A desire to change
1Peter 4:1-10
Good morning everyone, please turn with me to 1 Peter 4:1-10
Let’s Pray-
Father, May we have a desire to change how we think and how we act if how we think and how we act is not lining up with your thoughts. May we desire to allow you to change what is needed so that we could be what we were created to be. Use us in this world to show the light of Jesus to a dying world that thinks they are alive. Help us to be the light and allow your light to shine in us and through us.
1 Peter 4:1-10 Read from Bible
Peter gives us an insight of what it is to live for God in a world that struggles with God.
A world that struggles because they don’t like giving up Lordship of their lives to Jesus.
Right out of the gate, Peter tells us if we are to do that (give up lordship of our lives) we must have the same attitude as Jesus (willing to suffer) that serving God and living for God is going to have us suffer at times… for God.
He says that just like Jesus suffered in his body, we must be willing to suffer. He says plainly that by suffering in our bodies and in getting rid of our wrong attitudes and taking on the attitude of Christ that we will not live in sin but allow the Lord to change us from what we were to what He wants us to be.
Hold on because we are going right to the deep end of the pool-Put your arm floaties on!
Some people are willing to almost do anything to avoid pain and change- As followers of Jesus, we have given up that right and should be willing to suffer if necessary to do God’s will in our lives. Sin losses its power when we are focusing on Jesus and what He wants us to do.
When we are in pain, or our lives in jeopardy, our real values will be exposed and revealed. We talked last week about that. I f anyone suffers for doing good and still obeys the things of God, in our lives will show that we have made a break from sin and wanting to live a life that is Christ-like.
Remember Acts chapter 9- Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus- it was a radical change! He went from wanting to put Christians in jail or worse to kill them for polluting what he thought was the truths that God wanted. He had an encounter with Jesus!
No one will make a radical change without having a radical encounter with Jesus.
No one is willing to give up their will for the will of God until they have had an encounter with Jesus.
No one is willing to die for their faith until they have had an encounter with Jesus that says it is worth giving up your life for.
No one will die a martyr with a faith or truth that they are not 100% sure of.
To change there is suffering
(4) “They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation,…and they heap abuse on you.”
A person who changes how they live and what they live for will no doubt experience some harsh feelings from his/her friends.
They will be mad that you don’t do the same things that you did before.
You do not laugh at the same things that you thought were once funny.
Your priorities have changed direction with the change of your heart and life.
They will notice that you are going one way and they are going in the opposite direction.
Your very example of life now incriminates their sinful behavior.
Billy Graham who I believe to be one of the most effective Evangelist of the 21st century had a heart to see people changed from their sinful nature that we were born with to a new creation in Jesus Christ.
“All ages, all nationalities, all races, all religions, rich and poor, educated and uneducated-thousands of people from all walks of live testify to the change Christ brings in their lives as they come forward for a relationship with Christ.”
Time alone is the great judge of the genuineness of people’s decision. God sees and knows the heart.
Billy gave salvation invitations with the heart of a servant that says I am just the messenger and my job is to tell people that Jesus loves them, and Jesus died for them, and he will forgive them. You are not coming forward for me or to me, but you are receiving Jesus into your lives.
As most of you know my story with my acceptance of Christ as I listened to Billy Graham on television. It was with mocking him and the Spirit of God getting a hold of my heart and transforming mocking to Servanthood.
Jesus suffered for us- We suffer for Him in that we will be persecuted and those we use to hang around will not be as excited for our changed lives.
This is where new believers need to get with mature Christians and help them resist such temptations from former friends to drag them back from where the good Lord has just brought them from.
Illustration-
There was a wife who was struggling with her relationship with her husband, so she went to visit a marriage counselor to talk about it. As he was exploring the problems the counselor said, “Maybe your problem is that you’ve been waking up grumpy in the morning.” “No,” said the wife. “I always let him sleep.”
Elevated lifestyle- That is what He wants for us.
Scriptures
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33
“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” – Romans 8:17
“For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” – 2 Corinthians 1:5
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” – Philippians 3:10
When we suffer, we are called to suffer in the same way as Jesus Christ.
Change will make us look different than the world
The basis of our salvation is our belief in Jesus. (Acts 16:31) “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you’ll be saved” but the basis for judgment is how we live our lives.
We should look different than the world and the world will not like that we look like Jesus.
Believers have nothing to fear because Jesus is judge over all. But Jesus will also look at our lives and what we did or did not do with it.
John 5:22-“Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
(24) “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
(28)-“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out-those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned”
So, what sort of life is a biblically based life?
A Sacrificial Life
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1
What is a living sacrifice? It is the process of putting to death the old self that is full of corruption and sin, and it’s becoming alive in Jesus Christ and the process of putting on the new man or woman that we have become in Him.
The Apostle Paul gave us that description as believers.
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him (that is God) who created him.”
Colossians 3:1-10
A sacrificial life is a life that is set apart to God.
This life is not about pleasing ourselves, but about pleasing God by doing His will and not our own.
We need to take as our example Jesus Christ who lived such a life, and everything He did was to please the Father by doing His will.
He lived sacrificially and gave His life to redeem humanity from its slavery to sin and death
Change will cause suffering
Change will look different than everything else
To see change, you must elevate to the next level
Elevate to the next level of your life
(With your hand- if you are here…you must go here… rise your hand)
We see that in 1 Peter 3:9- “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
Christians are to be committed to live their lives as God has directed.
Peter says He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
What does that mean and what does it look like?
I believe Peter is talking about experiences which we have with suffering.
Suffering for Jesus.
Suffering to live a life that is pleasing to God.
Suffering to allow others to know the Lord as you know Him.
Coming to Jesus is a free gift. We cannot earn it.
But following Jesus will cost each and every one of us in some way in our lives.
Professor Charles Bigg puts it this way in his commentary on the verse- “He who has suffered in meekness and in fear, he who has endured all that persecution can do to him rather than join the wicked ways can be trusted to do right; temptation has manifestly no power over him.”
If someone has come through persecution and not denied the name of Jesus, that person comes out on the other side with a character so tested and faith so strengthened that temptation can not longer make an impact.”
The ultimate change is in verse 6- “ For this the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.”
Hang in there a few more minutes and grab this! This hard verse ends with hard reality-
Those who died in their sin, who are now dead, who have not turned their lives and their sin over to Jesus. Those who have heard the gospel and had not made a decision for Christ will be lost for eternity.
Paul wrote Romans 5:12- “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death came through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”
For those who have not made a decision for Christ it is a wake up call before it is too late- Today is the day of salvation. It is when the spirit of God is moving on your heart that you must make a decision for Him.
For those of us who know Him as Lord, it is marching orders to make a decision to serve Him and take every opportunity to share the gospel with those who need to hear it. This will at times involve persecution and sometimes suffering for Jesus.
