Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Well, good morning, Valley View. Great to be with you today. As we continue in our study of First Peter, we’re going to be in chapter two. You can open your Bible, turn there to chapter two. We’re going to read a couple of verses to start. If you don’t have a Bible, we have those out in the connection corner. You can slip out at any time and grab one. Those are free for you. And if you grab one of those Bibles in particular, the page numbers on the screen match up with that Bible. So we’ll be in First Peter chapter two. And if you would turn to page nine, something I think it is in that church Bible, and I’m going to read verse 11 and 12 to start us first Peter chapter two, verse 11 and 12. 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. Not too long ago, there was a gentleman walking through our neighborhood, and a friend of mine who was an FBI agent said, if someone looks crazy, there’s a reason. And this guy look crazy. He was very sketchy and it became obvious to me. And what was really interesting was how many neighbors picked up on this very quickly. You see him hovering around their front window. You know, people who are normally never come out are on the front porch. People are down in their yard. Neighbor after neighbor is going, this guy doesn’t belong here. What is going on? Trying to ascertain what is he up to? Why is he here? One guy just ended up walking right out and saying, hey, hey, we know you don’t live here. You need to go on somewhere else. They just told him, get out of here. You don’t belong. One thing about that that’s interesting. When you’re in some place, you don’t belong. When you’re in some place you’re not from, people take notice. People are going to be watching you more carefully. People want to see what are you up to? What are your actions about? What are your intentions? Peter talks about this today in terms of us as believers in a world where we don’t really belong, in a world that’s not our true home. People are going to watch you. People are wondering, what are you up to? People are wondering, what are you about? Now Peter has been all about and you saw on the screen, how do we find joy in the midst of suffering and the suffering in particular in the Peter a book, uh, in the book of Peter is persecution. They’re persecuting Christians because they don’t belong. What Peter’s going to talk about today is how do you live in light of that? How do I still maintain a godly witness in the midst of the persecution while people are watching, while people are wondering, what are you up to? We’re going to see two specific ways here that our witness is our works. Our main witness in the midst of that is our works two specific ways. One is that we are to abstain, but also we’re to maintain. And first we’re going to look at abstain. You saw that verse and saw that word in verse 11. Let’s look back at that again. How do we maintain our witness? How do we have a witness in the midst of persecution, in the midst of living in a culture that is hostile towards your faith? The first is abstain. Look at that again in verse 11. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of your flesh which wage war against your soul. Now notice here first how he addresses them, what he calls them. He calls them sojourners and exiles. He’s used that word exile already. This is the third time in the book he’s called them exiles. We’ve talked about what that meant and the heritage behind that and their Jewish roots behind that idea. Here he also adds the word sojourners, which is a direct representation of the same words used of Abraham. That’s in Genesis 23:4– we’re not going to turn there, but you can capture that and look that up later. It’s the words used of Abraham, who was also a sojourner, an exile. It should be no surprise to us that we are called to be the same. That’s a pattern that was started at the beginning of Scripture. Abraham was called to go. The Lord said to him, go on a journey. Leave your homeland, leave the comfortable place in your life, and go. Abraham’s wondering, go where? You will find out. Just go. Lord, I’d really like a little more information here. If you could give me a little more insight, I’d feel a little more comfortable with this if I knew the destination. Who can relate to that? How many times have you felt the Lord directing you, and you didn’t know exactly where this was going to end up, and you weren’t really fully comfortable with that? That’s why it’s called faith. Go. I’ll show you. Trust me. Go. And Abraham, he sends out of his comfortable homeland into a place where he’s a foreigner. He’s in exile, where people are watching him. Wondered what are you doing here? What are you up to? You don’t belong here. This isn’t your neighborhood. And it’s no surprise that we’re going to feel the same way. God took us out of our comfortable homeland. You know where you were comfortable– you know where I was comfortable? Slavery to sin. Slavery to being completely self-focused. That that was very comfortable. Now, there are parts of that that I really didn’t like, but it’s very comfortable. He took you out of that and now he has put you, kept you in the place you thought was your homeland. But now you’re a foreigner. You don’t belong. This is no longer your homeland anymore. You belong somewhere else. You have a different destination. We’re sojourners and exiles. And the directive he gives them here, the word he says to us who are sojourners and exiles as well. He says abstain. We could say it like this. Stop it. Don’t do that. Go a different direction. And one thing I appreciate about Peter giving this directive here is that we’ve already been through nine sermons and 35 verses about first Peter that I’ve talked about all that Christ has done for us and his love for us, and how he’s transformed us and changed us before we ever get to the don’t, before we ever get to the stop doing that. You know, he didn’t start out with that in the first verse. Hey, you bunch of idiots! Stop, I don’t know. Look, let me tell you why. And now he has worked up to this. You know, there are