I Peter 1:13-17 Living for God

Transcription

1 I Peter 1:13-17 Living for God

2 I was 23 years old, a little old for an Army recruit But they gave me a physical, said that I was able to go in the Army I stood with a group of people on February 14 th 1985 and raised my right hand

3 Peter has been talking about the great salvation that we receive from God by faith in Jesus. Vss 1-12 And this faith changes your life So, Peter writes, Therefore,

4 I. Living a Hopeful Life Vs. 13

5 Prepare your minds for action, gird up the loins of your mind What does that mean? The soldier would take the robe and pull it up and wrap a belt around it so he could fight better, unhindered To prepare your minds meant to get in the proper mindset

6 The 2nd phrase is related, be self controlled, be sober minded Literally, don t be drunk in the mind Don t be distracted by earthly thoughts

7 How does God fit into your day? And an important way to put God in your life is in how you set your hope. What are you hoping for? Really, what are you hoping for?

8 Peter is saying, set your hope on that future grace By the way, when the Bible talks about hope it is a for sure thing Fix your hope on the grace, not Christ, not the appearing, not heaven. But on the grace to be given The grace is the salvation that has been given to us by God

9 But Peter is challenging us to think above these things I sat at the side of my father s bed as he was dying I could hardly recognize him, he had lost so much weight I realized that life goes by so quickly

10 II. Living a Holy Life Vss

11 When you put your faith in Jesus, you become a child of God And children in a new family have responsibilities God has saved us from sin and death to a new life

12 As a Christian everything is different New life, new family, new way of living life And because God is holy, he wants his children to be holy What does holy mean? It means to live a righteous life, a right life

13 Love God and Love people And if you say, I can t remember the 10 commandments Just remember these 2 commandments because these summarize all the other commandments.

14 III. Living a Strange Life Vs. 17

15 My family, Lori, Peter, Joanna and Mary went to Mongolia in 1995 At first, it was new and exciting to be in another country But after a couple months everything was just different We were strangers in a foreign land

16 For Christians, this world is not our home We are to live as though we are strangers here Because we have a better home, heaven

17 Peter says we are to live in reverent fear here on earth Being conscious that our heavenly father will judge us for how we lived here on this earth

18 Lord help me to be a stranger here on earth This is not my home, heaven is my home Help me to live my life with eternity in mind Help me to live this life knowing that you will call me to account Help me to be a faithful servant In Jesus name, Amen

19 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior Más bien, sean ustedes santos en todo lo que hagan, como también es santo quien los llamó bali kama yeye aliyewaita alivyo mtakatifu, ninyi nanyi iweni watakatifu katika mwenendo wenu wote 那召你们的既是圣洁的, 你们在一切所行的事上也要圣洁那呼召你們的是聖潔的, 你們在一切事上也要聖潔 Қайта, өздеріңді шақырған Құдайдың қасиетті болғаны сияқты, сендер де бүкіл іс-әрекеттеріңде Оған бағышталған қасиетті болыңдар!

