Motivation

Trusting Jesus has to fundamentally change the trajectory of our lives

This is dangerous territory, I know, but I want to talk for just a second about Georgia and Alabama football.

I know just saying that, that some of your guns are already locked and loaded - but I think you’ll agree with me.

For a long time, the Georgia - Alabama rivalry was aggravating.

There were times that Alabama obviously had the superior team and deserved to win the game.

But there were times that Georgia obviously had the superior team but still didn’t win.

What caused that?

Lot’s of people have lots of ideas - and here is mine.

Georgia didn’t believe they could beat Alabama.

Georgia would play every other team in America like crazy men who knew they were going to win.

But put Alabama on the field, and they played like Jones County back in the day when every high school wanted us for their homecoming team.

It wasn’t superior coaching, although Nick Saban probably was one of the best football coaches ever.

It was belief.

When Alabama came to town, Georgia went from a team confident that they could beat everyone

To simply not being sure that they could beat anyone.

And that doubt caused them to lose.

So take that principle, that what you believe affects the outcome of your actions, and apply that to your faith.

Peter echos Paul when Paul tells us that we are more than conquerors in any circumstance of life.

And then we look at our lives and we go, “Well, obviously I’m doing someone wrong.”

I submit to you it’s not in our doing as much as it is in our believing.

What do we want the ultimate goal of our life to be?

Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1.

While you search for that, let me talk to the kids for a second.

Kids, everyone here wants you to trust Jesus as your Savior just as soon as you understand what that means.

Everyone wants to know that you are a child of God and you’ll live with Him forever.

And that’s a wonderful desire for us to have - it proves our love for you.

But I want you to go one step further.

After you are saved, I believe God wants you to think about Him before you do anything you do.

Before you join a ball team.

When you go to class - when you get ready for tests.

When you get ready to date

When you choose your career

Before you choose to do anything - you stop and ask, “will me doing this make Jesus happy?”

If the answer is yes, well do it.

If the answer is not, don’t.

Because at the very end of everything, our goal is to make God happy by the way we live our lives.

If you’ll listen closely today, you are going to hear God saying that to us.

So listen carefully for Jesus and what God wants for you, ok?

Everyone, having your Bibles open, hear now the Word of the Lord from 1 Peter 1:13-25

1 Peter 1:13–25 ESV

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Please pray with me:

Dear Father, the power is in Your Word.

May your Word Lord, cut us all to the quick, that we will repent

And once again claim the glory you extend to all of your children.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

Here is the gap that causes us to be disappointed in our faith

The gap is between verse 12 and verse 13.

In the first 12 verses, a very excited Peter tells us about our living hope that we have an inheritance stored up with God.

It’s not a wish, it’s not a dream.

It’s a living hope - an unrealized certainty - we can’t see it, but just like you can’t see the money in your 401k, you know it’s there.

He tells us that if we aren’t having hard times, we probably will have hard times.

But then he tells us that the hard times only make us stronger and make our faith more vibrant and alive

Furthering what he says in verse 9, 1 Peter 1:9 “obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

This is what we have been taught to believe

And it is what we believe

We echo perfectly with verse 8, 1 Peter 1:8 “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,”

The first 12 verses are easy to get excited about.

We have a living hope in the resurrected Jesus.

But the comes the gap between verses 12 and 13

It’s the pause at the end of the sentence where we get to take a deep breath

And sometimes, we don’t go to the next verse.

I believe in Jesus - that’s enough.

But verse 13 says that believe means a little something more.

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Therefore, based on all this good news I’m been telling you about.

Prepare your minds for action.

Literally, it says, “Gird the waist the mind” and some of you have heard this.

Back in the Greco-Roman era, everyone wore long robes.

If you were going to do some hard work, or run or do something really strenuous

A long robe is going to get in the way.

So they would pull the robe up between their legs and tie it all together

Basically turning their long robe into a pair of short pants.

Peter is saying to do that with our minds.

Make up our minds, listen, for action

To do something

Listen, we’ve said it before, we’ll say it again, if you say you have faith but it does not impact the way you live your life, you have no faith.

If we truly are Jesus followers, we have to make up our mind at some point to take action on that faith.

To get ready for action.

Being sober-minded Peter says.

Another word is self controlled.

I love the way Wayne Grudem explains this: “Be sober forbids not only physical drunkenness but also … letting the mind wander into any other kind of mental intoxication or addiction which inhibits spiritual alertness, or any laziness of mind which lulls Christians into sin through carelessness.”

Other mental intoxication.

I’ve heard people say she was boy crazy

He was girl crazy

They were money crazy

They were power crazy.

They are crazy about baseball, football, basketball, sports in general.

They are crazy about their jobs

They are crazy about their family.

Mentally intoxicated.

When we become crazy about something, it drives all of the oxygen out of the room for anything else.

Including our faith.

Listen to Peter again, 1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Set your hope fully what is coming at the end of the game.

Let that be your motivation; let that be your driver.

Years ago at Bellsouth we have a regional meeting.

Bellsouth always provided an open bar - as many free drinks as you wanted

One up and coming, very smart, young branch manager took advantage of the bar

And ended up in a conversation with the Vice President explaining to him how he was running things incorrectly.

