appreciate that. We haven't even lived overseas yet full time, just on some short trips still, and just noticing, especially being over in PNG in the afternoons there, it's the middle of the night here, and sometimes You can feel very far away, and of course I had to be on this trip without my family as my wife's seven months pregnant. It wasn't a great idea to go on a 14-hour flight like that. So I took a trip by myself and was missing them, and those afternoons just got sometimes very long and lonely. the, when you, when you read the one-page prayer letter that comes out every month or every couple months for some missionaries, the missionary tries to put his heart of everything that's going on and the people and, and how significant everything is, and it's hard. We get how many emails in our inbox every month from missionaries that this church supports, and you can't You can't keep track of everyone as significantly as is happening in their life. It's just not possible. But, so you get to see some of what's going on for us, and I'd like to answer some questions if you have any, but I don't want to come across as, well, poor little old us, we just have to go and live somewhere else and you'll never understand. But we are, we're very grateful. and excited for the opportunities that the Lord's given us to go over and minister. I love foreign languages, as many know, and this is my ideal job. I'm grateful that the Lord is allowing me to do it, and just pray for me to be able to continue to lead my family in the right way, and as always, we need the Lord to provide for our needs. If we depend on man, things are gonna break down, but the Lord has taken fantastic care of us all along the way. So we have a moment for just a couple questions about where we are, what we're doing, or anything you've seen here. As far as date for leaving, right now we're kind of ballparking it at the middle of next year if we can get our visa paperwork. I sent in some stuff for the visa paperwork this week. I have to go back to Michigan next week and get some other of our documents, copies, and all that stuff sent over. And then we have to wait for the baby's passport and get that before we can get the visa and all that. So it's going to be numerous months still, but I hope not another year. We'll see. Don't tell me I explained everything that well. Well, there's always time for one-on-one questions afterwards, that's all right. Let's go to 1 Peter 2, where I said we'd have our message tonight, and 1 Peter 2, I had some ideas of what the Lord might want me to preach at my home church. It's really more nervous for me being around people that I know. I've been in almost 300 churches in the last couple years, and some people you maintain a connection with. after you're there, but a lot of places, you're there, as Pastor Borkowski would say, you call them three weeks later, and they say, oh, were you at our church? That's not always the case, but there's a lot of things going on in people's lives, and we don't, we don't remember everyone. In fact, we've had a chance to go back to some churches, even supporting churches, and we're like, okay, and then we talked to you, we may have spent an afternoon with you, I can't remember who you are. And, but we don't want it to be that way with this church. We would like to know you, and so pray that if the Lord works things out possibly this spring as we're in waiting, if we can find a good place to stay in this area, we may be able to spend some time in our home church. We'd really enjoy that. But we need to know where the Lord wants us to be. So, in 1 Peter chapter 2, I was just amazed, looking at this chapter, that it went right along with what Pastor Camilleri preached about on Sunday, and that message was very needful for me on Sunday. David's as well, I appreciate that. Let's read a few verses here, and I'll explain how that introduction goes with Pastor Kent O'Leary's message, and then we'll get down to a few points later on in the chapter. 1 Peter chapter 2, the Bible says, As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up as spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So I saw at the beginning of this chapter it says, wherefore? And I thought, wherefore does it say wherefore? It's connecting it to the previous chapter and how do these things go together? So let's just jump back to verse. 18 of chapter 1, 1 Peter 1, 18. Bible says, for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. The Bible also says in 2 Peter 2 verse 4 that Jesus Christ is precious. The precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times. For you who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you, wherefore, and continues on. So, I realized that verse 2 of chapter 2, talking about desiring the sincere milk of the Word, is connecting us right back to what the end of chapter 1 has been talking about. There's a lot of words here, a lot of phrases, long sentences, but if I could summarize those, those verses at the end of chapter 1, it's saying that the Spirit of God and the Word of God create love in our hearts for the brethren and love for God as we see what he's done for us. And it says that the word of God is the agent of us being born again, being born again by the word of God, it says in verse 23. So this Bible that we have and hold is so precious, but as we're looking at verse two, chapter two, verse two, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, And we know that we're supposed to feed on that word of God, as we heard on Sunday. But then, the Bible says in verse three, if so be ye have tasted that, what? The Lord is gracious. There's that connection from the word of God leading us to who he