Gospel Proclaiming Life
1 Peter 2:11-12
Transcript
My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here, and it's good to see everybody this morning. We're walking verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter right now. As we just kind of go through the summer, we're just studying this book, studying this letter that was written to a group of churches. One of the things about our culture that's a bit weird is we think that knowing something a lot of times is the same as believing it. So if you have information, if you know something, then you believe it.
But the reality is that if we know something, it doesn't always translate into believing it. If we believe something, we'll actually act on it. We'll actually do. Belief shows up in action. So I was eating sushi.
I like sushi. I don't like a lot of sushi. I like rice and avocado and a little piece of crab is kind of what I like when I say I like sushi. And it's good. And some cream cheese. That's what I like.
So I just described a California roll. That's what I like. But my brother had never, my younger brother Vince had never eaten sushi. And so we were eating. I told him it was good and he should try it. And so we were eating sushi.
And whenever they bring sushi, if you've ever eaten sushi, they bring the sushi out and it's cut up into little chunks. And then on your plate, there's usually some pink stuff that looks kind of like maybe some form of fish or like brain cells or something. And that's called ginger and that stuff is amazing. And then there's green stuff, which is terrible. That's called wasabi. It's made out of the same stuff they make cats out of, which is pure evil.
And I think in Japan, it's known as dragon snot because it's really, really spicy and fiery and terrible. And so we were eating sushi. And about midway through, I had an idea, which was I'm going to see if I can get my younger brother to eat as much of that green stuff as possible. It seemed like a great idea. So I told him, I was like, hey, man, I know you're eating that you like.
It's pretty good. You've got to try the green stuff. It is the best part about sushi. He was like, really? I was like, dude, yes, really. Would I ever lie to you?
I didn't put it on that heavy because he knows that I would. So I was just like, yeah, it's good. And I was being, you know, nonchalant. But I was like, yeah, it's good. And you should put it on there. And so he's like, OK.
You know, he's like, what is it? I was like, Play-Doh, because that's what it looks like. But he kind of, you know, he's holding his little thing. He pokes it in there and just kind of gets a little bit on there. And I was like, no, dude, you've got to. It's like gravy.
You've got to get in there. You've got to, it needs to be covered in it. And he's like, really? I was like, yes. Now, if he was observant, he would have noticed that I was halfway through my plate and had not touched that stuff. And I'm telling him it's like gravy and he should put it on everything.
And so he, I mean, he just smooshes it all down in there. It's covered. And I'm like, roll it around. Yeah, there you go. And so he sticks the sushi in his mouth. And for half a second, it was like, like he was thoughtful.
And then he went, and just, I mean, just all over his plate. It was really gross and hilarious. And then immediately, because I'm his older brother and I both want to trick him and train him. I was like, dude, look at my plate. I never touched it. It's a life lesson for you.
I care about you. I want you to learn. But the truth is, I didn't believe that wasabi is good. I still don't. And if I had, I would have done something. I would have eaten it.
I would have partaken in the goodness that is wasabi. And so when I'm explaining to him, you should like this. You should do this. He could have looked quickly at my plate and known, nah, you don't believe that. That isn't true. My wife knows this because every once in a while I'll be like, this is really good.
And she'll go, you eat it. And so every once in a while, if it's worth it, you just have to eat something really gross and act like you like it just to see their face later. Most of the time it's not worth it. And you're just like, nah, never mind. But it's not that good.
I lied to you. But that's what Peter, Peter's letter is kind of taking a turn. And here's what he's saying. He's been spending the first part, the first chapter that we kind of read through. He's been spending saying, this is who Jesus is. This is what he's accomplished.
This is who you are because of that. And then the rest of the letter and these few verses we've looked at last week and this week, he's turning and saying, okay, now in a very specific way, if you believe this, not just know it, but actually believe it. If it's really true for you, here's what life looks like. And he goes to some really specific situations. So he goes into work, to what it looks like just your day to day.
