This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your Bibles, would you open them up to 1 Peter, please? 1 Peter, we are in chapter 2. Picking up in verse 11. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your 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. the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have a seat. Let's open in prayer. Our Father, we pray that you would be with us. Stir our souls, wound our hearts if need be, build us up in your word and in your gospel. May your Holy Spirit be mighty among us. May we not waste a single word that is from you today. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. How does what we believe affect how we then live? It's a question we're asking all the time. We have to ask it all the time. And we ask it sometimes not quite knowing what it exactly looks like. We know, okay, I tell you the answer right up front, right? We know what we believe should affect how we live, right? But how? How is always an issue. How is always something we struggle with. Right belief should flow naturally into right practice. We have no doubt about that, but the how, the how can be complicated. Peter here, he's given us some really fundamental truths. So I believe I am a sojourner here. I am a stranger here in this life, on this world. So how should a stranger be prepared to live? So I believe God has chosen me. Well, how are the chosen of God supposed to live? It's not necessarily obvious. And so Peter is going to tell us two takeaways. This is the sermon right here. Every day is a battle for your soul. Every day. And every day is an opportunity for God's glory. That's the sermon. So we start out the war for your soul. That's verse 11, right? Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of flesh, which wage war against your soul. Beloved, he says, beloved. And what's interesting, you have to remember, Peter hadn't been to these churches. Why does he call them the beloved? Well, the answer is because they are. They might not be his beloved per se, but they are God's beloved. God has proven that they are his beloved. The beloved are the ones who have been shown mercy, like we just talked about in the last sermon. The beloved are those who have been made a people. Beloved, I urge you. When do we say urge? When do you use the word urge, if you ever use it at all? It's for something important, right? Peter here does not say, hey, I've got a great idea for you. Hey, I'm asking you. Hey, I'm pleading with you. Hey, I suggest. Hey, I recommend. Beloved, I urge you. as sojourners and as exiles abstain from the passions of the flesh. Sojourners, exiles, we're coming back to that same theme. The picture here is of those who do not belong where they are. If you've ever traveled through another country, sojourned through, journeyed through, you know what that feels like, to feel like you do not quite belong. Even if you've met great people and done great things, you don't belong. You don't have the same rights that the citizens of another country have. You don't have the same responsibilities. When someone visits the United States, we don't make them sign up for selective service, right? You don't have the same rights. You don't have the same responsibilities. And as a sojourner, as a stranger, you become very aware of how different the customs and the values are. Maybe only a little bit in another country, but in this world, so much. The customs and the values of this world are so different from those of our God. They are so different. Many of these things that this world believes, that this world lives by, they should make you feel like a total stranger here. They should make you feel like a fish out of water. Don't you look around sometime and you see what people do and you see what people believe and truly you're thinking, how do they believe that? They do though. They do believe that. And here we are looking at it totally different. Black and white, it's so different. Our values, our customs are so different. And when you look at those times, when you experience that, it is just one more reminder that we are strangers here. This world is not our home. Earlier in this sermon series, we talked about why we feel like strangers here. It's because God has chosen us. Christians feel like strangers because God has chosen them, right? The alienation you feel maybe daily, it doesn't mean there's something broken with you. It doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. God has chosen you to be a stranger in this world. That is what his choice did to you. It made you an exile here on earth. This world's values are not your values. This world's master is not your master. God has chosen us for this role. You, Christian, you are meant to feel out of place. And because you have been chosen, because you are a stranger, because you are just sojourning through, you cannot conform to this world. So that's when it gets to abstain from the passions of the flesh. Abstain, avoid, refrain from, right? What are these passions? I think it's so tempting to fall into some easy answer of, oh, passions, you're talking about vices, sex and gambling and drinking and drugs. But I don't think you can limit it. I don't think you can define it so narrowly. These passions of the