Unhindered -- Spiritual Forgetfulness

Well, we are continuing a sermon series called called unhindered and this morning. I want to start by reading our passage that we're going to focus on in Luke chapter 17 beginning and verse 12 speaking of Jesus. It said as he came it says as he came into a small town 10 men who had a skin disease which was leprosy met him there. They did not come close to Jesus because as a leper you were prevented from doing that. What they called him Jesus Master have mercy on us. When Jesus saw the men he said Go and show yourselves to the priests. As the 10 men were going they were healed. When one of them saw that he was healed he went back to Jesus praising God in a loud voice. Vinnie bow down at Jesus feet and thanked him. And Luke ads and this man was a Samaritan. Jesus said weren't 10 men healed. Where are the other nine? Is this Samaritan? The only one who came back to thank God then Jesus said to him stand up and go on your way. You were healed because you believed.

More than once I have forgotten important things in my life, and I could tell you multiple stories, but most recently it's come in the form of forgetting to drive the right car. When on occasion, I'm picking up the girls from daycare are two baby girls been 3/2 days a week in daycare and one of those days I picked them up and more than once. I've rolled into the parking lot and realized I'm driving the wrong car. There are no car seats in my car. I cannot put one time. I just got the stroller out of the trunk and put them in the stroller Princeton High State and said we're walking home. I was so frustrated with myself for having forgotten the right car. Can you relate to forgetting stuff Giver never walk into a room and Then you're like, oh wait a minute. I came in here for something we ever go out on big plans and forget your wallet or even worse. Have you ever could we just do a little testimony time here? Have you ever forgotten a kid at school? Yeah, you ever got home and sit down and eat supper inside. Somebody's not here.

It is so easy for us to slip up and just forget important things in too often. I can be part of the nine who didn't thank Jesus we take God for granted and I think we might describe it as a sort of spiritual forgetfulness. Can you relate to that? I don't look at all the passages that I look at the scripture and always go. I'm the hero In this passage. I'm the one who got it. Right so many times I look at it and think you know, I'm like the nine who didn't think Jesus and less like the one who did and I think I can slip into this sort of spiritual forgetfulness because of the world around us and the world inside my own heart, but the truth is I want to be I want to be one of those ones who who remembers Jesus and not one of the nines. How about you? Do you want you want to be I want to be that one who stops and remembers and does the right thing. I want to be a good disciple. I want to honor Jesus and follow him with faithfulness. I want others to see his goodness in me and I struggle with that a x and one of the reasons I struggle with it. Is that sort of spiritual forgetfulness what the one did right was he thought of the giver when he saw the gift and he praised and submitted to The Giver in light of the magnitude of the gift. I think what the others did was they saw the gift. I'm Healed and that's the extent of their focus pleased with being healed please with their new life and they didn't go deeper and think about The Giver of the gift and if you want to measure whether you have that spiritual forgetfulness and you can slip into the danger of thinking of only the gift and not the giver here is how it looks in my life. If I'm thinking of only the gift and not the giver then I assess the gift and I assess whether it's what I wanted or what I like to have your kids ever done that you get them something for Christmas. They open it. And the first question is where's the batteries or this is the wrong color or this is not the right one for I wanted the blue model and you're thinking you have no gratitude. I mean, I just the thing you wanted in your very first thought is you got it slightly wrong. Now that happens in kids, but sometimes it happens in adults. Sometimes we think about the gift and not the giver. Sometimes we come to church dare. I say for what we get out of it. Sometimes we measure church is based on what we get out of it. Sometimes we measure our entire relationship with God based on what we get out of it until we say I like this church better because they play my kind of music or I like this truck better because they have the best chicken at their potlucks or their pews are more comfortable or it's more convenient for where I drive and before we know it because of the culture in which we live this water that we that were submerged in of self focus of consumerism of every decision in life from our cable provider to the kind of car. We buy all around ourselves before we know it our relationship with God is like that it's centered around ourselves and everything is measured about well is it what I wanted and so God gives us the gift of a free invitation because of the blood of Christ to come and worship him. And the first thing we think is what wouldn't want the color. I want it or you know, I wanted one that was this long and that was a couple inches too long. I wanted one that's a little bit shorter and suddenly we can measure and sew in Tire Nations entire City's churches can spend decades moving from one Church to the other the Sheep the Christians in a city has been decades moving from one Church to another based on their personal preferences and have no eyes for no heart for the lost in their City. And so for decades in the nation the church cannot grow the Lost can remain lost because the found spend their time sinkhole high like this. I like that. I'm going to go over here. I'm going to go to this conference this song seminar buy this book by this Bible. You see how easily all of us become one of the nine. We just focus on what we have received and not The Giver.