times in life where you need to be told stop. There have been times where you need a good, solid rebuke. We all need that. We need someone who loves us enough, who will come alongside us and risk the relationship enough to say, don’t do that. When I first started serving in ministry, mid-twenties, man, I was so hungry. Literally hungry. All the time. Like when you’re in your mid-twenties, just starving all the time, always hungry. And we had this big meeting at the ministry where I was serving hundreds of people there. They had snacks out, which is always a dream. At a meeting, you know, mid 20s, and I’m eating all the snacks that I can. The meeting ends and I’m walking through the office doing normal office work. All those leftover snacks had been gathered in one lady’s office and I happened to walk by her office. I see the snacks and I think I’m still hungry. Let me have some more food. So I go in, start eating the snack. She’s in there. We’re chatting. I’m eating the snacks. No big deal. I leave. Later I get a call from HR from the head of HR. That’s never good. You never want that. And he says, John, hey, listen, I got a call from this lady. She said, you just barged in. Started eating the food off her desk. Look, all that food was free for everyone an hour before that. What’s the deal? I don’t understand. It’s like, well did you even ask her? Well, no, but it was all there for everyone just an hour earlier. John, do you want to be known as the guy that just walks around taking stuff off people’s desk for no reason? Well, no. And did you consider that she may have another plan for that that you never thought of? No, I didn’t consider that. What are you going to do with it now, though? Are you still. Do you know if she has any plans for those snacks? Still wondering. Now, look, that’s a maybe a kind of a small example. You ate some snacks off someone’s desk and you got a rebuke. But he helped me see the bigger picture. I needed a guy to step in and go. You haven’t thought through all your actions here, and we’ve all had that on much more serious issues as well. You could think of someone who stepped in and by the way, you may have reacted not so kindly in the moment. Leave me alone. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve got this all wrong. Later you went and thought about it, chewed on it a little bit. Oh, you’re right. Even in that small rebuke that guy gave me, I didn’t want to receive it. I hung up the phone and I thought, you idiot, you don’t know what you’re talking about. But I chewed on it, prayed about it. Thank you, Lord, for bringing that guy into my life enough just to help me improve just a little bit. We all need that at times. We need someone who will step in and say, stop. Don’t do that. You’re heading the wrong direction. Now, specifically, here’s what he calls them to abstain from. Look back at the phrasing that he uses. Look back at verse 11. Abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Man, that’s a phrase I think we can all relate to. There seems to be, at times, this raging battle within your soul. We see that in a couple of other verses I’ll throw in the screen. Romans seven often talks about that. Why is it that I do the thing I don’t do the thing I want to do, and yet I do the very thing I hate. What’s going on there? Why do I do that? James Ford talks about what are the, what is the source of the war between you? It’s the passions of your flesh inside of you. What are the source of the quarrels and the strife and the fighting among you? It’s because that’s occurring inside of you. Oftentimes, the Christian life feels that way. Where you feel like I’ve got this one desire, I’ve got this other. And sometimes I’m not sure which is going to win out. I want to make a couple of short points about that. Just three quick points about that dynamic, that reality, because there’s been some misunderstandings about that, especially if you’re a new Christian. So first, one thing that’s important to understand. Some will say, can I be a Christian if I struggle? The fact that I’m struggling, I don’t have it all figured out. I can’t seem to get past this one sin in particular. Does that mean I’m really a Christian or not? My first response to that would be the fact that you are struggling shows that Christ is at work in your life. If there were no struggle, if you were putting up no fight, if you didn’t care at all, that would be a big concern. But the fact that you are struggling, that you realize I don’t want to do that anymore. I might still slip back into that, but I don’t want to stay there anymore. That’s a powerful sign that Christ is at work in your life. Second, you can be sure of victory. Victory is assured. We talked about this some a little bit last week. The the battle is certain. The battle is maybe active, but the victory is certain where it’s going to end up is certain. And here’s what that means for you. In the midst of spiritual warfare, you no longer are a slave to sin. You no longer have no choice in the matter. You no longer have to sin. You might still sin; not might. You will still sin. But the victory, the ultimate victory, is assured. And so when you face temptation, you no longer just have to give in to it. You no longer have to be led along by the passions of your flesh which wage war against you. You can pause in the midst of the temptation. You can stop and you can cry out, Jesus, Jesus, would you show up right now? I don’t want to go down this road again. This was how I naturally win every time. And all the rest of my life. I don’t want to go down that anymore. Would you show up right now and give me victory? And then you walk in gratitude. Thank you Lord. I know you will show up. Too many times we don’t do that, and we just go on down that old path that was so comfortable on towards our homeland. We no longer have to do that. Victory is assured. And then number three, and this is a great verse to address this common misconception in our culture. Lead your heart. If you look back at the verse, abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul, the natural passion of the flesh will lead