash away our sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
UNDERSTAND – we can not overcome temptation and sin by relying on our own power…
He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross… You have been healed by his wounds!
We must rely on His grace…
And when I see His face the only claim I’ll make… this grace on which I stand…
His Blood is what covers our sin…
I-yes, I alone-will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again. - Is 43:25
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
– Ezk 36:26,27
Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to. – Phil 2:12,13