Tell me if it says so much to be grateful for we've been raised in a Christian home. We've been blessed with the stability that comes with those Christian values that we were given with this ability that brings to our work in our family with a church that loves us and cares for us and bless us and visit us in the hospital and provides food when we need food money when we're in a crisis and sometimes we just kind of take all of that for granted and we slip into it and we just say that's great and we move on and we don't pause and say where did I get all these things? What do I have that I haven't received Paul ask his readers in Corinthians. He says what do you have for man that you have not received isn't everything if your work ethic is something you have in your treasure you received that. Someone taught you that someone gave you that sort of gift or even the own struggles to be air in your lungs is a gift from our creator that allows you to get up and work hard and receive the fruit of your labor. So it's so easy to slip into being one of those 9th and what the one did was he stopped that process. When you look at the gift, he stopped and thought of The Giver. I mean some ways. A little bit of reflection we could stop right now and just praise God couldn't we? Don't we have so much to be grateful for and he merits our gratitude and our praise that we could just pause and focus our hearts and our minds and our attention on him and the many things we have to be grateful for. The magnitude of the gift that he has given us in Christ is so large that it merits that sort of pause and re-calibrating but it's an easy thing to slip out of an easy thing to slip away from we looked at the scripture to beginning of this series and Hebrews 12. The author says never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back. Let us look only to Jesus the one who began our faith and the one who makes it perfect. I think it's still interesting than in that passage. Of course, he challenges us to jettison. Send. Yes. Can I get an amen anybody here for sin? And if you are you probably wouldn't dare say it in this setting that I think we should hold on to stand. We should embrace them. I'm forcing all of us would agree universally in the church. Yes. We agree with the writer of Hebrews jettison get rid of that sin that so easily entangles you but you also in that verse says and get rid of anything else that gif On the way anything else that gets in the way so we talked about comparison and competition a couple of weeks ago. You can't immediately appoint to comparison and competition is old that's immediately undeniably 100% Send. But you can point to and say you know what? It is something that gets in the way of our walk with God we slipped down that path of watching HGTV or whatever it is and suddenly our hardest thing. Why isn't my home better or we see a commercial? Why is Italy our car was great until the neighbor pulls in the driveway of a newer one and then our car looks no good and if we're not careful that that comparison that we slip into from our culture that competition so until got a promotion and I didn't someone says at this stage in life and I'm not that can consume our heart and become this obstacle between us and following God and last week we talked about the danger of letting apathy get into our hearts and prevent us from following God that sort of not my problem attitude when we see the needs of the worlds because it feels wise to protect ourselves Pittsfield wise to say I can't get involved. I haven't got the time. I just got to walk across the street. I got to look the other way, but Jesus pleased with us and says look the way you were made your very DNA you're made in the image of God. The father you were made to give and when you don't give it corrupts who you are. Your life is is ruined it is less full. He promised us any minute. Literally. He said again again again to the gospels. I'm telling you. Here's the secret to life when you lose your life when you give it away you find it. When you pour yourself into others into your children with your spouse into your neighbor's into those in need you find a richness to your life that you will never find on your aunt and he begs and pleads with us to see that wisdom. And so apathy becomes this corrupting disease to our own heart, even though we were fooled by the devil. He convinces us that protecting our self and not being vulnerable not feeling for the needs of others being a pathetic that somehow protects our hearts. The secret of the adversary is it actually destroys our hearts in Jesus pleads for us to jettison along with us and apathy and this morning. I want to talk about jettisoning the source spiritual for forgetfulness that kind of frog that can come over us where we're not pausing and reflecting and remembering and honoring God in our lives. So how do we jettisoned spiritual forgetfulness to very wise and deep answer we practice spiritual remembering that's how we jettison spiritual forgetfulness, which we incorporate into our life the practice of spiritual remembering in our life first though. We need to think about the formula for Spiritual forgetfulness. I have about 10 sermons in me this morning and I am holding back because they're so much rich and good stuff in scripture and things that we need to understand and challenge yourself too. And so just a little aside we need to think about how it is that the adversary kind of crops are mines in our hearts with spiritual for How does he get that fog into our mind that prevents us from remembering what we should remember and I think it's a combination of just the human heart selfishness. And so we can be focused on ourselves so fully that we don't bother to pause and think of anyone else and any of those those nine that didn't think Jesus could have had that as the motive they could have been so focused on themselves that they never gave a second thought to thank him, but also I believe in the immediate as more real is one of those many things that the ever heard Siri has slipped into our culture and we live as if what is right here right now is the most real thing. What is visible? What is tangible what I've got to do in this moment, that's most real so times when our minds might drift off in a good way times when we start to think about how good God is always start to think about that person has held a grudge against that maybe we need to go and pray with them and offer forgiveness. When our minds go in a good direction the adversary will say hey, hey, hold on. Hold on.