is. And that concept from Pastor Camillari's message on Sunday has been so helpful to me as I look through things this week, that all of what we read and whether we're in the Old Testament or the New and we're learning things about God, it's not just Not just so we can take a test and pass on Bible knowledge, but it's for us to know God and communicate with Him and to find out what He wants to do in our lives each day. So, the title of our message, it's going to be a little bit too long probably to fit on certain audio. If we had to put a title, I think it would be, Special Saints with a Special Savior. And we're going to see where that comes from. The phrases that are used in this chapter would be more like this, peculiar people because of the chosen cornerstone. I want you to look, well, we read verses four and five already. But look down in verse six, we have another wherefore, so it's continuing to connect everything together. 1 Peter 2, verse six, wherefore also, it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone. Elect precious. Again, a lot of words and thoughts, and we're not going to study out this whole section of the passage, but it's continuing to remind us that Jesus Christ is something special. And there's a lot of quotations here from the Old Testament, from Isaiah 28, from Isaiah 8, from Psalm 118. We're gonna see later a quotation from Hosea chapter two, and even a reference in a way back to Psalm 34 where the Bible says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. And so, all of this study about the word of God is leading us to recognize and to put Jesus Christ in a place of honor. in our lives, but then verse 9 comes to this second half, well, the first half of my title, special saints with a special savior, because verse 9 tells us, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having a conversation honest among Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. We're going to take another look through those verses, but let's pray before we continue. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us together tonight. Lord, we thank you for my church. Thank you for the people that are here. This building could be used for any purpose if there weren't the people of God coming to assemble and lift up your name here, and Lord, we pray that you would just use your word to challenge our hearts tonight. I pray that you'd continue to use it in my life, as I know I've been convicted this week about things that I need to take heed to because of who you are. And Lord, I pray that you'd help my thoughts to be clear and that our time would be well spent considering you tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's go, I'm gonna come back to 1 Peter a couple times, so I'm gonna put my bookmark in 1 Peter 2. You're welcome to try to hold your place there if you wish, but we're gonna come back to it a couple times. To start out, I want to go to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7, way back in the Old Testament, fifth book of the Bible. And this is a message to the people of Israel, certainly here in the time of the wilderness before they went into the Promised Land. Moses is recounting the works of God to the children of Israel, and here he gives them a reminder that they are special people. Much of the passage that was just quoted in 1 Peter 2 is quoting promises that were given to Israel or different prophecies from the time of the children of Israel, but the church is something entirely different from Israel. Israel still exists, but the church exists as well, and we're just using this as a take a little application from it, in Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, and I think you'll see as we finish the other verses how this would apply, but in Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, the Bible says for, it's telling why you're not supposed to worship the other gods, you're not supposed to make marriages with the people of the nations of the land, instead you're supposed to drive them out, because, in verse 6, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. You see what He just said between verse 7 and verse 8? He said, the Lord loved you because He loved you. The Lord didn't set His love upon you because you were special, but He loves you and you're special. That's what He told the children of Israel. He said He chose you because that's what He wanted to do. And when we come to the New Testament, We see that God chooses us when we choose Him. As Pastor Camilleri, I use his illustration quite frequently about predestination. Those who go to the ice cream shop, Pastor Camilleri will buy them ice cream. Not tonight, but in the illustration. It's too cold for ice cream anyway. I just came back from PNG a week ago. So, if you go to the ice cream shop, he'll buy you ice cream. How do you know if you're chosen? Well, if you show up, you're automatically chosen. And so it's based on a choice that you make, but it's God that made the choice and is giving the gift freely. It's not something we have to work for. So when the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 2 that ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people or something special to God, But it's because of that chosen cornerstone, that's chosen of God and precious. It's not because of who we are and the amazing things that we've done to make ourselves right in the sight of God, but because of his love for us. When he's telling that to the children of Israel, he says, because you're special people, and because God has chosen you, there's some things that need to be true in your life. There are some characteristics that need to be in place, because you represent God. Charlie, I