Dare to be Different
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Good morning, church. I want you to know that we love you and am looking forward to us all getting back together again. It wont be long we are in the home stretch we have had great responses to which service you would all prefer to attend.
Once again if you have not done so please message me and let me know which one either the 8:30 service or the 10:30 service.
I can’t wait I will inform you more once we have everyone signed up.
Okay this morning we are continuing on in our study of 1 Peter we are seeking to honor God’s word by trusting in His living word ot work within your Heart as His Spirit works upon your spirit and speaks to your heart.
Gods word is enough
His word is true and His word alone is profitable for correction, instruction, in righteousness so that every man and woman will be thorughly equipped for every good work.
This morning I want to speak to you on this subject. In a world where there are so many ready made Christians where there seems to be this cookie cutter mold that everyone is “supposed” to fit into.
Dear to be different, dare to be like Jesus Christ.
Let’s read God’s word together:
Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, equip yourselves also with the same resolve —because the one who suffered in the flesh has finished with sin — in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. So they are surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. They will give an account to the One who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged by men in the fleshly realm, they might live by God in the spiritual realm.
Let’s pray
Hevaenly Father we come to you this morning seeking to understand your Word and desiring your presence to visit with us. Please Lord help us as we seek to understand you and your word.
IN Jesus name Amen
Everything from the previous verses leading up to this passage has been focused on the scattered believers suffering persecution from the world, and even facing the possiblity of death.
They were suffering unjustly for being righteous. Peter also wanted us to learn how we are to face such trials sating that it was critical to the Christians growth and joy.
In this section Peter calls for Christians to be willing to face anything that comes their way. To be willing to face persecution for the glory of God alone, even if that meant to be slain for thier faith.
His call is a call to the ancient church to be strong in the face of uncertain times to have strength and resolve and be unwavering like a soldier entering into battle.
We talked last week about understanding that we are in a spiritual war. We don’t need to be coddled or cuddled we need to be equipped to stand and that equipping comes by the preaching of Gods word and how we respond to it.
Notice here Peter gives us as soldiers of the cross our marching orders.
ARM YOURSELVES
ARM YOURSELVES
Peter commands believers to take up arms, but it is not the kind of arms we think of when we think about taking up arms.
The word that translates “arm yourselves” literally means “to arm oneself with weapons”
But the weapons we need to win this war are not found in our gun safe, though those are nice to have and we come to a day where we need those. Those are not the primary means by which to win this battle.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We must fight a spiritual war with divine weapons.
So what does Peter teach us here to arm ourselves with?
The Attitude of Christ
The Attitude of Christ
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
Therefore points back to what Peter wrote in the last chapter, that at the cross Christ endured His grreatest suffering and He died under the judgement in our place.
He took the semi truck of God wrath for me and you, I need you to understand this THE BATTLE IS ALREADY WON!
No matter what happens to us in this life!
The victory has been won by Jesus!
It was his greatest victory over sin and its condemning power, over the forces of Hell, and over the power of death.
The cross of Jesus Christ is the greatest prof that suffering can lead to victory over the forces of evil.
Notice he says “SINCE CHRIST HAS SUFFERED IN THE FLESH, believers have to arm themselves also with the same purpose.
When Jesus suffered He died and he fulfilled God’s redemption plan. A student is not above His teacher therefore it is ridiculous to think that if they persecuted Christ that we as followers of Christ would not have to face some type of persecution in our lives.
The disciples found it an honor within the early church especially Paul that were counted worthy to suffer in the same way their master did.
The primary weapon Peter commands us to arm ourselves with, THE SAME PURPOSE that was manifest through Christ’s suffering and death.
That purpose is a different attitude it is a willingness to die bc Christians know death produces the greatest victory.
Peter himself would have that very opportunity when he faced matyrdom and was faithful unto the end.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Jesus says unless we are willing to come and put ourselves last, and be willing even to lay our life down before we dishonored Christ then we are not worthy to be His disciples.
And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.
This is not something mystical and means more than merely some extra spiritual dedication When Jesus mentions taking up the cross His listeners knew what He was talking about- they must confess Jesus as Lord no matter what- even if that meant to die physically for His sake.
The apostle Paul understood this well:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
The church grew its greatest during times of great trial and persecution!
People have been willing to lay down thier lives over the years because they armed themselves with the same purpose.
