All right. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Nice to see you. It's been a while. It's been a whole year since I was invited last. And I kept my promise, I'll come back as a stunt double. So my beard grew back. Brother, I told you, next time you see me, I'm probably going to look a lot like you again. So praise God for that. My beard grew back and my wife is still, I'm still married. Just saying, I'm very grateful to be back and to share the Word of God with you. It is kind of, I think it's easy for me when it's near the new year, you can always use the new year as an introduction, because we can use every scripture from the Bible and say, well, we're going to implement this in the new year. So we have started 2026. Wow. Some of us are getting old, tired, and broken. So we are in 1 Peter this morning, but as you turn your Bibles there or click or scroll, depending what you have, in 1 Peter chapter 2, 11 and 12, I want to begin in asking this question. Have you ever wondered why the Bible tends to be very repetitive in certain topics? Very repetitive. Often we hear, you know, love your brother and serve your brother and do this and do that. Very often it's very repetitive in just so many different ways. And I can only come up with one thing as to why that is, and we are called sheep. Sheep are not the greatest and smartest people on, you know, animals in the animal kingdom. And I think God had a sense of humor to call us sheep, because I believe at the best of time, I'll speak for myself, not you, okay? Just this sheep is a dum-dum, and he needs to hear it over and over again. So I think that's the reason why we see that there is repetitiveness in the Scripture. So before we actually go to our text this morning, I want to read you from 1 John, in chapter 2, 15 to 16. And it says this, Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world. Now, we can read that as Christians and say, well, that's not me. That is a person who is not saved and he enjoys life. That's the pattern of his life. That's how he lives. He lives his life in the world because he's not looking forward to the next world. But if we are honest enough as Christians and we look into the law and the perfect mirror of God's law through grace, how often do we actually really look like the world? How often do we actually blend in with the world, you know? Something new comes out, a new fad, you know, I need to have it now. I didn't need it before, but I need it now. I had an iPhone 4, now it's up to 68. If I don't catch up to it, I need to have that now, right? Everything seems to be moving so fast. And all of a sudden, the things that you once didn't care about, you stopped caring about them. And all of a sudden, you start to care about them again. Our text for this morning reminds us of this. Now, you know, 1 Peter was written to a people who were persecuted and scattered abroad. Peter wants to remind us this, that we are not of this world. We are sojourners, we're strangers, and we are exiles, we are aliens. We don't belong here. We don't chase after the things of the world like everyone else does, but we must chase after the things above. We are the true aliens. We're not green, but we're the true aliens. We're meant to live that way. You remember what the Lord himself said? If you were of the world, what? The world will love you because the world loves its own. Because you're not of the world, you know what? You're going to be hated. In fact, Jesus goes on to say, you are the light of the world. We're meant to expose the world. I want us to begin, 2026, brothers and sisters, in Christ, that we will live our lives crucified unto Christ. that we will live our lives fully for Him. The problem is with us as we are making our way to the celestial city, we tend to be too comfortable. We become comfortable in this world and we like the tangible stuff and we're forgetting the eternal stuff. Now imagine these people, how they could have been tempted to do this as we will see in a minute. They are persecuted. They are hated, mocked, scattered abroad. No one likes them. They're weird Christians. They could easily blend in. You know, it's easier, is it not, to blend in with the world than to be a witness for Christ and suffer for His name's sake? It can be very easy. And how do we do this? Well, we become like every... Listen, you know what's going on out there. And by the way, this all happens, I'll tell you something, this way it happens to us Christians, because we are redeemed, but something else is not redeemed. Your flesh. You have this stinking, rotten flesh stuck to you that doesn't want you to excel in your Christian life. And because of that, sometimes Christians, they give in, you know, start to blend in with the world. We are now seeing, more than ever, homosexuals behind the pulpit. What on earth is going on? People are giving in. They are calling evil good and good evil. We want to encourage one another not to be like everyone else. We're supposed to be wise. We're supposed to be gracious. We're supposed to be the witness for Christ in a dying world. But we have this dead, stinking flesh attached to us still. We're meant