14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:14-16
Don’t ever lose Hope, Don’t ever give up….. Why? Because You can Be Changed! One of the Greatest Truths of the Christian Doctrine is that when I trust God with my life… He can change me… Amen?
The Church…. God’s church cannot effectively be the Church of Christ if it fails to firmly believe and boldly proclaim to every person in the human race: “You can be changed! You do not have to remain as you are!” This is what we believe at New Hope Church of the Nazarene…. This is not just a hope that is held onto by the desperate drug user, or the hopeless drunkard --- but friends this is the hope of every average sinner no matter where he may be found in the world. In other words… this hope for change is for all of us… no matter where we find ourselves, no matter how far or how close we feel to finding the answer…. This hope is for you…. This hope is for your husband who doesn’t believe… this hope is for your wife who has lost hope… this hope if for your child who is running wild… this hope is for a brother or sister who seems so far away, so hard to the truth…. My friends, this hope is for you and me….
The Question we need to answer is this, will we listen, will we take to heart what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to us about human nature and God’s grace in this passage of Scripture? You do believe with me that God’s Word is our source for truth don’t you? Then lets listen to what it says to us today.
Look at verse 14 with me….. “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
1. We Have a Positive Pattern that we are to conform too.
The writer says that we, as Christians are not to conform, or as one translation says, we are not to fashion ourselves according to the former lusts,… the writer writes this truth in a negative sense … do not do this … so we can look at this from the opposite view and still understand this same truth….
If the writer says, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance… then we can say that….. Now, as a Christian…. Conform your life with the desires of Christ now that you live in the Truth…. We just said the opposite, and it’s the truth for us today… There is a pattern, a positive pattern that we are to conform our life too, it’s God’s pattern… fixing our eye’s on the Master and doing the Father’s will… living each day to honor God in all that we do, in all we say, with our whole life.
The writer is reminding us, before you knew Christ… you lived your life in a pattern that was conformed to the evil desires of this world, and you did so in ignorance, because when your lost, your living in darkness…. That’s why we call it lost right?
But Friends, when you find Jesus Christ as your savior, you come into the wonderful light… your spiritual eyes are opened to spiritual truth…. You now have God’s Word to live by… and now you know… you know what the Truth is… you know what the old pattern of living was like, you were saved from it… and now you have been given new life, with a new pattern, a new way, a new direction, a new motivation, a new power and strength, a new passion, a new vision…. You have been given a new way of looking at this old world… you can literally look at your life with eyes of Faith.
What does the Word of God, what does our instruction manual say to us? What does the book of life ask of us? “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
As the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write these words, these words become the words of God to us… I find no place for argument… As we sit here today in this church service, there is no excuse whatsoever to read this Word and find fault with it… it’s God’s Word to us, His Children…. Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance….. Put the other way… we can say, As obedient children, conform to the desires of your Heavenly Father who has given you the truth through His Son Jesus Christ.
My Question is this…. Are you conforming to your “old way”? Or are you living in the Light and conforming to the desires of your Heavenly Father?
Peter is saying something to us in this passage that needs to be pointed out, because I hear so many people insinuate that their nature cannot be changed… in other words, they are who they are, and it’s impossible to change….. I believe God’s Word teaches us otherwise… let’s look at it.
2. Human Nature is Fluid, it is not “Fixed”.
Let’s use clay as an example to illustrate this truth. Clay is not fixed. It can be shaped into all kinds of different shapes, in a sense it is fluid, always moveable.
After a person, the potter has been fashioned and shaped, after it has been put into the final shape and form that the potter wants, he puts it into the oven. He bakes it and burns it, then he might even glaze it.
The clay is now permanently fixed. It is no longer fluid, no longer is it subject to any changes. The only way it can be changed now is by being destroyed. It can be crushed and ruined, but it can never be changed into something more beautiful and useful because it can never regain it’s fluid and shapable state.
