Thrive: Living For God's Values

1 Peter gives us hope in the midst of all our life on earth by:

Looking back at the great salvation God had accomplished for them

Looking forward to the future inheritance that awaits them

Persevere, living holy and Christlike in response to wickedness and be a witness to the unbelieving world.

1 Peter 3:10–12“For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””

Last Week we saw how to Thrive by establishing our identity in Christ, looking to him as our savior and giver of identity. No one else can give you what only he can - identity.

As we will see today: personal devotion, time of worship with Jesus, and meditation/study of His Word is absolutely integral to looking to him for daily grace, mercy, and strength.

When we fail to maintain a disciplined thriving devotional life with Jesus, inevitably we will stop preaching the gospel to ourselves and preach something different that moves us away from God’s given identity and values we are to live for.

Today we are looking at how to Thrive by Living For God’s Values

Roman Bridges: good for walking and carts over but not for big trucks.

It may work for a while until enough pressure is applied and the bridges collapse. Much like the values we build our lives on.

Rome is an excellent example.

They attempted to build the empire and it’s values on the governing elite. That failed and eventually moved to building their values on the gods and cultic religion, that inevitably failed because the gods were finite and were unable to provide the depth necessary for the complexity of human life. This led to self-interest over-riding social interest leading to totalitarianism because of the social unrest that occured.

Rome had syncretism and relativism, much like today. Christians had truth. They believed that God spoke in a way that people could understand and build their lives and values from His Word. For Christians, there were no other gods and this was something the totalitarian state could not tolerate. The Christian values were directly opposed to Rome’s social values.

In fact, Christians were not killed because they worshipped Jesus. No one in Rome cared who worshipped who as long as the unity of the state was maintained with worship of the emperor. They were killed because of who they did not worship, they were killed because their values differed from society.

Christian’s believed in universal absolute values by which to live by.

Christianity became legal in 313 under Constantine, then the official religion in 381… it became cool to become a Christian. (Desert fathers)

Apathy crept in.

Art was especially affected and got worse.

People cared more about their social life than they did their intellectual life.

Roman economy slumped lower due to costly government programs, inflation. As less and less people were inclined to work, the state took over more and more responsibilities which meant more freedoms were lost. Romans were conquered not by an invading force but from interior rottenness because they build an empire and humanistic values.

Humanistic values like the old roman bridges collapse under pressure.

Christians were able to stand and resist the breakdown because they began with God instead of themselves.

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Thriving means we:

Minds alert and fully sober: cognitive readiness, living with the Lord’s coming in mind. Including the recognition that all must give account for their works which gives us the proper present perspective that evaluates everything in light of it’s eternal significance.

What we do, what we think as valuable in light of eternity.

Be Holy: As children follow their parents and imitate them naturally, we are to conform our lives to God and His values (what is important to him) and desires (what he wants us to chase after and crave).

It follows that the biggest essential, is knowing God, knowing what he is like. Looking to Christ as he modeled service, humility, and love and what it looked like to be a son who depended on his father.

This a life consecrated to God, set apart, special for His use. To be consecrated does not simply imply attending church regularly and giving tithes (Fraternities require that). That is absolutely good and necessary for a thriving life but consecration involves the entirety of our life, everyday and all our resources belong to God who redeemed us in the midst of our secular environments; I am set apart for God’s use wherever I am… Firstly to minister to him. We are ambassadors and show the world Kingdom Godly Values.

A goal we see in Peter with this lifestyle is that our honorable lifestyle will win over non-believers.

Live out your time as foreigners in reverent fear: Reverent fear implies present consciousness and awareness of the reign of Jesus as King, not fear as if he is a tyrant.

Peter reminds us of our identity, considering that we are foreigners we carry different values than the pervading culture. We do not belong to the world’s systems and its values.

And because we are belonging to another master, another realm, another kingdom: we should make use of our time with wisdom and in light of our eternal future hope

Empty Life: Peter reminds us of our old way of life, it was the opposite of thriving, it was empty. Now you have purpose, now you can thrive!

Your value: Peter reminds us of our own value. Value in God’s estimation is based off of what lasts. (We can be so busy investing in things that don’t last, like the temporal pleasures of sin).

We were redeemed with a priceless value - your worth to God.

We have been born by the eternal, imperishable seed of God’s Word. (That is your heritage)

Don’t miss the implication of this: seeds produce after their own kind. The essence and nature of the thing that grows is in the seed. We must re-calibrate our values, live holy, because of our new nature. It is who we are, we have God’s nature within us. We are His true children!

Recap:

You are valuable because of what God paid for you, and new identity

Your old life was worthless

Live as a foreigner in light of eternity

Be Holy and consecrated to God

Engage the mind

Here are 3 practical moves to make from Peter on living with these Godly values to Thrive!

The highest expression of obeying the truth (believing the truth) is to love one another.

This is consistent with Jesus’ teaching: John 13:34–35 ““A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.””

No where else in the world did the supremacy of this virtue called love characterize an entire movement.

This love is without hypocrisy, in other words, it is genuine, not faked. Not pretending to love in front of their face then gossiping about them behind their back.

It’s about truly willing the good and best for them.

A hypocrite originally designated actors in the theater. Hypocrisy for us would be denying our true convictions and acting like the world, which we are not. Not because we aren’t doing what we say but because we aren’t doing who we are.

His new nature within us empowers us to love as he loves.

Which means: we must rid ourselves of some things.

We reject vices and behaviors on the basis of our new identity in Christ. We “put off”

The list of sins explicitly denote what hurts or stops love from happening.

Malice: Evil/Wickedness

Deceit: Trickery or lying: exaggerations to make yourself look better in the eyes of others because you don’t trust in the goodness and greatness of the Father enough to speak the unvarnished truth.

Acts of hypocrisy: the opposite of sincerity.

Slander: shaming others to look good or better.

Envy/Jealousy: The big sin that destroys and reveals NO LOVE.

Proverbs 14:30 “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”

Thread throughout scripture:

Cain

Rachel

Korah and the rebellion against Moses

Saul

Pharisees

Jesus’ parable of the workers who were paid the same with different amounts of labor.

Envy says I want what they have and since I don’t have it, hatred rises towards those that do.

Envy says “it’s not fair that they always get the breaks, they always get the best, it always happens for them and not me!”

Social Media

It refuses to be grateful to the sovereign God for what he has given us and wants more. More not for the sake of glorifying God but for the sake of having more than someone else. Better than someone else. Prettier than others, more successful than others. It can’t help but compare.

Paul said: Love does not envy.

When we envy someone we rejoice with their weeping and weep with their rejoicing.

We are to rejoice with those who rejoice.

Grow with Milk

God is the source of the milk.

The milk is pure without deceit

Crave it, not only desire but implies need.

Infants need to learn, and milk was often used to represent learning.

Spiritual: logikos better translated as “mind engaging”, literally rational/logic. Goes back to Peter telling us to gird the loins of our mind. We must mature cognitively, the nourishment is rational and The Word is the substance of true reason and logic.

The same gospel that initiated them by a new birth now nurtures them in maturing in the new life.

This is how the indicative is carried out in our imperatives.

Taste: a child is bonded with the mother once tasting her milk.

Maturation depends on ingesting more of the same message and enjoying the presence and relationship of your Father.

Personal devotion, time of worship with Jesus, and meditation/study of His Word is absolutely integral to looking to him for daily grace, mercy, and strength.