Get your mind off those things. The real world is the fact that you got to go to work and you can't be late. You got bills to pay. That's what's important. You cannot be late to work because you called your aunt to tell her that you love her because you had that impulse on your heart. That's that's about the fluffy stuff. The real world is back. You got to go get in the car and hear it starting going you see how they have a Siri tricks us into thinking that that's the real world what feels immediate and physical so even when our minds start to drift toward spiritual remembering and honoring God when were overwhelmed with what we see somebody that sometimes it happens to me and I send because I don't act on it because I'm so concerned about what everybody else thinks. I will see somebody in the Lord will just fill my heart with love for that person will be a complete stranger and I think I need to go to them and just say hey, hope you're having a good day. You know, the most appropriate thing I could do or I don't know maybe have the boldness to say. Can I pray for you? I just feel like maybe something's going on but half the time I just panic and choke and don't do it because I think they'll think I'm weird. If you're not act on those sorts of impulses and the adversary convinces us to know the real world this other stuff don't get distracted by those sorts of things another way. He keeps us from practicing spiritual remembering is rest without re-creation. We we practice in our culture a lack of Sabbath even though we rest a lot. We have lots of things that allow us to escape we have entertainment and movies and relaxation and all that sort of stuff and it is a temporary solution to a much more significant issue in our life until we don't practice Sabbath where we pull aside and we don't just rest but we focus on the Lord and we seek restoration to who we are to our hearts and souls in my we don't will only slow down in order to put something else on the front burner in that the American way to take some time off this Saturday. Oh, yeah, cuz I got to clean my gutters and pick some shingles on my roof. Do you see how we only slow down in order to feel something else in that spot as opposed to slowing down and being still as the song says in 4610 and knowing that he is God. If you would have lock out 4 hours for reflecting on God is an adversary would immediately whisper in your ear. That is silly. That's not the real world. You can't sit and stare at your table for four hours you got things to do you got things to do and pull us away from having the Sabbath that we need over-commitment is rampant in our culture and that really relates to the priorities that are asked you in our life. Sometimes we think it's unselfish to be over committed. We think we're doing stuff for others, but really were avoiding making tough decisions in our own life by being over committed or avoiding making decisions about priorities and getting things set the way they should be set. It's all part of the culture. We live in that keeps us in this sleeping mode. I heard a pastor Sharon on North American author and missionary who travels a lot about being on a trip and speaking to a pastor in another country where persecution is rampant and they were talking about how the church is suffering violence and and persecution in this other country. And they's in the Pastor said yes, we have to drink this this cup of persecution and it is bitter but I'd much rather drink it than the cup that you have to drink in your country in America. And he said what do you mean we don't suffer persecution like you got suffer persecution. He said no, but you have the cup to drink and is filled with a sleeping potion.

