Sermon: Surviving the Drought by Being Holy 1 Peter 1:13-17, 2:1-3 Sept 15, 2002
2 of 5 in a Series: Sanctification
I. Introduction – Weather Report
A. Current – Well this week’s weather has been a little different then the previous weeks. We had over inches of rain this weekend. The only problem is it still isn’t sufficient to quench the drought
B. Almanac
1. But wait there is hope the Farmer’s Almanac says:
(a) “Expect warm temperatures in the first half of September, followed by a quick cool down. Mid September through October will be three to five degrees cooler than normal. September will be wetter than normal.
(b) Of course it also says if you want to cut your hair to encourage it to grow have it cut on the 8,9,19, or 20th of September; if you want to cut your hair to discourage growth have it cut on 4,5; if you want to entertain do so only on the 4 or 5 (Sorry folks, can’t have a party entertainment days have passed) but there is still time to castrate your animals- you can do that on the 17, 18.
(c) Now I don’t know about you but some of those things make me begin to question the validity of Farmer’s Alamanc when it comes to helping out in the face of a drought
2. But thankfully when we are facing those times of spiritual drought, those times in our jobs, marriages, and church when we are overwhelmed, distressed or disappointed – there is a book we can turn to!
C. I Peter 1: 13-16, 2:1-3
1. Notice this section begins with the word therefore. Whenever you see the word therefore its important that you stop and figure out what its there for before you go on! Therefore, let us reflect back on the previous 12 verses. In verses 1-12 Peter is reminding us that we can be encouraged in the face of our adversities, in the face of a spiritual drought because we were chosen by God, Saved by God, and Shielded by God. He is encouraging us to remember
(a) that we have been adopted by God
(b) that we have been made blameless
(c) that we have been given eternal life
(d) that we have been given glory, honor and peace,
(e) that we have been blessed by the lord,
(f) that we have been give a crown of righteousness and life
(g) that we have been given an incorruptible inheritance,
(h) that we have been given unsearchable riches and treasures in heaven.
2. I hope that sounds familiar – if it doesn’t see me after class and I’ll give you a copy of last weeks sermon.
3. Peter is saying BECAUSE of all God has given you and me - God EXPECTS even demands that we respond in a certain way
II. Look with me if you will at the rest of verse 13 - Gird up Your Lions and be self controlled ( I know some days my house seems like a zoo but I didn’t really know I had lions before know.)
A. “Gird up Your Lions and be self controlled “
1. What does that mean
(a) To Gird up our lions isn’t a modern day term we are use to but if we stop for a moment and look at the words from Peter’s perspective we find new relevant meaning for living in the face of a drought. While at least more meaning then we find in castrating your animals on September 17th and 18th
(b) To Gird up your lions in Peter’s Day meant to gather up your robe and tuck it in your girdle or belt. You see the men were use to wearing long flowing robes that tended to get in the way whenever they need to work or run or do some strenuous activity. So they would pull up the back of the robe to the front and tuck it in their belt. Now I don’t know about you but that creates a rather humorous image for me. An image of a bunch of biblical men walking around in what appears to be diapers. (Sorry, my mind works in strange and mysterious ways)
(c) But it is important image for those of us in a spiritual or emotional drought, it is an image of gathering up all those loose thoughts that run around in your mind and concentrating upon the grace and salvation of God.
(i) It is a getting rid of all the stuff that would get in your way of pursuing holiness in Christ.
(ii) It is a tucking away the loose ends of your life so that you don’t get tripped up on the unimportant, irrelevant, and often falsehoods of life in this world.
(d) Phillipians 4:8 tells us: Finally brethren whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
2. You see when we are in the midst of those times of drought in our lives our minds begin to wander.
(a) When begin to think our jobs were never good anyway, we never liked what we do – we don’t need this job instead of stopping to think about the benefits of the job.
(b) We begin to think we never really loved our spouse. That we would be better off without them
(c) We begin to question the motivate and integrity of everyone else in the church. We begin to wonder why we are even coming and we decide the church isn’t worth our time and effort.and we forget that we come and work in church not for man but for God. .