You see there was no choice for Jesus the One who we follow He had to be obedient to His Father with no compromise.
No matter what He knew he came to die for the sins of the world and He knew that His cross had to come before His crown.
So it is with you and I. We must stand for Jesus and be about His business while here in this Earth no matyter what that may cost us, jobs, relationships, freindships.
The greater the righteous suffering the greater the reward we receive in glory. It says that whoever suffers for sin has ceased to sin.
This literally translates they have a permanent condition of sinlessness.
Now I want you to think about that right now, even though you and I are flawed and we stumble into sin from time to time God still declares us righteous even to the point of saying they are sinless.
Now how can this be?
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is the gospel!!
That Christ voluntarily came in order to suffer for our benfit!
The Bible says that we should be doing something while we wait for Jesus’ return!
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
We should be zealous for good works! We should be in the act of purifying ourselves!
From all the crud within our lives that we turn a blind eye to on a daily basis!
Because no matter what is going on in the world or in our lives I have read the end of the book we win!
Jesus is triumphant and will be the vicotr amen!
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
As believers in Christ we do not have to fear death bc death has lost its grip on us!
Friend if you have lost a loved one who knew Jesus Christ please rejoice today knowing that based on the promises of the soverign holy god of creation YOU WILL SEE THEM ONCE AGAIN!
In the midst of trying times arm yoursefl with this reality!
Secondly
Arm yourself with the WIll of God
Arm yourself with the WIll of God
so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.
All sin is disobedience to the will of God.
In that sense sin is a personal act of rebellion by believers against God!
God desires wholehearted obedience, obedience is not neccesarry for our salvation but obedience is a by product of our salvation.
We dont obey to be saved, we are saved and therefore we obey
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
in the end those who do not care about obeying the Lord JEsus Christ only prove they do not know Him at all.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Paul commands believers
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
( taking a knee)
(stepping over the slain)
The hope of Christians is to cease from sin one day, in Heaven. Since this is the goal of someone who loves Christ it should impact how they live here on this Earth!
so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.
Let me tell you about the scarifices I made when I was lost:
(saty out all night long, spend gobs of money at a time etc.)
BUT WHEN IT COMES TO FOLLOWING JESUS BY IN LARGE WE CANT EVEN FIND THE TIME TO GIVE HIM 15 minutes to put Him first in our decisions
Peter is telling believers to arm themselves with a commitment to do the will of God and abandoned their former lusts.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
Sin has lost its power over you, if you are struggling with a particular sin you need to hear this and so do I we are free to leave that sin whenever we get ready the question is will we?
We have wasted enough time on worldly things!
We have wasted enough time on worldly things!
For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. So they are surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. They will give an account to the One who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.
This is a vivid description of the tragic life pattern of people who do not know Jesus and it ends in judgment.
The world needs to know there are consequences for sin!
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
If you are watching today you need to understand that you fall into this category. Not bc God desires this but on the contrary He desires for you to be forgiven and redeemed and set apart for HIs glory and to give you a future and a hope!!
Christian there has been enough of your life wasted on the things of this world Jesus didn’t save us so we could sin, He saved us so we could live!
We need to dare to be different from everyone else.
We live in a culture which says hey you only live once and then you die, well that is true but you better believe that this life is preparing you for the next and we better not waste it on things the world finds important.
The heart of an unsaved person simply follows their passions and lusts and it is a futile way of life.
whats funny is that when you and I meet Jesus and we decide in our hearts that we are going to be set apart then they find us a laughing stock dont they?
So they are surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild living—and they slander you.
ONe time friends become enemies and often slander you. They speak evil of you, oh haven’t you heard? Kyle found Jesus He is holier than thou now.... mr preacher man
It was the early Christians dedication to abstain from things they did before they came to know Christ that caused hatred that led to their persecution.
Peter gives a little hope to his readers that those who slander and persecute believers will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
Such vicious attackers are going to pay a steep price when they stand before the Lord on judgment day!
God will hold those accountable those who were alive when Peter was writing and those who had already died and God is ready even today to do the same judge the living and the dead.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
The Hope of Eternal Life
The Hope of Eternal Life
For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
Peters point is that believers under the unjust treatment including death should be willing and unafraid to suffer knowing that all death can do is triumphantly bring their eternal spirits into everlasting life in Heaven!
I’m telling you folks there is coming a day where something amazing is going to happen
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
(preach)
Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