to live our lives denying ourselves and picking up our crosses daily and following the pattern of Jesus Christ. But how often do we fail to do that? How often did you fail to do that in 2026? It's only been a couple of weeks in 2025, rather. It's only been a couple of weeks in 2026. I'm sure some of us already failed. in that. I'm not here to condemn you. I'm here to encourage you, my Christian friends. I'm speaking to you, not the non-Christian. We will talk to you later. Is that Peter has already said in chapter 1 verse 14, you as obedient children do not be conformed. Don't be conformed to your former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance. You see, before you became a Christian, all you could do was fleshly stuff. Before you became a Christian, all you did was chase after the things of the world because you had no spirit. But you were like this. Paul says you were once dead in trespasses and sins, and in them you once walked. But sometimes, brothers and sisters, we tend to walk more in the flesh than in the spirit. We tend to blend in more with the world than expose the world to a beautiful, wonderful, amazing Savior, Jesus Christ. We ought to say to ourselves this morning, my New Year's resolution is that I'm going to fight my flesh and I'm going to submit to the Spirit of God in His Word that I will expel Christ in and through me for the rest of the year and the year after that until Christ takes me home. We want to live the true purpose-driven life. And that is to live a life that is worth living in a society that seems to be worthless. A society has gone mad. You ask a young man or a young lady or an older man, if there was a cat in the pool and a baby, who would you save? They say cats. This is a true story in proclaiming the gospel. Something has gone wrong. Something is happening. It's getting worse and worse and worse. And we want to encourage one another, because this can drive us to despair, and this can drive us to, honestly, just, it's tiring. Sometimes it's tiring being a Christian, and we'll give in to our flesh, and we'll become complacent, and we'll become just like everyone else. So I'm here to encourage you. I titled this, Living a Crucified Life, and I only have two points for you. One, reject your flesh. And two, resound the gospel. Reject your flesh and resound the gospel. So if you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Peter and let's read together from the word of God from 1 Peter. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against the soul. keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Wow. I love that word. I could do a whole series on the word beloved. I love it. I love studying and understanding what it really means. But I love the fact that this pastor, this elder, this apostle has such affection for a people that perhaps he hasn't met. And he calls to them and he says, beloved, you know, you are cherished. He's expressing this wonderful emotional connection with these people, beloved. It speaks of one who is actually close as a son to a father who hugs him and loves him and sits him on his lap. And more than that, what Peter is doing here is calling them beloved because they are beloved of God. They are loved of God. They are beloved of God. Where do I get this from? Look at verse 8, 9 rather, in chapter 2. It says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. You are bought with a price of Jesus Christ. When Jesus was on that cross, He had you in mind. You are the select elect. You were chosen before the foundation of the world. We just celebrate a Christmas, right? When Jesus was on that cross, your name was already written in heaven. And then He wrote it perfectly with His own blood. You are mine. You are mine. You are mine. You are beloved. God loves you. And why does Peter begin like this? And why am I making such a big deal? Because before you will do anything for Christ, know that you are loved by Him. Or else everything that we do as Christians is just dead works. There is a difference me saying to my wife, I love you, and I'm doing the dishes, and I'm doing all this, and I've got to do this because this is a Christian thing. But if I really passionately love my wife, it becomes a desire. It becomes within me a will to serve her out of a heart of gratitude that God even gave me a wife to love such a man as this. There is a difference. and saying beloved it draws us to actually love Christ more and then when we hear a command when we hear something we say Lord like Isaiah sent me no one's going to believe I'll go and he says beloved this is plural every single Christian is loved by God tall small Ugly, okay, myself. Beautiful. You are loved by God, not because of anything that you have done, but because Jesus died for you and rose from the grave. You mattered to God, or else He wouldn't have sent His Son into the world. But I must say this, that this here, I want to make a statement here. Beloved is only applicable for those who are loved by God, meaning that they're born again. This is not applicable for those of you who do not know Christ yet. I pray that you will get to know Jesus, but it's not applicable