He goes marriage. He goes suffering, which is a universal thing for everybody. He goes, this is what life looks like in these very specific situations because this is true and because you believe it. And so that's the turn he's making. So what he's saying is, if you really believe that Jesus is the king of everything, that you were utterly sinful and in need of him and he died for you and that the only way you're okay is by faith in him.
And that since that, since he died and rose again, that you are secure forever because of the resurrection, that your hope is certain forever because of what he's already done and that you have a new identity. Then this is what it will look like. So it is not do these things and you'll get to be this. It is because this is true, because you actually believe this, because it's heart level foundational for you, life looks different. And so that's what we're looking at today. And specifically, he's going to talk about saying no to our passions, to our desires and saying yes to God's glory and the good of others through effort, through work, through deeds.
And so we're going to hop in 1 Peter chapter 2, page 657. If your Bible looks like this, it's very close to the back. It'll be close to the back in most Bibles, but really close to the back in this one. Okay. So 1 Peter 2 verses 11 and 12 is all we're looking at today.
And this is where he's really kind of making this turn. And then we'll see through the rest of the book, he gets way more practical because he's already said all the really big, beautiful, weighty stuff. And he's going to turn it into, okay, now if that's true, it's what life looks like. So I'm going to pray and then we'll read this together. God, we just thank you that we get to gather and study your word. We praise you that you are using this letter that was written so long ago that it wasn't just written to them, but it was also written for our benefit and for our good, for your whole church through history to study, to learn from, to grow and to know things about you and to know things about life and universal things like suffering that we need to grow in and be equipped for.
And so God, we just praise you and we pray that your Holy Spirit would work, that you would teach us, that we would grow as we study your word this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. 11 and 12, beloved. So again, he's talking identity. I urge you as sojourners and exiles, again, identity, it's who you are as these people. And we'll talk more about what he means by that in a minute.
To abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles. And really what he means there is the people who don't know Jesus, honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Let's read that one more time. 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.
Okay, so in our culture, we have a kind of a big narrative, which is that you are the sum of your desires. You are the most fulfilled version of you is the version of you that gets to do what you're passionate about. That gets to be who you were made to be. That you get to look inside of you and find whatever you like, whatever you love, whatever you desire. And if you get that, then that's where life and freedom are found. That's where joy is found in getting to pursue your passions and getting to chase after whatever it is that you feel inclined to go after.
That's freedom. That one of the biggest sins in our culture is to mute somebody, is to make it to where someone can't chase after their dreams. Can't pursue what they desire. So in every movie where there's like a love interest and there's like a super unhealthy relationship or this person cares about this person, the bad guy is the one that stands in the middle because he's limiting the freedom and the ability to choose and to chase after what would ultimately bring joy and freedom and fulfillment, this filling up of our passions and our desires. So we're told constantly that you just need to find out who you are and then fulfill that.
And that's where you'll find rest and peace and joy and life and freedom. That's where heaven is. Peace, really, is for you to figure out what it is you really care about, what it is you really want to be, who it is you, and then go do that, go accomplish that, go become that. And that's where you'll be free. That's where you'll have life. That's where joy will be found.
And we hear it all the time. Don't let them in. Don't let them see. Be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal. Don't feel.
Don't let them know. Well, now they know. It's time to see what I can do to test the limits and break through. No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. Let it go.
We're told this over and over again. No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. That I've looked inside of me. This is who I really am. And as long as I get to express that, as long as I get to chase after what I'm really passionate about, that's where freedom is found.
That's where joy is found. That's where life is found. That's what crickets sing to our children. That's what crazy ice witches sing to our children. She loses her mind when she gets up on top of that mountain. I'm sorry.
That song is scary when you watch her do it. But that's what, no right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. I've broken through. I get to test the limits and see what I can do. I get to be all the me I can be.
And that's where freedom is found. And that's where life is found. And that's where fulfillment is found. And we're told that over and over again. And Peter in this section is directly addressing that and just putting the brakes on it and really saying, no, you misunderstand. That's not actually how your passions work.