flesh, I think they must be anything that draws us away from that marvelous light back into our darkness. It's anything that peels you away from God's people. You've been made a people. Anything that peels you away has that passion of the flesh. Anything that causes you to reject the mercy that is yours as a child of God, that is one of those passions of the flesh. Those passions that has this connotation of something that is forbidden. And it makes it all the harder that it is forbidden. Really, it does. These sinful cravings and these lusts that we have for the things of the world, for the things that are not God, they're almost triggered by having something forbidden. That's what forbidden desires are like, right? We want them because they're forbidden. I'll give you an example. How many of you want to rub Brian's beard? Weirdo. Thank you for your honesty. You're welcome here. It's a safe place. Here you go. I forbid each and every one of you to rub Brian's beard. How many of you now want to rub Brian's beard? Right? No one on their own is going around thinking, hey, that looks like a nice beard to rub. You forbid it. Oh, that looks nice. It's just something weird and broken about us that forbidden things are more attractive to us. And here you have these passions. They look perfectly pleasant and they're calling out to you, calling out to you to come take part. Peter says, no. Run from these passions of your flesh because they are actually waging war on your soul. That is what they're doing. You see how Peter phrases it here. It's not, hey, it's stained and you'll live a happier life. Well, that's true, but that's not the thrust at all. It's true. There's not going to be any happiness in indulging in these passions, but that's not his point. He says, abstain from these passions because they are powerful and they are seeking to destroy you. When we encounter temptations to abandon our God, they're not always going to be the quiet whispers coming. Sometimes these temptations will cry out to be satisfied. They will cry out and they will put so much pressure on you that you will want to cave in. That is the nature of these things, but you have to realize that when they cry out to be satisfied, they're crying out for your destruction. We get fooled into thinking that returning to our sin, straying from that straight and narrow path, walking away from God, that it is somehow good for us, that we're somehow getting something that we have been deprived of, that it's really gonna be oh so nice to enjoy this. No, these passions destroy us. We have an all too real example of how these passions destroy us when we walk away from what we know and what we believe. We are called to abstain from these passions because they mean us no good. Get that into your heart. They mean us no good and they would in fact destroy you. But brothers and sisters, we abstain from these passions also because they don't belong to us anymore. Sometimes we think that our sin is who we are and it is who we will always be. I'll always have a bad temper. I just can't get over it. I will always be an addict. I will always be lustful. I will always be cowardly. God doesn't buy that, you shouldn't either. Every child of God, every single one of them has been made new. Every single one of you that is believed is described as a new creation, not just a made over one. Don't buy into the lie that you are the same person that you once were. Don't buy into the lie that your sins or your past have defined you. You are a child of God. God has defined you. So live as the child of God who you are. You are not bound to be who you've always been. You are not satisfied anymore with the things that once satisfied you. You owe your former sins nothing. You owe your former master nothing. He talks about strangers, sojourners, exiles. So how does a sojourner and an exile live in a foreign land? That's verse 12. 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. Live knowing that every day is an opportunity for God's glory. And because of that, we are called to live honorable lives. Peter calls on Christians to live honorable, praiseworthy, noble lives. He says, this is the life you are living among the Gentiles. You know, we're always living in light of God, but God is not the only one who's watching, is he? You are on display in this world. If you are a Christian, believe it. The world notices how the Christians live. When they look at our lives, they should see honorable lives. They should see praiseworthy lives. You see, even a fallen world, so bent and distorted and twisted, Even a fallen world can recognize an honorable life, at least to some extent. They still can, it's still there. That's God's common grace, still at work. The world can tell if you are a selfless friend. Some friends are just there for themselves. They're there because it is fun or it is entertaining or it is convenient. They are takers. A friend that treats others as more important than themselves, that's a friend that stands out. That's a friend that even the world recognizes is exceptional. When a Christian is a true, good, selfless friend, they represent Christ well. When a Christian is a bad, selfish friend, we just make our Lord look bad in the world's eyes. The world does in fact know the