to you. And if you ever heard anyone say to you, don't worry, God loves the sinner, but hates the sin. No, Jesus died for the sinners. And he's angry at the wicked. So this is a reminder for you. I want to call you and I want to invite you right away. I don't want to wait until the end of the sermon. Then understand this, that you are a sinner before God. You're not standing right before God. But if you come to Him and just believe in a death and resurrection and a payment of Jesus, He will give you the right to become the children of God. It's in Him. I am called Beloved this morning, not because of me, but because of Jesus, because of Him. And for those of us here with Peter, Peter loves these people. He's connecting with them. He may not even know them, but he has the best intention for them. He sees their need above him. He wants them to excel. He wants them to work for the things of heaven. That way, when they enter into the kingdom of God, Jesus will say, come in, good and faithful servant. Here are all the rewards for you. And you know what that tells us? That we ought to put the needs of others above our own. and love them, love them. This love that Peter has for them is not cheap. This is not just some Bible text. Hey man, I love you. This is true love. This is love that Peter shows to these people. And then he says to these people that he loves, my beloved, I urge you. Now you, who are in Christ, are loved by Christ. You see? You see that? Let me tell you something. When you approach a brother or a sister in Christ, if you want to correct them, first, I'm sure that your pastor will teach you this, shower them with grace. because nobody does well when you tell them what to do. This is why we read it in the scripture. That's why you read Ephesians, first three chapters, here it is, this is who you are, this is... all right, now start doing this. It's just something that we need to really start to implement as Christians in our own lives or else we'll become judgmental. And somehow we have an extra anointing of grace. And when I go to a brother or sister and say, hey man, why are you wearing that skirt? You know, or woman. I hope it's not a man. That would be kind of weird. Blasphemous. Cut that out of the tape. We want to be like this. And this word here, by the way, it needs a little bit of attention. It actually means to pay, I urge you, it is to beg them and plead with them. In fact, the Greek word means he's getting beside them. And I love that. What Peter is doing is saying this, I'm not judging you. I'm not telling you, you're living in a hostile environment. That's what Peter is doing. You're living in a bad time. But imagine that I'm there beside you and I want to carry you. I want to carry you through this. I want to help you to do this. And we see this word, by the way, urge in a few chapters and we need to a few verses in the scriptures. And we need to understand this, I guess. Because it's used just before we are told what to do. So it's a pleading. It's an inviting thing. It's a humble thing. And we see this same word in Romans chapter 12, where Paul says, I know I'm preaching to the choir. You know that so well, right? It's probably one of your doing verses. I appeal to you, therefore. I urge you. This is what he's saying. I'm appealing to you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 15 30 says, I appeal. I urge you, brothers, by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers. You see, Peter has such a desire for them, for their spiritual well-being. Now, every one of us, well, obviously you belong to this church, I belong to another church. My brethren there are my brethren, but you're also my brethren. I want to share something with you. You build each other up here. But Peter here shows us that there is a unity within the body of Christ, your local church. But it goes broader than that. It goes broader than that. Because this love that he shows to them is the same similar love that we will share for missionaries, for other churches, like-minded people. Have you ever connected with people that you've barely met? I have a few here. My wife and I met a missionary couple 15 years ago. I met them for two whole days. My wife is my witness here. Two days. I had them at my house for a bit of a meal. You know, it's a small meal that we have at our house, brother, you know. And they stayed there. Do you know when they left? I wept. My wife and I wept as if my own mother had died. It was a connection that only God by the Spirit can do that. And if God can do that to a people who are far off, How much more should we connect with one another within a body and love one another? Don't allow your flesh to give in into dot, dot, dot. Just wanted to share that with you. So then Peter continues and he says to these people, beloved, I urge you as sojourners, aliens and exiles, you don't belong here. What does that mean, a sojourner or an alien? It means that you're going somewhere, but you're making your way through this place. That means you can eat here, you can drink here, you can rest here, you can buy your iPhone 68. That's okay. You can get your iPad 54. I need an upgrade. You