you. In fact, the phrase you hear these days follow your heart. I’ve talked about this so many times, I’m going to talk about it 100 more times in the coming years. Follow your heart. That’s the common phrase you hear. It will lead you to the right place. The song that was always played on the radio growing up was If It Makes You Happy, it really can’t be that bad. There’s plenty of people who have done horrific things that make them very happy. The mass murderer felt great delight. If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad. No, the world says follow your heart, follow your passions, follow whatever comes in. But Scripture says, lead your heart. Don’t just automatically go along with whatever you’re feeling. Lead your heart. Say, this is where the gospel calls me to go. This is where I need to be pointed. According to Christ. This is where real life is found. That’s how we lead our hearts. Abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war in your life, in your heart, in your flesh. That’s the first way that we will be a witness of works to a watching world is by stopping some of the things we used to do. Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. What’s the other way now that will be a witness of works to a world that’s hostile toward our faith? Look at the next verse. So the first was abstain. The next way is to maintain, keep, keep at it, keep moving forward. And here’s what in particular, look at verse 12 again, keep your conduct among the Gentiles, which at that time just would have meant nonbelievers in the way that he’s using it. People who don’t know Christ 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. First, abstain. The other side of the coin of that is maintain. Keep your conduct honorable. Don’t just avoid bad things. Move towards the positive things. And I love that about Scripture. Yes, Peter waited all this time to rebuke, but also Scripture in general. Many people, when they think of faith, think of Christianity. Sometimes they just think of, look, they’re just going to tell me all this stuff. I need to stop doing. It’s just a long list of don’t, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t,… just avoid bad stuff. But even if you go back to the basic list of the Ten Commandments, there’s plenty of don’ts. There’s a lot of do’s. Yeah, you see the don’ts don’t commit adultery. Don’t lie, don’t steal. But there’s love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Honor your father and mother. Keep the Sabbath. You get both sides of the coin. And here he calls them to maintain. Keep your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. Make sure you live in a way that even people who hate Christianity will say, there’s something about that guy that he lives above board. There’s something about them that even though I hate him, I got to admire him. Now, the other thing I love about Scripture is it also deals with motive, because my question is going to be in that moment. If Peter’s saying that to me, well, why should I do that? Why should I be worried? These people hate me. Why should I try to make sure that I still am in good standing with them? Why even mess with that? He’s going to talk about that. He’s going to directly address that. In fact, you just look at the words so that he’s given the purpose. Here’s the reason why you want to keep your conduct honorable. Why? So that and we’re going to pause on that word when. So that when not if when they speak against you as evil doers. Meaning you can be assured that there will be people. There is no doubt. We’re not trying to hide the difficulties of following Christ from anyone. You can be assured there will be those who hate you because of that. There will be those who look at your life and you do. You’re doing your best to be kind to everyone, to live your best life, to honor Christ in all you do. And they will hate you for that. Not only will they hate you, they’ll call you evil. You have become the evil one. Not if, when. You can be assured it’ll happen. Maybe sometimes very overt, sometimes more hidden, subtle, behind the scenes. What do we do with that? What do you do with that? You’re doing all you can, Lord. I’m trying to honor you and all that I’m doing. And yet I get this. Thanks a bunch. I got people hate me. I’ve got people who are trying to make it harder for me at work. You have people who are trying to hold you back. They’re putting obstacles in your way because of your faith. You have people at school bullying you because of your faith. You have neighbors that would love nothing more than for you to move out of their neighborhood, because they know where you stand. Now he holds out hope there. If you look back at the verse that even in the midst of that, you’re putting up with that and yes, it will come. It’s guaranteed. What do you do with that? Look at how he holds out hope, though. What will happen? They speak against you as evildoers. But here’s why we do it. There’s a chance they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. There’s a chance they will see your good deeds and give glory to God on the day of visitation. Now, let me talk about that phrase, the day of visitation. What does that phrase mean? It could mean a couple of different things. If you look at other uses of that word. There’s one in Luke 19:44 where Jesus says to Jerusalem, you’re going to be destroyed because you were not aware of the day of visitation. That’s a future forward reference to a day of judgment as a warning. Watch out. Be ready. It’s also used positively in Luke 1:68. That’s where Zechariah was given a prophecy. And he said, we’re blessed because God has shown up. He has visited us. He has blessed us. So which is it? Is it a good thing for him to show up or is a bad thing? It depends. In high school, when the principal came to our classroom, I slumped down in my chair. I got as small and as quiet as possible because I knew this isn’t a good thing. I don’t want him noticing me. When he showed up in Julie’s classroom, she stood up. What award do you have for me today? What great thing have I done that you can acknowledge? Again, it