She literally disappeared.

Her intoxication caused her to become short sighted.

She couldn’t keep the end in mind because she became crazy about her own ideas.

That’s Peter’s point.

Look at verses 14 & 15, 1 Peter 1:14–15 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,”

What is it we really want to do?

Well, what do obedient children want to do?

They want to make their parents happy.

So, what does a child of God truly, deeply want to do?

We want to make the Lord happy - that is our first and foremost desire.

Peter tells us two ways to do that.

First, don’t look back.

Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

The word passions there can also be rendered desires, lusts and cravings.

Peter isn’t dense, he’s lived it.

He knows that just because you followed Jesus doesn’t mean that everything that was attractive to you before becomes ugly.

Pretty girls are still pretty girls.

Lots of money will still buy you a fine truck.

Skipping Bible study and prayer will give you a few more minutes in your day to do something else.

The old passions should lose their lustre over time - but very often not right away.

So, remember verse 13, exercise some self-control and don’t look back.

Instead, live so you can be holy in all of your conduct.

When you look down to verse 16, you hear God saying, 1 Peter 1:16 “since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””

So, what Peter is saying is, don’t look back and yearn for the good old days.

But instead, look forward and make up your mind to act like God.

And that’s not as crazy as it sounds.

Think about Jesus for just a minute.

Jesus was God, right? Fully human, fully divine.

He came to earth in the form that He did so we could see how God acts.

So how did He act?

In Jesus’ dealings with other people, did He ever lie to them?

Did He ever not fully disclose something to someone so they would believe something that might not be true - that’s the same as lying?

Or course He never murdered anyone - but did He ever assassinate someone’s character?

He talked bad about the religious leaders but He told the truth in that and He did it to their faces.

Was Jesus ever unfaithful to anyone?

Did He ever take anything that wasn’t His to have?

Did He ever covet what other people had?

He had one God.

He had no idols.

He only spoke truth and love about God

And He honored His father and His mother.

God is not asking us to act crazy.

He’s asking us to act like Him.

Look way on down to verse 22 right quick, 1 Peter 1:22 “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,”

Having purified your souls

Having proven that we are really serious about follow Jesus by the way we live our lives every day - by the goal of your life

Over time we’ll developed a brotherly love for one another

And eventually a self-less love for one another.

In all of these things, we have one goal and one goal only, when we meet the Lord face to face, we want Him to be as happy as possible with how we followed Him.

I want to be recognized that as badly as I did, I still tried with everything I had to be a good spokesman for Him.

Because I know, because I know - regardless of my weakness

I have a living hope in Christ Jesus that will see me through every moment of this life and the life that is to come.

Look at verse 17, 1 Peter 1:17 “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,”

Our sins will find us out

Let’s take it apart

If you call on Him as Father - well, we do, we are children of God - He is our Father.

And this Father judges impartially

That word means He sees everything and if it is right it is right and if it is wrong it is wrong

And it doesn’t matter who does it.

This Father judges - now listen - there’s a little change here - He judges according to each one’s deed

Not just His children’s deeds - but everyone’s deed.

Ever person will stand before God one day and be judged according to what they have done.

If we have trusted Jesus, our works will be judged to see our reward

And if we haven’t trusted Jesus, our works will be judged to see if they are as good as God

Which they won’t be.

If you call on this Man, you should conduct yourselves with fear while you live on this earth.

What kind of fear?

A fear of His discipline.

Because you fear God’s discipline doesn’t diminish His love for us or our love for Him.

It’s actually proof of love.

If you fear the discipline of your parents, in a healthy relationship that is a good thing.

First it means they’ve taught you right from wrong

And that knowledge has informed your conscience.

But it also means that you don’t want to disappoint them.

In my experience, some of the most powerful discipline I’ve ever recieved didn’t involve punishment.

It involved me seeing that I disappointed someone that I care so much about.

I don’t want to see that ever in Jesus’ eyes.

I want to be welcomed home with a smile and a hug.

But this reception is in jeopardy because of the gap between verse 12 and 13.

Some have heard the word and it sounded good.

But there was never the making up of their mind to make Jesus the motivation for everything they do.

Sounds extreme, but it’s really not.

It is not extreme to want to act like Jesus

And to conduct every phase of our lives with that thought as our guiding principle.

Many of us are disappointed in our faith

We want to be better - we want to know more

Here’s your sign - 1 Peter 1:13

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You know what’s real.

Choose real.

If you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior, I want to explain a word to you real quick.

It’s the word believe.

In the Greek language it comes from a word that means to hear - so believe means to hear and then do.

Hearing isn’t enough.

Saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re right” is not enough.

If you would trust Jesus, you have to tell Him that you know you are a sinner

And you don’t want to be anymore

Tell Him you need a Savior to make you right with God

And then commit your life to Jesus - however that might end up looking.

Nothing might change much

Or everything might change - but it won’t matter

Because you are following Jesus - who is your living hope.

We’ll pray and sing and I’ll be down front

I’d love to talk to you about Jesus.

You can stop at the table out back as you leave too - they’ll talk to you about Jesus too.

We all want you to know Him like we know Him.

Let us pray.