Reasons To Avoid The Mud Hole. Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

 Look at that mud hole, that looks fun as long as someone else is doing the clean up.

 Do you remember being a kid and being drawn to mud puddles, water pebbles, and mud holes?

 There was something about the mud that as a young boy it had an attraction to me.

 Back home one of the most fun times to play was when it was raining. We would play in ditches; throw mud at each other and at other things. We would drag people through mud holes.

 When I played football we had Sophomore initiation. We had a swamp behind our field and when it rained hard, the sophomores got drug through the mud hole swamp.

 Good times! WE even got the new coaches.

 Playing in the mud looks fun even adults like it when they have big trucks to drive through the mud.

 One of the hardest things a child can do is have to sit back and watch everyone else have fun.

 I remember when I broke my leg. I could not play football or baseball with my friends, all I could do was to watch. That was so hard for me to do.

 Staying clean while living in the hog lot can be very difficult at times. We look out and it appears that everyone is having fun playing in the mud.

 Last week we looked at how we can stay clean while living in an unclean world.

 Today we are going to look at WHY we need to stay out of the mud, WHY we need to stay pure, WHY we need to do the best we can to stay unstained by the world.

 If we understand WHY we need to stay out of the mud, it will make it easier to do.

 It is so easy for us to take a casual attitude towards sin in our lives, it is so easy to over look what we do and pass it off as weakness, or thoughtlessness.

 The world around us is encouraging us to jump in the puddle with them.

 Playing in the mud looks fun. Why shouldn’t I play in it also?

 Let’s look at some reasons to avoid the mud hole.

 Turn to verse 17 with me.

 SLIDE #2

 1 Peter 1:17(ESV) 17And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

 In our text we are told to conduct ourselves in fear.

 In the original text, verses 17-21 are one sentence. The structure of the sentence is best understood in the light of this thought.

 SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. WE DO NOT BELONG IN THE MUD HOLE.

His children need to be clean.

• SLIDE #4

1. Addressing God as Father has a major implication.

 Verse 17 begins with the word “IF”. A better way to translate this word is “since.”

 Since we address God as our Father, we are saying that we are going to follow what He tells us to do.

 To “address” is to call upon, or appeal to. It is another way of saying that we pray or call out to God as our Father.

 SLIDE #5

 Jesus said in John 14:15…

 John 14:15(ESV) 15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

 When we call out to God, we are acknowledging the fact He is our Father. We need to be clean because we are His children, we belong to Him.

 My parents asked me not to bring shame upon their good name by my actions. I wish I could say I never brought shame on them. We realize that what we do reflects upon our family name.

 We owe it to our Heavenly Father to live a pure life. There have been times that knowing my actions would bring shame upon Jesus that I was able to refrain from the activity that would do this.

 Have you ever stayed away from doing something you should not have because you knew it would make Jesus look bad?

 This goes back to verses 15-16, be holy because God is holy.

 One reason to stay out of the mud is because we call out to God as our Father, therefore, we should conduct ourselves like one of His family.

 SLIDE #6

2. One day the mud hole will be gone.

• The mud hole will dry up someday.

 In verse 17 we find another reason for conducing ourselves in fear, one day the mudhole will dry up, or put another way, our residency is temporary.