War.Submission.Provision.

Intro: As we continue our series this week, I feel it’s probably important to note that it’s not our goal in this series to cover everything in the books of 1st and 2nd Peter, so we really encourage you to read these two books on your own over the next few weeks to grab all the extra gold nuggets that exist in between sermons. For example I’m going to be starting in 1 Peter 2:11 this week but the beginning of this chapter highlights the fact that if we are mature Christians we should crave God’s word, this chapter also refers to us as chosen people. So if you want to get all you can from this series do some reading in between Sunday’s sermons and filling in the gaps could go a long way.

Time and time again our favorite hollywood stars, superstar athletes, national leaders, maybe even our favorite Christian celebrities end up in the news for unfortunate reasons. Maybe a DUI, an affair, or money scandal. It’s enough to become our gossip for the week until the next thing happens, and every time it’s just a reminder to me, that the money wasn’t enough, the hot guy or girl was not enough, the applaud was not enough. At the end of the day they were no different than you and me, except we have the Holy Spirit. A little drink, another pill, a little sex, a little more money would hopefully fill the time between their obligations from the day and when they wind down enough to fall asleep for the night.

Peter’s buddy Paul would tell us in his letter he wrote to Rome that this was a continual struggle for the human on this side of heaven when he posed the questions why do i keep doing what I don’t want to do, and don’t do what I do want to do?

Let’s look at verse 11 of 1 Peter 2

1 Peter 2:11 “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.”

An Undeniable War

So when looking at the opening verse of our text today Peter says Hey friends, we as Christians are like strangers in this world. So stay away from the sins that are WARRING against oour soul.

The pro athlete who has all the strength in the world, the Hollywood star who has all the attention of the people still lack the strength to resist sin, and lack the spiritual support to abstain from their own desires. And they downplay the effects of the sin, perhaps because it doesn’t cost them what it would cost us peasants in the way of not being able to provide for our families or have a relationship with someone, but of course they are still paying the price.

This all takes place because we are denying the reality of a battle taking place for our soul. None of us wants to believe that the little sin that we are continuing in is part of some cosmic battle. We even live in a culture that wants to help us ignore the realities of our mistakes by sugarcoating the truth in a way that appeals to all the awesomeness in us. Let me share an example.

FOOD PICTURE

One of the major goals of marketing companies is to create desire or perceived need. With the same line of thinking, it’s also their job to keep you doing something that you might be thinking about not doing anymore. For this example I share with you a picture from a commercial I saw for a buffet. I’m not sure if you are aware of this but generally speaking we don’t associate buffets with dieting or weight loss. So I can imagine that when the marketing group for this ad campaign put their heads together they might have said, man what are we going to do, earnings were down last quarter. Someone says, you know it seems like every one is talking about protein now. Their buying coffee with protein, which by the way if you weren’t aware your fru fru coffee has always had protein in it, it’s called milk. Everyone wants a smoothie with high protein, even if it’s got 50 grams of sugar in it. Chipotle and Bibibop no longer ask me which MEAT I want on my bowl, they ask me which PROTEIN I want. So the buffet company said why don’t we remind everyone that our food has protein too. I love this one, 9 grams of protein. Fried shrimp is now good for me. The cholesterol, fat, and overall calories can be ignored because i’m getting 9 grams of protein. Do you know what else gets me 9 grams of protein? 2 snickers bars. An 8 ounce milkshake. 4 of Alyssa’s buckeyes. 3 doughnuts. There’s even now a 16 ounce beer that’s getting me over 9 grams of protein. I’m so excited for all of these new “HEALTH” foods I’m now aware of.

Not to beat you up about your physical health, but if hits home do what you want with it. The point is that we are ever being conditioned to continue justifying our sin by looking at the good side. There is a good chance you have SOME form of love for the person you are having an affair with. Your intention with the alcohol was to be social and fellowship and not wreck the car on the way home. And hiding the gambling from your wife was just because you didn’t want to stress her out over the money. It’s really quite kind of you.

Every time the enemy sees you starting to recognize the sinfulness that exist within part of your life, he kindly, and ever so gently reminds you of something good that’s coming from it. He takes something that we are doing that is unhealthy and reminds us that there is something a little healthy until he lulls us back into our sin.

And by the way…

Your Battle against the sin is not just for your benefit, see verse 12.

1 Peter 2:12 “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Do you know how much it messes people up when they are condemning you and you prove them wrong by living Godly lives? There is no greater way to bring conviction of sin then to just abstain and avoid from those activities yourself. It’s the reason some won’t want to spend time with you anymore, because the evil in them is overwhelmed even by the way we living in obedience to the Holy Spirit. It’s literally a supernatural witness. I’ve even found it’s why some, maybe even most people will leave one church and go to another. Through the preaching or discipleship, something was being challenged that they were trying to ignore, and the inner turmoil was just too much. So they leave a spiritually healthy church, and will give a reason for leaving that justifies their move, even condemning aspects of the church itself, just so they can continue to live a lifestyle that they have become comfortable in.