It makes sense to me, that the fact that the Holy Spirit would indicate to us the Peter in this passage, “Fashion and shape yourselves after the right pattern”, makes it plain that the burning and baking and glazing have not yet happened to human nature. We can be thankful today that we are in a state of fluid change regarding our moral character… in other words, we still can choose how we will live our lives… your nature has not been fixed in one state or another… you have a choice in the matter, in how you will live, in how you will think, in how you will behave, in how you will live the rest of your years…..
I guess we could conclude that only place that nature is going to get baked solid with no chance of change is in Hell. Until then my friends, there is Hope for Change in your life and in the life of those you are praying for… so don’t ever give up.
14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:14-16
3. “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;”
When we come to Christ and we accept his wonderful Grace and Forgiveness, all of Heaven celebrates and rejoices, and we rejoice when we see a new brother or sister saved from this world we live in. Right along side this rejoicing should be knowledge that this great event that has happened in this life is not the end of the race, it’s not the finish line.. But instead it’s just the beginning of this great race for our prize which is heaven… if salvation was the only thing we needed to do… why would Paul instruct us to continue to push forward towards the prize, why would Paul need to tell us to put on the full armor of God while we are living on this earth? Why would we be warned about Satan who is like a lion looking for those he could devour?
The reason for all of these warnings and many more that are throughout Scripture is because after we are saved, we have just begun this race for the prize, and the truth is there are many powers out there in this wicked world that would work towards our demise, these evil powers would try to entice us, would try to influence us and infiltrate our mind and our thinking, these powers would try to take our minds away from the things of God and put them back onto our old ways, our old life if we allow these powers to have their way.
The reason God has commanded us to “Be holy in all you do” is because when we are not letting God and His ways influence us in everyway… we are giving room to those evil powers into our lives… and they will influence us away from God if we give them room.
Let me use an illustration… Summer is coming up and many of you are going to start tanning, right? How many of you plan on tanning this year?
What’s the best way to get tan? A tanning bed? The beach? The pool? Maybe working in your yard. How many of you are planning on getting tan by sitting in your living room watching TV? How many of you have made plans to get tanned by taking long walks in the moonlight? Are there any of you that are praying every night to God to tan you overnight, hoping that you will wake up tan every morning?
Let me tell you the secret. For a tan you have to make a conscious choice to expose yourself to the sunlight, or to the bright light of the tanning bed. If you don’t make the effort to expose your skin to the light, you will not be tanned.
Let me apply this to Holy Living….. There are some Christians who are wanting to live Holy Lives, but they are not exposing their minds to the things that will help them live Holy lives…. Their prayer life is dead, they have chosen not to read God’s Word except when their in church, if then, and they have instead allowed other influences to be more important to them….
What are some of these influences that can take us away from living and thinking like God?
The kind of entertainment that I watch. The Television, Movies… let’s face it, Hollywood intentionally puts out trash that will influence our way of thinking if we watch it… it’s just like the rays of the sun… if we sit in front of the rays of the TV and it’s influence long enough, we will be tanned by it.
The books that we read, the friends that we keep……. The list could go on but I know you get the picture…. The evil one would use any form of entertainment, friends, coworkers, whatever… to try and influence our thinking away from the things of God.
Personally I know when I used to listen to certain types of music, it would dramatically affect my emotions, I would become depressed…
I’m not telling you to sell your TV’s and never watch a movie…. What I want us to ask ourselves is this….. What am I allowing my life to be exposed too? Am I allowing things into my life that will promote a Holy Life? Or are the things and people that I am allowing into my life, are they moving me away from the things of God?
At New Hope we offer places for you to be exposed to God’s Word, to be exposed to God’s people, to be exposed to God’s Truth every week… if your not taking advantage of the strength found in life groups, Celebrate Recovery, Sunday School and Worship, your missing a life line that you need.
Holy Living comes as a result of surrender to God in every area of our lives… that is what this life is all about, “being” for Christ… my whole being is wrapped up in Him. Can you say that about your life… are you all wrapped up in Him? Or have those powerful influences of the past found their way back into your life? You can Change.. And God wants to help you… Will you choose to change today?