And our comfort and our provision and our ability to spend energy arguing over which translation of the Bible is best and a pat ourselves on the back. Is it for championing the kingdom of God with blog after blog or book after book or argument after argument or division after division with no lie to the Lost? The adversary gets us asleep. and the spiritual forgetfulness causes us to be ineffectual as Christians and therefore we look back and we say you don't seems like the church is ineffectual without thinking about the fact that the church is really just a collection of you and I There's not the separate entity you realize that don't you when you say the church ought to what you mean is some of us in this room not to me or somebody else thought to when you say, you know, what the church needs what you're saying is me or somebody else needs. The church is the gathered Believers. There's not this other entity that we can talk about. I just wish the church would I just wish I could find a church that I wish my church. Love people more. I wish what you're saying is I wish I love two people more. I don't love people very well. I'm closed off and I'll keep them at arm's length and I blame the church. That's the trick that the adversary pools on us so often. So how do we counter that formula with spiritual remembering? Since we have a great high priest who presides over the house of God the author of Hebrews chapter 10 rights and that verse alone. This is one of the ten sermons I could preach. An entire sermon on that verse alone. It is a beautiful and magnificent verse that is the climax of a long discussion that begins in chapter 10 verse one where the author of Hebrews says. I know that we thought of the Old Testament as the time of sacrifices and we thought of that as the way to be right with God, but the truth is if you think about it those sacrifices were never effective because they had to be repeated over and over and over and tell if an animal's blood could actually cleanse us we wouldn't have had to sacrifice again and again and again even goes on to say that we can simply seeing every year more and more and go have this ceremony and have the animals forgive us for a year and then go back and do it again. Then he says God never intended that to be the way he always intended for the ultimate high priest to arrive the ultimate sacrifice to arrive and that's a Jesus Christ Our one true high priest whose blood was pure and holy and his sacrifice for us. Is it turn? Permanent. He says it makes us spotless before God. There's this righteousness that is imported to us because of the blood of Christ and that's why he is the true high priest who presides over the house of God because of that ultimate and eternal permanent sacrifice and forgiveness of sins that Christ has provided it since we have that reality a great high priest who presides over the house of God, let us draw near with true hearts full of face with hearts wrist clean of any evil conscience and with bodies plans with pure water. To the cure a spiritual remembering is to start out by remembering our own salvation through Christ is secure and solid and permanent boss. Is it Romans 8:1 there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. How often do we get sidetracked into not remembering the most important and true and significant spiritual troops into thinking instead. I better go to church. I'm not a good Christian or I better give enough money and we slip into this works base righteousness where all of our energy is based on things. We do. Listen the big sin of Works righteousness is your mind and your heart and your attention is on who You yourself? You may work your skin to the moans. You make me the best church member a pastor has ever seen But in your heart the focus is you how do I work my way to God? As opposed to a focus on The Giver himself and the gift that he has already given salvation through Christ Jesus. Part of remembering spiritually is taking that Focus off of ourselves, even when it's well-intended Works righteousness taking that Focus off of herself and thinking of the giver and his gift and remembering and honoring him. He continues In this passage. Let us hold strong to the confession of Our Hope never wavering since the one Speaking of Jesus since the one who promised it to us is faithful. Let us consider how to inspire each other to Greater Love and to righteous Deeds. Is that a great sentence? This is what our energy should be spent on considering how to inspire each other toward greater love and righteous Deeds. Could that help us practice spiritual remembering? If I not only remember that my salvation is secure through the work of Christ and I let go of all the anxiety and energy that sometimes gets consumed in fretting about my own salvation. If I just recognized The Giver who gave that great gift and celebrating what God has done if communion was the celebration every week instead of dragging insane Lord. I did the week before I thought I was making progress Lord for now. I've got three more things that can fit and I'm so sorry and I'm going to try to cut that down to two just two things next week. And then maybe we get consumed with the sense of am I doing good enough. Am I succeeding? Am I working the other person must be better than me and the adversary loves it because he gets our minds off the truth. But the gift has already been given at our minds and hearts should be on the giver that God who has provided our Salvation deserves our attention. That's part of spiritual remember, could you benefit from that and if we gather together on a regular basis and there was no gossip. Imagine if there was no gossip if you never once had anybody say I know we're supposed to get started making her your first guess what I heard. Really? I know they're having trouble man. I didn't know that with. But you know that reminds me.