When we refer to or rename a sin as a mistake we can just try harder, when we diagnosis it we can just medicate it, when we call it a lifestyle choice then we just have to join ourselves to other that see it as such, when we call sin anything but sin then we can avoid confessing and repenting of it

When we call sin less than a WAR in our life, we can minimize its reality, especially where our own resistance has fallen short, and that’s a big part of satan’s plan for your life. He wants you to downplay the war, slip away from a submissive spirit, and you will soon find yourself enslaved to sin, and submitting to your every whim.

Transition: A big reason we are losing the war is because we continue to believe we know better than anyone else. We are going to handle things. We don’t need anyone else, and we certainly aren’t going to answer to anyone we don’t have to. Even in most cases the bosses that most people answer to are people that get talked about behind their back. But you can be sure you are submitting to someone. Look back at our text today. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 13.

1 Peter 2:13–17 “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”

I assure you in any given moment…you are…

Submitting to Someone

Submission can be a choice or it can feel forced, or perhaps even be forced. But if we consider spiritual submission as a posture of the heart, then forced submission is no submission at all.

Peter writes submit yourself. He says make a choice. Then says FOR the Lord’s sake, TO every HUMAN authority. FOR the Lord’s sake, TO every HUMAN authority.

I wonder how many of you have heard, but hopefully have never said. I only answer to God. Only God can judge me. I’m sorry but you’re answer is incorrect. God is not ok with these statements. Peter says obey EVERY human authority for GOD’S sake. Just by show of hands, who in here struggles with this principle?… Alright most of you are better than me I guess. I struggle with this and I find myself to a pretty submissive person. I don’t like everything the boss says. I don’t always agree with my spouse. I don’t like the police office, mayor, the senator, the governor, the president, the pastor…

I know better.

I like submission, do you know why? It’s easy. You don’t have to make decisions, if you do what you’re told you made someone happy, and if someone else doesn’t like what you did you have someone else to blame. Seems like an easy gig.

We think we struggle with it because we disagree with the authority but I’m going to tell you why we struggle with it here in just a second. First I want to look back our scripture to see why we CAN stop struggling with it. We can stop struggling with it because the few verses we just read says, “we do this because it is God’s will that by doing good (good as defined by that which we were just told to do in submission to authority) by doing this you silence the idiots. Pastor you can’t call them idiots, ok fine we will go with what the Bible says, you silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Next time you call someone an idiot which I hope is never, ask them if they would prefer to be called a foolish person that says ignorant things.

So do you know why we struggle with it? It’s not because we disagree with authority. It’s because we have un-crucified pride that remains.

Paul writes in Galatians “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. But before that in Romans he poses the question, “how can we who have died to sin, live in it any longer?” And because questions posed demand an answer, the answer is because we continue to resist the Holy Spirit, in hopes that we can continue to keep some sense of control. But guess what? It’s nothing more than a SENSE of control. Paul continues to write in Romans who can we talk back to God? How can the one who was created say to the creator why did you make me like this? Why did you create the world like this? Why did you let this happen? Why aren’t you fixing everything?

The problem is like Colton said last week we WERE saved are BEING saved, and ultimately WILL BE saved. But while in the middle of that process some of us continue to refuse to allow certain aspects of ourselves to be transformed.

In any scenario the opposite of submission is rebellion. The old testament says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft because BOTH substitute human pride, self-will, and autonomous control for submission to God's will.

Satan’s greatest sin was rebellion which is the opposite of submission, so he’s a master of encouraging you in this direction.

You are always submitting to someone. Every time we rebel against those to whom we should submit, we are submitting to self, and in our flesh our self will continually digress to sin. So that every time we have chosen to rebel against others, our submission is to sin and a satan that is joyful that we continue in it.

A Powerful Provision

Sin is war. In a war, submission is key, but submitting to the enemy is never an option. And of course in war, provisions are also key. President Herbert Hoover was famously credited with saying “Food will win the war.” Those without provisions would not be able to keep fighting and would ultimately succumb to death. In this campaign, Hoover asked American civilians to eat less, to go without, to fuel the troops. Interestingly enough it meant the troops couldn’t do it on their own. They needed the help of others. In the same way God knew we couldn’t do it on our own so he provided. Look back at 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 21

1 Peter 2:21–25 “To this you were called (That is submission to authority), because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” ““He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

A Powerful Provision

Since the beginning… God has always been providing. That’s why one of the names we call Him is Jehovah Jireh which means the Lord will provide.

But throughout history we haven’t always liked the provision, or the provision was difficult.