(d) Peter is reminding us to take control of our thoughts – to quick letting them run away – to stop and think rationally
3. He is saying when you feel like you are in the midst of a spiritual, emotional drought gather up our thoughts, take control and think only on the good.
(a) Center your thoughts and your life on the light of Christ and you will escape the worldly worries that bog down your mind and trip up your spiritual walk.
(b) You will be amazed at how much just thinking on positive thoughts can change your outlook on life. Now I know for some of you it will be real hard to begin to look at life has a cup half full instead of half empty but I promise you the effort will be worth Girding up your Lions and being self controlled.
B. Transition - thinking on good thoughts though isn’t enough!
III. VS 14 - Be Holy For He is Holy
A. Act Your Age not your shoe size
1. Peter is saying you are a child of God, you need to act like it. Be obedient to God, do God’s will and it is his will that you Be Holy because he is Holy!
B. Your are a Saint!
1. Peter is quoting from Leviticus 11: “For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves and you shall be holy; for I am holy” You have been made holy.
2. God has a right to expect and demand holiness from us because we are his children, made in his image and He is holy.
3. The Greek word Holy is connected to the greek word for saint.
4. In fact the term saint must have been Paul’s favorite word for describing Christians because he used it about 60 times in his letters, which is especially surprising when you realize that he never once called them Christians.
5. In Romans 3:23 (my favorite verse in the Bible) Paul wrote: There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
(a) The body of the individual believer becomes holy- becomes the body of a saint because the Holy Spirit of God lives in him or her. You are holy because He is Holy and he is in you
6. Holy, saint – neither word is use in the church much anymore. I mean I have never heard anyone in this congregation say, he sure is a Holy saint (holy terror but never holy saint) I have never heard anyone in this congregation say, “My wife and I are having a few saints over to our house tomorrow night for dinner’ or “My insurance agent or lawyer is a saint” Of course a saintly lawyer might be an oxymoron.
(a) But it would certainly be appropriate to say, to call one another saint--- because that’s what God says we are.
(b) Ruth Bell Graham once said, “A saint is one who makes it easy to believe in Jesus.” Saints are not to be revered or held up on a pedestal. They are just ordinary people who believe and follow God. They have been set apart by God for the special priviledge of being his children,You and I are saints!
(c) I wonder what our lives would be like if we began to think of ourselves as saints in that way! If we began to speak of each other as saints. If we began thinking of our spouse as a saint in God’s eyes. If we began to think of those in the church as saints!
(d) I believe it would transform and change all of us!
C. (I may have used this illustration before but it bears repeating.) There’s a story about two brothers who had terrorized the small town where they lived for decades. They were unfaithful to their wives, abusive to their children, and dishonest in business. They were loud, boisterous and just plain rude to nearly everyone. One day, out of the clear blue, the younger brother died. The older brother went to the preacher of the local church and said, “Preacher I’d like you to conduct my brother’s funeral. And it’s important to me that during the service, you say my brother was a saint.” The preacher said, “I can’t do that. We both know he was far from that” The older brother pulled out his checkbook and said, “Preacher, I’m prepared to give $100,000 to your church. All I’m asking is that you publicly state that my brother was a saint.” On the day of the funeral the preacher began his sermon this way. “Everyone here knows that the deceased was a wicked man, a womanizer, and a drunk. He terrorized his employees and cheated on his taxes.” The preacher paused for a second and then continued, “But as evil and sinful as this man was, compared to his older brother he was a saint.
Because we are called saints, because God lives within us, there needs to be something different about the way we live. We are not saints simply because that is what we are called. We are saints because we are called to live a different lifestyle then of the one lived in this world. We are called to live out what we believe!
IV. Which brings us to Chapter 2 Vs 1 – Peter is saying because you are a saint Live Like a One
A. You are a Saint so Live like a saint by ridding yourself of Malice
1. means deep seated feelings against a person; hatered that lasts on and on, an intense bitterness against someone that actually wishes ill upon that person – that something bad would happen.