can do all that. But all that is meant to help you to get there. My wife and I, many moons ago, kids were very little. We went on a trip. My wife hated it. I loved it. It was a three-day journey north. Our kids were little. And we stopped along the way in Broome and all weird places, you know, where just there's nothing there but a shed. And we will stop along the way and the kids are going, Dad, are we there yet? Are we there yet? And I'm like, oh, we're nearly there. I'm so excited. They're dying. My wife is asleep. And I listen to worship songs and all I could see was cows. But when we stopped, that stop over was to refresh us, to give us rest, to give us a bit of food, a bit of drink. Do you know why? so I can get to my final destination. We are sojourners, exiles, those who don't belong to this place. Earth is only supposed to be a refresher. You're only supposed to be just feeding your soul, feeding this to make you stronger and remember that there is something greater waiting ahead. It'll be silly that I take my family for a three-day trip and then we're stuck somewhere in the middle of nowhere and my friends are a snake and a kangaroo. No, no, this one is going past here. You see, sometimes we're like the snake and the kangaroo, and we get stuck there on this earth. And we forgot that there is treasure and pleasure and greatness awaiting for us. Is it not? Is it just me? I think that's the problem. We don't think heavenly enough. Our citizenship, Paul said, is not from here. It's there, where we eagerly await a Savior. One of my favorite songs lately is, come, Jesus, come. I sing it all the time. I'm looking. I'm waiting. And I'm going to sing it all the time. Come, Jesus, come. You want to show someone, brothers and sisters, that you love them? Just remind them where they're going. That's true. You want to love me? Please, don't buy me burgers. Don't buy me. Tell me. Remind me. Remind me of the bread from heaven. Remind me that one day I'm going to be face to face with my Savior. Remind me that my pains and my aches and my hurts and my wants in this life are not to be compared. The beauty that awaits for me when I see Jesus face to face. Please remind one another. And that's what Peter's doing. And then he begins to give him some instructions to you, believers, now let me tell you, right, of staying. Sometimes I think, You know, have you ever heard the saying, living on the edge? You know, we like to live on the edge. You know, you live on the edge and you don't, you know, it's okay. And you can do this, but it's not too bad. I think us Christians, sometimes we live on the edge of God's will. You know, we live on the edge. You know, the world is here. The world's here. And that's sin here. But I go to it and I just want to touch it. But God's will is right here, and we tend to move away. Why? Because all of a sudden we're forgetting where we're going, and the flesh gives in, and it goes over there, because it seems to be more appealing to me than to wait for Christ the Lord, my Savior, to take me home. We need to ask ourselves, what am I doing? What am I decision making in this life? Are they glorifying God? Am I giving honor to Him? Am I a witness for Jesus? Am I being a representative for this amazing God who became flesh and died for me and rose from the grave? Paul said, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. So you can go over here and you can do this, but is it helpful? Is it good for you? What good is it if you have all those things You don't fall for yourself. We're not talking about justification here, but what good is it? And then you enter the kingdom of God and Jesus says, well, well done, good and, you know, average servant. Who wants to hear that? I'm pretty sure everyone is like, Amen, brother. But you know what? Sometimes we probably, you know, we live over there and way, way too much. We ought to be like Christ. No, no, no, no, Lord. You know what? This is hard. This is hard. It's hard to live like this. But God, I don't want my will to be done. I want yours to be done. I want you. No matter what I'm going through, no matter how much persecution, no matter my health, no matter my wealth, I don't care. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Bless the bitter name of the Lord. We ought to say that to our souls and to one another. That, to me, is encouraging. We don't want to, you know, because we're sojourners, we don't want to pitch our tents so much so that the spikes go into the ground. And when you say, brother, let's go, you say, look, I can't get this up anymore. No, no, just put little pegs. Enough for you to move. And you go wherever God wants you to go. And you do whatever God wills you to do. So he says, you are aliens, you are strangers, exiles. Then to you, my friend, he says, abstain from the passions of the flesh. You now know this, keep away, keep your distance. from the passions of the flesh. Stay away from them. Don't live on the edge. So if Jesus were here and he would say, Ralph, stay away. This is crossing over the passion of the flesh. Stay away from it. Run from it as far as the east is from the west and come back to the sheepfold. But