That's not actually how your desires work. That's not actually where freedom and joy and life are found. So let's look at 11 again. Beloved. Which just is a fancy word for saying those who are loved or those that I love. I urge you.
I urge you. I plead with you. As sojourners and exiles. So, okay. I plead with you out of your identity. I plead with you as the people that you are.
And the people that you are as Christians, he's talking to Christians, he's talking to the church, are people who have trusted Jesus and said, because Jesus rescued me, my hope, my life, my freedom are found in him, not here. And I have an eternity of hope and life and freedom with him. And so all of those things aren't found here for me. Because of the resurrection, it's made certain and secure. And that's who I am. And so that's what he says.
Sojourners, exiles, what he means is your home isn't here. You're traveling through. So as those people rescued by Jesus with a different home, with a new king, with a new kingdom, a new nationality, a new nation. This is what it looks like. This out of your identity, out of what Jesus has already done. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain.
Which means don't partake in. Don't give in to. Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Your passions, your desires, some of them are for good things. But they're all, they all get off and they all get twisted and they wage war against your soul.
Now when we wage war, there's really two goals. There's power. There's this aim to have control over a territory, a people. So there's ultimately like enslavement. And there's death. That's kind of the goal of war.
Now sometimes you're protecting. You say, well what about wars when you're defending yourself? Right, okay, but who started it? Okay, now we're Americans, so every once in a while we'll start a war in the name of defense. I know we do this. He was looking at us.
Had to take him down. But for the most part, throughout history, war is not a, it's not a defense thing. It is a enslavement, captivity, control, power, and death. That's what war brings. So your desires, isn't that scary?
Your desires are working to enslave you and kill you. You're the scariest thing in your house, so you need to lock your doors from you at night. Like you are dangerous to yourself. Your passions are at war in you. Jeremiah 17, 9, it's a prophet in the Old Testament. He says, The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately sick.
Who can understand it? Your heart, your desires, your passions have lied to you, led you astray, harmed you more than anything else has. Your passions, your desires seek to enslave you and wage war against you. And he says, fight it. Abstain from it. Don't partake in just chasing after your passions, chasing after your desires.
Now, okay, we see this clearly in things like drug addiction. It's a deep passion. It's a deep desire. It promises freedom. It promises joy. And what does it do?
It destroys. It robs you of life. It enslaves you. We see it clearly in things like that. We don't see it so clearly in pursuing success or financial comfort. But it does the exact same thing.
So if your overall goal is just to achieve, just to accept, to succeed, just to reach a certain status, and you think that if I get that, I'll be free. If I can just be free to pursue it, and if I receive it, if I actually achieve it, then I'll have life, then I'll have comfort, then I'll have peace, then I'll have freedom. Okay. So you do what? You spend your life. You spend your energy and your time, your livelihood, your effort, your life slaving away for it, working for it.
And here are your options. You fail. You aren't successful. You don't get the house you want, the promotion you want, the recognition you want. Does it forgive you? No, it crushes you.
You're not who you thought you would be. You're not who you dreamed you would be in high school. You're not, you never became more wealthy than your parents. You never achieved the recognition you thought you would get. And it crushes you. Or you stay really close to it your whole life.
And you spend your entire life slaving away for it. And it enslaves you. Or worse, you get it. And you realize that all the promises of life, all the promises of joy, of freedom, of success, of happiness, of rest, were lies. Because if the truth was that success and happiness and recognition and fame would fill us up, would make us complete, then Hollywood would be the happiest place in the world. Rock stars would be the happiest, most at peace, most at rest people that exist.
But we can just look and see that that's not true. See, our hearts are sick and twisted and bent. There's something deep-seated wrong with us. And we can't just trust our passions. Because humans are messed up. We know this, right?
There's a deep thinker of the 1900s and he says this. His name is Jack Handy. He says, I can picture in my mind a world without war. A world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world because they'd never expect it. He used to write deep thoughts for SNL.
