Staying Clean In The Hog Lot Series

INTRODUCTION

 SLIDE #1

 Isn’t it easy to live for Jesus, to pray, to read His word, to treat others as He wants us to treat them, to live a holy life, WHEN YOU ARE IN CHURCH?

 Why does it seem so much easier to live for Jesus when we are at church than when we are in the world?

 You ever tried to wear your best clothing and shoes out in the mud? Was it hard to keep them clean? Living in the world is sort of like that for us.

 The world around us not too pure. I do not want this to sound too bad but living in this world is kind of like being in a hog lot.

 When you first step into the lot you notice how much it smells, then when you are there for a while, you no longer notice the smell.

 It is difficult for the Christians to stay pure. I believe this gets more difficult as time passes because of the way society is today.

 Each year, television, movies, and commercials are putting images into our heads that we do not need. The internet is traffics a lot of stuff that can cause us problems.

 Our society is becoming increasingly more permissive in what we consider “decent”, we are introducing things to children at younger ages that they are not ready to have to deal with.

 God has called us to be different. He has called us to live our life as one who belongs to Jesus.

 We are born again to a living hope as 1 Peter 1:3 reminds us.

 It is hard to stay unstained by the world. It is hard not to fall prey to the temptations the world has to offer.

 We all hear what we should and should not do; we all know what happens when we follow the pattern of the world.

 James 1:27(ESV) 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

 What do you do to keep yourself pure, clean or unstained by the world? Does it happen by accident or do you have a game plan to make it happen?

 Today I want us to look to God’s Word for help with keeping ourselves clean as we live in this unclean world, how we can stay clean when we live in the hog lot.

 Let’s begin by looking at verse 13

 SLIDE # 2

 1 Peter 1:13(ESV) 13Therefore, preparing your minds for action,£ and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 Let’s begin by understanding that…

 SLIDE #3

SERMON

If you are going to stay clean while living in the hog lot you must:

I. PREPARE TO BE MENTALLY FOCUSED. V13

 Most anything in life we endeavor to do takes a certain amount of mental focus. You must be focused on the task at hand.

 If you are going to hit a free throw, you must be mentally focused on what you are doing.

 Many times we struggle and fail in our efforts to stay clean or pure in this world because we are not mentally prepared to do it.

 How many have decided to go on a diet, only to fail. Then later you do it again only to succeed.

 What was the difference between success and failure? Being mentally prepared for the challenge.

 How many times have we done things only to fail or do poorly because our head was not in it? I spend a lot of time encouraging my softball team to keep their focus.

 In verse 13 Peter gives us three things to do.

 SLIDE #4

1. Prepare your mind for action.

 We are told first to prepare the mind for action. Some translations say we are to “gird our minds for action.

 During Jesus day people would wear a long robe, if they were going to run or do any hard work, they would take the bottom part of the robe and pull it up into their belt so they could run unencumbered.

 The implication of this phrase is that we are to prepare our minds for strenuous activity. Today we would say, “roll up your sleeves”.

 The word “action” implies the action we are preparing our minds for is actions that will be to our benefit if we carry them out.

 We must guard what we let into our minds; we must watch our thought process.

 SLIDE #5