20 I Peter 1:13-17 Living for God I was 23 years old, old for an Army recruit But they gave me a physical, said that I was able to go in the Army I stood with a group of people on February 14th 1985 and raised my right hand and said that I would defend and protect the United States against all enemies domestic and foreign. I had signed up for 2 years After I made the pledge to be in the Army, I didn t say, Well, I guess it is time to go back to my old life and my old job I was committed, I got on a plane and flew to Ft Dix, NJ I had orders to arrive there on February 15th, 1985 and my life changed for 2 years. I was trained to be a soldier in 4 months and then I went to Ft. Carson, Colorado and I was a soldier till February 14th, 1987 I didn t have the option to say, I quit, because I made a commitment When a person becomes a Christian, it is a lifelong, eternal commitment Peter has been talking about the great salvation that we receive from God by faith in Jesus. Vss 1-12 And this faith changes your life So, Peter writes, Therefore, If your faith in Jesus doesn t change your life, something is wrong You need to look at your life and ask some hard questions This letter starts to talk about how this faith changes your life We are given some commands, exhortations about how to live I. Living a Hopeful Life Vs. 13 Prepare your minds for action, gird up the loins of your mind What does that mean? In the ancient world when a soldier went into battle, he didn t have pants like we have today. He had something like a robe that he wore Pants are so much easier to work with If he went into battle with the robe, he could trip on it The soldier would take the robe and pull it up and wrap a belt around it so he could fight better, unhindered To prepare your minds meant to get in the proper mindset We would say of a sports player, get in the game Have your mind on the game, not on other things Don t be distracted by other things The 2nd phrase is related, be self controlled, be sober minded Literally, don t be drunk in the mind Don t be distracted by earthly thoughts It s like being drunk with thoughts of this world, you think: Wow, I could have that, I need this, this is what I need to do today We do need to think about other things during the day Where to go, what to eat, who to meet But when that is all that you think about, you are missing the point How does God fit into your day? And an important way to put God in your life is in how you set your hope. What are you hoping for? Really, what are you hoping for? Are you hoping to have a really great vacation? Or are you hoping to have a nice retirement? Or a nice quiet evening with your family? Peter is saying, set your hope on that future grace By the way, when the Bible talks about hope it is a for sure thing Not that I wish, but rather, I know it will happen And Peter has an interesting way of saying it here Fix your hope on the grace, not Christ, not the appearing, not heaven But on the grace to given The grace is the salvation that has been given to us by God Or the grace is that God has given us this wonderful gift of eternal life. It is the thing to think about To fill your mind with that wonderful thought that God gave me the gift of salvation To be honest, I have been challenged by these verses It is all too easy to think about the stuff of this world Because we live in a physical world and you go to work And you deal with people, and you deal with real problems We can think about only this stuff But Peter is challenging us to think above these things I sat at the side of my father s bed as he was dying I could hardly recognize him, he had lost so much weight He could hardly talk because he couldn t drink water He was wasting away. My sister had put a picture of my Dad and Mom on the wall when they were engaged, 23 and 21 yr old The picture of health and youth, yet I looked at my Dad at 87 and he was about to die. I realized that life goes by so quickly My Dad finished life well, he knew he was going to heaven Don t wait till you are close to death to think about heaven Set your hope fully on the grace to given when Jesus is revealed There will come a day when Jesus comes back to earth to take his people to heaven. Think about that II. Living a Holy Life Vss When you put your faith in Jesus, you become a child of God And children in a new family have responsibilities God has saved us from sin and death to a new life However you used to live and think, that is an old life

21 You didn t know how God wanted you live But in God s family things are different, things are better And God puts his Spirit in your life to help you live in the new family And God has made it very clear how he wants us to live It is all written in the Bible And it says here, don t conform to that old way of doing things Those evil desires, selfishness, greed, lust, and many others Don t go back to that way of life Maybe you didn t know right from wrong, it was in ignorance I am guessing that most people do know right and wrong He chooses to the wrong because he is selfish As a Christian everything is different New life, new family, new way of living life And because God is holy, he wants his children to be holy What does holy mean? It means to live a righteous life, a right life We talked about the 10 commandments that last few weeks That is how God wants you to live We talked about the #1 and #2 law Love God and Love people And if you say, I can t remember the 10 commandments Just remember these 2 commandments because these summarize all the other commandments. That means that all the other commands fall under one of these commands Don t steal, don t commit adultery, don t lie, don t covet-love people Don t have other gods, don t make an idol, keep one day holy-love God So you could ask yourself, is what I am doing loving God or people? Then you are living a holy life III. Living a Strange Life Vs. 17 My family, Lori, Peter, Joanna and Mary went to Mongolia in 1995 We went to tell the Mongolians about Jesus and help train the church leaders. At first, it was new and exciting to be in another country But after a couple months everything was just different And everyone spoke Mongolian and it was difficult to learn and understand. And the food was the different, I called it grey food And the people thought differently. And it was really cold in the winter. And life was difficult We were strangers in a foreign land We did the best that we could and we did live and in some ways we even did well, but I knew Mongolia would not be our home For Christians, this world is not our home We are to live as though we are strangers here Because we have a better home, heaven And how do you live as a stranger here on earth? You think about heaven a lot and you long for your real home And you long to be with your heavenly Father and Savior When we lived in Mongolia we would talk about food Food from America, we couldn t wait to get back to American Food! We missed our family and couldn t wait to be with them When was the last time you thought about heaven? Peter says we are to live in reverent fear here on earth Being conscious that our heavenly father will judge us for how we lived here on this earth God judges us impartially, fairly We are not just putting in our time till heaven We are to use our time wisely, that s a sobering thought Lord help me to be a stranger here on earth This is not my home, heaven is my home Help me to live my life with eternity in mind Help me to live this life knowing that you will call me to account Help me to be a faithful servant In Jesus name, Amen