What If We Gather is what if we gathered to inspire each other to Greater Love and righteous Deeds what if the meeting was consumed with hey, how can we help you love better in the next week What we pray about for you, how can we help you? Love your spouse you how's your marriage? How's your parenting? How's your relationship with those who don't know the Lord? What what kind of good things are you doing in the community or with your neighbors in it? And if you're struggling that, how can we help you? How can we help you? Do that better. He continues not forgetting to gather as a community as some have forgotten but encouraging each other especially as the day of his return approaches. I think Gene refer to that verse at the beginning of service that we don't forsake meeting together and that verse doesn't just say don't forsake meeting together. It says don't forsake me and together and encourage one another. Built into that command from Hebrews is the assumption that when you're together with Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it will go deep enough to share your discouragement and to share encouragement with others. That that thing that we're not supposed to forsake is a meeting that contains enough depth to it that somebody can know how to encourage me. And not just I went I left I got in one minute after the service started and I got out one minute before it ended. You know, I shook hands at greeting and that's as deep as it went. I'm not in the sunday-school. I'm not a small group. If we do that. We're missing out on what God is inviting us to have in our lives that will help us reject the spiritual forgetfulness. That's open soon as I

the bottom line is we present ourselves to the true priest and we live among one another as a priesthood of Believers nothing about that sentence Jesus said to the lepers go show yourself to the priest and using that same language Hebrew says we have one true high priest who sacrifice has provided for our salvation. And so the cure to jettison spiritual forgetfulness to practice spiritual remembering is to remember that truth to present ourselves each and every day to the true high priest and be reminded that Christ has secured our Salvation that his mercies as Jeremiah says and limitations are new every morning every morning. No matter what this past week was like no matter what yesterday was like no matter what this morning was like we come before God and he has a fully fresh reservoir of Mercy to give to us. So we bring our self to the high priest the true high priest Jesus and we celebrate what he gives us when we study the word. We don't study scripture as an end in of itself to say I checked off my devotional reading for the day or read my lesson. We look into scripture as the word of God's to hear from God. And so if we read for example Romans 8:1, as I said, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We need to hear that as a word from God to us as his word to us. We go to the scripture to meet with Christ and to hear from him at the celebrate to present ourselves to him as the one true high priest and then scripture says that we also function among one another as a priesthood of believers. Something you just don't hear preached or talk about very much and yet it's clearly caught in Peter and another passages that God's plan. All along was not only to have the one true high priest of Christ rescue us and secure our salvation, but to ordained to baptize two calls us to be into call us to be a priesthood of Believers for future says that we are a royal priesthood his church and that we we function with one another as this priesthood and tell when somebody comes if we're gathering together and somebody comes to us discourage we can act as a priest we can remind them of the truth don't you know that God forgives that thin you need to let go of that you've been hanging out of that for years, but you need to you need to look at scripture. We can speak to each other as a priest scripture confess your sins to one another. Have you ever confessed your sins?

To another brother and sister cross have we ever taken hold of the great truth of scripture that God promises us to fill us with remembering to be filled with the truth. We are asleep and the other sorry love putting that blanket over us and letting us settle for just a ho-hum walks when God wants us to be reminded and rekindled and spiritual Revival be revitalized and restored he wants that in our lives so that we're his people and listen there's a bigger truth there and I'm going to close up a scripture in the moments of worship team can get ready. There's a bigger truth your spiritual health has more to do than with just you. Have you thought about that if you're settling for kind of ho-hum, I just want to keep myself out of trouble and that's enough for me. Your spiritual health has a lot to do with more than just when you're not spiritually healthy. Then there's one more member of the body that can turn to another and offer confidence of Christ forgiveness. There's one more person. If you're not controlling gossip in your life. There's one more person maps that but normally could be somebody I could confess my sins to thinking about it. But if you've left that paper in your life, I don't know if I can trust you to see how your spiritual health has everything to do with the church.

The church. I wish the church was more excited. Well, are you more excited? I wish the church was more relevant. I wish it was more contemporary Fuller you more relevant. Are you more contemporary? I wish the church was more loving. Where are you more loving? How is the church would help those in need the last time you helped someone in need?