But the truth is, we believe that there's something just off in humans. There's something just wrong with us. And that makes sense. Like I've been reading a book called Perilandra and this guy goes to another planet and he has to try to explain humans to a group of, to a civilization that doesn't understand sinfulness and greed and brokenness. And none of the conversations make sense and they keep asking him questions like, why would someone do that? Why would someone do that?
And he has to keep saying things. She's like, ah, because people only care about themselves. You know, because we're all messed up. And like we understand these things and we completely understand that if there was a world without war and without hate, we absolutely could attack it and take it over because they wouldn't expect it. That's brilliant. It's genius.
We could just have a new world. There's something off in us, twisted in us as all of a human race. And to sit and say, well, I trust myself and my passions won't lead me astray doesn't make any sense. And so what Peter says is your passions are actually at war against you to enslave you and destroy you. Now, some of us are caught up in sin, addicted to pornography. We get ourselves into unhealthy relationship after unhealthy relationship after unhealthy relationship.
We are constantly putting others down to make ourselves feel better, to make ourselves look better. We're constantly lying and posturing ourselves around to try to look better. And we're consistently just being defeated by sin. You're in a war. Your passions are at war with you. My dad would teach us as when we were growing up how to fight.
And one of the, he taught us a bunch of rules and he taught us equalizers. So I'll explain equalizers to you. Equalizers are things that you use to make a fight more equal. And more equal you mean in your advantage. So he would teach you things like, all right, if you're about to get in a fight and the guy's really big and he's going to beat the fool out of you.
So let's say a really big guy comes to you. You're in middle school. You know how middle school is where like some people hit puberty when they're 12 and grow a beard. And some people hit puberty when they're 14. And from 12 to 13, it's just terrible for them. And so just, you know, guys are, some are getting really big, really strong.
Some, you know, like especially with like guys that stay back a couple of grades and they like drive themselves to middle school. And so what he was saying was, one of those guys like pushes you and says, meet me in the bathroom. We're going to fight. He's like, don't fight him in the bathroom. He will beat the fool out of you and no one will stop it. Fight him in the middle of the cafeteria.
Just jump on him and start punching him and hope that teachers break it up really quickly. He said, now, if you're going to win the fight, sure, go fight in the bathroom. Fight out behind the gym. Fight somewhere where you can just beat someone up for a long time. But if you're going to lose, I think he would teach us things like a lunch tray is an equalizer.
People sitting down is an equalizer. People not looking at you is an equalizer. But one of the other things he taught us was that in a fight, the first punch is very important. And that if you can hit someone while, if you can be fighting while they're still talking, your chances of winning have increased exponentially. Now, I realize for all the teenage guys in this room, I've given you a bunch of unhelpful information that your parents will not have to try to undo. But the point is this.
Some of us are being destroyed by sin because we're still talking while it's fighting. Some of us are being owned by our passions and our flesh because we don't know we're in a war. Because you don't realize that your heart wants to enslave you and destroy you. And you're still talking and the war has already begun. The war for your soul has already begun. He's talking to Christians and he says, abstain from the passions of your flesh which wage war against your soul.
Think about it like war. Realize you're in a fight and you begin to be able to think about it more correctly when it comes to how you address sin in your life. You're not as comfortable with it. If a murderer is in your home, you don't think, well, he seems nice. Like if someone breaks in my house at night, I open a drawer and I get a 45, I don't poke my head out the door and go, hey man, what you up to? You broke the window.
Seems fishy. We cool? Anna, he says we cool. He's just going to hang out a little while. Can you stay down there? Can we just quarantine?
Let's make a deal. We'll stay here. You just hang out on that side of the house. But we do that with sin. Hey, can you just be a little controllable? Can you just be in this zone?
No creeping over, no taking over. Just a little bit, just an acceptable amount of slavery. Just an acceptable amount of death. Realize we're in a war. Your passions are out to enslave you and destroy you and own you and claim you and steal your soul and you'll be able to respond to it a little bit better. You begin to think about not making the same mistakes twice.
