Ready for Action

Introduction

This morning, we have one verse of scripture serving as the basis of this sermon. There will be other verses that we will use as we attempt to understand the meaning of 1 Peter 1:13. We will read it in just a little bit, but if you will go ahead and find 1 Peter 1:13, you will find that this verse starts with the word, “Therefore.”

The word “Therefore” can signal to us that a new section is being started. However, it not only signals to us that a new section is starting, but it lets us know that it is tied to what came before.

What came before spoke of the living hope that we have through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We also found that we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for all of us that believe.

We are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. We found that trials are used by God to purify us from sin, the world, and our own flesh. Peter used the analogy of gold being refined in the fire and we considered the thought of the Eastern goldsmith seeing his reflection in the gold.

We saw that both the prophets and angels wonder about our salvation. Their wonder is not in disbelief of what God has done through Jesus, but their wonder is in awe of the grace, mercy, and love that God has for us.

We saw that one of the greatest benefits of salvation is to have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit resides within us. He fills us, empowers us, teaches us, sustains us, and even more!

Now, because of this great salvation, and because of this great grace that has been shown to us by the Lord, let us stand together in honor of His word as we read verse 13.

1 Peter 1:13 CSB

13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Pray

Why?

Why should we be ready for action?

Our salvation calls us to have our minds ready for action and prohibits us from being conformed to the desires of our former ignorance. Additionally, our salvation calls us to holiness.

1 Peter 1:14–16 CSB

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. 15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.

In verses 14-16, we see the call to holiness and we need to consider this call to holiness as we think about why we should be ready for action. In a couple of weeks, we will look at the call to holiness.

Today, we want to continue looking at having our minds ready for action.

Another reason why we should have our minds ready for action is that our enemies: the devil, the world, and even our own flesh are trying to keep us from holiness.

When we think about having enemies, we think about war and battles. Christian the battle ground between you and the devil, the world, and your own flesh is your mind.

Let’s look at how they work:

The Devil

He and his demons are constantly trying to seduce our minds from a sincere and pure devotion.

2 Corinthians 11:3 CSB

3 But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

He is trying to seduce your minds from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. As Paul feared for the Corinthians, I fear for myself and for all of you as well. Can we say that we truly have a sincere and pure devotion to Christ? Is He truly our all in all? He is truly everything we need? Of course he is truly everything we need, but we don’t live that way. Too often times, God is an afterthought rather than our main thought.

So, the current situation is not that our minds may be seduced, but our minds have already been seduced.

The seduction of the devil is very cunning, methodical, patient, and thorough. His seduction does not make us stumble all of a sudden, but he takes his time to make our seduction from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ harder to recover from. Therefore, you must battle for your mind. While the Devil is attacking, we are bombarded by another enemy:

The World

As the devil and his demons are subtly attacking, the world is constantly bombarding us with enticements into worldliness.

Often times, we think about worldliness as certain sins such as immorality, coveting, and things like that, but worldliness can take benign things and corrupt our minds to where we are constantly thinking worldly thoughts.

We take money and make it into something that is an obsession rather than a tool. You don’t have to have money to be obsessed with it.

Material goods is another form of worldliness. Some of us become obsessed with consuming or shopping and buying. There have even been TV shows made about people hoarding so much stuff that it is impossible to walk through their homes.

Influence is another draw of worldliness. Whether it is being the influencer or being influenced, it is a dangerous seduction. It draws our attention from God and places the attention that is rightfully His in either another person or self.

There are so many examples of worldliness, but suffice it to say that the world is fighting for part of the battleground that is your mind.

Our own flesh

While the devil and his demons are subtly attacking us, the world is bombarding us, and then coming to attack us from behind is our own flesh.

Our flesh attacks us with its own works. Works like:

Selfishness

Sexual Immorality

Glutony

Drunkeness

Worry

Fear

The apostle Paul lists the works of the flesh in...

Galatians 5:19–21 CSB

19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

How?

How do we get ready for action?

1 Peter 1:13 CSB

13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Be Sober Minded

Last week, we looked at Ephesians 5.18 and it is well worth reading again today.

Ephesians 5:18 CSB

18 And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit:

We are commanded not to get drunk with wine. This also applies to other substances as well. We are to be sober minded and the best way not to get drunk is to not consume those things that will cloud the mind. There is a spiritual battle constantly being fought for your mind and how can you be ready for action if you are drunk?

Now, for all of us T-totalers, which I hope we all are, getting drunk does not just apply to substances that we consume, but we can also be drunk with different thoughts.

When we become consumed with or even obsessed with a thought, it takes over and we do not think about anything else.

Some of the things that we are guilty of getting drunk on are fear, worry, sin, and so forth.

Being sober minded requires us to be awake and not drowsy. We have been spiritually drowsy for far too long. We are seeing before our eyes the signs of the end times. It is time for us to wake up and be sober minded!

Romans 13:11 CSB

11 Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

The next thing we need to do so that we are ready for action is to...

Set our hope!

Let’s look at verse 13 again:

1 Peter 1:13 CSB

13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Set your hope completely

Have you ever heard the expression, “set your mind to it”? We are still talking about the battleground of our minds. For us to win the battle, we must set our hope. One of the definitions for set is “to direct with fixed attention”.

This word set is in the imperative. It is a command. We are commanded to set our hope completely.

Now, the idea of hope is to expect and wish for something. We all expect and wish for stuff. Regrettably, not many of us have changed from having worldly expectations and wishes. We are being commanded to completely direct our hope with fixed attention.

Before we move on, I want to look at the word completely. Completely means wholly. It means that we are commanded not to expect or wish for anything else. Our hope, our desire, our expectations, and wishes should be completely directed in a single direction.

on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ

The command is for us to completely fix our hope on the grace to be brought to us when we see Jesus. Too often times, we fail to hope in what really matters. We are hoping for things in this world rather than hoping to see the ONE who saves.

There are several great days in history that have already happened:

Creation of the world, creation of man, the birth of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the ascension of Jesus. There is another great day that is coming very soon in the future. That day is where we are to fix our hope. The day that we will see Jesus.

If we are going to make it through this world, we cannot put our hope in a human being, our bank accounts, the government, our family, or anything else. Our hope must be put into ONE who is both willing and able. His name is Jesus.

If we hope in anything or anyone else, then we are truly without hope.

Pray

Conclusion

Our salvation is too great a gift for us to continue to squander by constantly loosing the battle for our minds.

Get your minds ready for action by being sober-minded and setting your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Christian, if you will do that, then you will win the battle of your mind. Your mind will be ready for action.

There are some of you here today that are not saved. There is no hope outside of Jesus. Will you come today and set your hope completely on the only one who can save you?

Please stand with me and respond to today’s message as we sing.