mean Stacey, is Charlie available? Can he come up and help me real quick? All right, Charlie's gonna come on up here, and We're going to think about 1 Corinthians 6, verses 18-20, the Bible says, well 19-20, what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you? You can come up, Charlie. Charlie, I'm right here. Come up. Which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Bible tells us that we're a special people because God has chosen us and He's purchased us to be His. And because of that, we're supposed to glorify Him with our body and who we are. This is just a simple illustration. I didn't need to bring him up, but I like having him help me. You like helping me, Charlie? Okay. There's two ways that this relationship goes. I am so grateful to the Lord that I get to be a dad, and this is my son. There's nothing like it in the world. And it's a blessing that we get to live together a lot. We've had a very crazy couple of years. Charlie was born on the Deputation Trail at the truck stop, and he's been traveling ever since. I think he's been to about 30 states, and Mexico, and Canada, and Puerto Rico, and all sorts of interesting places. But because of my job, our ministry, we get to spend a lot of time together. these past couple trips where I had to leave the country and leave my family behind, that was no fun for us. We're used to being together many hours a day usually. And so, but people tell me that my son looks like me now. He doesn't have the beard now and that's a good thing. But he's got those perfect characteristics and So I have my attributes that the Lord has enabled me to give to him. And obviously he also learns from me as a parent. It's a scary thing when you see your kids acting just like you. Like, oh boy. Or saying the same things that you said that you didn't know they were listening to. So my, How do I want to put it? Something blow me. How do you say that in English? The things of me or the characteristics of me are placed upon my son and I pray that if I'm a good Christian, a good man, that he can be like me. That's the child that God's given me. But also my son's behavior reflects back on me. See who I am, is going to be judged based on his actions. Now, when he's two years old, thankful people have grace, and they don't think that when we're having an attitude battle that I taught him that, because we know that The bad attitudes do come about naturally, but I have a part in it too, don't I? In training my son in how I respond to things. On the way here, my computer, I was working on this slide show, and the workflow that I had going just all of a sudden stopped working for no apparent reason. And I was running out of time, and it was getting very frustrating. And I had to take a moment and stop and pray and say, Lord, This is not worth losing my whole evening over. A couple pictures on the slideshow. Not just because my kids are watching me, but, and we'll get to this, but because of who I am, it represents the Lord. Charlie, can you stay with me for a minute? Okay, thank you. If he looks like me, then when I'm not around, people are going to assume that I look like him, and that if they want to know something about his dad, that they can judge it from his life. And that's a big responsibility as a parent. But also, we're going to look at it from the child's perspective. That's who we are, representing our God. Charlie, do you think you can walk back to the moment all by yourself? Okay. Thank you for your help. All right. So the Bible says that we're bought with a price, and we're supposed to glorify God in our body and our spirit, which are God's. We are a chosen people, we're a peculiar people. The word peculiar in the Bible isn't referring to weird and strange and ugly, it's referring to something that is specifically belongs to that person. It is unique to them, and as the people of God, we live on the same planet with all those people who are not the people of God. In fact, every one of us was born not the people of God. As it says there in 1 Peter chapter 2, which time passes, we're not a people, but are now the people of God. God has given us this amazing privilege of being His children. In 1 John chapter 1 verse 12, the Bible says, So we are God's children. He's chosen us just because of His good will. We need to keep that in mind that we're making a representation of who He is, because people on this earth can't see God with their eyes. We don't see God with our eyes. He tells us in verse 9, if you're still in 1 Peter chapter 2, let's look at verse 9. Verse 9 says, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that for the purpose of this ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We're not chosen and special so that we can show forth our own praises or lift ourselves up and say, look at our church and you should just come check us out because we're the best thing going. No, we're supposed to be showing forth the praises of Him. And I have four little alliterated points that I came up with. There could have been numerous others, and I'll briefly mention those. First, we're going to be talking about how our music makes a declaration of who Christ is. And there will be a bunch of Ms here, the ones that we aren't going to mention, but I wrote them down. Your money and the way you use your money could make a declaration of who Christ is to the world. What about your management of time? What about your mood? That'll tell people about who your father is. What about your ministry? And I wrote your misuse of things, whether it's your authority or the resources that God has given you. That makes a declaration of who our God is, who that chief cornerstone is. If you can come back with me, again, I'm gonna hold my place in 1 Peter 2. We'll look at a few verses in the Psalms. In Psalm 40, a very familiar passage, I would hope, and on deputation a lot of times my family has sung the song out of the old Pez camp meeting hymnal, He Brought Me Out of the Miry Clay. It comes from Psalm 40, verses 1 through 3, and it tells that The Lord inclined unto me, he heard my cry, he brought me up also out of a horrible pit, he gave me salvation, he has rescued me from myself and from the sin of the world, he has put my feet upon a rock, established my goings, and verse 3, Psalm 40 verse 3 says, and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. So, this praise is going unto God, that's the destination, but what does it say about that praise? Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Our praise to God is a testimony to others right around us. And so, when the Bible says in 1 Peter 2 that we should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. our music, and when we're praising the Lord, it's not only in music, but that point comes up quite often. Look at Psalm 96. Psalm 96 speaks again of a new song. In Psalm 96 verse one, and it says that our music is telling people something about our God. In Psalm 96 verse 1, oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. So we're singing, right, to the Lord, right? Sing unto the Lord, bless his name. Show forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. This song has a testimony to the outside world. We're singing to the Lord. but others are listening and they're watching. It's kind of like when Jesus said in John 17, Father, I thank you that thou hast heard, or John 11, I thank you that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of those that stand by, I said it. We can talk to God and it be for the benefit of others. And that's what the Bible tells us this new song is. It's on the same page in my Bible in Psalm 98. Look in Psalm 98, verse 1. This new song is testimony of what God is doing. And God is working all the time. You'll see in our prayer letter, we try to keep making mention of the miracles that God is about to pass in our life. We don't want to just consider everything that comes in our life like, oh wow, we did it, we made it. No. God worked in ways that we could not. Like, for this trip to Papua New Guinea that I just took, I sent in my passport to get a visa. I'd never dealt with that embassy before, and they had my passport for about 20 hours, put a visa in it, and sent it back in the mail. Like, things like that don't happen. but the Lord worked in a marvelous way. And I want to tell others, that was my God. That's not the Papua New Guinea, there is no Papua New Guinea ambassador right now. There's some of these officers working there. They don't know what the Lord's doing in our lives. For years, we're trying to get to the mission field, but the Lord used all the circumstances, and we can declare His glory and His praise that He's wonderful. And I would say that the music, again, I mentioned tonight, thank you so much for that. Him saying, how wonderful my Lord is. For us, growing up in church, it can become commonplace, and we're looking for a new song, like it says in the Bible, right? Because we know all the same ones. But maybe if we have some old songs, maybe we can take them to a new destination and tell people that haven't ever heard before of how wonderful the Lord is. That might be a good thing to do. Let's come to Ephesians chapter five, a classic passage on music. And this is going to lead to the next point as well. If you read chapter five, it's just interesting how things lead together. We're going to come back to the earlier part of the chapter here in a minute. But in verse 15, the Bible says, "...see then that you walk circumspectly," circumspectly means with a view around yourself, looking around. The parallel passages in Colossians would tell us that this is teaching and admonishing one another in our music. And so our praise to the Lord is a reflection of who God is, and we want to make sure that it represents God well and rightly. We talk about, of course, in music class and Bible Institute or various times that it's been brought up here at church, that our music needs to be a declaration of God's character and not just about my feelings of who I want to be. I think God is. But God's the one that gets to decide who he is, and our music should reflect that and bring glory to him in a way that he'd be pleased with. So while we're here in Ephesians chapter five, we're gonna come to this next point. So your music declares something about Christ, and your marriage declares something about Christ. Look down in verse, well, just continuing, we can look at verse 21. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Look down at verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning the Christ and the church. Out of all the things we could speak about, this very clearly, very biblically, our marriage is our representation of who Christ is and who the church is supposed to be in submission to Christ and doing his work. And I've been married just over three years. I'm very, very, very grateful for my wife. She has made it too easy for me to stay happily married. We're always praying together, we've been discussing even this week, so happy to be back home together and just talking about how we don't need to just go in neutral and say, oh yeah, we're happy together and whatever, but we need to be paying attention to, are we doing what God wants in our marriage? Because we are representing who He is. And the very fact that the Bible says that the relationship of the husband and wife is a representation of Christ in