For Noah it was 40 years of building a boat. In the story of Jacob, he had to lose his son Joseph for 22 years, so that Joseph could eventually save his family’s life. For the Israelites it was bread from heaven that they got sick of, they started complaining about it, so God said I’ll give them so much meat that it will come out of their nostrils, in other words til they got sick of that as well. There are many more examples, but bottomline… Sometimes we don’t like the provision.

In the same way Christ in crucifixion was the provision for our sin. It was the only way. That’s how strong sin is, and that’s how powerless we were and are. Don’t you think that if anything less would have done it, God would have spared His son?

Paul wrote in Romans that we are to put on Jesus, or in other words, let him be our powerful provision instead of making provisions for the flesh. Ever notice when you are going to quit doing something, how it magically seems to make itself more convenient?

You’ve decided this is the week you are going to quit drinking. So you don’t buy any to keep in the house, you don’t go to happy hour with people from work, and then sure enough a friend or relative GIVES YOU a case of your favorite beer.

You’ve decided this week you aren’t going to look at porn anymore and the most attractive woman in the office flirts with you for the first time.

You’ve decided you aren’t going to eat sweets anymore and you come to Friend Day at church and someone made Buckeyes! You can’t even win at church! To be clear, when there are buckeyes at church I’m always winning, just needed to lighten the mood a little.

I assure you that satan has a back up plan for when he sees you beginning to try. He wants to make sure that you know that when you try to get up off the mat, he’s going to sucker punch you so you never get back up. But I’ll remind you today that no matter how many times you go back down, The Bible tells us that a righteous woman falls down 7 times but gets back up again. Your righteousness which is accomplished through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ continues to call you to your feet no matter how many times you fail.

So you have to accept the Provision of power before the provision of the flesh presents itself.

If not, the provision of power will always seem annoying and disruptive to our current lifestyle. While time won’t permit to give numerous examples, it will almost always require you to repent of something that is part of how people know you, maybe even confessing and repenting of something that you have publically declared to be acceptable or righteous. But I have news for you, every time I hear that you aren’t who you used to be, I’ll be there to congratulate you. I don’t want be who I was last year. You might meet someone that knew me 20 years ago that would say I would never go to that guy’s church, and guess what I WOULD AGREE with them. I would never go to 23 year old Jonathan’s church. Because that was someone that lacked 20 years of spiritual growth that I’ve now experienced. I don’t want to be ME anymore.

RESPONSE (Invite team)

SIN IS WAR. We downplay it time and time again, but it is progressive, aggressive, and destructive REPEAT

James 1:14–15 “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed (enticement begins the progression). Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; (sin becomes aggressive) and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (there’s the destruction)

Sin starts out and feels harmless and without notice it takes over, until ultimately it takes us down. Progressive, aggressive, destructive.

Stop justifying that sin in your life. Listen to me, there are other churches you can go to that will justify your sin for you, but that’s not where you want to be. Sin continues because submission in certain areas hasn’t take place. That’s where we will remind you, you are…

Submitting to someone - If we aren’t submitting to authority then we are submitting to self. Satan likes this. Next time you are rebelling against an earthly authority consider the fact that you are submitting to satan, then RECONSIDER how powerful you actually feel? I don’t want to bring joy to the devil. The thought of this makes me sick. He loves chaos which is the opposite of order. So he is always working to breakdown authority and submission.

The Old Testament teaches us that when the people were without authority they did that which was right in their own eyes. I’m sure that 95% of my hardship in this life has come from doing what I thought was right in MY own eyes. PAUSE 5

So the prayer this morning is God close my eyes, and open them again, to the work of your hands.

A powerful provision -

For this war on sin HE has not left us without provisions. He gave His one and only son for you, and for me. So Paul says I am crucified with Christ, so no longer me living, but Christ in me. But you have to know, the crucifixion of different aspects of our flesh will always be part of the provision to win the war.

STAND

They are going to lead us in a song called yet not I but through Christ in me and before we sing it I want to walk you through the verse 2 of the song.

Verse2 The night is dark but I am not forsaken (as sin continues to hold on, know that Jesus is not letting go) For by my side, the Saviour He will stay I labour on in weakness and rejoicing For in my need, His power is displayed (powerful provision)

Refrain 2 To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me Through the deepest valley He will lead Oh the night has been won, and I shall overcome!

…To this I hold, my sin has been defeated

Yet not I, but through Christ in me

And as we decide how to respond this morning. I leave you with one very simple question.

What part… of you… continues to live, where Christ living IN YOU needs to take place REPEAT

…Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me

PRAY

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Construction note, NOT A PROBLEM BUT PROGRESS!!! Don’t complain, rejoice! If we aren’t careful we can be a people that complains about potholes then complain about the construction crews that slow us down because they are out fixing our potholes. God is doing incredible things