So what's what Peter says? He says, first thing, as those who have been changed by Jesus, don't just trust your heart. You know that Jesus had to die to change your heart, to rescue you, to redeem you. Don't just believe that the ideas you come up with are all good, are all valid. Take them to scripture. See if the God of the universe who is good and who loves you so much that he died for you tells you it's a good idea.
Begin to learn from him to see whether or not check your passions against scripture. Does this line up with you? I have a new heart because of Jesus. Does this line up? Is this something you're working in me or is it just me chasing after the same old stuff? Is this just passions of my flesh?
That's what it means by flesh is that it comes from you, not from the spirit, not from God working in you. So we begin to question our motives. We begin to question our hearts. And we abstain from all the stuff that's just our flesh trying to chase after something it wants. And we begin to line it up with scripture to see what it says. 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. Okay, Gentiles means all people who aren't Jewish. But when he's writing to the church, he means all people who aren't Christians, all people who don't believe what you believe. 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. Okay, now that seems weird. A couple of things.
One, there's a few things we just have to break down in that sentence before we can even really talk about it. One is, if you're doing good deeds, why are they saying mean things about you? Like that's just immediately, it's like, okay, what, if I'm being nice, they speak against me as an evildoer, but I'm doing good deeds. Why would they do that? Like, why would they mock me for doing good deeds? Really, being a Christian means you believe things that the culture doesn't believe.
And so people will say stuff like, well, religion's why we have so much war and so much pain and so much harm. Or if there weren't religions, then we would be okay. And when you're reacting to something in a situation, they'll act like you're dumb, you're simple, you're weak because of how you respond to things because of what you believe. And so what he's saying is be around long enough. Be in relationships with people long enough so that they actually move beyond their preconceptions and actually get to see how you live. How life affects you when things are good and when things are bad.
Be around people who don't know Jesus long enough so that they can begin to see what it looks like to know Jesus. So that eventually they'll glorify God, which means give him glory, honor him. The word glory in Hebrew actually just means weight so that God will have weightiness in their life. So if I showed up here today and one of you told me that my shirt was ugly, that would hurt me, hurt my heart. But if my wife had told me earlier that she liked it, she has more weight.
I don't really care what you think about my shirt. And you should check your face. But my wife has more weight. She has more sway in my life. And so what it means when it says to give God glory, it means that he has the most weight, the most sway, the most say over how our life works. And so he says that live a life around people who don't know Jesus so that at some point they'll know Jesus.
They'll become Christians. They'll place their faith in him. God will get glory and weight and sway in their life because they'll have seen how you lived. They'll have seen that you just didn't know stuff but you actually believed it because you did stuff because of how it showed up in your life. Now, immediately we think, okay, so what he means like be nice, be a kind person, be generous. And he does.
But I don't think many people look at you and go, you know what? You're so kind. I bet you really believe something deep down that I don't believe. I don't think that really happens that much. Because there are kind and friendly people who don't believe what we believe. There are generous people who don't believe what we believe.
He's going to actually, as he begins, because he's making the turn in this letter, he's going to say, no, no, no, here are deep things. Heart level things. Weighty things like how you deal with suffering. How you handle a job where you get no credit. You actually get blamed for things you didn't do. So let me ask you a question.
If you're in a job, how could you be in a job where you get no credit? Where you get blamed for things you didn't do. Where nobody appreciates you. Nobody appreciates your work. There seems like there's no room for advancement. How can you stay in that job and still have a good attitude?
How can you be willing to stay in the job in the first place? Immediately our cultural answers are like, I don't know, you're a moron. Seems like a good guess. You have low self-esteem so that you believe you deserve this. You just don't understand that there's room for advancement in other places. You've just become complacent.
How can, he's going to talk about marriage and he's going to talk about specifically wives with bad husbands. How can a wife stay in a relationship with a husband who's terrible? Maybe not physically abusive, but abusive. How can she stay in a relationship where he doesn't respect her or honor her or love her and still have hope and joy? She's scared. She somehow has a psychological thing going on that she believes she deserves it?