we like to live on the fence of the sheepfold. We're still Christians, right? But we're inside. Jesus still loves me. But you know what? I'm trying to encourage you so that you can excel in your life and your wonderful gifts that you have to use it for Jesus. And when you enter into the kingdom that will be in there for you, so many, so many rewards. I want you to excel. Peter's saying, stay away from the passions of the flesh. Now the words here, passions of the flesh, can sometimes mean sexual sin. I think we all know we should stay away from that. It's destroying our city, our country, and the world. I mean, it is terrible, is it not? No longer we say man and woman, him and her, it's they, those and everyone else. It's getting out of hands. But I think Peter had a broader meaning here because he's already mentioned that in chapter 1 verse 14, where he says, as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. That's chapter 1 verse 14. You were like this. So the passions here are broader passions, not just sexual passions, but the passions of the flesh. And that talks about, by the way, the word passion is a deep appetite, a deep desire, an effectual thing that happens within you. Now, you say, why Ralph? How is this possible? If I'm born again, I don't know about you, when I first was saved for the first few years of my life, and my wife is a witness here that I'm not lying to you. I struggle that I was saved. I struggled. I was still witnessing. I was still living as a Christian, but I wept and struggled for so long to know if I was truly saved. Do you know why? Because I used to give into my flesh so much. I used to give into it. It does not mean I'm not saying I'm perfect, okay? I'm just saying sometimes some of you perhaps today are struggling to know maybe if you're saved. It could be that you're gearing into your flesh. It could be that you are saved. It could be that you're not. But it could be you're just giving in to your flesh. We are new creatures. We have new hearts and new desires. But Peter is saying here, stay away from fleshly desires. They're against God. This is a battle. By the way, this is a battle that we have. It leads us to temptations. It hinders us to walk our Christian walk. It confuses us to know the heavenlies. It obstructs us to live a holy and blameless life fully for the glory of God. Perhaps some of you young ones are given into your flesh because you've got ungodly friends. And you're given into that. You want to be like everyone else. Can I say something to you? I was once your age. These people who claim to be your friends and are leading you to sin, they are not loving you. They don't care about you. And one day, the same friends will probably crucify you. Stay away from them. Stay away from them. Bad company, what? Corrupts good moral. Don't be tempted with these desires. Why? What Peter tells us. There's a stop there. Stay away from them because they wage war against the soul. There is a war going on. Something is taking place. When I was not a Christian, I had no war. Right? When you become a Christian, there is a war that now takes place between the new nature and the old nature, the flesh and the heart. There's this war going on. This is the true meaning of bipolar. Christians are psychos. All right? If I go to one of those doctors and I say to them, they say, what's wrong, Ralph? I say, I don't know. That which I do, I don't want to do, or I end up doing what I don't want to do. I don't know what's going on. I say, okay, let me give you three or four tablets per day. I'm kidding, but I'm not kidding. Because that's exactly what the Scripture says. The Scripture says there is this conflict and this war, as James says. The pleasure is within. They are fighting. We fight a battle, brothers and sisters. We fight the devil. We fight the world. We fight unrighteousness, the power of darkness. It's a fight leading your own kids to Christ. It's so hard sometimes. You literally want to Bible bash them. But you know you can't, because you have to be nice. There is a battle within us. Yes, we fight the devil and everything else, but can I just suggest this? I believe that this is a greater battle. The greater battle is not the devil. The devil doesn't make me do what I do. And it's not the world. All that is temptation. I'm the one who gives in to it. I need to fight this battle. It is a battle of two kingdoms. The kingdom of Christ within me and the kingdom of Ralph. Right? It is a battle of selfishness and selflessness. It is a battle of, oh, I want to be served. How come she didn't say hello to me this morning? Or they took my seat. Or a battle. I'm sorry, that's not this church. It's the Church of the Rock, right? Or it's a battle of, you know what, take my seat, take my shoes and take my jacket. There's always something going on and we need to fight. Why do we need to fight this? Imagine these guys. Why is Peter saying this to these guys? You need to know the context. Because they were going to fight this war. Why? People were hating them, crucifying them. It's easier to give in. You see, we are not persecuted like this. But I love 1 Peter, and there's a reason