difference between a good friend and a bad friend. Brothers and sisters, let us be good friends. The world can tell if you do good work. the quality and the care that you put into your work, whatever it is, really, whatever it is, it is a testimony and many of us overlook it. If you as a worker are faithful, prompt, courteous, hardworking, effective, striving for excellence, the world will notice that. Any of us who have any experience hiring people, you are dying to find those people, right? You are dying to find a person who is like that. Maybe you're the boss. This applies just as much to you. The world notices good work and too many Christians, brothers and sisters have compromised on this. We think for some reason, we think that because we have grace, because we have forgiveness for our sins that somehow that justifies us doing shoddy work. That's not the case. There is a reason, you know, that there is a saying that someone can be too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. The reason is that enough of us have been giving shoddy testimonies that they came up with a saying for it. That is to our shame. Some of us have slipped into thinking that eternity makes the present unimportant. Not true. Your call is to live for God's glory in the present. Your call is to make deadlines, is to be honest, is to be faithful, is to be a good coworker. To do otherwise, it is a shame to the name of the Lord. The world knows the difference between exemplary work and shoddy work. Brothers and sisters, let us be those who do exemplary work. The world can tell if you are generous, right? The natural tendency that we all share is to care most about how it benefits us. What do I get out of this, right? Generosity is a total rejection of this tendency. Whether it is generosity of your time, whether it's generosity of your affection, whether it's generosity with your money, true generosity blesses you rather than blessing me. That is what generosity looks like. And a generous person shines. I bet you, if you think of someone that you love or have loved, one of the things you love most about them is that they have always been so generous with you. Generosity shines. Being stingy discredits the gospel. What a terrible testimony we leave when we go to the restaurant together, right? And we talk all about the Bible, all about spiritual things. The waiter comes over, hey, you should come visit my church. We have such a wonderful church. And then the bill comes and we leave a 5% tip. What a disgrace for Christians. Did you know that Christians are not known for being good tippers? That's something you learn in the service industry. We're actually known as being kind of bad tippers. What a disgrace. You know, if you're out there being generous too, a generous person just begs the question, why are you so generous? And you know what you get to say then? Because Jesus Christ has been generous to me. The easiest, easiest intro to a conversation about the gospel ever. The world knows the difference between generosity and stinginess. Brothers and sisters, let us be a generous people. The opportunities to live praiseworthy lives, they are everywhere, literally everywhere, regardless of your vocation, regardless of your calling. The opportunities, they are in the way you drive your car. Have you ever thought about how many of you have something identifying you as a Christian on your car? Good amount, license plate, fish, something like that. Do you realize what it means then when you cut someone off? Do you realize what it means when you swerve across three lanes without your blinker on? Here's to the glory of Christ as they honk their horn at you. That's an opportunity to live an honorable, a praiseworthy life. And it's an opportunity to look the other way too. The opportunities are in the way we parent our kids. The opportunities are in the way you do your taxes. I mean, how mundane and monotonous can it get besides taxes? What do you know? You can live a praiseworthy life even then. The opportunities for a praiseworthy life are in how you treat others, in how you conduct yourself in public and in private, in how you talk. The opportunities are in whether you live a wise life or a foolish life, whether you are gracious or demanding, whether you are fair, whether you are even tempered, whether you are kind, they're everywhere. And not a single one of us is exempt from this calling. And there is no life or moment too ordinary in which you can live a praiseworthy life. Your calling is in all of life. And in every moment, this is God's standard for us. This is how we are supposed to live. And I recognize this can be a heavy standard. Some of you right now with no effort at all are thinking of how you have failed in this way. Very recently. Brothers and sisters, there's grace. Come back. Repent, be forgiven, and then start anew. Live a God-glorifying, God-honoring life again, or maybe for the first time. Let this be your life. Strive again for His glory. You know, we said, that the world can recognize praiseworthy conduct, right? But the motives behind our praiseworthy conduct and the world's praiseworthy conduct, because we might do the exact same thing, there's gonna be a big difference. We do it for the glory of Christ. We do it for the