the church. Last I checked, we believe in eternal security because it's in the Bible, and that's a great reminder to us that marriage is designed by God. It is not designed to just, oh, I don't like it anymore. I'm going to quit. But that's saying something about our relationship with Christ. Would He ever get rid of us? The Bible says you won't. And so we need to think soberly about that. I know a lot of young people are thinking about marriage in the near future or have just gotten married. And not every day of marriage is just everything's happy and you like how it goes. But your marriage is a representation to the world of who Christ is. And if you're going to get into that, if you're gonna make that commitment, you need to make that commitment to God, that you're going to represent Him properly. Because why would, it would be a great shame, pity, if the Christian marriages tell the world that that God doesn't have things held together. And we know that a marriage is the union of two sinners, and it's not Christ. I am not Jesus. And I cannot be perfect to my wife as Jesus would be, but I need to have in mind that I represent Him. And my marriage makes a declaration to the world of who Christ is. If you go back to 1 Peter, Just look at chapter 3, and this is going to lead us to our next point as well. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3, This is speaking of a wife in a difficult situation where her husband's not even a believer. I'm thankful that I get to have a Christian marriage that was started at the church altar. I'm very grateful for that. I know not everyone has had an ideal past. We can't go back and change the past. But here the Bible says even if your past and your present situation is not ideal, We still need to represent Christ in our marriage, and do the right thing, and be committed to that. And then, verse 3 is going to continue into the next point, and I had to keep with the Ms. So these two next points are contrasts to one another. One is your manifestation, and the other is your mysteries. Wow. So, verse 3, 1 Peter 3, 3, is gonna be talking about our manifestation, our outward appearance. And that makes a declaration about who Christ is. Let's look at 1 Peter 3, verse 3, who's adorning, this is continuing along with talking about wives. Who's adorning? Let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. And maybe it's good that I had to use an M, and so I didn't say your outward appearance, because the focus of these verses is not on the outward appearance. It says your adorning is not, there's another passage that also gives some similar ideas, but we're just going to, let's see. No, the other passage is in 1 Timothy 2. I don't think we're going to go there right now. But this is saying, your adorning is and ought to be the head man of the heart. And so that word manifestation, conveniently it began with an M, but really it gets across the right idea that what we're manifesting to the world about who we are is not just to be focused on the clothes that we put on. It does make a difference. It is important. That's what people see with their eyes, but they also see the things of the heart. And it says the hidden man of the heart, but that's supposed to be your adorning. So something that's hidden inside is supposed to come out. And whether through your actions, your attitudes, your words to people, Now I think we are gonna take the time to look over at 1 Timothy chapter two because it mentions this for men as well, it's not just for women. 1 Timothy chapter two, that's after Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. 1 Timothy chapter two verse eight, the Bible says, I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, that's an external thing that we can see, without wrath and doubting. Maybe that deals a little bit more with the internal, the heart attitude about it. And then it says in verse 9, in like manner also. So these two things are directly related. That women adorn themselves in modest apparel. with shamefaced innocence and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which become with women professing godliness with good works." See, it's saying that the focus is not on the clothing or the makeup or how you adorned and did your hair and all these things, that it's part of our life and we don't want to show up looking like we're going out of bed and didn't do anything with it for the last 15 years. What is supposed to be manifested is the inside of who Christ is and how He's given us a different outlook on life than what the world has. So, yes, your outward appearance, the way that you groom yourself, is an important declaration about Christ and you as a Christian, but as you think about your manifestation, I want you to remember that the focus is what's inside. Because what the Bible tells us is that's going to come out, and that's going to tell people about who God is to us. I'll just quote this verse here and we'll come back to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5, the Bible says in Luke 8 verse 17, for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. So the things that are inside your heart, will become your manifestation, and that's where this fourth point is, your mysteries, that is the things that you think are kept inside and no one has to know about them, they're gonna declare something about Christ as well. Look in Ephesians chapter five, we were just there a minute ago in the later part of the chapter, but now here at the beginning, Start in verse one, it's speaking again is about our relationship with God and what that represents. And now, so this is going to, Okay, we're going to get to the part that's talking about secret here in