why I did this in our church. Because I can see it, that it's coming to Australia. We always hear about, in Uganda and some other country, where a brother or a sister was crucified or put in prison, stoned, or even worse, death, just for saying the name Jesus. If we don't encourage one another and learn how to fight the flesh, guess what will happen to you? You'll give in to it. We want to prepare for battle before the battle even begins, and that begins within. You and I need to fight this because your flesh is going to rip you off everything, joy and peace and serenity, and your flesh will wreck your marriage. will wreck your relationship with your kids and with your church members. Instead of being lazy, we want to be, I don't know, something that rhymes with lazy, crazy, all right? We want to be lazy and we don't want to be like, we're already crazy for Jesus, right? I want to hear Amen. So here it is, there is a war going on and then Peter's saying, you need to fight it. You need to fight this war because what's happening within you, it's fighting for your affection. I hate my flesh. I can't stand it, but it's stuck to me. Is yours? It's so annoying. I just don't get it. How is it that I'm arguing with myself in the mirror? This is dumb! This is lunacy! But I want us to be humble because there was a man who happened to be the greatest Christian who ever walked planet Earth. He also had bipolar and that's the Apostle Paul. So I'm with the big guns as a psycho man. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote Romans, you remember that right? What did He say? The things I want to do, I don't end up doing. Oh my goodness, what's going on? I don't know what's happening. I want to do this, but I don't do it. I don't want to do this. I end up doing it. Oh, what a wretched man that I am. Praise be to God. So there is hope for us. This is not a hopeless sermon, okay? It's a hopeful one to remind you, you have a flesh. So having said that, then what does Peter now take us? That brings us to the second point. Look at your Bible. So he has said all that to these people, and then he says in verse 12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. Keep your conduct. That's something that you grab. Let go of this. Deal with this. Deal with it. Let go of this. But now grab onto this. Hold onto this. Something that you seize with affection. And it's in the present active participle. What on earth does that mean? Ask your pastor. But I'll explain it to you. It actually means ongoing. Keeping. Keep doing this. Keep doing this. What am I supposed to keep doing? Keep your conduct. Your behavior. That means your way of life. The way you live. The way you are. What's that look like? Your speech. The way you talk. Turn your silly... I'm not you, I'm saying in general. Let's turn our silly attitude to gratitude. Okay? Be at peace. How do we do this? You know what? We're going to see that we are under a spotlight in the world. We need to be careful the way we speak, the way we dress, the music that we listen to. Believe it or not, I used to be in heavy metal bands with long hair before I was a Christian. Yes, brother. It's just growing in a different place now. And I praise God and I'll sing hymns, okay? There are many things that, you know what, they are not sinful. I don't believe listening to music that's loud is sinful. But what's it representing? What's it doing? Why would I do that? Why would I rock up at Village Church having some sort of weird metal in the background? And I'll get, what would you think of me? Well, there comes the rockin' pastor. I think we need to be careful with that within our flesh. We need to use self-control. We need to be gentle, the fruit of the Spirit, right? So we put off. That's the repetitiveness that we see in the Scriptures all the time. Right now, then He's telling us to put on. But can I say something? You know, the whole putting off and putting on. Please don't forget, Jesus is actually the gap between it. If you just put off and put on, you'll get tired of it. As you're putting off, please, I beg of you, come to Jesus. Drink from Him. Be excited about Him. Acknowledge Him. Remember Him. Study Him. Find Him through the scriptures, even in Leviticus. All right. Find Christ. See the beauty. See that He's the pearl of a great price to you. Be excited. And as you are doing that, you know what? Putting on becomes so good. That's why Jesus says, if you love me, You will keep my commandments if you love me. I love my wife. I don't tell her enough, but I show it to her. I don't tell her maybe verbally enough. Sorry, honey. But I show it to her. We want to deny, but we want to put on. An athlete who wants to get a medal for whatever it is that he's going for, let's say he's a runner, he doesn't just put off eating bad food or drinking bad stuff. He needs to put on something so he can arrive there at the finish line. He needs to sleep well, eat well. He needs to do all those things. It's the same thing with us, brothers and sisters. We need to put off and we need to drink from Christ and put on. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians, those who belong to Christ have what? Crucified. They have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. So Paul says here, What are you meant to do? That your conduct among the Gentiles, that's a dying world, unbelievers, be honorable. The Nazby says, excellent, to be excellent. What does that look like? Well, we have to go back to Jesus. I am meant to live a Christian life to the highest degree of holiness. Did you know that? Be ye perfect as what? My heavenly Father is perfect. I am called to live a holy life. He's already told them, you are the stones, living stones. In fact, let me just read it to you. Look at this, verse 9. I'm still in 1 Peter. I hope you're tracking with me. I'm like, yeah, 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, when he says this, You're called to proclaim Jesus. You're called to be a witness for Him in words. But as we will see here, this is not just speaking about words, it's speaking about actions. You are to proclaim Jesus in your words, but you are to reflect Him in your deeds. You are to reveal the beauty of Jesus Christ in your life. That's the, so that, in verse 12. You see that in our text for this morning? Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that. That's the purpose statement. The purpose statement is, this is the reason why I've told you all that. This is the reason now why you ought to put off, come to Christ, drink from Him. You are beloved. You are the temple of God. You are chosen of God. You are those whom God cherishes. But here's the reason. So that when they speak against you as evildoers, So the unbelievers who speak against you as evil doers. I'm just going to go off my notes for a second. When COVID hit. We were called evil doers. You know why? Because we wanted to worship God. Because we wanted to meet up with the people of God. And we were called evildoers. These guys back then, if you do a bit of church history, they would have been called evildoers. You know why? Because they weren't bowing down to the gods of that time. In fact, they were called atheists because they didn't bow down to the god of that time. And they were called all sorts of names. In fact, they were called gay. Do you know why? Did you know? Have you ever heard that? Do you know why? Because they loved one another so much and they actually practice a holy kiss. And so Peter's saying, listen, sure, later on, Peter says, be subjective to, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, but never when they're causing you to sin. Never. You are never meant to obey anything that is contrary to God's law and His way. He's saying here, listen, it's just not enough. In fact, if you go back in church history, they were called cannibals as well, because they were saying, this is my flesh, and this is my blood. Drink this in remembrance of me, right? So you kind of can get that one, I guess, you know, why they will think things like this. But why do we do this? According to Peter, why should we do it? So that when they look at you, when they speak, watch this, they may see your good deeds. What's your good deeds? What do they look like? Your life. We have an audience of one that we need to give an account to. Amen? That's God. But that God tells us that we have a massive audience right in front of us right now. We have a watching world. A world that looks at us and picks on everything that we do and we call them judgmental. Don't worry about them. Leave them in God's hands. You and I are called to be faithful stewards. in our deeds. Just be faithful. Show Christ in your life. All the credit goes to God. It doesn't matter that they call us evildoers. It doesn't matter what they say because it says here, they may see your good deeds and glorify God at the day of visitation. Now what on earth does that mean? How does an unbeliever glorify God in the day of visitation? So this has two views. One view is that when an unbeliever dies, I'll give you the verse, Psalm 76 10, it says, for the wrath of man shall praise you. When an unbeliever dies, God is going to receive the glory, the honor. Every tongue shall confess and every knee shall bow. They'll understand Christ. God will receive the glory. A lot of people don't want to see this. They don't want to understand this. That in hell, the smoke of their torment is a sweet smelling aroma to God. Did you know that? Gee, that sounds harsh. Well, it's either there or in Christ. If Jesus is not the sweet-smelling aroma unto the Lord, then it has to be the justice of God in hell. That's one view. The other view is, and I believe that this view here is probably what Peter meant, in your good deeds, your suffering, your keeping up with kids, and neighbors who hate you and all those things in those good deeds as you are proclaiming the excellencies of Christ. What are the excellencies? Christ died and He rose from the grave. That's the first excellencies of Jesus. And He forgives you if you come and put your faith and trust in Him. As you do that, guess what happens? God himself meets them where they are, they repent, believe in the gospel, and they are saved, and God receives the glory. And I think that's what Peter's saying here. And here's an