depends. It depends on how you’ve lived, on what that day of visitation will look like. The point being, there will be a day of visitation. There will be a day when he shows up. And for those who know him, they will glorify him. They will praise that day. We all look forward to that day when he arrives with great joy and delight. And those who don’t know him. Look, this is the whole point of the book of revelation. If you read revelation and you’re like, that is brutal punishment after punishment after punishment, one after another, the reason why is God’s trying to get their attention. Please repent, repent, repent. And we won’t. We won’t repent. Our hearts are hardened. We don’t want anything to do with you. No matter what you throw at us. Repent, turn back. The hope here is that because of your actions, here’s the beautiful part. Because here’s the promise that you can hang on to because of the way you’re living. Even the people who outwardly hate you. God is going to bring some of them to him. In fact, I would say there’s a good chance the person most likely to turn to Christ is the one who is hating you most outwardly. There’s a reason why there’s so outwardly hatred showing so much hatred. God’s probably at work. Don’t give up on that person. In fact, I want to give you three practical ways to wrap all this up where you can have a witness of your works. Three practical ways. The first is to pray. Be in prayer, especially for that person who is the most outwardly hateful towards you. Don’t give up on them. Don’t just write them off. Okay, be cautious. Be wise. Set boundaries. Do what you need to do. There’s a lot of wisdom to that. Don’t just let them run all over you, but don’t give up on them. That person. Maybe it’s a family member, maybe it’s a coworker. Maybe it’s somebody at school. But I’ve seen it in my life. That person who is the most outspoken against you because your faith is probably really wrestling with some serious spiritual questions. So pray. Keep praying. Second, just remember your example matters. It really does. People are watching you. They they really are watching you. When we lived overseas, it was funny, right? As we got set to move back to the US, we’d been there serving as missionaries six months. Julie, my wife Julie ran into a lady who lived at the end of our street. It was a dead end street. We were down at the dead end point. She was kind of up at the entrance, and they met, was kind of one of the first times they’d had a long conversation and she said, you know, I remember she started to count off and list the names of every single person that had come down our street to visit us over those six months, every person after person. Yeah, I knew them. I went to high school with them. I know them from my old neighborhood. I know them from this village. And she was paying attention. She was watching everything we did. People are watching your life. They really are. And it’s the very things, you know, we do. We all do plenty of things that we want people to see. I really hope everyone sees me do this. And I tell you what they notice is the thing you never even considered they might notice. People are watching, keep vigilant in your example. Let me comment on that though, because some would say, and you’ve probably heard this quote, it goes something like this. It’s been attributed to a bunch of different people, preach the gospel always. If necessary, use words. Have you heard that quote? It’s I actually like the quote. It’s a great quote, and it fits well with the message and a lot of layers. I would say this I don’t know that it’s completely biblical because Peter is addressing a specific audience. He’s giving them direction. Watch your actions. But he’s not saying in this couple of verses, okay, never preach the gospel. In fact, in verse chapter 3:15, he’s going to say to them, be ready to give a defense for what God has done in your life. Be ready for whenever anyone asks, have your words ready. Here’s where this leads. Number three three ways to have a witness that works. Actions open the door to words. Yes, your example matters tremendously, and the hope is that because of the way you live, people will want to hear about Jesus. There will come a time where your actions, the way you’ve lived, will open a door to talk about the gospel. Be ready for that moment. Keep preparing for that moment. In fact, one of the ways today we are going to have a physical reminder of the gospel at work in our lives as we’re going to take communion together today. So if you’re involved in distributing that, if you would go ahead and go out and get that ready. But we live our lives in a way that honors Christ, to open the door, to hope, to talk about the gospel someday. People are watching. A friend of mine, he said, you need to hear this story from my daughter. It’s a guy lived on our street when we lived in Arkansas, and one day she came and shared this story with me, she said. All through high school, I was tortured by this one group of girls because of my faith. Tortured, constantly persecuted, constantly told what an idiot I was too good of a girl, constantly tortured. She said I got it. I got one close friend, and we kind of hung on to each other to make it through it, but it was awful. It was terrible. But we made it through high school and I constantly wondered. I constantly asked myself, God, what were you doing? Why did you let that happen to me? What were you about? What were you doing behind the scenes? Because she said, I didn’t see any fruit from that. And it was 20 years later that one of those girls came to her and said, I’m sorry. I look back on how I acted towards you and I don’t know why I acted that way, but I watched your life. And you know what I saw? I saw someone who had a higher purpose. I saw someone who had a faith, and I wanted that. And I didn’t know what else to do but to persecute you, because I wanted that. Thank you for your example. It’s because of you that I have hope now. People are watching and you never know, especially the person who’s the most vicious towards you. You never know what God’s doing in their life.