Where the church and we have all of the resources available to us God stands with open hands. If you're Tangled Up in San he says my mercies are new every morning come to me for grace and forgiveness for restoration and instruction. If you need healing he says come to me, let me forgive you he wants to convince us in our hearts of the reality of his deep forgiveness of our own sins. So that that can become the foundation in the basis that we might forgive others fall says that again and again through scripture just the way God has forgiven you you should therefore forgive one another High priest wants us to come to him so that he can be our high priest forgive and restore and equip us so that we can be a Brotherhood a Sisterhood high priest loving one another encouraging one another equipping one another your spiritual health has everything to do with your own life and the lives of the church.

spiritually healthy

jettison spiritual forgetfulness. I'm going to close this passage in the worship team can come forward. Is the passage I mentioned out of 1st Peter beginning of chapter 2 where first Peter says listen, there's some things that you need to remember. He wants us to jettison spiritual forgetfulness a wants us to remember what we need to remember among other things. He wants us to remember that we are called and commissioned and ordained by God the father as a priesthood of Believers and he wants us to know that our righteousness are living out the faith are trusting him as our high priest and embracing the Forgiveness. He offers living a life that honors him that that has a lot to do with more than just our own spiritual health. Don't let the adversary convince you that you don't I'm fine. I'm not really bothered that much Robbie. You don't get off my case. I stay out of trouble. I don't get arrested. You know, look I I give I attend I just just let me have you know, a C+ level I'm not bothering anybody. Stop bothering anybody else. Yes.

One it's bothering you because God created you to live this rich and full life. I don't know about you, but sometimes

Sometimes I'll look around the church and I just feel like we're dead.

I just feel like we're just kind of going through the motions and I don't mean like I'm picking on just Hillandale, but I include Hillandale. I mean the church in North America. I mean the church in Lexington.

Robby there's big churches that have exciting things going on. I spoke in the big churches who do not have a heart for God. They won't open the doors for the needy. I don't have any extra money. That's not have been allotted it breaks your heart. I'm talking about the church Universal. I'm talking about people in North America, especially since I can relate to that more than I can elsewhere, but the problem probably exist globally because of the human heart.

And we wonder why the world around us says, you know, those guys are just a bunch of Hypocrites or even worse there. They're doing stuff that's wrong. Or maybe they're criminals. We wonder why the culture feels Justified and pushing us more more to the edge.

Scripture commands in calls and commissions us. I hear the truth about Christ as the true priest to celebrate our forgiveness and to let that freedom that Joy take the tension out of our shoulders and lower them a little bit to let that put a skipping RC to let us be people who can agree to others without judgement the greet them with love and grace that we trust God has our back and we don't have to fix the world person by person as we meet them. I said we can trust and extend his love to them and his grace and his forgiveness the way he's extended it to us. Some of us get so wound up by watching the news that it just has it's in a knot and then we walk through the whole week that way and everyone else around us knows it. God wants us to know this Freedom This Joy he wants us to be a light to the world.

Do you see that? You want our walks with him to be so focused and remembering the truth of our great gift the great gift that he's giving us the magnitude of that gift that we fall at his feet and we praise His name in a loud voice. We celebrate The Giver of the gift and we give the only thing we have to give back to him our very selves and we let him use us as his priests listen to these verses. when I finish reading these we all have our closing song. I'll be available in the back for anybody who's got a decision on their heart. You want to give your life to Christ. You've got prayer concerns will be perfect both in the back and the front I would love to pray for what's on your heart. And we finished the scripture will sing that song of commitment to Christ. Please come to me or any other leader for what's on your heart or anything we can do for you this morning. Listen to what Peter says to the church. He says so get rid of hatefulness. and deception get rid of insecurities and jealousy and slander. Be like newborn babes crying out for Spiritual milk that will help you grow into salvation if you have tasted and found the Lord to be good. Come to him the living Stone rejected by many people but accepted by God as Chosen and precious like living stones. Let yourselves be assembled into a spiritual house a holy order of priests who offer up spiritual sacrifices that will be acceptable to God through Jesus our king for a says in the words of the prophet Isaiah. So here I lay I am laying in Zion a stone a Cornerstone Chosen and precious Hoover depends upon him will never be disgraced to you who believe and depend on him. He is precious, but do you who don't Remember these words of the psalmist the stone that the builders rejected has been laid as a Cornerstone the very stone that holds together the entire Foundation. And as in Isaiah a stone that blocks their way, I rock that trips them they stumble because they don't follow the word of God as they were destined to do but you are a chosen people set aside to be a royal order of priests a holy nation God's Own so that you may proclaim the Wonders acts of the one who called you out of the inky Darkness within 2 shimmering 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. Remember you don't belong in this world. You are resident aliens living in Exile. So resist the desires of the flesh that battle against the soul live honorably among the outside or so the even when some may be inclined to call you criminals when they see your good works, they might give glory to God when he returns and judgment.