a minute. As we come to this section of Ephesians Chapter 5, it's going to connect back to 1 Peter 2, which is where we can finish up. And it's a reminder to us that the things that are inside our hearts, and often this is where I have failed and been spending some time this week again confessing to the Lord, confessing to my wife, the things that go down way deep inside where I hope no one would ever know. And I think that I've got my outward manifestation all cleaned up nice. But these inside things, the hidden things and the secrets of my life, they're going to make a declaration about Christ and probably in a time when I'm not looking forward to it. And we need to keep that in mind that, you know, Pastor Folk has said, I remember from years ago, hearing what a man thinks about when he has time to think about what he wants to think about is what he is or what he'll soon become. Those things go on in our hearts. is what the world's going to find out about pretty soon. And that's going to make a declaration about who Christ is. Look at verse 8, Ephesians 5, verse 8. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light, and, Lord, walk as children of light. Remember in 1 Peter 2, show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Verse nine, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. So if you can go back with me to 1 Peter 2, that's where we're going to finish up. It said that we're a chosen generation, a peculiar people, a very special set of people to God, not because of how great we are, but because of how great He is. We're chosen because of the chosen cornerstone, Jesus Christ. And because of that, we have a job to do to represent Him. And we're not going to be able to do that and keep that right testimony in these various areas, whether it's music, marriage, your manifestation, your mysteries, your secret things, or maybe those other points we talked about, your money or your attitude and these things. But that's not for us to just dig in and show the right testimony of who the Lord is. We have to remember, our life is a testimony of who the Lord is because it's supposed to be the Lord working in our life and living in us. What does the Bible say in Galatians 2.20? I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. who we are and what's in our heart and what's manifested from us ought to be what the Lord is doing in our life. The Bible says that we should show forth the praises of him that called us out of darkness. It's something that needs to be inside to start with and then it can go out. And so if you look down again in verse 11, 1 Peter 2, 11, dearly beloved, I beseech you, As strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And if you don't feel a war going on, I don't know if it's because you've lined down and given up. There's a war against our soul every day. And if you are living in victory all the time, I praise God for you and I pray that it continues that way for you. But a lot of us feel like, what in the world, why am I sitting here again trying to get over this again? We have this war going on, and the Bible tells us, abstain from flesh and blood, that's a choice that we have to make, to say no. I'm going to say no to that thing that's wrong, I'm going to choose the thing that's right. But without the power of God within us, that's never gonna happen, for sure. But something that has helped me this week is thinking about, in my time of debate and decision and struggle against something wrong, I need to remember that the choice I make in this temptation is going to declare to the world who Jesus Christ is, because His name is upon me. And that makes my actions and my decisions very crucial, not just for me, but for him. Verse 12, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify you. No. They'll glorify God in the day of visitation. When God works through us, that which is pleasing to Him, we're going to give glory to Him, and the world will know as well that this is not just a person doing the best they can. This is God doing His marvelous work inside of Him being. And that's what we want the world to see. That's what we want to be represented to others. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, 19, We have His name upon us. We represent Him. We're special people because of our special Savior. And the question for me tonight, the question for you is, does your life show that your Savior is special? that our salvation is not something of this world, but that He gives us a totally different life than everyone else in this world has, and that when people see our good works, which the Lord graciously enables us to to do and overcome that war and that struggle within ourselves, when we're able to do something right and give Him the glory, that others will glorify God and say, wow, I know it's not just that the Christians are amazing people because of themselves, but they must have an amazing God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we just want to bring our cares and needs to you tonight, Lord, of that the constant pressure upon us from the outside world to know who God is based on the way that we act. And Lord, that's a. a big job to do, we can't do it on our own. And when we try, we fail you, Lord, and we want to ask forgiveness for that. Lord, we want you to live in us. We want to surrender to that, to your spirit living in us. Lord, we want to be filled with your word, which would give us a taste of how wonderful you are, and that your character would be displayed through us, the fruit of the spirit that others would see. Perhaps that we are special people, but it's only because of our special Savior. In Jesus' name, amen. I'll draw one quick verse here.