She's an idiot? And so Peter's going to go through this and what he's going to say is that no, it's actually a level deeper. It's beyond those surface level answers we give. I'm really competitive. I keep it in check because I don't want to be a jerk, but I'm very competitive. And so like when my wife and I got married, her mom gave us a Wii.
And so we'll play little like simple Wii games and I'll get way too into them. And my wife isn't very good at video games, so I will destroy her. And we'll be playing simple games and I'm like, oh yeah, son, because it's a Wii. So you got to like move your arms and stuff. And it's a little more dramatic than being like, oh yeah, son. So anyway, I'll be just beating her in like Wii tennis and just getting way too carried away in it.
Every once in a while, like because I'm gracious, I'll let her win. The worst thing though is when she is beating me and I am trying and she looks at me and says, you letting me win? And I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Sure am really nice right now, feeling generous. And I just want to beat her so much more in the game.
But like I take it too seriously. And she can lose at stuff and she doesn't care. She can lose a game and it doesn't bother her. It doesn't steal anything from her soul. Is that because she's simple minded? Weak spirited?
Is it because she's a fool? Is it because she's ignorant to how great winning is? No. It's because her heart and her soul and her worth are somewhere else. You wouldn't look at her and say, if she doesn't understand how great it is to dominate someone in a competitive child's game, she's weak minded and feeble. No, you'd say she just doesn't care.
Because she doesn't care. Her worth and value don't come from this. Like mine do. Apparently. I may need to think about that and repent some. And so actually what Peter is going to say, what he says as we read the rest of this, is that you can stay in a job, not get recognition.
You can live a life that the world would not look at you and say, look at how successful they are. And you can have people around you mocking you. You can spend a life not chasing after your passions. Not doing what everyone else around you is doing. You can actually spend a life where you do good things and say no to some of the stuff you desire because. You can suffer with joy and hope because.
You can be a wife in a bad marriage that is not good and you do not leave it because. Not because you're weak. Not because you're simple minded. Not because you're feeble. But because your hope and your anchor is somewhere so much deeper.
So much real. So far beyond this horizon that circumstances can't touch it. And let me tell you something. That's freedom. All the other things we chase after. We have to work.
We have to slave for. And it's all based off of circumstances. As to whether or not we have joy. As to whether or not we have life. As to whether or not we have freedom. And what Peter says is that because of what Jesus has done.
We can actually have our anchor sunk so deep. Our goal and our hope so far beyond the horizon. That circumstances can't touch it. And that's life. And that's freedom. Jimmy Fallon recently was at his house and fell.
And his ring got caught on the table and almost ripped his finger off. And he had to go to the hospital for a couple of days. And he read a book by Viktor Frankl called Man's Search for Meaning. And in that Viktor Frankl was a survivor of the Holocaust. And was in a concentration camp in Germany. And he writes about how people were able to get past.
Get out of. Actually thrive or survive the concentration camps. And what he said was it was the people who had hope that actually made it out. And then he kind of just through this book defines what that looks like. What hope looks like. And he talked about the people who just gave up.
He said the symptoms were often sudden. But you knew what to look for. They would do the call in the morning and they just wouldn't get out of bed. And no amount of urging or beating would get them out of bed. And they had just lost hope. Their spirit had absolutely broken.
And that was it for them. They weren't going to get up. They weren't going to follow commands anymore. And they were going to die. And he said there were two people. Types of people.
Who actually could have hope and make it out of the concentration camp. One who had their hope beyond the concentration camp. And he said it was often that they would get their life back. That this was some sort of a dark phase in life. But eventually they'd go back to being successful.
They'd go back to being well off. They'd go back to just having their home and their normal life. And he said many of them when they got out were actually worse off out than they were in. Because they realized that none of that was true. They didn't get their homes back. They didn't get their position back.