encouragement for me and you. You and I don't save anybody, but we have the privilege. We have the privilege to go and proclaim the gospel. In fact, I am just going to share it with you. I am, I think, a 5.5 Calvinist. I'm just saying. I'll just add the extra five. I believe that when I go out to preach the gospel, you know what I'm doing? I'm going to go and get my brother and sister. My long lost brother and sister. I haven't met them yet. And if that person comes to say, oh, I've shared that, and they have come to faith, and I say, God, why would you use me? Such a wretched man to go and get one of my brothers and sisters. What a privilege, right? God is the one who saves, but He sends out and He says, go and get your brothers and sisters. I love that. I go out and I proclaim Christ, knowing that He can save to the uttermost. Jesus said, whoever the Father gives me will come. And I will by no means cast out. I just happen to have the privilege to share that with people. And if they come, wow, wow, what an honor. Is there something better besides your own salvation that you see a lost soul being saved? I know none. You take away everything for me and you give me someone who comes to faith. I have been raptured to cloud 29 with the Apostle Paul. You see a wretched sinner who does not deserve God's mercy, and God meets him because you were a witness, because you shared the gospel, because you in your good deeds, they see the glory of Christ. Oh, doesn't that make you want to live for him a crucified life? Our text this morning, brothers and sisters, is encouraging us to be this light of the world. My wife and I, I'll just give you just a quick, just a little illustration. Look, I don't want to be the hero of the story, but it fits. We had a friend who was a full-on atheist. Oh my goodness, she will flip chairs at my house every time I mention the name Jesus when I got saved. She will get so angry and she would just say, stop it! Give me back the Ralph that I know! Which part of that Ralph do you miss? Guy was an idiot! That's God! And this went on for three years until one day they couldn't have kids. Her and her husband, they came to my house, broken. And I said to them, I was just a young believer. I said to them, I'll pray for you, man. I said, I really believe the Bible says God is the one who gives babies. I'm going to pray for you. They have three children now, by the way. God blessed them with one child, still an atheist, still an unbeliever. My wife, who's good friends with her, bought the baby. I'm telling you, this is part of us living a Christian life, okay? Not the hero, but just she bought him a Christian Bible with a little duck on it, you know, and all that stuff, but it was a full-on Bible. And she went to her friend, and she said, do you love me? She said, of course I love you. No, no, do you love me? She was like, Peter, do you love me? He says, yes. Well, here's a gift for your son. If you love me, you're going to read the Bible to your son. It's not for you. It's for your son. Right? You know what happened, right? Six, seven months down the track, she said, OK, I'm ready to do a Bible study with Ralph. And nine months after that, she was saved. And I'll come to baptize her. How is that not encouraging for us to live a crucified life, to see someone surrender to a wonderful God that we worship? So let me just share with you my unbelieving friend. I've got nothing to tell you at all but to come to Jesus. He doesn't ask for anything at all. He paid it all. Fully. Your past, present, and future sins. All He says is, come. Come to Me. And I'll give you rest. Not rest or peace like the world, but eternal rest. He invites you this very moment. Come to Him. Trust Him. If Jesus is not who we said he is, we are wasting our time. But he is who we said he is, and he promises to give you everlasting life. For us, brothers and sisters, what do we do? What do we do? Encourage one another. Help one another. Be in prayer with one another, in fellowship. Remind one another that you have this thinking flesh. All of us. Don't be judgy. Please don't judge your brother and sister who seems to be a little bit less spiritual than you. You who are spiritual, go to him and go to her and help them to see the beauty of Christ that they can fulfill what Peter is saying here. to live honorable, to live this beautiful and excellent life. Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. Father, we come before you, Lord. Thank you, Father, for this time that you've given me, an unworthy servant, to be able to share your truth. I pray, Father, that your word will touch the heart of your people, encourage them, challenge them, that they may know you, that they will love Jesus all the more and see the satisfaction in him to deny ungodliness, to deny passions of the flesh. to drink from the well of life, to be satisfied in Him alone, to excel in a life worth living. A crucified life is only a crucified life because Christ was the one who was crucified. May we live it fully, satisfied for Him. And may those who do not know you Those you were confused, Lord, give them no rest until they find rest at the foot of the cross.