2. Often we are in the midst of trials and tribulations, in the midst of a spiritual drought we begin to think around for someone to blame it on, someone who seems not to be suffering like we are and malice grows in our heart.
3. We as Believers are to rid ourselves of ill will , ill feelings against others. We are to live pure and clean lives before not just God but before our brothers and sisters of this world.
(a) I Cor 5:8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness but with the bread without the yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
B. You are a Saint so Live like a saint by ridding yourself of Deceit
1. malice leads to deceit – we mislead, bait people so as to catch or deceive them in wuch a way as to achieve what we want. It refers to being two faced.
2. It refers to getting what you want by falsely flattering someone, making false promises, false tales, implying, suggesting falsehoods about someone, and out and out lying to better yourself.
C. You are a Saint so Live like a saint by ridding yourself of MALICE and Hypocrisy
1. A hypocrite is one who pretends, puts on a show, or acts out something he is not.
2. A hypocrite is like the man who complains about all the profanity, sex and violence on his VCR – think about - complains about all the profanity, sex and violence on his VCR.
3. a hypocrite acts as though he or she loves and believes in God but then lives like there is no God
D. You are a Saint so Live like a saint by ridding yourself of HYPOCRISPY and Envy
1. This is a hard one – I mean I have to admit I evny Camilla for her car, Greg and Teresa’s for their farm and Cindy and Judy for their hats but there is a difference between wishing for something, kind of wanting something and envying something
2. the word envy means to covet after what someone else has so much you might even wish that the other person would lose it or you could take it away from the other person.
3. An envious person doesn’t have peace or happiness for they are always dissatisfied with what they have or wanting after more and more of what others have.
E. You are a Saint so Live like a saint by ridding yourself of ENVY and Slander
1. to slander means to critize, judge, backbite, gossip, censor, condemn or just plain grumble after or about another. To speak ill of someone.
2. We tend to think of slander as someone so serious that it desires a lawsuit but as Christians, as ones who are Holy Saints we are to rid ourselves of the gossip of life.
3. And that’s not justs meant for our women gentlemen! As Christian we are not to judge or speak ill of one another, for when we criticize a brother or sister in Christ, we are slandering a son or daughter of God. Think about are you going to slander your best friends family?
F. You know it is easy to cast off these verse, to say we are SAINTS and these things don’t apply to us. But I believe if we take time to carefully examine ourselves, our motives and the way we actually live our lives each of us will find elements of Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. Peter is saying question, examine yourself and then ask yourself “Have you got milk? Spirit Milk?
V. VS 2:2 Replace those negative things in your life with a Craving God’s Spiritual Milk
The charge is an imperative, a command – Constantly Desire, Crave Yearn for the sincere Milk of the Word of Truth.
It is a strong picture of hungering, thirsting after the Word of God. Not just now and then, occasionally when you need to or have to. Peter is saying as saints it is essential that we continually grow in God’s grace and love.
It is wanting something so bad that you are willing to work at it, I mean really work at it.
Remember how you yearned to be sixteen so you could get your drivers license, how hard you worked for your first car – Peter is saying want the spiritual milk of God, want the truths of God, want to be saint so much that you are willing and working to live it.
VI. Closing
A. ’’Psychologist Dr. William Marston asked 3,000 people, ’’What have you to live for?’’ He was surprised and shocked to find that 94 percent were simply enduring the present while they waited for waited for something to happen...waited for the children to grow up and to leave home...waited for next year...waited for the next paycheck, the next raise…waited for another time to take a long-dreamed trip...waited for someone to die...waited for tomorrow, without ever realizing that all anyone ever has is today, because yesterday is gone and tomorrow exists only in hope. (By John M. Drescher) The Hope we have in Jesus Christ.
How long are you going to wait for things to get better? How long are you going to wait before you starting trying to do something about the drought? How long are you going to wait before you start really becoming what God has already made you – a saint! The time is now – may we continue to grow in God’s sight, knowledge and love!
AMEN