They didn't get their money back. They were not successful. Many of them became very depressed. And many of them committed suicide. And he said the third category were those who had their hope fixed beyond the horizon of this world. Who actually believed that there was a God who was good.
And who would work things for good. And that those were the ones that actually were okay in the concentration camps. And were okay when they got out. That their hope was set somewhere else. And that's what Peter is turning and beginning to say to us. Because our hope is so anchored in the cross.
Because our hope is forever anchored in an empty tomb. Because we have been made into a new person. Then we can live our lives saying no to our passions. Saying no to chasing after every whim of our lying heart. And we can actually live in such a way to proclaim God's glory and goodness to those around us through our actions. That we can actually believe it.
So that we eat the wasabi. That it's actually real to us. So we don't chase after what the world says brings hope. And we live our lives serving and loving others. Because we know that the chief end of human existence is to glorify God and to be with him forever. And that's the hope that we have.
That we would be attractional communities of people. So changed by God's grace. So wrecked by the gospel. That people around us would see our lives and eventually realize that there is something so deep. And so anchored. And so real.
That we don't respond to the world the same way. That we actually have a hope that's untouchable by circumstance. That we can be enslaved on earth. And still be more free than many people who aren't behind bars. Because our freedom doesn't come from us. It comes from Jesus.
It doesn't come from our what's going on around us. Our success. How people respond to us. It comes from something that's already been secured in the cross. And given to us fully and forever through Jesus. And that is actually where freedom and life and joy are found.
Because they're untouchable. And so that Christians would be people who've already been given everything. So they can lose nothing. I urge you as sojourners and exiles. I urge you to respond out of your identity. To abstain from the passions of the flesh.
Which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct. Which means live your lives. Among those who don't know Jesus. 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 in such a way around people. That eventually they'll trust Jesus. Because they'll see that you have something.
That circumstance doesn't touch. That suffering doesn't touch. That whether or not your marriage is a happy one doesn't touch. That whether or not your job is successful doesn't touch. And they'll see that you've been given such freedom. That even when earthly limitations are added.
It can't claim you. It can't own you. And that's real life. That's real joy. And that's real freedom. And that's what Peter's going to turn and say through the rest of this book.
That through Jesus. Through what he's done for us. We ultimately can be free. To not chase after small things. But to live our life for God's glory.
And that just joy and hope and peace and life found in that. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing and make much of this God. Who has rescued us. Who has redeemed us. Who has turned us into a people.
Untouchable. Because of the cross. That our sin no longer claims us. Because he died for it. That we've been given a hope that is beyond the horizon. That we've been given freedom and life.
That circumstance can't touch. And so as Christians in this room. If you believe wasabi is good. Eat it. Take it from just knowledge. To sink into your heart for belief.
And live as if it's true. Don't chase after the passions of your flesh. That lead you astray and enslave you. Spend your life. Around people who don't know Jesus. For the glory of God.
Living in such a way. That you have freedom and life and joy. Regardless of your circumstances. And that's what we've been called into. And that's what we've been given through the cross. Through the resurrection.
That's the hope that we have. Let's pray. God we thank you. That we do have freedom and life and joy. Not by chasing after. Seeking to prove ourselves.
Or to find ourselves. We don't have to go claim an identity. You've already given us one in the cross. You've already given us one through Christ. We don't have to claim success. We don't have to claim the end.
You've already given it to us. You've already provided everything for us. And so God we praise you today as Christians. That you've given us everything. And that nothing can take it from us. We pray Lord that for our church family.
You would help us war against sin. War against our desires. That we would turn away from all the things. That seek to enslave us. And that we would bask in the freedom. That you've given us.
And we pray Lord that we would live our lives. Around people who don't know you. In genuine friendships. In real relationships. Where we get to love them. And walk through life when it's good.
And when it's bad. So that eventually. You might visit them. That eventually. They might give you glory. And that one day we'd all spend eternity.
With you. We love you and we praise you. In Jesus name. Amen.