sake of the gospel as a very different motivation than the world's going to give you. Recognize that you are not just trying to be excellent for excellence sake. You are doing these things for your Lord. That is why you live the honorable life in all the small and the big moments. You are a child of God. That is why you serve. You see, you're not just doing some court ordered community service. You are in the service of the King over all creation. We strive for honorable lives because we strive to honor our Father, our Heavenly Father who adopted us. What is the purpose of this honorable conduct? That's where Peter takes us next. What is the purpose of this honorable conduct? Peter describes a whole scenario here. He paints a picture for them again. He says, look it, this is your world. People are going to speak evil about you. If that's a surprise to you, get over it, because that's just what the world's going to be like. They're going to speak evil of you. And if you remember how Christians fared in Roman society, it wasn't well. The Romans did not respect Christians. The Romans did not like Christians. Christians were distrusted. Christians were seen as some strange upstart cult. They were seen as unpatriotic, undermining the empire, contentious even. Peter says, when they are talking about you, like you are an evildoer and you are a criminal, your life, your life should be an ever present testimony refuting the accusations. And at the very least, Your behavior should not perpetuate the accusations. When someone out in the world hears something like, or says something like, you know, all Christians are lazy and cheap. People around who have no love for Christians should just, they should want to pipe in and say, you know what? I don't believe what they believe, and I think they're wrong about that, but I have never seen a lazy or a cheap Christian in all my life. Our lives should be a testimony that just makes these accusations look silly. But more than that, Peter has in mind a faithful testimony that doesn't just refute the accusations. It invites people into the family. It brings people into the kingdom. See, there's a little bit of a debate on this part of the passage when we're talking about that day of visitation, but this is what I believe it is. I believe it's saying that on the last day, those who were once enemies of God are now worshiping God, glorifying God, because they saw how God's people lived. The good works of the people of God shone into the darkness and people glorified our God who is in heaven. Jesus taught the same thing. Now don't go overboard with this. There's a way to take this way over the other guardrail, right? Have you ever heard the saying, preach the gospel always, and if necessary, use words? Oh, it kills me, okay? If you like that saying, forgive me, but we gotta just purge that one from Christian vocabulary, okay? It's just a totally false understanding of what your actions can do by themselves. People still need to hear the gospel. And remember, verse nine, Peter was just talking about that we're going to be proclaiming the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, right? Do you think two verses later, he's just scrapping that thought and saying, oh, forget about what you say, just live well, conduct yourselves well. No, he's not doing that. And we all know my work ethic, for example, it cannot substitute for your need to hear that the son of God died and rose again on the third day. It's just, you don't get that out of my work ethic. You need words. Christians must be those who speak. but their conduct is necessary too. What they do with their lives is necessary too. You see, we have a word for people who preach one thing and live another, don't we? We call them hypocrites. Our conduct is necessary too. Our lives are an entry point to the gospel. Our way of life is at some level proclaiming to the world, this represents Jesus. This is what Jesus looks like. Our lives are to rise to the level of a testimony befitting the way, the truth, and the life. Do you live your life like that? Do you even see your life like that? Brothers and sisters, every moment of your life is on display, definitely before God. And more often than we realize, before the world too. An honorable, praiseworthy life cries out to the world that God is true. that salvation is real, that our hope is certain. And if your life is not praiseworthy, know that that life is undermining everything we celebrate here together on the Lord's day. So we're back to our two points. Brothers and sisters, guard your souls. Because the world would destroy you in a second if you let it. And rise to the calling, to your calling, as a child of God. Because every moment, every single moment, is an opportunity for God's glory. Let's pray. Lord, forgive us of lives that aren't praiseworthy. Forgive us that we are a lax, forgive us that we don't care. Forgive us that we think our lives are about us and not about you. Lord, from the moment we leave this building today, may the testimony of our lives shine for Christ. May the world find nothing in us that they can truly accuse us of. May our conduct be worthy of our great God. Help us to live this great and high calling. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.